15 Months Old

At 15 months old, Ryan is...
* He's 32.75 inches tall, which is the 90% (still tall.)
* He's 22 lbs and 15 oz, which is the 35% (still skinny.)
* His head is 18", which is the 45%.
* Talking up a storm. He's learning new words every day. Although "Dixie" is still by far his favorite (she's his fav friend/being on earth), he now says "Nana" for banana, "Nu" for nuk, "book," "bear," "box," "socks,"
* On February 22nd, we went shopping for Ryan's first pair of "real" (hard-soled) shoes. We hit up Stride Rite at Rosedale and the woman that fitted Ryan for his shoes fitted ME for MY FIRST PAIR OF SHOES (and lots of pairs throughout my childhood!) My mom went with me to buy them and the woman told my mom she looked familiar and asked if she'd fitted me for shoes when I was a kid. How funny. Living in the 'big city' you just don't get into situations like that much (especially at a mall!) It was kind of special!
* He's still 100% boy--loud and rowdy. He loves to talk, scream, bang things together so they make loud noises, etc.
* We've hit a rough patch where he's waking up at 3am like clockwork every night. Don't know what that's about. Don't like it one bit.
* At home he'll take two good naps during the day, but he's down to one at daycare.
* He still occasionally uses a nuk to sleep. He's good at falling asleep, but if he wakes up, it's really the only thing that gets him back to sleep. I would like to burn the darn thing, but his father has a different opinion and I have decided it's easier not to fight this one as I'm clearly out-numbered. He's obnoxious on the changing table and a nuk in the mouth is the ONLY way to get him to stay still for diaper changes and/or getting dressed.
* Likes to help with pretty much anything, but now he knows if I ask Dixie if she wants to go outside, he comes scampering along and tries to help open the door to let Dixie out in the back yard. When I ask him if he's hungry, he usually walks into his room and goes into the drawer to get a bib. It's really funny.
* Loves to go "swimming" in Dixie's water dish. It drives me CRAZY.
* Does have some concept of the word "gentle," but usually chooses to ignore my request. Poor Dixie, she is honestly the most patient dog in the world to put up with the torment that Ryan inflicts on her.
* Anytime we get anywhere near the kitchen, he points at the fruit basket and asks for banana. The kid could eat banana all day, every day and be a very happy camper. Though daycare swears he loves mandarin oranges, I have never seen the kid eat an orange EVER. Usually he eyes them suspiciously, touches the tip of his tongue to the orange fruit, then throws it and looks disgusted that you would even attempt to feed it to him. Methinks daycare gets a bit distracted when they fill out that portion of his "Me and My Day" form.
* Ryan just adores music. He will specifically pick out the toys that play music and play with those first. If you sing the "I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee" song, he'll start to dance and do the hand motions that go with the tune. I swear the other day he actually said "bumble bee."
* He's now officially in the toddler room (over a month ahead of schedule--our little over-achiever.) I think it's going well so far, but his last day in the baby room was sad for me. It's still a little odd to pick him up with the toddlers because I saw the infant room teachers every single day for a year (and I kind of miss them!) The toddler room is very focused on helping the kids do things themselves, so that has been a very positive thing for Ryan.

He is so funny and keeps us laughing constantly. He is turning into quite a fun little person with all sorts of likes and dislikes and it's a joy to wake up to our little family every morning.