Little guy, you have just turned 15 months old! This is one of those ages that seemed impossibly old back when you were just a few weeks old. Somehow, though, here we are!
You are definitely a toddler now, although we still call you our baby. You have mastered walking. You even throw some running in here and there, to mix things up. Recently, you've fallen in love with taking walks with Mommy out on the sidewalks of our neighborhood. You trot along, holding her hand and shrieking in delight as you run along. You don't walk/run for very long at a time, because you get excited by every puddle, bird and cat you see in the neighborhood. You are helping us get to know our surroundings in great detail!
This month, you continued to learn new words and show us what a verbal little boy you are. For the heck of it one morning, we counted up all the words you can say or sign and we got to 60! We did count animal sounds as words, so the real number might be slightly less. But you really are quite the talker. For right now, you mostly say the first syllable of whatever word it is, often accompanied by the sign. We watch Baby Signing Time most evenings and you still love it. We tried the regular Signing Time videos, which are the next step up, but they're still a little over your head.
In addition to words, you've started to put together two words for the first time. It's very cute - you're in love with our friend Emily's cat. The cat's name is Beast. You loooove Beast. In fact, we think Beast was one of your very first words. One night, Emily and Eric and Nils were watching you while we went out to dinner...and when we came back, Emily and Eric said that you had been saying "Beast!" over and over. We thought that might have been wishful thinking, but you really did know how to say it. Last week, you saw Beast again and since then, you have been saying "Beast...cat!" over and over and over. You love to tell us that Beast is a cat, and we love to hear it!
Speaking of cats, we got our own kitty this month. You and Lucy, the kitten, are now best friends. You're at pretty much the same developmental age and you love each other. Morning, noon, and night, you can be found chasing each other around, playing together, and generally having a great time. You sometimes get too rough with her, but you're learning to be gentle. And, today, you demonstrated your new skill of giving kisses by leaning very close to Lucy and saying "MA!" That's how you give a kiss. You are such a loving boy.
You're starting to learn people's names, as well. You like to say "Ni!" when I tell you we're going to visit Nils, and you also like to say Bubby and Poppa and Apa. Most of the time you say Mommy and Mama for the right person, but that can still be a bit confusing. The easiest name for you is Mamima, your made up name for both of us!
You also love to brush your teeth, usually with some company:
You got another haircut this month. Mama took you to a haircut place and you sat very still and watched with big eyes as a nice lady cut your hair. Mama thought, wow, this isn't as hard as I thought! Unfortunately, the lady forgot to cut over your ears and Mama and Mommy still haven't been able to get you to sit still to finish the trim. Apparently, it is as hard as we thought. We just can't distract you as much as a whole hair salon can!
You've been sleeping well these days. This is sooo wonderful! You go down for the night very easily, almost always by nursing off to sleep. You wake up once in the night, usually, and we're pretty okay with that. We're working on helping you go back to sleep without nursing if you wake up a second time. You're transitioning to one nap during the day, which has been a little bit difficult. You tend to sleep for an hour or so if we're at home, but you're also likely to fall asleep in the car if we go anywhere before noon. Transferring you inside has become close to impossible, so Mama has been spending a lot more time listening to NPR in the car than she used to!
Here you are on the day of our heat outage:
In terms of food, you've suddenly decided that you want to feed yourself and that is that. Bubby and Poppa gave you a little booster seat that we can strap you into. That way, you can sit at the table with us and make a big fun mess. Your favorite foods are yogurt, cheese, milk, apples, bananas, bagels and cream cheese, and Superfood juice. You love to watch Mama make her hot cocoa every morning and know how to say that you need sugar (shu) and cocoa powder (coco) to make hot cocoa. It is too cute.
Lastly, we found out this month that you're going to have a little sister! We know that you'll be a great big brother and we're so excited for you to meet the new baby. You've been working through some possessiveness towards your parents - you don't like it when the kitty or another baby tries to sit on our laps! - but we hope our laps will be big enough for you and the new baby. We know our hearts will be :)
Mateo, we love you to the moon and the stars. We feel lucky every day that you're our little boy. We can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.
All our love,
Mommy and Mama
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