The Fifteenth Month

It was a busy, busy summer for Kaitlin (not that it's over...we still have 2.5 months of heat left!) and she spent the first half of the month in California and the last half split between NY and TX. She's a traveling woman! As much fun as our vacations were, we are both glad to be home and sleeping in our own beds for longer than a week! Like last month, Kaitlin was a trooper with all of our traveling, flying and driving. For the most part she did a great job though we weren't without a few tantrums, breakdowns and sleep-deprived fits. At least she has an excuse ;)

She had her 15 month check up on Tuesday and got two thumbs up from the doctor. She went down in weight percentile slightly (from 13% to 11%) but the doctor didn't seem concerned. I was telling her about Kaitlin's recent food strikes and mega-teething (two more have broken through - that is 12 teeth total, including two molars and two canines) and she reassured me that it was a) completely normal and b) probably the cause of the weight slide. That and the fact that she never.stops.moving.EVER. She is on the tall end of the spectrum (around 60-70%) too which makes her long and lean!

Not only is she walking and running everywhere, she recently learned how to walk (very carefully) backwards. Oh, and how to "stand on her head". It's either that or it's her version of downward dog. She learned how to climb into her baby rocking chairs this month as well, and now all she wants to do is climb in them and then slide out. Climb in, slide out. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. She also added pulling toys to her bag of tricks, including an ancient Fisher Price school bus toy that my mom had and her beloved elephant. She mastered how to get on her play car and is FINALLY tall enough to push her little feet against the floor to move herself frontwards and backwards. Nascar here we come! And lastly another favorite activity is lining up toys (little people, rubber ducks, etc) so that they are all on their "feet" and next to each other, acknowledging her success by giving a little laugh and then knocking them all over. She's a weird one!

While she has been busy, busy, busy with all things physical her speech hasn't really advanced that much at all for the past couple of months. She only really says 3-4 words (dada, yes, ah-ah for monkey and vrm-vrm like noise for a car) and the last two are very, very recent and not completely reliable words (meaning she says them sometimes, but sometimes stares at you like she has no idea what you're talking about). The doctor said it was totally normal and that by 15 months most kids only know 3 words, so I didn't panic too much. For my pediatricians practice they go by "21 words by 21 months" as a marker, so if she isn't to that point in six months then we will step up our speech game. Meanwhile, even though she doesn't talk a lot of "real" words she is gibber-gabbering away like never before. If there is something that she wants to do or something she wants help with she will come over to you, pat your leg or arm and then grab ahold of your finger and lead you to wherever she wants to go. So she is pretty effective at getting her wants and needs across. 

When we visited my parents a couple of weeks ago she got to experience (seemingly) endless grass and yard space and now she is OBSESSED with running, walking and playing in the grass. We only have a little bit out front but at least twice a day she leads me to the front door, brings me her shoes and insists that we take a walk together outside. She loves holding your hand when going for a walk (or when she's on unsteady ground). She'll reach up and grab onto your finger and just walk quietly down the street with you. It just about makes my heart explode every single time she does it.