16 Months

Grant is 16 months old today....wow! Here's a picture from last week....we bought some sidewalk chalk because Grant has really become interested lately in carrying his crayons around and trying to mark on random pieces of paper. He doesn't have much patience yet for sitting at his table and coloring in his books, but he'll color as long as he can walk around and do it! So I figured he may enjoy some sidewalk chalk. Doesn't he have good handwriting??!

He likes the chalk okay, but he still mainly just likes to walk around with it! As you can also see from the picture, he also likes to reach into our potted plants and pull out the bark, then throw it on the ground! He knows this is wrong, so if we catch him, he usually comes over to hand it to us. Sometimes he'll put it back if we ask him.

Some stats about Grant at 16 months (forgive me- some of these are just to help me remember in the future/compare Grant with future children!):

- He now has all four front bottom teeth, and also one molar on the left side. On the top, he has all four front teeth, and in the past two weeks two molars have poked through, one on each side.

- He has outgrown (finally) all of his 12 month pants, but can still wear some of his 12 month shirts. He mostly wears 18 month clothes, though. He's taller than 95% of all boys his age, so it's surprising that he could wear those 12 month pants for as long as he could.

- He still doesn't say real words. It's easy for me to start getting worried about this, but he talks all the time, and points to things and babbles, so I really think he's just taking his time. He has said a few words in the past, but doesn't use them much anymore. He understands a lot of what we tell him, and can follow commands, so I know he's a smart kid!

- Some of his favorite foods are cheese, bananas, grapes, bologna, and sweets of any kind! He also LOVES his milk now....he will drink an entire sippy cup in a few minutes, if he really wants it! He likes scrambled eggs quite a bit, and quesadillas (we make these a lot). One thing I think is interesting is that he doesn't care much for pasta (macaroni and cheese, lasagna, etc). I thought all kids liked those things! One other thing he REALLY likes recently: I bought some cinnamon raisin bread from the Mrs. Baird's outlet store last week (that place is great and SO CHEAP, for those of you in Clear Lake), and he loves that bread! He will eat one piece of it after another. One thing, though.....we are having problems with him throwing his food after he's done eating, or he'll throw food on the floor that he doesn't want (like his peas and carrots). I always take his tray away when he does this, but it doesn't seem to stop him from doing it the next time.

- Like most toddlers, he loves going outside. If I let him out the front door or through the garage, he will take off and never come back! Yesterday we took a walk, and he walked (ran) all the way to the end of our street, then took a left and ran to the next street! He's pretty good about not trying to go into the street, but it still kinda makes me nervous because he's so fast. Thankfully we live at the end of a cul-de-sac, so there's not a lot of car traffic coming in front of our house.

- A couple of cute things he's recently started doing: when I ask him if he wants to go play outside, go for a walk, or if I ask him if he wants something to eat that he likes, he'll lift his eyebrows and make this high-pitched "ya" sound, almost like he's saying, "yeah." I'd say this is a word although I think it's just his way of showing his excitement. It's really cute, though! Also, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that he was turning around in place. I asked if he was spinning, and he kept doing it. Now, when we ask him to spin for us, he'll usually do it. I just have no idea where that came from.....I guess it shows that kids pick up things that you don't purposely teach them!