15 Months

Things I want to remember about Asher between 12 and 15 months. . .

- He is obsessed with balloons! It all started when a couple of months ago when he noticed that there are always balloons hanging by the cash registers at Walmart and he thought they were pretty cool so he started reaching for them and got really excited about it. Now any time he sees a balloon he points and drags us over to it if he's walking and will screech out, "WHOOO WHOOO WHOOO!!" It is the funniest little quirk haha.

- He loves cars and has started making legit car noises when he drives them around. He has a bunch of hotwheels cars but he also has some bigger trucks and he always insists on trying to lift up the big cars to put them on top of the coffee table. I don't know why he decided that was something fun to do considering it takes all of his strength to get them up there and half the time he can't do it anyway, but I've stopped trying to figure out what goes on in the mind of that child, he does what wants!

- He is still a really good eater and at this point I've just started feeding him whatever we are eating for most of his meals. He still eats purees for fruits and veggies sometimes, but more often than not, he'd rather eat what's on our plates. He especially loves any form of pasta, cheese, yogurt, animal crackers, chicken, pizza, donuts, most soup he's tried. . . pretty much anything! He is getting better at drinking out of a regular cup, but the second he tries to do it himself he soaks himself.

- Here are a list of the words he's been saying lately

Baba - food/water 

Cheesh - Cheese 

Shoe-sh - Shoes
Gock - Sock 

Booka - Book

Buh bye Da - Bye bye Daddy 

Ba bowl - Ball

Kaka - Cracker

Awt - Hot

Caaw - Car

Woof woof - Dog
Buttaw - Button
Daw do - Thank You
 Monkey

Uh oh

Mama 

Dada

No no (of course!) 

- He loves being outside. When we go on walks he likes to pick up random leaves and sticks off of the ground. When he grabs a stick he'll do this funny thing where he swipes it on the ground like he's trying to dig a whole or something, it's the weirdest thing! He also likes climbing up the stairs and going down the slide at the playground in our neighborhood.

- He's usually stable on his feet but he's definitely had some pretty nasty falls. He face planted on the cement a couple of months ago and he had quite the fat lip. The other day he was running around the play ground and tripped head first into a pole, which left a bruise. As much as I feel bad for him and obviously don't want him to get hurt, I don't overly freak out about it and have just accepted the fact that scrapes and bruises will be the norm for the foreseeable future!

- He still loves dogs and gets so excited any time we see one.

- Sometimes if he's having a hard time falling asleep or if he wakes up after a nap and is hanging out in his crib, he will pull off his socks. It's so funny because he just starts with pulling at the toes, so I'll watch him on the baby monitor and all I see is this long stretch of fabric coming off his foot, cracks me up.

- He still doesn't have very much stranger danger. It's nice that he's not overly clingy and he doesn't mind being in large groups, but it would be nice if he was a little more cautious of total strangers!

- He almost always gets complimented on his long eyelashes when we are out running errands or if we meet someone new. They really are ridiculously long!

- For the most part he is a really easy going and content little guy, but there are definitely times when he is the most strong willed stinkin pill! Jared and I both have a bit of a stubborn streak and I think he's definitely inherited that from both of us. His temper tantrums include throwing himself on the ground and kicking his feet while screaming. . . awesome. . . I typically just ignore that dramatic behavior, I don't have the patience for it and luckilyy he's never done it while we've been out in public!

- Phrases/questions he understands: Are you hungry? (Runs over to his high chair)  Is it time for a nap? (Drops what he is doing and goes over to the baby gate) Go get your little (the blankie he sleeps with) books/cars etc.  Do you want some milk? Lets go for a walk. Lets put on your shoes. Go show mama/dada. Who's home? (I ask him that every time we hear the garage door open when Jared gets home from work, he runs over to the baby gate)  Can I have that please? (He'll let go of things if we ask him)   I feel like he honestly understands quite a bit of what we say to him, it's so crazy, but he really does.

Asher is 1!

Obviously my status as "best mom ever" has taken a big hit considering I'm more than two months late in posting this one. . . meh, I lost that status pretty much the second we got home from the hospital with our little bundle of joy last year ;)  Things I want to remember about Asher around the age of one:

- The best way to describe our nugget is that he is a busy body. He cannot sit still for more than 2 seconds. He's constantly moving and "working" haha

- He started walking right before he turned 11 months old. He was a little uncoordinated at first, but now he's cruising and likes to get around all over the place.

- He loves to "dance" which basically means rocking back and forth on his two feet and shaking his head back and forth too. He tends to do it more if there's music playing, but he still does it even when he's not thinking about it.

- He has learned how to clap for himself.  It took him forever to learn how to feed himself with his hands, so when he was trying to get the hang of it, I would always clap after he took a bite. So now he'll clap for himself after takes bites.

- He loves being outside, but now that he's walking, it's almost exhausting to take him out because he's all over the place!

- He's in that stage where anything will provide him with entertainment. I took him to a splash pad last week and instead of playing in the water he was more interested in walking all over and playing in the dirt. He's such a funny little guy.

- He now has four teeth on top  and still just the two on bottom. The top teeth were definitely a little more trouble coming in than the bottom ones!

- He is constantly making boy sounds and he has conversations with himself, it's pretty cute.

- He loves watching anything that has a motor. Cars, trucks, lawn mowers, construction vehicles etc. He will sit and watch for at least 5 minutes, which may as well be an eternity in Asher time!

- He still doesn't know how to go down the stairs very well, but he is definitely aware that he doesn't want anything to do with going near the stairs if he's at the top. He'll always stop and look over the edge and then go somewhere else, so that is nice since I don't really have to worry about him falling down.

- He loves sleeping with his "little" and gets royally pissed if he chucks it out of his crib before he falls asleep. You'd think he'd figure it out and not drop it on the ground, but no, he still throws it overboard at least once a day before a nap.

Photo credit for the cake pictures goes to Lora Grady, she's amazing and we were lucky enough to have her take our family pictures a couple of months ago.