Daniel at 15 months

As of this morning, Daniel weighs 21lbs 11oz (hes been sick and not eating a LOT the past month and has sadly lost weight), has a head circumference of 18.37", and is 32.4" long.

He has discovered the dessert cabinet and shrieks at FULL volume, and repeatedly, whenever he decides that he is finished eating dinner and chocolate is not immediately produced upon his tray. And if you tell him that he needs to eat more food, or that he needs to wait, or anything that does not result in immediate chocolate consumption on his part, he has a toddler meltdown. Its actually quite amusing to watch. He can understand enough now that I can tell him things, like brief instructions, or whether he is allowed to do or eat something, and he totally understands. So when I tell him that its not dessert time right now, he loses it! I find the whole thing terribly amusing!

In another food related instance, Daniel was hanging on me and whining, so I asked if he was hungry. He ran to the fridge and when I opened it, he pointed to the pickles. He had requested a pickle, so the least I could do was give him one. He happily ate it and the whining stopped! He also will run to the garage door when we tell him its time to go 'bye bye' and will offer robust high fives when requested to as well. His communication skills and abilities in general are improving every day!

He has shown that he understands us pretty well on other occasions as well. The first one happened when we were walking along and Michael was asking the kids to repeat after him. He was saying, "when I say butt, you say hole! Butt . . . " and each kid would repeat, "hole!" After about 3 rounds of this, who should pipe up but Daniel! Michael said, "when I say butt, you say hole!" And we hear little Daniel's voice say, "hole!" perfectly. It was hilarious! The second instance was when I was walking the kids home in the stroller after having dropped Will off at school. We saw a squirrel collecting seeds and it was making this strange grunting noise. I copied the noise and then asked Nora and Daniel if they could make that noise too. Daniel immediately mimicked the noise exactly on command. It was spot on and so funny to hear him do it! He is a smart little cookie!

Hes been digging through the trash and excavating our most recent throwaways. I've told him 'no' so many times, that when I see him holding trash now, he automatically holds it up so that I can take it from him. He knows better, the little stink! He has also taken to throwing non-trash items away. Anytime anything is missing, I always look in the trash first, and before taking out the trash I always inspect the bag first. The list of things I've pulled out of the trash include: his shoes, his stuffed Puppy, his sippy cup, his toys and some clothes of his. I will be glad when this phase is over!

Speaking of the trash can, the other night he walks into the office, carrying a used diaper above his head, triumphantly. My first thought was that he had dug it out of the trash can. I stepped over to retrieve it from him, and thats when I realized that he was naked, and the diaper was actually the one he had been wearing, moments prior. I guess we can't let him roam around in just a diaper anymore lest we have a naked baby on our hands!

He is now walking around most of the time and is starting to practice stepping over things as well as balance on unstable surfaces like a bed. He is getting pretty good and confidant! Its still a little weird to have him walking around just like the rest of us, but he is pretty thrilled with himself and I am happy he is off the ground at last!

His favorite piece of playground equipment is the merry-go-round. He just loves it! He loves to crawl around the outer perimeter, under the bars, and now that he is walking and standing more, he will stand on there and has even already figured out that he needs to stay in the middle if he wants to keep his balance and not feel like hes going too fast. Hes got it figured out!

He is a maniac in the bath tub, EXACTLY like Will was at this age. He goes on his belly and dives under the water and rolls around like a crocodile. He comes up, sputtering for air, only to dive back down a second later. Hes wild! It quite honestly freaks me out! I had to get him out of the bath early tonight, because he wouldn't stop going under and I was afraid he would drown. The kid has no fear!





Life is busy and hectic with Mr. Daniel around. He offers no end of both work and entertainment, though he does also offer free kisses whenever you ask for one, or he feels like giving one. I do like those! I will be glad when he is a bit more self sufficient, is talking more and is sleeping through the night. All things to work on this next year!