15 months old!

December 29th is upon us already...and Daniel is now 15 months old! What a fun month this past month has been. It's amazing to see how much Daniel is learning and the things he can do now. He's so brave and tries to do so much and his comprehension amazes me sometimes. He really understands more now.

His newest words are: mama (still rather random, but hey, at least he can say it!), and cookie- well, he says the "k" sound for cookie, but for him it's a very consistent and completely appropriate word (he says this when he wants a cookie, when he sees a cookie- he once even seemed to say the whole word too). His face lights up when we say we're getting him a "k", we don't even have to finish the word- he knows exactly what we're about to give him! :) He will also say "k" for cracker. And he knows where these goodies are kept in our house too- he will go right up to the counter where the cookies are and point or he'll go into the pantry (another of his favorite rooms) and point to the crackers or his puffs in there, too.

Daniel does so many new things each week, sometimes each day. About a week ago, he tried putting our shoes on his feet. I thought it was great- he understands that shoes go on feet. He even tried to put Ben's boots on- he had to hike up his leg to do this, but he was still too short. It was cute to see him try. Daniel hikes his leg up often these days, trying to get in something or climb something (like our footstools or boxes), but again, he's too short to actually do it- this doesn't stop him from trying, so we really have to keep our eye on him!

Daniel's understanding of what we're telling him or asking him is getting better and better each day. He once looked for Daddy in his office, and I told him Daddy was upstairs. Daniel immediately looked up the stairs and then proceeded to walk over and go up the stairs. Daniel also understands what we mean when we say take your socks off or take your pants off, when we get ready to give him his bath. We still have to help him of course, but he will look down at his socks and pants when we mention these words and watch with a big smile on his face as the pants get pulled off while he's standing- he thinks this part is funny! One day, Daniel was playing with his diaper bag and got two diapers out and proceeded to carry them all around the house. At one point, I chanted "diaper diaper" and Daniel, who was crouched down for the moment, looked down at the diaper he had on- I thought that was pretty good understanding- at least it seemed to me like he knew that was where his diaper was.

Daniel is also doing better following directions, though sometimes he chooses not to of course. But he responds to "give to (person's name)" or "show me". And he does really well when we say No- I'm so proud of how well he listens. He still puts a lot of things in his mouth, but now, if he finds something that's garbage and I ask him to give it to me, he will, whereas before he would still go ahead and try to eat that, too. I'm glad to be at the phase where he will give things to me now. And if he's frustrated by something and needs help, he will make frustrated noises and come to me, and I can ask him to show me and he will take me right to what he needs help with. He loves our lint roller and the other day it got stuck to the floor in the pantry and he couldn't get it off the floor, so he walked back into the kitchen where I was cleaning to get me and when I asked him to show me- he went right back in the pantry and pointed to the lint roller stuck on the floor. It was great that he was able to show me what he needed help with- I like this too, though there are times I have no idea what he's trying to tell me!

I mentioned in another post that we're working on cleaning up, too. This has been fun. Daniel is so proud of himself when he figures things out and does a good job. He loves the pantry- especially the recycle bins filled with papers, boxes, (clean) plastic bottles. He has the most fun with these "toys". And he will help clean up in there sometimes, too. Though he usually just wants to start playing all over again when it's all cleaned up! Daniel also loves the basement and enjoys finding "toys" down there, too. :) We've taken a few of his toys down there for him- he's not interested in those at all, he'd much rather wander and see what else he can find. We watch him very closely down there since it's rather cluttered, but that's part of the the fun for him, I know. :) Same with the pantry. And he can reach more now, too- well, at least he tries more and he's quite determined, maybe even stubborn (gee, I wonder where he gets that from?! oops).

The two funny things for the month are his hamming it up for the camera with funny faces and we've been working on High 5's! Daniel does High 5's so cute- we say High 5 and put our hand up and Daniel holds his hand up and then we have to do the motion of course, but it's just so fun. And he understands what we mean and what we want him to do when we say High 5- he almost always does the High 5 with us. I'm loving it!

