We'll go over months 11-15 in photo form - which means there are a lot!
First off, we took a trip to Iowa! We met up with my family there and spent the week. We were able to take Kellan to the farm and show him the glory that it is as well as have him meet my Aunt Pam, Uncle Dave, and their kids.
He also got to meet Kurtis's (or maybe my mom's...haha) dog, Kash. They certainly loved each other. Kellan is very accustomed to dogs since he is growing up with two and I'm under the impression that Kash loves anyone who will play fetch with him. Kellan was happy to oblige - even though he only threw the frisbee or tennis ball a couple feet tops.
Side note: his 15 month throwing abilities have far surpassed his 11 month old ones. He can throw things clear across the room. Particularly food.
He also got to experience a piano for the first time at my Grandma's house. It was the cutest thing watching him play and interact with my Grandma.
There are a lot of sleeping baby pictures on this post. I don't know what it is, but something about a sleeping baby makes me want to take a picture.
He loved hanging out with Aunt B and we found out that Kellan is going to have a little cousin while on this trip! We have since found out that it is a little boy and they will have many epic adventures together as only cousins can, I am sure. haha.
Of course we had to show everyone his spaghetti face. Everyone was amazed at how well he eats. Baby boy loves his food and will still pretty much eat anything. Although toddlerhood has certainly brought with it food quirks. While most are fleeting, they are entertaining and can be frustrating at the time.
A couple examples include:
If he sees a clementine he must eat it regardless of when he last ate even if he just finished one.
He spent a solid week only eating bread and fruit. Luckily, he wasn't picky about the kind of bread so I made zucchini and pumpkin whole wheat muffins and that made me feel a little better about it.
I already mentioned food chucking. That's been a lot of fun.
He flew really well both directions both flights and handled it like a champ when we missed our flight home and had to completely change all our plans and seriously screwed with his sleeping schedule.
We flew into New York to meet one of our very best friends who was visiting from Colorado. Kellan walked all over - still with assistance at this point - and just enjoyed hanging out. He even got to try crepes for the first time. It was love at first bite.
Halloween turned out to be more fun than I anticipated this year. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a Halloween person at all, really. Last minute I decided to dress us up. We got cheap Chipotle because of it and went to a friend's party. Hunter was busy in the OR on a surgical rotation sooo it was just the two of us.
At Kellan's one year appointment (stats mentioned a couple posts back) his hemoglobin was measuring a little low so we had to go get his blood drawn for real and not just a fingerstick. I'm pretty sure this turned into the most traumatic day of his little life. Not only did he have to get 3 or 4 (?) shots, once we got to the hospital the door automatically opened too fast for me to dodge out of the way and BANGED Kellan in the head. It created quite a goose egg and left a nice bump. He was sooo sad and so was I . Luckily the blood draw went as well as it could have and didn't further the trauma of the day.
Hunter and I both ended up buying each other glasses for Christmas (unplanned) and so had spent a not unreasonable amount of time looking at them in the couple months leading up to it. As much as we loved these baby aviators, we couldn't justify the cost of high end glasses that would certainly be broken within a matter of weeks. They were pretty adorable though.
We have a picture eerily similar to this one from last year's New Haven tree lighting. It was fun to be able to go again. Fashion was definitely sacrificed for function here. haha.
One of the best (or possibly the best) toy in Kellan's mind are the pots and pans. These are closely followed by any food he can reach from our shelf - which is becoming more and more the taller he gets. This is not an unusual scene in our kitchen. Our kitchen has taken up permanent residence in a pot in our cupboard instead of on the shelf at this point.
There have been a couple of times in the last few months where Kellan just went up to Hunter, curled up on his chest, and fallen asleep. Be still my heart.
Bath time is really hit or miss at our house. He either loves it or hates it. He is big enough and skilled enough to climb out by himself so if he's not feeling it, he just bails. If he is in the mood though, he splashes and blows bubbles and throws toys all around. It's pretty adorable. When he's done, he's done though. He's out and runs around like a mad man - naked - and I have to chase him around to even pretend to dry him off.
One of the very first things Kellan mimicked was "uh-oh" with his hands as pictured below. The words didn't join until just this last week but now he says it all. day. long. He even uses it appropriately at times.
I insisted on getting a real tree this last Christmas. Kellan's reaction was not disappointing. He was obsessed. We were even pretty lucky in that all but 4 of our ornaments were shatter proof.
More sleeping babies. This particular picture happened when I was at work. Kellan woke up, ate, and spent about half an hour with me then I took him into Hunter (who we woke up) so that I could go to work. About 30 minutes after me leaving he passed back out and slept nearly 2 more hours until Hunter had to wake him up to take him to church.
All bundled up for a stroller ride!
I made us stockings this year as well. We were very pleased with how they turned out.
More sleeping babies.
Kellan has also started climbing. This was taken when he very first decided to be brave and climb on things. He hadn't quite figured out how to get down yet. He has since learned how to get off of/down from a lot of things including this box pictured, the high chair (he climbs right up to the top and stands in the seat), our bed (which is pretty high), and the stairs. We had a week or two where he was OBSESSED with going up and down and that was all we did. He still enjoys it, but he is more moderate in demanding going up and down.
A lot of playing with friends happened - particularly Cora. She spent the evening with us is this picture.
