16 Months

Stats (at 15 months!)
Weight: 22 Pounds
Height: 31 inches
You are in the 20% now baby!!!

Zane,

Well at least I kept up with the monthly letters for your first year! My goal was to do these every other month after your first birthday, so let's just start here and hope that happens. Give me a bit of a break, I'm trying to keep up with you!

I am not even sure where to start. Since you turned one it's like all of these things just clicked and you change each and every day. On Mommy's birthday dinner night it clicked that you could walk for more than a few steps. You walked up and down Grandma and Grandpa's hallway and were clapping the whole time you were so excited! You took a few weeks of a break and went back to crawling but came back to the whole walking thing. Now nothing stops you. You can back down steps, although you do start the backing down process far away from the step, you walk over most things, although you have your Mommy's tendency to bump and/or trip over things, and you can turn your walk into a sprint.

We took you to the pet store for the first time. You laughed and laughed at the dogs jumping around. You could not believe how many birds were in one place and your mouth was open while you starred at all of them. You thought the hamsters were cool too, but the deal is none of those in our house! Sorry they smell! The fish were pretty exciting too and Daddy ran by the snakes and Mommy ran by the tarantula...yes your parents are wimps!

Your use of words seems to come and go. We were reading to you one night and you pointed to a cow and said Cow! Of course you wouldn't repeat it but you for sure said it. Since then you've said dog, teddy and seem to whisper thank you sometimes. I want down is another favorite that you choose to use once and awhile. I keep waiting for you to just start blurting out things but I know you're taking your time. You are picking up new signs weekly and seem to enjoy the process of learning a new sign. Your favorite is dog and bird right now...imagine that! Oh and of course eat, which I think you would say all day long if it resulted in yogurt or milk given to you each time you asked!


Mommy and Daddy's bed has always been fun for you but now it is your adventure land. You no longer need our help to get up on the bed and generally can make it off the bed pretty safely. You love playing with our alarm clock which has messed us up a couple of times in the mornings! Truman is always laying on our bed and you just climb right on up and start petting him. We're hoping once you move into a big boy bed that he'll decide to sleep with you so we have some space!

You have discovered a love for music and we are so proud! You dance to all music and love to turn up your stereo in your room. As I type this your Daddy and you are out in the family room jamming to some Michael Jackson...Billy Jean! We'll tell you later, but Michael used to be normal. Oh we have so much to teach you!


Another first for you was going to your first art museum. We did this for Mommy's birthday and you were in awe. You starred at each painting, pointed a ton and smiled at everyone who passed by. We took you out of your stroller and you crawled around the museum in the modern art section. At first I wondered what people would think as you crawled around and then I thought, he's not touching any art, who cares! You had an absolute blast! Hopefully it's just the beginning of an appreciation for art!

You do seem to appreciate Daddy's paint brushes. You always come into the office while Mommy's editing photos and point to Daddy's paint brushes. Once you're given one you light up and pretend to paint the floors. You're even so interested in the paints that you pick them up and try to drink them. Thank heavens for the caps on them but I'm thinking we need to move them up soon before you figure out how to take those off!

We had one freak out moment around Easter. Grandma and I were on her computer looking at something and you were right there on the floor playing. You were playing with one of those plastic Easter eggs and pulling it apart and putting it back together. No big deal, right? Not until you decided to stick it in your mouth and suck in. I heard you cough and turned around to see you turning bright red. We jumped right next to you and could see the egg suctioned to the back of your throat. I was able to pull it out but boy did it ever scare you, along with us!!! No more eggs till next year, hopefully you'll not be putting things in your mouth as much then!

We started swim lessons to get you used to being in the water with Grandma and Grandpa C's pool and Grandpa and Grandma L's lake house. You seem to like it but the timing of the lessons hasn't been the greatest. It's right at the beginning of your normal nap time so you really like to snuggle and be cuddly instead of kick like the other kids. That's okay...I figure you'll be more alert this summer when it's not nap time!


You just recently have started to tantrum at a new level than before. You know how to tell us NO and like to test us when we say NO. We're slowly learning how to deal with and to put a stop to it at the beginning but boy some days are pretty challenging. On Mother's Day you decided to have one of your worst days and half the time your Daddy and I couldn't stop laughing because it was so ridiculous! You test us sometimes and then hours later will snuggle up to me and it seems to wash away. We'll remind you of all of this of course when you have children! You still like to bite too and I still seem to be the victim most of the time. You completely understand the idea of a timeout and as we count before you get to that you choose to listen most of the time. The rest of the time I think you're just seeing if we mean business or if we're just testing you.


You have turned into a boy within the last several weeks. Cars and trucks make you gasp and you say "OH WOW!" as they pass us on the road. As the planes flew over to the track on Race Day we would run you out to see them and as they circled several times you would run to us in the house and beg to be picked up so we could run you outside to see them fly over. We would then stand outside and you'd point and gasp in complete awe. It's so fun to point dump trucks out to you as we drive and to run you outside as the mail woman and the trash truck come by our house.

You still are in love with your Teddy. Teddy now sits on the kitchen table as you eat, lays on the ground next to you as you look through your books and is in your mouth just hanging as you run around the house. It's the cutest thing but we're just praying Teddy doesn't get lost because I can't seem to find another just like him.


We have had so many times recently when Daddy and I have watched you as you get completely soaked and dirty sitting in the mud right beside a creek throwing rocks, playing with a sprinkler for the first time or throwing sand out of Grandma's sandbox. You LOVE being outside and when it rains you stand at the back door just looking out wondering when you can go play. We do play in the rain a lot but just not when it's lightening, which has been a lot recently! You are out to discover the world and no one's going to stop you! We don't really stop you from trying to eat leaves or dirt, it's good for your system! I guess we should pay attention to which ones are poisonous though!


The past few months have been particularly busy as Mommy has adjusted to a new job and pursuing photography. You have been so flexible and amazingly willing to go with the flow. I've been stressed, Daddy's been stressed and you have been at times too. But yet we've had moments of pure joy that show us there's an end to the madness and that we're headed in the right direction, it's just going to take time. I love the days I have off with you and love the fact that I can be more flexible now.

We had a friend lose their baby this past month. It rocked us to the core of how lucky we are to have you, tantrums in all. The night after the funeral I came home to just be with you, and you didn't want anything to do with me! It made me laugh that you had no clue what was going on and just wanted to be the baby boy you are and just play instead of cuddle. And that was okay, I was in tears as I watched you play with Truman. We are so blessed to have you growing into a healthy toddler who can't keep his hands off anything!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

See more 16 month photos here.