15 months

talan has had a pretty big month. it seems like every time i turn around he's learned something new. it's such a great age. an age that you can do something with them a couple of times and they've suddenly got it down. an age where everything is a game. i wish learning could be fun for me like it is for talan!
talan still is a fairly good sleeper, although he does wake up much easier than hayden ever did. he hasn't been taking many morning naps lately, but he has been getting out of bed later in the morning...sometimes 8 or even 8:30. he still takes a good long nap in the afternoon, usually from about 1 until 3:30 if not 4pm. if he's overly tired, it's almost impossible to get him to fall asleep. the other day after swimming we put him down for an early nite. he was quiet for a bit and then started talking and then started crying. we tried to let him cry it out thinking he'd cry himself to sleep...he had to be exhausted. but that never happened. at about 9:30 i took him out of his crib and he got down and started playing as if it were the middle of the day. i let him play for awhile and then put him back in his crib where he didn't make another sound until after 9am the next morning.
this month he learned to make several different noises. including a cat, dog, an elephant where he would also raise his arm as his trunk (although he recently has lost the elephant and refers to his cat noise instead), a truck where he raises his hand in the air as if he's pulling the semi-horn and yelling "HONK HONK", a car "beep beep," an indian (feathers not dots) and as of 2 days ago, a bear. you can ask him any one of these and sometimes he'll make the correct noise, but often times he meows or woofs until you make the correct noise and he'll do it back. unless he really just wants to meow or woof and then he'll just continue with that noise completely ignoring you. i'm used to it. i've had hayden around for 5 1/2 years.
he continues to say "mama" all of the time. he pretty much calls most people mama. he'll look in the bedroom in the morning for dave and say "mama." when i tell him to look out the window when dave has gotten home he says "mama." i believe he's called jessica and justin and mom "mama" within the past week. and just the other day while i was downstairs i heard talan say "mama" and hayden yell "i am not your mama!"
one day talan was in the kitchen whining about wanting something but i had no idea what is was that he wanted. i picked up a banana and asked him if he wanted that then i shook my head and said "yes" and he copied me. he now shakes his head yes often. almost anytime he sees a banana usually. but it does it other times too. like yesterday when hayden had left his video game on the couch and talan got it. he walked over to me with it in his hand shaking his head yes as if to say "yup, this is what i want to play with." he seems to know what it means as i've asked him if he wants something and he'll shake yes.
we have recently come to the conclusion that talan is a dog. when he was crawling, justin pointed out that he crawled like a bulldog with his hands pointed in. now, he walks around barking all day, he loves to go in the garage and will even take things out and possibly stick some of those things in his mouth, and he "digs." he will take out a bunch of toys like blocks or something with a lot of pieces. he will then get in the middle of all of the pieces and then basically start digging, scattering all of the pieces all over the room. he also loves to carry things around in his mouth.
he's starting to get all of those fine motor skills lately. for christmas, hayden gave talan a piggy bank toy and until a few weeks ago, he need us to put the coins in it. then the other week i looked over at him while he was playing and he put the coins right in the little slot as if he'd been doing it for a year. that's probably one of his most favorite toys. he opens the stomach, takes the coins out, puts them in the slot, claps for himself and then dances as it plays the music.
he has also started to learn how to put things away or "in." he dropped some cereal on the floor a few weeks ago and while i was picking it up i realized...hey, he can do this. so i started telling him "in, talan. put it in." and he picked up several pieces and put them back in the bowl. he CAN do it, he just usually doesn't.
he loves walking and you almost never see him crawling anymore. i don't even know if i got his "bulldog crawl" on videotape. he also can get himself back to the standing position from anywhere that he is. no more falling and then crawling to something stable to help him back up again. the other evening he was trying to get up and had his hands on the floor, butt in the air trying to push himself up. dave started kicking his butt so he kept falling back down before he could stand. he thought this was hilarious. good thing, because he'll be harassed this way for the rest of his life.
he has rediscovered his tongue and just loves to stick it out. he'll stick it out in hopes to get you to stick yours out and then you just go back and forth like this for way too long. he could care less if he just took a drink of milk or just put something in his mouth. in fact, if he did just stick something in his mouth he'll spit it out so that he can stick his tongue out. a good laugh is far better than a good meal.
