15 Month Update

Today was James' 15 month well baby visit. He now weighs 19 lbs 4 oz (still not on the charts, but getting close!) and is 30 inches (moved up to the 20th percentile!). I forget the head measurement, but it is holding steady at 95th percentile. He seems to be right on track with all of his milestones, except talking. He has started to imitate sounds we make more and more, so I think real words are just around the corner. He is a full-fledged walker now and has pretty much given up on crawling. He is pretty steady on his feet, although he still looks like a little Frankenstein walking around with his arms out in front of him.His two greatest loves continue to be balls and dogs. He has made up a sign for 'ball' and asks for them all the time.
He loves giving Jax kisses and hugs, playing fetch with him, chasing him, and uses him to pull up into a standing position as often as possible. His favorite thing to do is to feed him half of every meal that he eats. I think all of the full fat dairy products and carbs are what makes Jax tolerate all of the torturous things that James puts him through the rest of the day.One of the cutest things that James has started to do is to play pretend and imitate us when we do things. He pretends to eat and drink all the time, and he loves pretending to vacuum and sweep. He follows me around with the dust buster when I sweep and helps me clean up the piles. He also likes using his mini broom to sweep the floor and the schnoodle.One of the least cute things that James does lately is throw full blown temper tantrums. If he doesn't get exactly what he wants when he wants it, he screams, kicks, hits, throws himself on the ground, and is generally very unpleasant. Most of the time we don't even know what has set him off, so figuring out how to calm him down is interesting. I wonder if this is a sneak preview of "The Terrible Twos"? Here is a pre-tantrum face.
James just keeps getting more and more fun as he gets older. It is so awesome to see his personality develop and to watch him turn into his own little person. I thought that all of the most rapid changes happened in the first year, but he continues to change daily and amazes us with the things he picks up on and can do.

James has never really watched TV, but today I made an exception and we watched the Inauguration together. Although he had no idea what he was watching, I think it will become one of those moments in history that people will always remember what they were doing when the first African American was sworn in as the President of the United States, and I can tell James that he was sitting on my lap eating dehydrated bananas and strawberries. He did clap anytime they showed someone on TV clapping, and I kept trying to get him to say, "Obama," and he did say "baba," so James participated in this historical day in his own way.