We also got to babysit a sweet little baby for a day which I loved more than Kellan did. haha.
He spent probably a month waking up really early and would fall asleep on the way to daycare almost everyday. I have the hardest time waking him up when he falls asleep and usually opt to take pictures instead (obviously, haha).
Kellan got to experience snow. This was the first time he did and has since had more than enough opportunity to experience it.
We visited the Yale Bookstore one day and they had a fun tunnel that he went back and forth in.
So much so that he passed out on the walk back to the car. He's in our Tula - which we got for Christmas - and we LOVE it! I seriously use it at least once a day. We go on walks with him in it, and more importantly use it in the kitchen (tangent to follow). He has decided that just being in the kitchen isn't enough and he needs me to be holding him at all times while I'm cooking. This obviously isn't practical, so the Tula makes that work. He actually loves that too - he can see what I'm doing and is very interested in it all. He'll even "stir" things with a utensil (usually a big spoon, spatula, or whisk) in the empty pots when he is playing on the ground. I've been trying to let him participate a little more when I am actually cooking. Just yesterday I was holding him when there was cauliflower steaming on the stove and he insisted I grab him a spoon then immediately put it in the cauliflower and started stirring. It is so much fun to see him make connections like that! He was so proud of himself, and obviously I was too.
Here is an episode on the stairs:
Pushing Cora around at playgroup:
Wild naked post bath baby. This particular day he decided he liked the cape and walked around like this for a while. He rarely holds very still, thus the blurry picture.
Resting on the ottoman after climbing up:
More snow! This was on the first snow day I've every personally experienced. It was such a fun day! We all got the day off and because the snow itself was a flop in our area (we maybe only got half of what was predicted) we got to play in it without too much hassle.
Climbing on the ottoman in his room. This happens every day, multiple times a day.
He LOVES a good bubble bath.
He has also taken quite a liking to his stuffed animals. He'll give them all big hugs and carry this one and a little raccoon all over the house.
Winter walking adventures usually mean I walk with Kellan on my back. The snow and ice just isn't conducive to him enjoying himself. Plus, he really likes to grab the snow which is cold and makes his gloves wet - which he doesn't love. We were able to go on one walk with him walking before too much snow had accumulated and he loved it! He stopped at every garden gnome and was enthralled with all the little snow piles. It took us a solid half hour to get around a tiny block but was worth every single minute.
More sleeping.
One of Kellan's newest obsessions is eating with utensils. He will eat everything with a spoon or fork - right down to blueberries. It's adorable, and messy, and time consuming, but so much fun to watch. Oatmeal is perhaps one of the messiest things but one of the most effective in sticking to the spoon so it doesn't get immediately dumped. It seems as if eating comes in waves - when he first started it was super messy because he wasn't sure what to do with the food so it just fell out. Eventually he got the hang of that and it wasn't too messy for a while. Then finger foods were introduced and they got smeared allllll over everything. Those got better too and then utensils were introduced. I'm hoping the extremely messy phase is almost behind us, but will happily embrace it if it's not.
Notice the fork in the snack cups trying to pick up veggie straws??
This picture was taken when he climbed up and sat down next to Hunter just like Hunter was sitting. He moved as soon as I pulled the camera out so this is the best picture I could get, but it's still cute.
Kellan seems to be getting over the cold. He has always taken his shoes and socks off with regularity, but now we are adding his hat and coat to the mix. He also has started putting up a fight whenever I try to put his coat on. He'll put his hat on (backwards 100% of the time) just because that's a new thing he's learned to do, but then promptly take it off again. He watches the dogs when they are outside almost longingly. I look forward to it warming up and experiencing outside with Kellan in a way he hasn't been able to up to this point.
Please note the bedhead in this picture too. It never goes away. haha. One day we'll get his haircut, probably soon, but I'm sure that'll take whatever baby is left in him right away and leave him all toddler. Which I definitely love, don't get me wrong, but it's just crazy that we are at this point already!
Another notable thing that I can't take picture of is talking! He babbles all the time, as always, but is really starting to try forming words. I'm sure I'll miss a few but words he says are:
Mama
Dada
nana (banana)
ooh-ooh (monkey sounds - he'll make it when he sees a monkey)
sock
duck
uh-oh (current favorite word)
stop
what's that
growl (like a tiger or lion)
no (head back and forth, sometimes rather violently)
1-2-3 (more like dun-do-dee, usually before he makes a big splash or chucks something)
Hi (often complete with waving)
He grunts a lot and points to things, but is usually pretty clear about what he wants. He also quite often walks up to one of us and grabs our finger and takes us to wherever he wants us to go - usually the stairs. It's pretty adorable - but I think that about most things he does.
He has also started pointing to our noses and occasionally his, sticking his tongue out on command, and patting his belly.
He is the proud owner of 12 teeth - 4 on top, 4 on bottom, and 4 molars. The first 3 came in at the same time with the 4th following last week, about a month later. The top right one is mostly still prongs and hasn't made it's full appearance, but was one of the original 3 to pop through.
And that, my friends, is our happy, loving, crazy 15 month old. There is never a dull day with Kellan around. I know I say this every time, but it really does just keep getting better and that still holds true. Toddlerhood is an adventure that I'm loving so far!
