15 months.

today stetson is 15 months old and had a well check appointment. he now weighs 21 lbs even (10th %) and is 31 inches long (50th %). he's a little lightweight. the doctor wanted to see him to make sure he was making some progress on his feet. and he was happy with everything stetson is doing now...he's still not walking on his own, but he is taking steps holding onto furniture and occasionally letting go and balancing....tonight he stood in the tub without holding onto anything for a good 10 seconds or so...so he's on his way...the doctor says he'd like him to be walking by 18 months. i think he probably will be.

he is also still talking up a storm...most of which you can't understand...he only says a few words on his own...mama, dada, neh neh (no no), yeah, bye bye...but it seems like every day he repeats more words after me...he can say baby really well...yesterday he said it when he saw a baby on the tv without me prompting him...i was trying to teach him to say beach because we're leaving for the beach tomorrow...he says bee...and he had been saying kuh whenever i would ask him if he wanted milk, but now he says gulk. sometimes when he doesn't know how to say what we're saying, he'll use sounds he knows and do the same number of syllables. all in all he is quite communicative...i'm still surprised every time i tell him to do something and he does it.

another thing he really loves is brushing his teeth. he gets so excited when i take him into the bathroom before bed to do it.

so tomorrow we leave on our first vacation since he was born. we haven't been to the beach since before i was pregnant with him. i am hoping he will love it.

while i'm thinking about it.

these days i have to do stuff when i think about it because sometimes it's days later before it comes back to my mind...i thought it wasn't for real when i used to hear people talk about "mommy brain"...but apparently it exists. anyway.

in the past week stetson has started letting go for just a few seconds when he's standing up...he's also starting to figure out he can reach on top of tables, nightstands, etc. he has made so much progress in the past month...it was just a few weeks ago that he pulled up to a stand on his own.

he also likes to take things (his shoes, my phone, remotes, toys) and put them on top of things that are higher up. he spends lots of time doing this....moving things from one piece of furniture to the next. and it's so much fun to watch him figuring out how his toys work and how to play with them.

i've also noticed that he has started getting under the coffee table or the kitchen table to poop...i guess he needs some privacy...it's pretty funny though.

his naps are so crazy right now. we stopped his morning nap for a week and he took a good long afternoon nap on some of the days...but then he was acting so sleepy we started trying to put him down again in the mornings but that only worked for 2 days. yesterday he did go down for a morning nap but i had to wake him up and then he wouldn't go to sleep all afternoon. so you can imagine how fun that was. so today, we're back on staying awake all morning and taking an afternoon nap. but the other thing is that he's teething again with his molars and i can tell it's bothering him. i guess there's always something to throw a wrench into the schedule.

culture: part 2.

so we took stetson to the children's library here in town called imaginon...it is awesome and they have a baby & toddler area with all kinds of things for them to crawl on and play with. stetson loved it...he went from one thing to the next for an hour straight. we'll be making this a weekly venture.

his hand is blurry because he was waving "hi" to his daddy

he's so adorable i can hardly stand it.

uh oh.

he's officially pulling up on EVERYTHING...so the breakable mixing bowls, measuring cups, etc. that i had moved to the higher shelf on our little island will have to be moved again! when he first started pulling up, he couldn't get down and would cry until you helped him. it only took him a few days to figure it out...it's so cute to watch him slowly squat down onto his bottom.

catch up.

so obviously it's been a while with no updates...stetson is growing and changing so much. he has 8 teeth and is starting to gnaw on things toward the back of his mouth so i think he might be getting some back there soon. he started standing up on his own the day before he turned 14 months!...i'm partially relieved to have confirmation that he's developing...we have to go back to the doctor at the end of this month so they can see how he's doing and determine if he needs physical therapy. i'm hoping he won't. he hadn't started crawling on all 4s or putting weight on his legs at his 1 year appt. so we've had a lot of progress. i've finally figured out that he won't do anything until he's good and ready. he's also eating all kinds of table food now...a couple of months ago i couldn't get him to eat anything but baby food. he loves just about any kind of bean...green beans, black beans, refried beans...rice, chicken, potatoes, corn, strawberries, watermelon, cucumber, green bell pepper, toast, cheese grits, oatmeal...and just about anything you give him off your own plate. he still doesn't really like sweets which is just fine with me. and his favorite snack is the little gerber cheese puffs. his naps are a little chaotic right now. he just wants to practice standing up instead of sleeping. but he's still sleeping really well at night...most of the time from 8pm to 8am at least. that is a treat! he still tries to mimic us a lot...whatever sounds or words we say. and i'm still surprised when he actually does what i tell him to. it's amazing when you realize they know what you're saying and are capable of doing it. all in all, he is still such a joy and i'm so thankful to be his mama.

great's house.

stetson and i took a road trip to see his great grandparents and great aunts and uncles in tennessee...it was a 7 hour drive and he did really well considering he only slept 1 of those hours both ways! no total meltdowns, just some complaining here and there. we had such a good time staying at great aunt holly's and uncle T's...unfortunately i didn't take any pictures of him or us with them or grandma and grandpa. i always forget to take pictures...but i did manage to get a couple of him with my phone. he had just started standing up...not on his own but he would let you stand him up....this was major progress.