16 months

Ephram is 16 months old today! His little personality is coming out more everday and it's been neat seeing him change and grow. He makes his needs/wants known and is very vocal (which at times means screaming)....but we are working on that:).

Physical: as of 15 months (plus a week) Ephram was walking as his main means of 'transportation'. It was so cool to see him go from mainly crawling (unless something was 5 steps away) to walking in what seemed like overnight. We bought him his first pair of shoes and he just loves getting his socks and shoes on to go outside and play. Outside is his FAVORITE place to be! He loves wagon rides, pushing his toy around, bubbles, pushing big trucks around, playing in mulch, etc. He isn't crazy about being messy or dirty and will hold his hands out to be cleaned whenever he touches the ground. Ephram continues to be a climber and loves to go down the slide, crawl through tunnels, climb up on stools or chairs, and even learned how to climb up onto the couch. Needing help with his cup is also a thing of the past as he's finally mastered that skill. Oh and he learned how to zerbert on daddy's tummy too..and blows kisses whenever he says, "bye bye."

Communication: Ephram uses mainly the same signs as before (but added duck, butterfly, and excuse me) but his verbal vocabulary continues to grow more each day. We can't believe how many words he says on a daily basis and Brian and I constantly look at each other and say, "did he just say...." and sure enough he did. New words are: yes, pray (and folds his hands), uh uh (like in saying no), hi (and waves), nola bar (granola bar), open, mine, no thank you mama (or thank you mamama), bus, boat, book, poo-YUCK, diaper (di di), belly button (short e be be), hand, nose, apple (which he also uses for pumpkin), cheese (which he says for the food and when he sees a camera), chair, water (wawer), bear, bowl, blue, purple, color (as in the verb), waffle, and points to EVERYTHING labeling things with words we don't understand:).

Ephram has gotten much better about being read to but still doesn't last through an entire book without wanting to get down. We've been doing some 'tot' school for a couple months now and he'll sit down at his booster seat for coloring, pegs, lacing, sorting, stacking, puzzles, blocks, etc. for quite a while. (We usually do that after lunch.)



Sleep: Ephram goes down for two naps but doesn't always nap during the morning. He's only in his crib for one hour in the morning to nap and spends an hour of 'room' time too. He takes a great afternoon nap, going down at 2:00 and sleeping a good 2 or 3 hours. He is still a GREAT sleeper at night and wakes up around 7 or 7:30 to talk and play with Braden.

Recently Ephram has started crying when he is dropped off at co op, church, or the Y. He stops after a couple of minutes but it just breaks my heart (while making me smile too...because CLEARLY it means he's bonded:).

Eating: He's still eating a great breakfast (which is anything from oatmeal to waffles, cereal, french toast, etc.) and a great lunch (sandwich, lunchmeat, yogurt, fruit, cheese, etc.). He doesn't tend to want to drink ANYTHING in the morning or during the day until the evening. When he gets up from his nap he immediately asks for his "pup" aka cup and drinks at least two cups full of milk then some water. He eats an afternoon snack but doesn't eat a good dinner usually. He seems to 'drink' his dinner and just pick at the food. Because he eats so well for most of the day I'm not too worried about his eating habits at dinner anymore. He eat MUCH better if we let him feed himself and is showing us he wants to be more independent. If he's allowed to hold the fork, spoon, or food he'll be more likely to eat it than if we try to feed him.