Toddler Will at 15 Months

Will turned 15 months about 2 weeks ago in the midst of all the fevers and such. This means he is fully in the toddler stage of life! He is a mover and a shaker and definitely keeps us on our toes. For a good stretch of time he was the easier kid to have around but wow has that changed!

Firsts:

- He went on his first family vacation! We traveled to Tucson, AZ in mid-February to visit my sister and her family. He handled the travel pretty well overall with the exception of gaining an hour! On this trip he had his first visit to a zoo but was fairly oblivious to it. He was in the stroller the whole time and was very content and I would take him out to point out animals to him but he's too young to really appreciate the zoo like his brother did!

- In the health department, he had his first allergic reaction (to amoxicillin), first visit to the ER, and first surgery. I would like to not repeat any of these things. 

Waiting in the pre-op room for his tubes procedures. The nurse said he was much happier than babies usually are when they haven't been able to eat and are in a strange environment.

Hanging out in our room at the ER where we found out he just had a terrible virus and it was nothing to worry about (we were there because he spiked a 104+ fever while on antibiotics)

The remnants of the horrible rash he got from the allergic reaction to amoxicillin and the resulting serum sickness

Words: He has been a bit delayed in the speech department, probably because he had a mild to moderate hearing loss from having fluid in his ears when he had ear infections. That should completely reverse now that he has tubes but we will get his hearing re-checked later this month. He says "hola" and "ma" which is how he says mas (the word for more in Spanish). He says about the same amount of words that Pablo did at this stage. Pablo also had tubes (at 9 months) so he was a bit delayed in the speech department. I also think going to Spanish Immersion daycare might impact their language acquisition as they are learning 2 languages. But none of this worries me because I know that Paul's language exploded between 1 and 2 and hopefully that will be the case with Will, too. I do find it a bit annoying that he can clearly say "ma" for more but will not say mama! Come on! He definitely charmed everyone at the doctor's office as he said Hola to everyone he saw. 

Growth: He weighed about 21 pounds and is almost 32". There is only an 8 pound difference between Pablo and Will so I think there is a good chance he will outweigh him in the next couple of years! He's around 30th percentile for weight and in the 70s for height. He has a very long torso! He wears mostly 12 month pants and 18 month tops and sleepers. 

Movement: He is not walking yet but our kids seem to be late walkers, probably thanks to their giant heads! He had a gross motor delay at 12m so we saw an OT for an evaluation and did 1 OT appt. He was referred because he was not pulling to stand and wasn't walking along furniture. As soon as he got his tubes, he started to pull to stand/walk along furniture. So I think the delay was related to feeling like crud! To get around, he scoots on hard surfaces and will crawl on carpet. I just need him to walk by 18 months so he can move to the toddler room, but he seems on track for that. Paul walked at 16.5 months so that is kind of my goal/hope for Will. His doctor wasn't at all concerned about him not walking and said winter babies in particularly tend to walk later because they are stuck inside more and aren't as motivated to walk as they would be if they were going to the park for example. 

Loves:
- Crawling up stairs. He just figured out how to slide down the stairs this weekend, but he's not great at it. So our evenings/weekends consist of him crawling to the top of the stairs and us carrying him back down (which he usually strongly protests).

- Bath time. This kid LOVES water. I enrolled him in swimming lessons. We had to miss the first one last weekend since the roads were bad thanks to a combo of rain and snow but we got back on track and went to lessons yesterday and he LOVED it. He especially loved sitting on the edge of the pool and falling forward into my arms. 

- He likes walking behind his walker toy and gets faster every week.

- His brother. He is so enamored with Paul. No one can get him laughing like Paul can! 

Me and the mutual admiration club

Dislikes: diaper changes, long car rides, hair cuts (he's had 2 and SCREAMED through them) and he usually cries when we walk into his room at bedtime/naptime. He must have FOMO but once he accepts it's time to sleep, he usually goes down easily.

Eating: This kid LOVES food. I am amazed at how much he eats at times and his teachers tell us he is a great eater and will sometimes eat off of his friends plates. If he wants more during meal times he says "ma ma ma ma" and claps (doesn't quite get the sign for more, so he just claps). If you are eating someone around him, he will inevitably come over to you say and say "ma?? ma??" in the cutest little high pitched voice. He isn't very picky but his favorites are yogurt, graham crackers, berries, and banana pancakes with peanut butter. He will not drink milk, so we give him water in a miracle 360 cup. As I mentioned last week, I weaned him from nursing when I got the stomach flu. He was nursing quite a bit when sick (I would nurse him during the night when he had fevers), but was typically nursing twice/day until I dropped his morning feed the first weekend of March and then all feeds when I got sick.

He's a happy, smiley, sweet little guy that loves to laugh. He definitely seems more mischievous that Paul was! The last 3 months have been pretty brutal on the illness front. When I looked through photos from the last 3 months, there are so many pictures of me holding him while he is battling a high fever (he's had several over 104F!). I am hoping that we have a long, healthy stretch ahead!