This past Wednesday Andy turned 15 months.
Building with blocks at the library
Going down the backyard slide
Andy remains one very busy little guy, often on the move. He prefers to be active, although he will sit to play if something catches his interest. He still loves sand and water. He also has picked up his brother's love of all things vehicle. Like his brother, Andy also tries to draw at the easel and color on paper. Andy also likes stacking things on top of each other, but he really likes throwing things and placing them in places like over the wall keeping him from the pellet stove, in the washing machine, in cabinets and drawers, in bins, and in the trash can.
Andy is bold and adventurous. He is a climber at heart. He is becoming quite skilled at getting up steps, stairs, and ladders in buildings and in play areas. Since what goes up must come down, he does well going back down or sliding down. Just this past week he figured out how to sit to go down a slide, but he still most often goes down feet first and on his belly. Andy is much surer and braver when it comes to scaling heights, unlike his more cautious older brother. In fact, the other week Andy was happily going down the tallest slide which his brother has yet to attempt (although Matt would be fine going down it, too).
Andy is up to around 15 words, at least half of which he uses somewhat regularly, and half a dozen signs or so. He says Mama, Dada, cat, that, ball, roar, meow, hi, bye bye, outside, bird, card, bug, go, cup, water, and bear. And he signs milk, all done, more, up, that one/that way, and dog. His vocabulary is started to increase at a faster rate; he added 3-4 words this week alone. And he is using a wider variety of sounds and inflections. He is very expressive, using words or sounds, pointing, or doing whatever he needs to try to communicate his wants and needs (although he will bite if he's being ignored). He will bring his own snacks or shoes to you when he wants to eat or go outside, for example.
We'll find out in a couple of weeks what Andy's current length and weight is. He is getting closer to 30 pounds, I suspect. Andy is close to outgrowing his 24-month clothes; one more growth spurt and he will be in 2T. He wears 6 wide shoes. Andy's canine teeth are still coming in. I may be happier to be done with that set of teeth than he will, as he is so busy during the day the discomfort doesn't catch up to him until the night.