14 months

quite a bit has happened in the life of talan this past month. the biggest being that he is now a full time walker! it was pretty shocking how quickly it happened. he has never had any interest in walking, even while pushing something. then suddenly one day he took a step which lead to 2 steps which led to 5, then 10 and then just walking. i am relieved, as it came just in time for summer so he doesn't scrape up his knees with all of that crawling nonsense.
when he falls, he typically will crawl over to something to help stand himself up and then he'll just keep right on walking. although, there has been a few times where he has stood up all by himself.
he continues to take two naps a day and goes to bed around 7pm. since hayden's school has let out, talan has been sleeping in a little more than usual which has been great for me! he'll get up anywhere from 7am-8am.
he loves to eat and has finally become quite a bit better at chewing. he had a tendency to put something in his mouth and just swallow it. he loved chips but the faces he made, you knew they were just scraping his throat all the way down. it's been nice not to have to cut everything into microscopic pieces for him!
he eats more then hayden does at a sitting. for example, last nite i fed him before we ate. he ended up eating a couple of crackers, 3 chicken nuggets and some melon. then, when dave brought dinner home for us about 15 minutes after he had finished his dinner, he, of course, wanted more. so then he ate a small piece of cheese bread and a half piece of pizza. AND about 2 cups of milk.
we went to trader joe's a few weeks ago and he had a sample of raspberries which he LOVED and then started mooching the mango lemonade i had. ever since that day, anytime he sees you drinking out of a cup, he opens his mouth and starts breathing like darth vader until you give him some. i usually don't give him any unless i'm totally done with my drink because he's gross. and he makes a huge mess. but i have been giving him the tiniest amount of water in a dixie cup so he can start learning to drink that way by himself without making such a big mess. he does an ok job, but many times he prefers to just chew on the cup.
it has become official. he is a climber. his newest thing is to stand up in his high chair. he'll eat a little bit and then suddenly he's standing up surveying the land. yes, there is a seat belt on the high chair, but i always forget to belt him in as we never had to with hayden. and it's just a pain, really. but i suppose we'll be getting used to it as he refuses to stay seated anymore.
he also climbed further up the baby gate yesterday then i have ever seen him do. so far i became a bit nervous. that's just wonderful. he also loves to climb up the slide outside and has almost made it all the way to the top. and just yesterday while dave and the boys were in the basement and i was just getting out of the shower, talan managed to climb up the whole set of stairs before dave even realized.
he loves to make messes. he'll go from toy basket to toy basket pulling out pretty much everything in them, play with each toy for a couple of minutes and then crawl (oops, i guess that would be walk now) away leaving a trail behind him. i tend to have 3 major clean-ups a day...nap times and bed time. there is no point in putting anything away while he's still awake....if he notices you cleaning up, he'll just come right over and take it all out again.
he likes to say "mama" and SOMETIMES i think he realizes that i am mama...but not usually. he also continues to say "up" when he wants up or down, although the other day at mom and dad's someone said "down" to him and he repeated it. justin was there and said "awww, i've never heard him say that before!" well i hadn't either! he continues to sign for milk and more and will still say "mi" for both of them. when you ask him what a dog says and then you say "woof woof" he will repeat it. i have heard him do it a few times on his own, even when he just sees a picture of a dog.
he babbles a TON. and while he's doing so, he walks around with his finger in the air and yells quite passionately . dave now calls him "cwack cwaa" as that's what he is typically running around yelling at us.
he continues to LOVE music and loves to dance. he has learned how to open the glass door on the entertainment center and he will go over and turn on the cd player. when i tell him no and sit him down away from it, he'll start moving side to side, dancing, to tell me he wants music on. the other day while i was downstairs i suddenly hear the music blaring upstairs. he had somehow managed to turn on the cd player, tuner and turn the volume all the way up. i ran up there and he just looked at me and smiled and started to dance.
although not many, he does have some similarities to hayden. the other day we were outside playing with the neighbors. they had brought chalk over and talan got ahold of a piece. i noticed he was putting it in his mouth so i went over to take it away from him. he had taken a big bite out of it and his whole mouth was blue. so i take it away and tell him no and show him what you're supposed to do with chalk. then i walked back over to where my neighbor was sitting. talan then proceeded to pick up a piece of chalk, bring it to his mouth, open his mouth and stare at me. not in his mouth, just acting as if he was going to put it in there. then he'd put it down, pick it up and do it all over again. yeah.
he loves to sit and kick his legs, especially when you say "kick, kick, kick!" he loves to open ALL of our drawers and pull everything out. he likes to carrying around pens and could play with a capped pen quite contently for long periods of time. he continues to love his baths and continues to hate being laid down to get changed. he likes being read to a bit more then before, although he'll still try turning the pages before you're done. the wheels on the bus is still is favorite book. he loves to go "bye bye" although i think he really only wants to go outside, and not necessarily to the car. he LOVES it outside. he loves pushing cars or trucks around. he likes chewing on a toothbrush. when he gets mad or upset he can become quite dramatic. he'll start to cry and then from his knees he'll throw himself down and bury his face in the floor. if you pick him up when he's mad, he'll kick both legs as hard as he can. he recently learned to fake laugh and will do this back and forth with hayden for long periods of time. he can also fake cough but because he continues to have his 90 year old smokers cough, even his fake cough sounds bad. as soon as we get to a store he wants snacks. NOW!!! he loves to hold dave's football whenever he's in the fusion and when we passed one in target the other day he had to have one to hold. although he can be quite needy and whiny while we're in the room, he can be left alone to play by himself for long extended periods of time.
he continues to be happy most of the time and has a sense of humor the way hayden always did. we wondered about this one when for awhile he just seemed to be a bit serious. we weren't sure how a serious kid would do living in this family, but he has quickly adjusted. he is always on the go but still goes with the flow. and he somehow gets cuter every day.
we love you so much, talan! happy 14 months!!!