15 months old

*Please note that I do most of this from memory and do not go back and compare the months while I am typing each new milestone post. I may post things that I've already said again, but just read over those points. I'm just a proud Mama and love writing about my little boy's accomplishments :)

Physically:
-Running through the house all day long and loving every minute of it!
-Walking backwards
-Stacking blocks and loving knocking them down
-Swiffering, mopping, and sweeping the floors
-Climbing his Little Tikes climb and slide tower
-Sliding down the slide on his back and on his belly
-Taking his diaper off (did this today for the first time! Josh thought I had forgotten to put one on him!)
-Shaking his finger and saying "No, no"
-Loves wrestling with his Daddy and finding his belly button and other people's belly buttons! (If you ask him to show you his, he's going to ask you to show yours to him! Just get ready!)
-Pointing to his ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and tongue when asked
-Gives hugs, kisses, and pats on request now :)
-Writing on the side of the tub with his bath crayons (favorite thing to do in the bathtub these days!)

Verbally:
-Understanding SO many words and phrases these days
-I forgot what I posted previosly, so here are all the words he can say now..."ma-ma", "da-da", "pop", "mam-maw", "pa-paw", "kitty", "ball" "bye-bye", "no, no", "cheese", "maggie", "blocks", "balloon", "hot", "ice", "banana", "chicken" (on some of these words he only gets a few of the sounds out, but you know exactly what he is saying)
-can make the sound that a tiger says and we're working on all the other animals

Personality:
-Happy, happy, happy most of the day....but on occasion he's starting to (see next point)
-Display lots of stubbornness
-We've seen the first "stomping his feet fit" and it wasn't pretty...let's hope that doesn't happen much more!
-Still very very attached to Mommy. Rarely cries when I leave him in the mornings, but is so very excited when I come home. I love it! Dara said he's gone around her house saying "Ma-ma?" and holding up his hands asking where I am
-Loves to play, play, play, and then play some more. Seriously, he NEVER stops! That's one of the reasons why feeding him is so hard. He'd rather play!

Sleeping:
-Most days he'll take a nap at Dara's house and then nap again for about an hour when he gets home every day (he's worn out from playing so hard all day long!) There have been the occasional day though where he didn't nap for her at all. Sometimes it's hard to get him to stop playing and settle down.
-He still goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 every night. He'll usually sleep in his crib MOST of the night. I'm not putting him in our bed anymore because I'm scared he'll roll off (he did that once, didn't hit anything at all, but it SCARED ME TO DEATH, so I'm through with that...big run-on sentence...I know!) He and I have ended up on the couch some nights though. All I can say is we're working on it. That's the best I can say right now :)

Eating:
-Still picky, picky, picky
-Lately eggs have been his favorite thing. He just gobbles them up!
-His diet mostly includes the following foods on a daily basis: regular milk, chocolate milk, cheese, yogurt, fruit, Puffs, cereal bars, and cereal.
-He still won't eat vegetables consistently. Although, today he did eat a lot of corn, but, technically, that's a grain, so I guess that doesn't even count!
-He'll eat chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, and grilled cheese on occasion, but it just depends on his mood.
-He hasn't lost any weight from being picky though, so something is sticking to his little bones!
-He hasn't been completely weaned from the bottle, but once again, we're working on it! He doesn't get one at all during the day. We encourage him to drink out of his sippy cup when he eats during the day. He still gets a bottle at 5:30 every morning like clockwork and at night before going to bed. Tonight, in fact, he drained his 6 oz. bottle and then looked at Zue-Zue and signed "more" because he was still hungry. How cute is that? She got him more milk, too, in case you were wondering! We go see Dr. R next week, so I'm hoping she'll give me some suggestions on weaning from the bottle and improving his eating habits.

There is probably so much more I could write about this precious little boy, but it's getting late and I know this is a long post already. Eli is the light of our lives. Every day with him gets better and better. He's SO MUCH FUN! I'm so happy God chose me to be his Mommy! :)