15 months

Balian had his 15-month check-up today. Here's the stats:

Height: 31.5 inches (50%)

Weight: 23 lbs. 12 oz. (between 25% & 50%)

Can I just say how much I love my pediatrician? Dr. Simpson is great! I don't feel pressured to get vaccines that scare me right away (she's letting me delay the live ones until he's 2), all the vaccines are preservative free (not just mercury-free; ALL preservatives). She seems totally open to more natural remedies at times... I could go on and on. The more I take my kids to her, the more I like her. Props to my friend Julie for the recommendation :)

The Good:

Balian is doing very well with understanding and following instructions. He's learning where things belong, and wants to help put things away. He wants to help mommy with the laundry, and loves to watch the washer do its thing. He loves closing doors (and opening cabinet doors to get into things). He's doing sign language to say please and thank-you (he has such good manners ;) ). He's doing some animal noises, but mainly animal gestures. He chomps his teeth like an alligator, beats his chest like a gorilla, sticks his tongue out like a giraffe, pants like a dog, attempts to spit like a camel...we've occasionally gotten a "baa baa" for a sheep or a monkey sound here and there. He knows most of his body parts - ears, eyes, hair, tongue, teeth, armpits, fingers, toes, knees. Of course, his favorite is the belly button, and kinda has an obsession with it - but of course, Mommy's belly button is WAY more exciting than his own, and he likes to pull my shirt up and point to it. I'm sure the round belly has something to do with it. ;) He understands so, so much, he just doesn't really have the vocabulary to go with it yet. He does say some things - duck, cat, this, that, book, night night, shoes, socks (LOVES shoes and socks)... but nothing easy like hi (he just waves). He LOVES to play outside, and climb up the big ladder and go down the big slide (on his tummy, feet first) that Neil built (5 ft. high). I just have to catch him at the end.

He also LOVES books. He'll go into his room and just look at books forever! His favorite book to be read right now is "I love you through and through" that he got from Nana and PopPop.

Balian has also made some pretty dramatic improvements with potty training this week. We've long conquered the pooping in the pants (we haven't had a poopy diaper since the last time I posted about it), but he wasn't showing any signs of discomfort with wetness - even with cloth diapers. I couldn't remember when I actually started Bella with training pants (when she was showing any sign that she could be dry...or being dry a lot?), but we decided to try it anyway, and just see what happened. So, we put him in the Gerber training pants with the plastic covers over them (so we didn't get pee all over the house if he wet a lot). Only when he's awake - nap time and bedtime we still use diapers, obviously. Of course, this meant more work for me - the training pants just aren't as absorbent as diapers, so we had to abandon the routine and go full-fledged into potty training. We figured we'd try it for a day and see what happened - and what happened was he did amazing even on that first day! I kept a log of every time we went to the potty - the time - if he was wet or dry - if he told us somehow, etc. The first day, he was dry and went like 8 times. fabulous! so we kept it up the next day...and even with church on Sunday, it was more times that day! Monday, he wasn't feeling well, so I was going to let him "have the day off", but he decided he didn't want to have a day off - he wanted to potty train! He didn't want to wear a diaper - he wanted to wear his "underwear" (training pants) - and that day he started noticing right away when he wet, and started coming to me whining, or patting himself where he wet to let me know. Yesterday, he found me in the kitchen and was whining. I asked him what was wrong, and he took my hand and lead me to the potty. on the way there, I checked and yup, he was wet. He seems to really hate being wet now. yay! Discomfort is the first step...now he just needs to figure out what it feels like BEFORE he goes...so he can tell me rather than just trying to get him to the potty every 20 min. and hope he's dry. I know these things take time..and boys take longer. But my boy is doing so wonderful - especially considering he's been sick! Which leads me to...

The Bad:

Balian has had the sniffles, coughs, etc. this week just like the rest of us. I was glad he had a Dr. appointment today, so that she could check him out just to make sure it wasn't anything else. Well, apparently, he had a slight ear infection in his left ear. so sad. It's the first time he's ever been sick! The boy is so happy all the time, you'd never guess something was wrong other than a cold. Even when his eyes were watering and nose was dripping like crazy, he just played like always, and definitely did not want to neglect any opportunity to play outside :)

The Down-Right Ugly:

Did you know kids could get strep "down there"? I sure didn't. Now I do. And I thought it was just a weird diaper rash or dry skin because of wetting so much at night... apparently not. eek!