A week ago Joey celebrated his 14monthday. We are so excited to have this happy guy in our family! He is now walking!! Yea!! It started with a few hesitant steps here and there and then for distances he was sure he could cover without falling down. Now, he goes anywhere he can, walking. He still can't stand up when he has fallen unless he has something to pull up on, but he is going pretty long distances!
Although he still isn't saying or signing too much, he understands alot of what we say. He knows where to look for airplanes and likes to point at them. He is increasingly interested in children closer to his age and touching them and playing with them. He likes to build with blocks and understands how to connect them and take them apart. He loves pushing his walker around, and playing with Mocha and getting into any cabinet that we don't have a child guard on. Matt has seen him sign "milk" and "juice" but I have yet to see.
We are working on eating right now. Although he is a really good eater and not very picky about food types he is VERY particular about food textures. He really hesitates to eat anything that is not pureed which is starting to become a wee bit difficult. For example, he'll eat pureed chicken, plain, but won't eat chicken cut into very small pieces. He's only just now starting to eat little teeny pieces of soft bread, although he's been eating and chewing up crunchy crackers for months! Children are so strange! He'll eat beans (like black beans or black-eyed peas) mushed up, but acts like they are a totally different food he's never tasted before if they are cooked and soft and whole. There are lots of times that it would be helpful to smear a little peanut butter on a piece of bread and give it to him, but he's just not there yet, so we are hoping in the next month or so to expand his little palate. He's JUST started eating whole cooked peas and carrots in pieces although he's been eating the pureed ones for nearly a year. whew.
Right now Matt is feeding him and he is eating bread that he adamantly refused 15 minutes ago and pineapple pieces that he spit out last week. If you are looking for consistency, look to God, not to your child! :-)
Aside from the minor food battles, Joey is weighing in at 22 pounds which puts him somewhere between the 10th and 25th %. We're excited that he is catching up to his age group. He has a great time with the little boy that I take care of and on those days is usually napping once. He can still easily take two naps in a day, but one is pretty short, 45 minutes or so and one is 2+ hours. Most days he just has one nap. He is working on learning how to go down stairs but will still try head-first if left to his own devices. He sleeps about 13 hours at night from about 7:30/8 to 8:30/9. Although I didn't mention it, Joey is totally weaned and has been since 12 months. He was nursing 2 times a day for the first part of his 12th month, then once a day in the morning and towards the end not at all. He didn't seem to miss it or mind at all.
I think that's all I can think of for now. Hope you enjoy the video!
