Happy 15 Months, Micaiah!

Hart's conversation with Micaiah went something like this:

H: If I just hold you like this, you will stay just this small forever, right?
M: Gee-gle, gee-gle, gee-gle.

That's Micaiah's new word. Gee-gle, which kind of sounds like "Giggle" and he says it over and over again. It's pretty hilarious.

Cai is 15 months and SO cute! He's such a toddler, but he still crawls about half as much as he is walking at this point. Still doing the "wounded soldier" or the "crab crawl", but will walk across the room, too.

I think the biggest change for him has been dropping his morning nap. The last 3 weeks, he has pushed his morning nap back slowly on his own. He just wouldn't be tired until later. I would try to put him down at what used to be his normal time and he would just go ballistic. (That reminded me of when he dropped from 3 naps to 2 at 7 months. I thought it was too soon then, but he just wouldn't take that last nap, so we moved to 2. It was rough for a few weeks and same with now, but after a month, it was fine again.) We are in the go with the flow period and he is going down after an earlier lunch around 11:30 or 12. At first he only slept around 2 hours, but yesterday it was closer to 2 hrs 45 minutes, so I think he is finally adjusting to the one nap routine. On days he seemed extra tired, I would put him to bed at 6:30 pm.

Otherwise, he is just playing, playing, playing! He loves to say "Ball" when we go outside to swing and to play with Abe. He LOVES juice and will say, "juice, juice, juice" if I give him milk when he really wants juice. His favorite two books right now are:

AND

Last night, I asked him where Mommy's nose was and he put his hand on my nose. Then, my ears, eyes, and mouth, and he knew where they all were! I was kind of impressed, because we haven't really worked on that all that much. Recently, he was playing outside on the screened porch and he came inside. I told him to go shut the door (not really thinking he would, but it would be nice if he would). To my surprise, he crawled over to the door and pushed it shut! I thought... Okay... IT IS ON, little boy! You understand everything now, got it!

Yet, we are also starting to experience that negative toddler behavior that you hear about, too. I think a lot of it is the frustration with the lack of communication. Since he can't really tell me what he wants yet, I think he just screams or cries to try to tell me. He hates getting his diaper changed still. I have tried spanking him and distracting him with toys, but it doesn't really matter what I do, he still cries and sometimes kicks and whines until it is over. We are also learning that we need to warn him in advance when transitioning to other activities to avoid a melt down.

While he is stubborn, like his mama, he is also very teachable, too. He understands when I'm teaching him not to do something and overall wants to please. He used to throw down his sippy of milk when it was all gone. Now, he gently hands it to mama. We are still working on not throwing his spoon after he eats though!

Being sick in the hospital recently and unable to care for my sweet boy made me appreciate him so much. I love being his mama and caring for him, even though it is a hard job staying home all the time! I love that God has entrusted him to us and has given him to us to care for. He is a blessing and a joy and we both feel so blessed by God to have him in our lives!