15 Months!

My love bug, snuggler, tickle-bug, giggle-monster, and jokester.  It is so fun to see the difference in personalities between both boys.  Carsten is much more play than work and he always makes us laugh.  I laugh even harder when he cracks himself up - which is fairly frequent.  He is just SILLY.  He does things that crack you up.  And that worries me for his future - I think he might turn out to be a class-clown.  He is great at independent play.  He enjoys company playing, but has no problem going off to play on his own.

He is NOT a big talker.  He is more into grunting and pointing - squealing on occasion.  He had so many ear infections, especially for that month and a half where we couldn't kick it, he went a while without hearing - which in turn has delayed his speech development.  We decided to go ahead and have him evaluated by the State Plan just to see if he was eligible for speech therapy. Their plan is a total body evaluation - physical, mental, social.  He did show that he is delayed in speech, BUT, his overall score was high enough that he didn't qualify for the state plan.  So for now, I am just working with him the best I can and we'll see if we need to seek out a speech therapist at the 18 month appointment.  His first word was Moma, but he wouldn't even use that on a daily basis, more just when he was in distress.  His favorite two words were Kitty (because they are in the house) and Shoe (because that means he gets to go play outside).  Speaking of, he LOVES to play outside!  Thank God for good weather and that we can finally get out!!!  He likes to play in our driveway, riding in a push car and pushing a lawn mower, he really enjoys swinging and digging in the sand box.  Around the house, he enjoys playing with cars and balls.  He likes to get into whatever big brother is doing. He LOVES books.  He seriously can't get enough reading.  Before bedtime and naps, he will throw a little fit when it is time to stop reading and starting sleeping.  He also reads all throughout the day as he comes across a book.  Minus the fit he throws after books have stopped, he has turned into a good sleeper.  He gives us 11 hours a night, sleeping from 7:30 - 6:30. And he also has a nap everyday for about 2 hours.  He has a little brown bear blanket that he takes to sleep with him - he calls him Brrrrrr.

He is a pretty good eater - fruits are his favorite by far.  He can eat a whole banana in one mouth full like a monkey, if not monitored closely.  He loves berries, especially blackberries.  Still not big on some textures like rice.  We eat lots of crackers, grilled cheeses and fruit.

I just LOVE him in that hat!!!

One of his hang-outs.

Maybe he's not TRYING to be funny with his plastic upside down ice cream cone, but it turned out that way!!!  I said he was too young to eat an ice cream cone on his own, but I had this lovely plastic one for him to hold!!!  ;)

Well, he is definitely trying to be funny here!  This is how he spent the whole month of April, while we had the Easter Buckets out!!!

This is my absolute favorite, my child is a jokester picture.  There is no way this was unintentional - and no, nobody was asking him, where is your belly button?