Well, that's a lot of news for the month, but that's because Daniel is learning so much these days and we're just having the most fun. Coming up this next month are his next two teeth, which are very much on the way! We can see them now, if we look closely. I'm not sure if they're the molars (which I'm told are typically next) or other teeth towards the back- it's hard to tell, but they're coming. I think it's starting to make him a little fussy...we shall see how these teeth go. He usually teethes pretty well, but I know molars are harder to cut in and more painful. Poor guy. We're also going to get his first haircut soon- I can't wait and yet I'm sad, too. It will be interesting to see how that goes, since Daniel's not much of a sitting still kind of guy. (He HATES getting his nails clipped- how do people do that?! So I'm hoping for better for his hair!) More pictures and news again soon!

Happy New Year everybody!

So Much Snow!

Ready to go outside again!
Check out Daniel's adorable monkey hat!

Oh...and he's been doing his "motor" sound all day for the like the last three days- that's what he'd doing with his lips in the picture. It's pretty funny.

Walking in all that snow!

All done walking...and being outside for that matter!

Crazy hat hair!

We've gotten a LOT of snow over the past couple days- well, a lot for us. Since there's so much more snow than last time and it's so fluffy and not as icy as last time, we thought we'd take Daniel out for a quick walk in the snow again. The first thing he did when I put him down was face plant! Poor guy! If you look closely, you can see that there's snow all over the monkey hat- that's not because it's snowing, that's because Daniel fell forward. I'm not sure if he tried to move or if he just lost his balance, but yep, my poor baby got a face-full of snow. No, I didn't get a picture of that because of course my first immediate thought was to brush all that snow off of his face so he didn't get stung by the cold snow (well, maybe for a split second I thought it would have been cute to get a pic, but alas, my smart mommy poor baby instincts kicked in instead!) I think Daniel was just surprised by the face-full of snow, he didn't really cry too much. He was more upset at being put down, I think, than getting snow in his face. I did manage to get Daniel to walk a little in the snow, but not very much. It was snowing a lot while we were out there- it was so cute to see the little snowflakes on Daniel's little eyelashes. Daniel was fine outside if I was holding him- we got the mail, walked a little bit in the snow, and watched Daddy shovel a little bit. Ben took a few cute pictures and then back inside we went to warm up. I noticed Daniel didn't seem to want to go back out like he usually does, even though Daddy was still out there. I think he'd had enough of the snow and mostly, of his snowsuit! Still, it's fun to get him bundled up and go play in the snow a little bit.

Christmas Day

Even more pictures of our wonderful Christmas! The top four pictures are of Christmas at Grandma Mary Kay's house, the next four are at Grandma Cheryl's house, and finally back home in the last three pictures. Daniel did so well all day- and he never napped (we tried at one point, he was NOT interested even though he was so tired! He clearly didn't want to miss a thing). I was so proud of how well he did- he's so easygoing and resilient, even when he gets really tired. He woke up at 9:00 AM and after doing a quick breakfast and opening all of our presents and getting ready for the day, we headed to Grandma Mary Kay's for lunchtime. Daniel slept briefly in the car on the way there, and was ready for lunch and then presents when we got there. We had a yummy brunch and then opened presents. Daniel played with his new toys and even the garbage bag. We had to keep checking the brown bag for toys Daniel would toss in. Perhaps he's taking "clean up" a little too seriously! Well, not really, he's just having fun, toddler-style. He really liked his new "cookie jar" toy- it makes music of course! The fourth picture is of Daniel holding a bottle of "body paint soap" that he found in his stocking. That will be a hoot to try out- I'll share pictures of that of course! Too funny.

