Maybe one day I’ll get caught up on all these baby updates. As of now Berkeley has just entered his 18th month. Whoops! I guess it’s more important to enjoy him in real life than to find time write about it though, right? But here’s a little look back if you’re interested ;)

15 months:

Well, I know I always say this, but Berkeley’s 15th month was a big one! I think we really saw him start to understand and become a little person so much.

He started to get very animated when “talking,” and was obviously trying very hard to communicate (he was calling everything “bung” which confused us a bit, haha). This led us to believe that a language breakthrough was coming. And indeed it did! First he started saying dada a lot, then bird (he doens’t pronounce the d), nana (banana), boat. He finally started using mama and dada to actually refer to us, instead of just babbling the words for no reason. And most importantly, he finally knows his name! When we ask who he is, he says “Berk.” He’ll also say it when he sees himself (or actually any baby) in a picture or the mirror. 

Nate bought him this Eric Carle book and he can immitate all of the animal actions. It’s pretty cute because he’ll do them even when the book isn’t around…like just run down the list and act them all out. It’s very cute :)

Berkeley had his 15 month appointment and while we all guessed that he surely had gained 3 lbs, he actually only gained 1. The doc assured us that this is normal because babies this age are very active and not great eaters…although Berkeley actually eats very well. He also grew 1-2 inches since his 12 month checkup.

In the past he hasn’t minded the doctor, but this time he cried when she tried to examine him and tried to squirm out of my grasp while I was holding him. I think it was partially due to the long wait time we had- he was just over being there. 

His bottom first molars came in and he basically stopped eating for a couple weeks. This is when I introduced smoothies, which is one of his new fave foods. He doesn’t drink milk so we use the sign language for “milk” to refer to smoothie instead, and he’s constantly saying he wants one. Even once he started eating again, he has remained a little pickier than before and will not eat the roasted veggies I used to make him weekly :( He does, however, love these broccoli cheese patties that I make! I make a huge batch and freeze them and take out as needed weekly. 

This month he went to a petting zoo, where he paricularly liked the chickens.

He also celebrated the first Christmas that he actually participated in, since last year he was too little. He enjoyed all of his presents from Santa! 

He did not, however, enjoy his first Santa photo:

So I reproduced a “Santa” photo with dada instead. Better than nothing!:

He has some new things he does:

• Pushes his Mickey train all around the house and can navigate really well! He likes to aim for LC’s food and water, haha.
• Goes to pantry and opens door and pulls out food. He always wants to eat!
• Kisses all animals, real and fake
• Pets LC nicely and then kisses her
• Lots of new words

16 months:

Berkeley learned a lot of new words this month! He’s continuing his trend with “b” words- Berk, bowl, bath, bus…they all sound fairly similar, haha. He also can say cheese, egg and bye, which you probably wouldn’t understand if you didn’t spend a lot of time with him. 

He loves to immitate things we do, and his new favorite is pretending to cook eggs (“deh!”) like mama does, in his play kitchen. It is SO cute. He also fake coughs…and also coughs when we say coffee because it sounds the same to him, even though he knows that coffee is a drink. Because Grandma is mainly the person he sees that drinks coffee (Nate and I don’t), he will now cough when he sees her. Haha, he’s such a little weirdo!

He loves emptying his basket where we keep his stuffed animals, and climbing inside it.

He’s really into smoothies and will carry them around the house. I started giving them to him because he wouldn’t drink plain milk…and it worked! He went through some picky eating when he was teething but he’s mainly back to normal. This month he got his top canines.

Berkeley loves animals of all kinds. He has discovered birds outside and will get very excited and point them out. He can actually say Meow now but it’s more like “mow mow.” He loves LC and tries to pet her a lot.

A major change this month is that he has moved to one nap! We emailed the sleep lady again in order to transition him to one nap in the best possible way. We knew it was time because he had been boycotting his afternoon nap for a bout a month. To move to one nap, given his very early wakeup, we gradually moved his new ONE nap from 10:30am to 12:30pm. Each week it got moved 30 min later til it reached 12:30. Luckily, he falls right asleep now (knock on wood). And the best part of this is that he can stay up late enough to see me when i get home from work now!

During his 16th month he got to experience his first real snowfall (that he could remember!).

How cute are baby snowpants?!

He wasn’t a huge fan of walking in the snow, mainly because it was almost as tall as him.

Despite what it seems in the pictures, he actually did enjoy being pulled around in the sled…

…and eating snow. Yum!

He needed snow boots so went back to the shoe store that he had a MAJOR meltdown at for his first pair of shoes, and this time he did much much better. By the end of the trip, he let the salesman actually touch his foot, haha. 

Playing with Grandpa

Unfortunately, temper tantrums have also started this month. He loves to cry and throw himself at the ground or bang his head on the wall (??). Luckily he’s a good boy and these are rare so far. Nate tells me I give in to him too much, but it’s honestly so he doesn’t have a tantrum. I know I need to learn to be a little more stern, I just feel like I wanna know that he understands what I’m saying first!

Oh and lastly, I finally trimmed the hair that was hanging over his ears. He didn’t really want me touching his ears so I didn’t do a great job, but it’s a major improvement. 

Stats: 23 lb 4.5 oz (at his 15 month appt), 32ish inches tall, Size 4 Pampers Swaddlers diapers (moved to Size 5 Huggies Overnite with a booster pad for nighttime)

Teeth: 6 on top and 8 on bottom! He got his top canines (and molars are coming in) 

Likes:

Talking, using sign language to say “outside” and “smoothie,” reading books, doing “rocket” with dada (Nate runs around with him), looking at photos on computer, playing with water, animals, his Grandmas and Grandpas 

Dislikes:

Getting his diaper changed!!!, being told No, Santa Claus (or strange men in general)

Schedule (16 months):

between 5-6 am: wake up. Thankfully he’s been waking up closer to 6 now! I get him out of his crib around 6-6:15.

6:30 am: breakfast- baby oatmeal (made with milk and prune juice), fruit, waffle/pancake, variations of this recipe or this recipe, plus a smoothie (we make double and save for later)

9:30 am: snack (some cheese and fruit, etc)

11:30: lunch (usually some protein, some fat, some veggies/carbs/fruit)

12:30: 1 hr-2+ hr nap. He’s down to one nap and it’s usually a good one! (except on the weekends of course). We do a similar routine to bedtime. Change diaper, quietly play, turn down lights and read some books, then bed. Wake by 3 if he’s still sleeping.

2-3ish (when he wakes): He has the rest of his smoothie for a snack. We’ve found if we give him any more he won’t eat dinner.

5- dinner (sometimes our leftovers, or some veggies and mini homemade meatballs, etc). It’s a littler earlier if he had a bad nap and needs an earlier bedtime.

Bathtime (45 min before bed)

7ish (4-4.5 hrs after waking from second nap): bedtime! I finally get to see him after work now, for the most part. Occasionally he’ll take a really bad nap and have an earlier bedtime, but it’s mainly only on weekends.