Blake - 15 Months

Blake:

• can stack his legos on top of each other to make a small tower. He knows how to orient them so they stack on top and once he places one he hits it on the top so it connects all the way. Sometimes he pats it but it doesn't actually push all the way down and the next one makes it fall off. He's pretty proud of himself when he gets a bunch all stacked up on the base which has wheels and makes a car.
• likes to sort of pick his toys up. He'll put a bunch of toys either in a big diaper box, a toy bin, a kitchen cabinet, or the drawer under the oven. If it's a box that he can pick up, he'll pick it up and dump it out after he's done... I really wish he could just leave it picked up.
• can get his feet in front of him at the top of the slide so he goes down the right way. It's a little harder for him at the park since his shoes (feet) are so big. He does (did) much better at Gymboree since he could do it barefooted.
• still loves throwing  things. He has a pretty good throwing motion for the balls that we have around the house. His favorites right now are the tennis balls since he can get a good grip on them.
• has started grabbing for everything that he wants. He has the cutest grabby hands where he'll open and close his fingers over and over almost like he's waving bye.
• started signing "more". When he's eating it's helpful to know when he wants more of a certain food instead of him just banging on the tray. It's so cute to see him doing the signs. It makes me wish I had been doing more signs, so maybe I'll start to incorporate them now.
• has been talking so much gibberish. He's adding in a lot more sounds and even started trying to say random words like knee and tunnel. It has me really excited that we might be moving closer to being able to communicate with him! (Or him with us really.) He even started calling his puffs "puh".
• has started blowing snot rockets. He knows how to blow his nose now (he watches Chris and me do it all the time apparently) and he'll put his finger in one nostril and blow so snot comes out the other side. We thought it was hysterical the first time he did it.
• got bit for the first time. We were at Sweet Peas Cafe in Dunedin and he was playing in a little toy house with 2 other kids and one just turned to him and bit his nose like he wanted to bite it off. It caught us all off guard but now I know to keep strange kids away from Blake... yikes. He had teeth marks on both sides of his nose for a couple days... poor boy.

Pics:

Playing with his new house. He doesn't look happy but this is just the face he makes when he is totally calmed by music. There is a radio on the backside and he loves to sit and listen to the music.

One more shot with Mimi and Grandpa Joel while they were in town.

Our little climber. We can't leave the stroller up anymore or he'll climb up on it and I'm afraid he'll fall over backward.

He takes up so much room in his highchair now. His feet just about reach the foot rests.

Riding his choo choo train finally.

Playing with his cousin Breelyn when she, Grandad, and Nana came to visit.

Blake wasn't sure what to make of all the curls.

Hanging out with Bree and watching some Mickey.

One of his favorite games has been to put the tennis balls into the container and then close the lid. 

Finding his belly button. He can't really see it unless he bends all the way over so he just has to feel around for it sometimes.

At the playground with Breelyn.

Practicing his school picture pose... seriously, what a ham!

Grandad, Breelyn and Blake at the beach. Thanks Nana for taking some pics!

Our first family trip to the zoo. Thanks again Nana for the pic!

Thanks Grandad and Nana for the rocking horse! It is so much fun!

Grandad taught Blake how to wear his bowl as a hat. He walks around and puts it on his head and says "hi".

Climbing through the tunnel at the park.

He climbed up this slide all by himself, then he put his feet in front of him and slid down by himself too. Good thing since it's hard to help with a tunnel slide.

On May 26, 2013 this was the closest cluster of planets until 2021. From left to right you can see Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury. I used to be huge into astronomy and even had a telescope. I really wish I had my telescope this night since my 200mm lens wasn't nearly long enough to see any detail.

Videos:

Blake finding his belly button.

Riding the rocking horse.