15 months old

Carter, Carter, Carter.  

 

I don’t even know where to begin with 

all the fun things you’re doing this month.

 

You have gone from our baby to your own little person – 

a funny, playful, rambunctious, creative, mostly good-natured, 

but very independent little person.

 

Your personality is becoming quite complex and 

we enjoy getting to learn a little more about you each day.

   

 

There are so many sides to you and so many contradictions.   

I think you are still figuring yourself out right now. 

  

 

Part of you wants to do everything on your own, 

but you also love knowing that you can still be my little baby

 whenever you need to be.  

 

There are so many things that you will no longer let us do for you.  

 

You cannot stand to be spoon or fork-fed, no matter how messy the food.   

You insist on holding your own utensils which makes for some very interesting mealtimes.   

You’re wonderful at getting a big heap of cottage cheese on your spoon and then 

as you put it in your mouth, you flip it upside down and dump most of it in your lap.   

We feed you in nothing but a diaper and I don’t know what we’ll do when the weather gets colder…

 

You also hate to have your diaper changed.  Except when you don’t.   

Sometimes you lie there so patiently and let us change you 

and other times it’s like wrestling a crocodile!  

 

Most days I can barely catch you and when I do, you are squirming to get down and go play.   

Other days you want to be touching me the entire day.

 

Sometimes I want to read to you, but you’d rather go read by yourself.   

Other times I am trying to get something done and you insist that I come into the play room 

so you can bring me a book and climb into my lap to read together.

 

Your favorite book lately is the one about the monkeys jumping on the bed.   

You hand me the book and before I can even open it, you are frantically bouncing up and down.    

(You know, just in case I don’t know what book it is.)   

I begin the story, “Five little monkeys jumping on the bed,” and 

you start tapping the top of your head before I can even say, 

“One fell off and bumped his head.”   

Then you point to the picture of the monkey with a bump on his head, look at me, 

grab your own head and say “Oww!  Oww!  Oww!” just like I used to say to YOU!   

It’s so cool to know you've been paying attention all these months 

and now you are trying to tell ME the stories!

 

 These days you are walking like an old pro.   

Or maybe I should say running like an old pro, since you run as much as you walk now.   

You don’t crawl at all anymore.  You even hold onto the railing and walk up and down the stairs 

between the kitchen and family room.   The first few days you did it, I almost had a heart attack, 

but now you’re an expert!

 

You are also really into spinning in circles.  

You look up at the ceiling and spin around 

until you are dizzy enough to fall down.  

We don't mind it on the carpeting in the play room, 

but you prefer to do it on the tile floor in the kitchen!

 

A nice change this month is that you’ve started asking to go to bed when you’re tired.   

You usually let out a yawn and then come to one of us and say, “Nigh-night?” 

and reach up to be carried upstairs.  The way you say it is so sweet that Daddy and I agree 

that it’s our favorite of all your words right now.

 

You have added “Uh-oh” to your vocabulary and you are 

saying a closer word to “dog” than you were last month.   

You have learned a few new signs, too, like pancake, all-done, bath, no, 

and milk (which is a lot nicer now when we're in public than the way you used to ask to nurse!). 

 

Your favorite thing to learn lately is animal sounds.  You love them.   

If you see an animal and I don’t tell you the sound it makes, 

you will wait and wait and insist that I tell you what it says.   

Usually it’s not a problem, but there are a few that don’t know 

(like a raccoon, a seahorse or a turtle).  

 

 I even looked up what a goat says this week so I could tell you 

and now you are saying “meh-meh-meh” better than me!    

You also say “moo” for a cow, “oink” for a pig, 

a high-pitched “hee-“ for a donkey (can’t get you to do the whole “hee-haw”), 

a low “growl” for a bear, a high “eek-eek” for a mouse, 

and you do a very realistic “quack” for a duck.   

You also make a monkey sound and of course your favorite – 

sniffing like a bunny!

 

Daddy and I talk every single day about how much we love you

 and how lucky we are to have such an amazing little boy in our lives.   

You are an absolute joy, Carter Maxwell.   

Happy 15-month Birthday!