speaking of laughs, he thinks that anytime anyone is laughing in his presence they simply must be laughing at him. yet another trait he has in common with his brother. they are both comedians and always want to be the center of attention. we were all in the living room watching hayden's new favorite show, wipeout. people were standing up on tall posts having to jump over a rotating arm. we were laughing as people were falling and talan figured...oh, they must be laughing at me....and if they aren't then they should be. so he sees what's going on on the tv and he suddenly starts laughing forcefully while he is squatting up and down as if he was jumping over the arm. he kept this up until the next commercial break.
talan loves shoes. he has for quite awhile now. if there is ever a pair of shoes by the front door he has always gone right to them. he'll pick them up and try to chew on them or just sit there playing with it. lately he has really taken an interest in his own shoes. he'll find them and bring them over to me and try to get up in my lap telling me to put them on him. i'm not sure that it's he wants shoes so much as it is he wants to go outside. either way....he likes his shoes on. when he does actually take one off, he'll happily hand it over for me to put it back on him.
and while we're on the subject of shoes. this kid has monster sized feet. no joke. and we thought hayden had big feet. we had to start buying way too expensive shoes for hayden because his feet were so fat at about age 2. he was in wide and extra-wide shoes from 2 until about 4. a little odd seeing as though my feet were so narrow as a kid we had to buy way to expensive narrow shoes. and dave's feet were never wide either.
so we have all of hayden's old clothes out from 1-24 months. talan has actually been wearing hayden's sandel's from when hayden was 18 months and talan is not even 15 months. and not only has he been wearing them...most of them are actually too small for him. i finally took him in to the way to expensive shoe store for fat feet the other week and his foot measured at about a 6 wide to extra wide. a 6. i all of the old shoes i have out from hayden none of them are a 6. that means i need to go out to the garage and get the box that says 2T. the box of things hayden wore when he was 2 years old. nothing else will fit him from that box, just the shoes.
his hands are also bigger than haydens, we noticed at his first birthday. we made hand prints and when i got the one we made for hayden at his first birthday we realized talan's hands were at least 1 knuckle bigger than hayden's. so hayden was short and stocky while talan is pretty average but has giant hands and feet. he's gonna be dave's football player.
talan loves to stand in his high chair. even if he's not done eating. he'll just stand up laughing away. when you yell at him and make him sit down, he cries and then stands right back up and is laughing again. he loves to hold the football that is in dave's car every time he sit in that carseat. when we get to stores and he sees a football he usually wants to hold one. and then it turns to throwing it. he loves to throw balls and he actually throws really well. he never sits still. he likes to do something when you tell him no. he loves music and loves to dance. he loves to make messes. in every room of the house. he loves to play in the basement. he loves playing with the drum machine both at our house and grandma's house. he loves justin. he loves justin so much so that when he fell and scraped up his face 2 nites ago, he was trying to get away from my hold and into justins. he loves to laugh, be it fake or real. he loves chasing hayden and playing hide and seek with him. he loves turning the clock radio in our room. he loves jumping and throwing himself on our bed. he can hear a dog bark when nobody else can. he's not afraid of loud noises. he loves to climb and can now get himself up onto the couches and chairs. when he falls, he usually laughs. he likes banging things together and will say "bang bang bang." he loves playing with cars. he loves pushing hayden's little einstein rocket toy around. he eats just about anything you give him, and usually eats way more than hayden. he loves playing at grandma and grandpa's house. he loves to have papa read him books. and lately he's been wanting more and more books read to him at home. he loves to entertain people. he loves to climb and will open my dresser drawers to climb up it.
he continues to hate having his diaper or clothes changed or sit still for any amount of time. he hates doing what he doesn't want to do. he has kicking tantrums when you pick him up and take him away from something he wants. if you give him something he doesn't want he'll throw it. he sometimes likes to be dramatic and throw himself on the floor and "cry" but that usually only lasts a few seconds.
really, there isn't much that he hates. i asked hayden some things that talan doesn't like and he said...i don't know. maybe going to bed? but even that he's pretty good about.
for the most part he's still a very happy and chill baby. although he now has his opinions and stubborn streak which leads to a few minor tantrums. but those are usually just a few yells and kicks and then he's over it.
he heads to the dr. for his 15 month check up tomorrow so we'll post those stats then.
happy 15 months, talan! we love you and still think you're about the best baby there ever was!