After a few hours at Grandma Mary Kay's house, we headed to Grandma Cheryl's house for more presents, food, and fun. And again, Daniel just kept right on going- he was such a good sport. Daniel looks adorable carrying his own personalized cup from Great Aunt Kathy- thanks, Aunt Kathy! He loves his new See'N'Say- it talks and makes music, too! Notice that Daniel's in my lap in that picture (and in Daddy's lap in the next picture, helping Daddy open a present)- he'd started to slow down and want to sit with us, and Daniel's not much of a lap-sitter. We even got his lion that he sleeps with out at this point and he just snuggled in my lap and sucked his thumb for a while. It was then that we tried the nap, since this was his usual afternoon naptime and we were done opening presents- uh uh, no way no how was he going to nap- eh, it was worth a try! So, Daniel dug into his stocking, found some puffs in the stocking with great joy and immediately wanted them opened, played with more toys, carried his new mini magna-doodle toy around, and we snacked on some yummy food, played a few games, and then decided to head home by early evening since Daniel was so very tired. Daniel slept so soundly in the car on the way home, we could hear him breathing loudly (or perhaps snoring?), even over all the snow-blowing around the highway (hooray, a white Christmas!) and the car noises. We got home, took him out of the car and brought him in the house- he opened his eyes, and then immediately closed them again. I took a picture- can't resist a sleeping-baby picture. It's such a sweet image. But by the time we put him in his pajamas and I fed him, he was wide awake and ready to rumble again. So he played with his new Christmas toys and had fun in the pantry with the recycle bin, especially putting his new train in the bin and walking that all over. Daniel played for an hour, until we decided that was enough and it was bedtime at 8:30 (not all that late for Daniel, but late enough with the long day and no nap!).

We had a wonderful Christmas with family! What a great day, really. Daniel was so good in spite of the crazy day and the crazy schedule we followed. We had so much fun watching him have fun- and that's just the best feeling. And I know each year will be more and more fun. Daniel loves all of his new toys- he says thank you very much. We can't wait to keep trying more toys out over the next couple days. I'll share more pictures again soon, of course. You know I take pictures all the time and I can't resist sharing Daniel's fun and excitement with you all!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning began at 9:00 AM (yes, Daniel let us sleep in!!! Woohoo!). We brought Daniel down and sat in front of the gate-less tree with all the presents waiting...and I just LOVE his expression of joy in that first picture- that's Daniel's very first moment on Christmas morning. He just looks so excited and yet, he really has idea what is even going on. We opened a few presents, then had some breakfast (he was happy to eat, you can see!) and then we opened more presents. Daniel was mildly interested in unwrapping presents, but mostly he just walked all over the room- away from us, and back to us, he'd pick up something and away he went again. I think he was a little overwhelmed already and a little confused- the gate was gone from in front of the tree, we set aside all his toys and toy bins so they were gone, too, and there was all this space and we were doing something totally different and so he was just pretty much all over the place, and kind of buzzed up, much like Christmas Eve. But we really did have tons of fun. Daniel did finally sit with us and look at his new books, his new toys, his new snowglobe, and he even reached in his stocking and pulled stuff out- especially once he got the idea there were toys to pull out and play with. Daniel also particularly enjoyed looking at the tree, sans gate. He liked the lights most, and he tried to pull a few ornaments, but he stopped when we said no. And since Daniel did so well with the tree yesterday, we didn't put the gate back up today- it's so nice to be able to just look at the tree, and not the gate! Daniel still did well with listening and not touching the tree too much- such a good boy. After all the fun presents were opened, we cleaned up the garbage and Daniel even helped! We've really been working on "clean up" and "put in here" and even "give to (person's name)" directions and Daniel's doing pretty well. He takes such pride and joy in his work and accomplishments! We'll keep working on cleaning up, but Daniel's got a great start so far. Yay!

Then, on to Grandma Mary Kay's we went. After that, we headed to Grandma Cheryl's, too! Such a busy day!

Christmas Eve

Okay, I seriously cannot choose pictures...I may have a problem! These are just a "few" pictures from our Christmas Eve fun (both day and night). Daniel decorated envelopes for a few gifts with crayons- he liked holding two crayons this time and I think he noticed the marks he was making more this time, too. He was eating a snack at the time, which worked out nicely in that he didn't try to eat the crayons! The snack also helped him maintain his attention long enough to decorate a few envelopes- another benefit. There he is hamming it up again for the camera in another picture and then of course you can see our adorable studmuffin in his oh-so-adorable red overalls! Daniel also chose that day to play with our two footstools for the first time ever- he literally pushed them and rolled them all over the room and even down the hall. Check out the static in his looooong hair (1st haircut...coming SOON! I promise!)- we got a huge kick out of that- it was totally blog-worthy. We continued our tradition of reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and even read "The Pirates' Night Before Christmas"...well, I should say we really read each book for about ten seconds- Daniel was not gonna sit still much. We played in the basement a little, too- Daniel LOVES to go in the basement. He thinks being in the giant can is fun- what a cute picture, too.

