A 15-month old, and a couple of hot hot days...

As of this week, it is official, we have a 15-month old in the house. 

Silly Eli, sweet little boy. 

Jotting down a few notes about you at this fun age...

Language Explosion

Every day I make sure to chisel out some me and you time, usually while Max is napping. It is amazing how you really find your voice when it's just me and you, and no loud big brother to talk over. 

You love to go around the house showing me the "no-nos" and everything else that interests you. You have an awareness of the alphabet, you recently impressed our music class when you pointed out a big B on the wall, and said "B". You seem to recognize a few other letters too, since you are showing interest we have started working on letter together.  

I kept track of Max's first hundred words and I am enjoying doing it again with you.

 It seems like you have something new to say each day, you currently have ~ 30 words/approximations and lots and lots of signs. Some of your words are very clear, like Max, and yes. Some words only those of us who spend a lot of time with you can understand, like uh = up, dow = down. 

I think the cutest word you say is uh-oh. 

Your favorite word is "woof woof", you love dogs, you could even say you are obsessed with dogs. You constantly want to look out the window to see if our neighbors dogs are outside, and we hear you wake up sometimes at night saying woof woof and then you go back to sleep. 

You love them so much that you have your Daddy contemplating a "woof woof" for our family, we will see...

Imitation

You are such a little imitator. 

You want to do everything that Max does, especially. 

You insist on eating with a spoon and fork, like everyone else, and you like to use the adult glass plates and cups instead of your baby ones. 

You have solved the problem of being the shortest person in the family by using this drum. You shuffle it from place to place so you can reach things. You pull it up next to me when I am doing dishes and stand next to me looking into the sink, I love your company. 

You love to dance, "sing", play patty cake, ring around the rosie, pretend talk on the phone, pretend cook and eat/drink, blow kisses, and wave to every single stranger at the grocery store...all of the fun things 15-month olds do! 

Sweet Tooth

Daddy and I are slowly learning how to handle your love for sweets. 

We've never had to really think about it before because Max rarely eats sweet things, we give him an M and M for using the potty, or sometimes a dum dum, and although he wants the reward he often doesn't end up eating it. 

You, on the other hand, love to eat sweet things and you beg for M and M's, jelly beans, anything and everything sweet. You actually say the word MnM over and over if you see the bag in the pantry, and I give in way more than I should. We have started hiding the candy in the house. 

We have a painting that has little circles painted on it in different colors and you love to go to this painting and point at it saying "MnM" and then you smack your lips and say "Mmmmm". 

Funny, but also a little scary. 

Thankfully you also love fruit, so we try to satisfy your sweet tooth with healthier treats. 

Brothers

You and your brother have a very sweet bond. While there is plenty of roughhousing, there are also many sweet moments. 

You two are constantly laughing together over things I don't understand, but I just love to hear it. 

This is an example where you guys had been laughing for 15+ minutes over Max saying, "I want some spaghetti". We eventually had to pull over because Max had gotten his seat belt undone, you guys had giggled yourselves silly and I caught the tail end of it...

I can't believe you are inching closer to adding a 1/2 to your one year of age each day, you are growing up too fast!

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Some other highlights from this week included a trip to Chatfield to let the kids run around, and to take some pictures...

 almost three year olds!

We captured a few of this little lady at 8-months old...

Eli, on the other hand, did not really feel like cooperating for 15 month pictures. 

It was a hot hot day, which we finished off out in the yard running through the sprinklers.

Water has become the bokeh of summer, much the way Christmas lights were the bokeh of winter.
I am feeling inspired by this new season and the backdrops it brings.

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We finished the week up with a zoo trip.
We have been visiting so often that the trips are all starting to blur together, but this trip was notable in a couple of ways...

Most exciting was sharing our trip with friends, and showing their new little lady around for the very first time.

Precious. 

Second, this will go down in history as the day I made the fateful decision to let Max pull the wagon around the zoo.

We usually use the wagon for short trips to the park, or Julian will take it out when he goes places with the boys, mostly because he brings a lot less stuff when he goes and he also doesn't take the third child  the camera along. I'm not sure what prompted me to load the wagon instead of the stroller on Friday, but it seemed like a good idea.
And when Max asked if he could pull the wagon, I was more than happy to let him pull the weight for awhile.

At first all was well, he pulled and pulled as we circled the zoo, mostly keeping up and not running into things.

We stopped for lunch and a carousel ride.

Apparently we visit the zoo enough that the lady who runs the carousel recognizes us now, and she pointed out that Max has had a growth spurt.
Which he has.
I'm not sure if it is sweet or weird that she knows this, I'm thinking sweet?

In any case the hot hot heat started to make an impact but we carried on, taking breaks to hydrate of course.

Somewhere around the gorilla exhibit things started to unravel.
Mighty Max started to tire, but being ever so stubborn refused to give up on pulling that darn wagon.

I did lighten his load....

And as it always seems to happen, we nearly had the zoo exit in sight when Max really started to meltdown.
 Like sat himself right on the ground refusing to pull the wagon, or ride in it, or let anyone else pull it...which made getting out of the zoo a little bit impossible.
Coincidentally, he stopped near a snow cone cart, which I thought maybe would be our saving grace, but ultimately just added red dye into the mess of getting out of the zoo on Friday.

We did make it to the car somehow and both boys were asleep by the first stoplight.
I called Julian to tell him about our trip and he says," Haven't I told you not to let Max pull the wagon? Once he starts pulling it he never ever wants to stop and it always ends badly."
Clearly, we need to compare notes more :)

So there you have it, the zoo trip where Max pulled the wagon almost the whole way.