16 months

Silly kid in his rainboots (the best hand me down present ever from the Pitkins, and they're going to be too small soon :-/)

Just a little evening reading after dinner.  Catching up on the seasonal bird activity.  (This picture is in no way staged, goofy boy!  He then started playing peek-a-boo with the paper)

Jacob was 16 months old on Saturday.  We celebrated by . . . being sick.   Well, I am sick, Jacob just got the cruddy cough and snotty nose portion of the bug and now Mark's coming down with something.  We did go get our Christmas tree on Saturday and somehow over the course of the weekend were able to decorate the house for Christmas!  It's quite a different experience with a toddler in the house and I think our best purchase of the year might be the huge gate/fence we got to keep him away from the tree.  He helped me put a couple of his ornaments on on the tree, then took them off and ran around the room with them, then throw them on the ground.  He no longer has access to the tree.

It is amazing to watch your child grow and develop, it is really so special and so miraculous!  Every part of it!  I know I've said this before, but I'm reminded of it every day!  Jacob is growing and changing and learning so much on a daily basis!  He says new words everyday and completely floors us with his abilities!  He can go and get things you ask him to find and bring them back, he is making crazy connections about all sorts of things, his signing vocabulary continues to grow as well and the past couple of weeks he's tried to sign and say "I love you" when we say it to him.  It melts my heart!  At school in a couple of weeks he is going to transition to the next class along with his friend James.  I'm glad they are moving at the same time, they have been together since Jacob started school and this is a big transition for them because they are going to a whole new suite with all new faces.  Until now he's been in the same suite but just different classrooms and there have always been familiar faces.  He's ready though, his teachers are excited for him and tell me stories everyday about how responsive he is to them and how his vocabulary is growing.  He knows the names of all the kids in his class and tries to say them (some much more intelligible then others.  He does a pretty good job with Audrey, Aislinn and James, but not Xander).  He also gives all of his teachers a big hug in the morning when he gets to school and goes around the class and waves bye to all of his teachers and classmates before leaving.   The separation anxiety seems to be subsiding (thank goodness).  I heard it peaks at 16 months and he followed that to the tee!  A couple of weeks ago he was crying everyday when I left him at school.  Towards the end of last week the crying stopped, he still has to know where Mama is at all times when we're at home but that's nothing new.   Here's a video to give you a little insight into the past couple of weeks.  He wasn't feeling so great this night so it's a little more extreme sounding but the word is always the same :-)  Literally, we heard this every waking hour, and sometimes in his sleep.  Even when I was right next to him (like in this video), even when I was holding him, or in the car next to him, or playing with him . . . you get the point.  Mama, Mama, MAMA!   He knows lots of animals and their sounds, and still loves music.  He can do the hand motions to a few songs now (Itsy Bisty Spider and Wheels on the Bus are the ones I know of).  I'm excited to see the changes that occur in the coming weeks as he transitions. 


Just a few random Jacob facts for us to remember about him at 16 months:
-His favorite animals are: elephants, birds, dogs, and cows
-He loves the moon!
-He started eating bananas!!! Yay
-He really enjoys going outside and picking up rocks and acorns.  He can pronounce acorn pretty intelligibly.  
-He somehow all of the sudden knows who Elmo is and seems to really like him.  He's had an Elmo teething ring for almost a year now but uses it rarely and one day last week I asked him if he wanted the Elmo ring and he smiled and said yes.  From then on he's said the word Elmo and will point to pictures of Elmo if he seems him.  This came totally out of the blue considering we might have one book with a picture of Elmo(which he found yesterday and showed us) and he never watches TV.  Like I said, he never ceases to amaze us!
-Speaking of teething, it's currently full throttle.  We change his shirt 3 times a day and he sometimes wears a bib again full throttle because of the drool.  He doesn't like us to look in his mouth but I think we're working on #8+.

Have a great week.  I am really busy with the end of the semester trying to get my study proposal ready for my dissertation so the blog may be quiet until exams are graded and my proposal meeting is over.  Then I'll be preparing for next semester (no rest for the weary).

Visiting with Great Grandad while we were in VA

 

Raising his hand to tell Ms. Rachel he wanted more oatmeal