The last several pictures are all of the playing-card saga, which I posted about briefly the other night- Daniel's in his Christmas pj's, freshly bathed, and BUZZED up. You get an idea of the progression of Daniel's fun with the cards...it all started with Daniel sitting on the couch with his fun Uncle Brian. Daniel decided that box looked awfully fun and now it was his (he loves boxes, and little did he know the fun it contained!). He managed to get it open and then the real fun broke out! He took a few cards out, then a few more, and then a lot more, he crawled all over them (and we rarely see him crawl anymore so this was funny), swam in them, walked all over them, took them into other rooms, gave them to us, and just generally made the biggest mess with them- we had a ball watching him go crazy and we didn't mind the mess at all (well, I didn't have to clean it- I was putting him to bed!). Daniel sure had FUN! Needless to say, he now has his own deck of cards to play with- we'll get them out another time soon, maybe.

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Santa Claus must be coming tonight! Here's Daniel all buzzed up (as if he knew what was going on!)...he really went crazy with the cards from a game we played tonight with my family. The cards were EVERYwhere- and I do mean everywhere. Daniel was literally swimming in the cards! It was so funny to watch him this evening before he went to bed- he was so buzzed up, and over-tired clearly, but fun all the same. Christmas Day will be so much fun!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas! More Christmas pics later...

Sweet and Fun Christmas Moments

Daniel's at it again...this time he's tossing toys over the gate!

Daniel's newest "thing"- hamming it up for the camera!

Silly boy!

Bye-bye, toys!

Daniel loves his new plastic snowglobe- it even has Mickey and Minnie in it!

Daniel watches and listens to the music box!

I feel like a kid again this Christmas...I can hardly wait for it come! Daniel and I are having so much fun playing around the house with all the Christmas goodies and it's not even Christmas Day yet. It's been a few days since Daniel "decorated" the tree with his sock, but today it was quite the thing to do apparently- toss toys over the gate and wave bye-bye. It kept him occupied for quite a while. Daniel still points at all the music-makers in the family room and requests that they be played. He also loves his new plastic snowglobe that's his very own- thanks to a friend of mine for the idea, I hurried and got this Mickey & Minnie snowglobe that's perfect for Daniel. It makes music, lights up, and blows snow around it and the best part is that Daniel can play with it! He frequently requests to play this too and he loves to watch it- it's so sweet to see his face light up with delight!

The funniest new thing of the week- Daniel is starting to really ham it up for the camera lately. He makes a scrunchy face with his eyes and nose when I get the camera out- the second picture it a great example of it. It's pretty cute and we get a kick out of it, but thankfully he only does it once or twice, and then he goes back to whatever he was doing and I can get the candid pictures I'd hoped to get. We're having so much fun with Daniel! He's been a very busy baby these days!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Daniel stands in the snow for the 1st time!
Check out that happy grin!

Daniel tries to walk in the snow on his own...he wasn't very steady!

Daniel checks out part one of our snowman!

Ta Da...Daniel's 1st snowman!
It's almost as big as he is!

Daniel walked better with Daddy's help

Daniel concentrates on his next step

Walking in a Winter Wonderland...

It snowed a little more again this weekend, so we decided to take Daniel outside to walk in the snow and build a snowman for the first time. It wasn't exactly the roll-a-ball kind of snow, so Ben, ever resourceful and creative, got the shovel and a bucket out and we made a "bucket snowman"- it's quite cute. Daniel enjoyed about a minute of standing in the snow (that's the first picture), after that not so much (most other pictures were not so smiley, and I can't say I blame him- he could barely move in the snowsuit!). He did try walking on his own at first (the second picture), but after that, he wanted help. And if he fell down on his bottom, we had to help him get back up- so I think he didn't feel as independent as he usually is. Daniel did have fun batting at the snow on the snowman that Ben built for us. And he liked walking with Daddy's help better, too. All in all, it was a fun few minutes out in the fresh air! Enjoy our pictures!