Tuesday, August 9, 2011

16 Months

Henry, you are 16 months old! You're super busy and fast! I'm so proud of all the new things you're doing these days.

You wear 2T clothing and some smaller sized 3T shortalls in the stride. You are in a size 5 diaper and size 6 shoe. At your 15 month appointment you were just shy of 32 inches (but you've had a couple of growth spurts since then so I'd say you're at least 32 inches since then) and you weighed 29 lbs. and some change. You've trimmed up some since you've been on the move so much so you've dropped a few pounds. You were in the 90th percentile for everything.

You have started being more vocal than you used to be. For the last few months you've been so excited to be walking and you're so fast now you're almost running. I think you're moving onto the next learning phase of communication! You're giving me more signals, sign language, and sounds than before.You know way more than what you say. I can ask you questions and you give me a yes or no sound for which one you want. The yes sounds like a quick uh-huh and the no is clearly a no, ha! You sign all done after meals or more if you'd like more food. Also, you initiated telling me you were all done with your supper before I asked. You looked at me and slowly said "Ahhh Dahh". I couldn't believe my ears so I asked you again and you signed 'all done'. So. Cool.

You have been so interested during prayer time before our meals (I keep one eye slightly open while we pray to make sure you're safe) and you watch your Daddy or me very intently and sometimes smile. Recently, we had been praying before supper and when we were done you babbled a string of sounds and bowed your head (I'd never seen you bow your head before like this!) and then popped your little head up just beaming as if to say "See? Look I can do this too!" I was so proud, thankful, shocked, and sentimental all in one instant.

You're so into books I think we read at least 30 a day. For months now you've been pointing at the pictures on the pages and for a couple of months you've been very interested in the letters on each page. After a while it occurred to me that you may know the letters by now. So I asked you "Where's O?" and you immediately pointed to O. The rest is history. You can identify A, B, D, E, G, I, J, K, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, W, X, Y, and Z. I have a feeling you probably know more letters than that, but I don't want to be pushy and I wait until you initiate you're in the mood for me to ask. You can also identify apple, banana, baby, boy, girl, duck, car, chair, ball, kitty, bear, flower, cup, dog, shoes, goat, fish, train, brush, bottle, bib, fork, spoon, broccoli, cheese, grapes, orange, carrots, strawberry, keys, butterfly, frog, socks, crab, turtle, and bunny from the books we read. I also realized you know numbers 1-5 by how many blocks you're stacking while I'm counting them. I have a feeling you're going to be focusing on colors next because you enjoy pointing at the different colors in the pictures.

You follow task commands very well and surprise me with how much you know! You know Up, down, all done, more, mama read, come here, come on, push, hush, let's be quiet, excuse me, thank you, put on a [shirt, shoes, etc.], brush hair (you have started trying to brush your own hair now), go read your books, bring me a puzzle, No, hold hands, bye bye, hi/hello, let's go for a ride in the car, would you like some [breakfast, lunch, supper, snack?], let's change your diaper, it's time for your nap, put [blank] in the basket or bag (putting toys away). That's all I can remember at the moment.

You love the water-bath, pool, ocean. You laugh at it all! You like when Daddy says "Scoooop" (scoops up all your bath toys) and then "Dump it all out!" (dumps all of your toys in the water) you laugh so hard you shake! You love the show Super Why on PBS. I have never seen you sit still for a TV show before, but for some reason you sit very still and watch this show. The whole show is about letters and I think this has really helped you learn your letters. You laugh at the characters all the time.

We've also entered into the "I Love Anything That Has Wheels and Goes Fast" phase! This is such a fun phase! As much as you're into books and letters you're equally into cars. trucks, trains, and planes! You love to push all of these on the floor or furniture and enjoy dropping them from high (to you) places. You're into all the rumbling sounds of trucks or trains going back. You just stare and smile as they pass. A lot of the time you laugh!

We are so blessed to have you in our lives, Henry!

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