16 Months

Andy is now 16 months old! He is walking about 50% of the time, but is quite the efficient crawler, so I don't blame him for still using that mode of transportation. When he walks, he looks like he's had a few drinks as he stumbles forward and backwards...very entertaining to watch. Sometimes when he's walked across the room, he'll look back to check if we have been watching and will clap and laugh. I guess that shows that we have been encouraging him to walk - huh? Andy also is building on his own little language. He will have little conversations with us - most of the time in jibberish. He looks at you with the most sincere and serious look on his face as if he truly is talking to you - I look forward to the day when we will know what all the jumbled words really mean. He does have some favorite words right now - ba-ba is by far the most used...when he's hungry or wants his milk. Otherwise, he uses "no" quite a bit - usually when referring to Henry. I guess we say no to Henry a lot - especially around Andy. He also says 'dat' when pointing to things - and says "bawl" for ball. His vocabulary is mostly mimicking whatever we say - he points at airplanes and says - "pane" and when we say, I love you, he says "uv wu". He loves blowing kisses and waving bye and makes all sorts of clicking, buzzing noises with his mouth. He loves shoes and socks and gets very excited when we put them on. If he finds Kyle's or my shoes around the house, he tries to put those on as well. He still is quite the sleeper - going to bed around 8:30 and waking up between 8 and 10 AM. His temperament is still mellow - especially when he gets in large groups. He likes to sit back and observe and take everything in. Although he generally is mellow - he definitely has a stubborn, curious, determined side to him...not sure where he got that :) Andy will climb, bite, poke, grab, throw anything he can get his hands on. Poor Henry, the other night, Andy was doing his typical crawl over Henry routine and he leaned down and took a big bite out of Henry's side. Usually Henry puts up with Andy's pulling, tugging, poking - but he let out a big yelp when Andy took a bite out of him. I don't blame him! Our house is baby-proofed to the fullest with 6 gates and rubber bands keeping all of our drawers together. It's amazing how quickly a 16 month old can turn a perfectly clean kitchen into a disaster zone. Andy had his first major fever and cold this month, but otherwise he is a healthy and happy guy. He definitely keeps us on our toes...busier by the day.