MILESTONE MONTH

They say 15-months is a "milestone month". Sure, we'll agree with that.

While the past 3 months have been full of changes and developments and "milestones" for James, it's the past few weeks that have been especially busy... He has learned to walk (he's a slow-but-steady, confident walker, about 90% of the time now), he says all sorts of things (about a dozen real words used correctly, words he randomly imitates from us - even words such as "pirate" - awesome!, and little sentences that we can't quite figure out - he even has little mumbled "conversations" with himself and his toys that are adorable), he is using more of his toys and "toys" (i.e. random kitchen items) for their intended purposes (actually sorting shapes in the shape-sorter, etc.), he can point out and correctly name a few objects (ball, flower, light, cat, etc.) as well as find them in books (and on flashcards, and also on these fun picture cards I made him months ago of items around the house), he can climb onto couches and coffee tables (as long as there is something nearby for him to get a boost off of), he sleeps in a big boy bed (and has done so by himself, all through the night, for 3 nights in a row now), and we hear this is just the beginning of the REAL learning explosion, which usually hits around 18 months... We can't wait! He already amazes us every day - he is pure entertainment!

James actually turned 15-months-old yesterday, and today was his well baby exam. He wasn't such a "well" baby though... Turns out that double ear infection is STILL hanging around and his cough has developed into some sort of infection as well. Since he's had no fever and has been sleeping wonderfully, we really had no idea. He's not contagious, so he could have gone to daycare today, but we decided that since it's so much quieter at home he'd be better off sleeping the day away in his own bed. Which is exactly what he's doing right now. He's been asleep since we left the pediatrician's office 3 hours ago!

His official stats this month are 24 lbs 4 oz (25th percentile) and 32 inches (75th percentile). You seriously would have thought we were pulling his toes off to get those measurements! James is still suffering from white-coat syndrome (and his sickness, which causes EXTRA clingy-ness in him, is likely not helping). He's following right along his usual growth curves, which are flattening out at this age, so we won't be expecting huge changes in weight or height between appointments anymore, let alone the monthly weigh-ins we do at home. We were sad to find out our little man is still sick today, but happy to hear that he is otherwise doing great and developing on schedule.