fifteen months

Today, you are 15 months old. Your dad and I are in awe of you, truly. We often find ourselves just staring at you with a goofy smile plastered on our faces, tears in our eyes... "We made that", "He's ours", "Look how cute he is!", "I seriously love him, so much!" We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into the day you were born. You have brought so much life, happiness, humor and love into this house, Uriah. I never want to forget you at 15 months. You are constantly learning - some times I think I can actually see the gears turning in your head - you understand so much! You are so curious and brave and intrigued by every new sound, sight and person. But with that, you still know us, need us, and snuggle us until our hearts burst. You are busy - so busy! Getting into one thing, turning around and getting into another. You are a little tornado running through our house most days, but the sight of toys strewn over our living room floor always makes me smile a little - I can't believe you're ours.

You take your dance parties pretty seriously. There doesn't always have to be music for you to break it down, but your right hand does always have to be in the air.

Currently, you are obsessed with cows. All animals, really, but this month is cows. You "mooo" at everything! We pointed out the cows in the fields on our most recent trip to Nana and Papa's and since, you spend all your time in the car pointing out the window "mooing" with a little question mark at the end, wondering where all the cows went. You know each book in your mini collection that has a cow in it and you flip the pages until you find it - again and again and again.

You are also saying "baaa" now, for sheep, "neigh" for horse and "blub blub blub" for fish, and you have signs (that we've either taught you ourselves or taught you from your favorite book "From Head to Toe" by Eric Carle) for penguin, giraffe, buffalo, monkey, seal, gorilla (another favorite animal of yours), donkey, elephant, lion and crocodile.

You became a picky eater. After we got back from Christmas in Fairbanks, you started becoming more selective about what you'd eat. We assumed it was teething, but it didn't go away once those teeth came in. So it's sorta a game we play three or four times a day now, "Will you eat this? No? Ok. Will you eat this?..." Your favorites are bread, cheese, blueberries and yogurt. I can sneak vegetables into your morning scrambled eggs and evening quesadillas and I can sneak any kind of fruit into your yogurt, so your diet isn't completely unbalanced. The rule in our house is, we get to decide what you eat and you get to decide how much. So if all you want to eat is bread, you're getting 100% whole wheat bread with honey as a sweetener instead of corn syrup. To you, though, it's just bread and you couldn't get enough!

You aren't a talkative one, per say. You can say "momma", "dada", "nana" and "papa", always directed at the right people, but those are your only actual words, still. Your dad and I can still have lengthy conversations with you, though, because we understand what every "gah!", "point" and sign means. "Ball" is always "guh!", "cat" is "goo", "globe" is "glo", "helicopter" is "ca ca", and so on and so forth. You are signing "more", "eat", "drink", "all done", "nurse", "help", "please" (which you're now saying on your own, without me having to ask!) and "thank you" consistently and accurately. You can tell us how old you are, blow kisses, show us your muscles and wave. You love giving high fives and "knuckles" and give hugs, kisses and "loves" like its your job!

You would spend all day outside if I let you! We live one block away from a small park and you know the exact route there - the second we open the door you are pointing and running in that direction. Though your most recent favorite park time activity is collecting pinecones, you could spend hours in the swings, running around the fields and watching the big kids play. You love climbing on the play equipment and can do almost all the steps and tunnels yourself. I try to get you outside at least once a day, both for your sanity and mine!, but most days we go for one long walk and end at the small park by our house before nap time and a quick walk to the bigger park six blocks away in the afternoon where we spend an hour and have a picnic. The things I get to do with you now that you're getting older... You are very much my baby, still, but also now my friend.

You are taking two naps, both one and a half to two hours long, and consistently sleeping through the night (finally!) from eight to seven. You are 100% binky free, too! We weaned you somewhat off the binky when we got back from Fairbanks in December, before you turned one. We kept it around for naps, nighttime and long car trips. After all our travels in March, we finally decided to get rid of the thing once and for all! It took about three days for you to get used to going down for a nap without it, but you've been such a champ!

You have eight teeth, including one premolar that looks very out of place in your small mouth with just your front teeth in. You have been such a sport this round of teething - we didn't even know you were getting new teeth until they were in!

You are such a book nerd worm - you will sit reading to yourself for twenty plus minutes, flipping pages and babbling to yourself. You love "Wink", your penguin stuffed animal that goes with us everywhere. You love drumming, playing hide and seek, snuggling stuffed animals, playing chase around the staircase in your room, any and all balls, your daddy and his helicopter, FaceTiming Nana and calling her on your phone (the rectangular magnet on the fridge), brushing your teeth, bath time, helping me vacuum and sweep, jumping on the bed and watching the very rare Sesame Street Youtube video.

You don't really care for getting dressed, getting your diaper changed or getting your picture taken - basically, anything that requires you to sit still. You love playing in the trash can, with outlets, the living room lamps and the wifi box - all of which you shouldn't play with and hate being told "no" to.

Mr. Uriah Wall, you have been so much fun to get to know. We love getting to spend our days with you, watching you learn and discover. We are so blessed God chose us to be your parents. We pray our thanks to Him everyday for our healthy, energetic, sweet baby boy. We love you so much, son!