Timothy Update: 16 Months Old!

Climbed up by himself!

Around 15 months, Timothy got the hang of walking! He had been working on it for a while, walking with anything he could push, holding our hands. He took his first few steps back and forth between us right after his birthday. He just gradually started taking more and more steps on his own until he was walking good distances. It took a while for him to figure out how to stand up without pulling himself to standing on something, but now he can stand up just by bracing his hands on the ground and straightening up, so I consider him to have mastered walking!

His favorite word is 'ball' and the "bum, bum" that I mentioned in his 12-month post has turned into "broom, broom!" with an added lip buzz and is definitely supposed to indicate car/truck sounds. "Uh-oh" is still very often used. He says "dada" and "mama" much more regularly now, and also says "bup!" when he wants to go up... up on the sofa, or to picked up. He created his own signs for 'up' and 'bump' which is really cute. He taps his head with his open hand for 'bump' and he uses it whenever he trips or falls, even if he didn't bump his head. He has also started saying "bye!" when he waves, which is so stinking cute! Especially since he says it like, "By-ee!" He also signs and says "potty" now, but he says it "pa-ee" which sounds a lot like "bye" so I'm really glad he also signs! That makes the difference so that I actually understand what he is communicating, versus really not being sure what he intended to say just based on the sounds. 

He is obsessed with books! (Not just for potty time. All the time.)

Although he can sign and say "potty" we are still working on him understanding to ask for the potty whenever he needs it. If I ask him "where does pee-pee (or poopy) go?" he points to the toilet and says "potty" so he definitely understands where it is supposed to go. He sometimes points to his diaper and says "uh-oh" when he has had a miss. He does ask for the potty sometimes and more often lately! We were out on our grocery shopping trip and he asked for the potty, so I got our travel potty out and set up in the back of the car, and he used it. Then again at our second grocery store stop he asked and used the travel potty. We've also gotten him some underwear, which is nice because it's easier to have a pottytunity just pulling down pants and underwear versus having to unsnap and snap up a cloth diaper every time.

Easter fun with cousin Edison!

He is usually very friendly with any interested strangers or talkative cashiers we encounter when we're out running errands. He smiles, waves, and sometimes even says "bye" when we're leaving! We try to encourage him to be friendly and outgoing.

We had tried taking him to parks a few times, but usually the swings were the only aspect he seemed to really enjoy. Lately he has started enjoying slides though, which is very convenient because our neighborhood playground has several slides, but no swings unfortunately. We have to drive to find swings.

Climbing stairs with Grandma

He has been very consistently sleeping through the night ever since his 1st birthday. Usually a solid 12 hours, sometimes even 13. Naps haven't been quite as nice, he's been sleeping less during the day and seems to be trying to drop the morning nap and just take afternoon naps.

He sleeps so well at night that he even slept through the middle-of-the-night lip sweeps we had to do after we had his lip tie revised. Thankfully, this revision was successful, unlike the one we had done when he was 1 week old. The dentist also confirmed that he actually appears to be missing tooth #8 (which we were waiting and waiting for...) since teeth numbers 9-16 have all now erupted and there is still no sign of #8. I'm missing my two adult central incisors, so I wouldn't have been surprised if he had been missing some adult teeth down the road, but I had my central incisor baby teeth, so I wasn't expecting him to be missing any baby teeth. The one he is missing is also a lateral incisor, so I'm not sure if he actually inherited that from me or not. 

So proud of himself! 

Helping is extremely fun and exciting for him, so we have been trying to encourage that. He still loves helping with laundry. He also helps fill the bird feeders, and is always thrilled to notice birds outside. Matt built him a learning tower (Pinterest IKEA step stool hack) for the kitchen, so now he's learning to sort silverware into the drawer. He's also figured out how to operate light switches, and is convinced that ceiling fans should *always* be on. 

Playing with measuring cups.

(The learning tower addition hasn't been painted yet here)

Climbed into the chair by himself too.

I mentioned in the previous post that I was really hoping his hair would become curly, and it definitely has! He has really adorable curls now, and though sometimes I am afraid it's getting a little too long, I really can't bring myself to cut it yet. Sometimes when he's tossing and turning he will wake up from a nap with a matted mess on the back of his head, so I know it'll be too long soon, but when I do cut it, I will definitely just do a little trim and not cut off all the curls!

He's getting more talkative, opinionated, busy and energetic! He's still very sweet and cheerful most of the time too, though. I can't believe he's getting so big! We love our sweet little guy. It's so fun and amazing seeing how fast he's growing and how smart he is.