(Nearly) Fifteen Month Update

In just a week, Jesse will be a quarter of the way through his second year of life. Where in the world does the time go?! Since I never posted Jesse's 14-month update (I actually wrote one, but then never finished it), here is a 15-month update a little bit early. This is a bit long, but I know I will enjoy going back to read this in the future when I can't remember any of the details about this stage.

• Jesse absolutely loves bath-time these days. Now that we are playing outside a lot, Jesse is getting more frequent baths.

• Jesse has been learning to feed himself with a spoon. This is also a cause for more frequent baths. Since he has begun feeding himself his yogurt every morning, he usually gets a bath right after breakfast. Even though much of the food doesn't go in his mouth, he is actually eating more than he was when I fed him. This guy has just never liked people putting spoons in his mouth. I am glad that he is doing well with the spoon now; in previous attempts to hand over the spoon, he decided that it was more fun to throw the spoon and its contents than to eat what was on it.

• In other food news, Jesse has been quite the big eater lately. Tonight he devoured an entire piece of salmon, 1/4 cup avocado, at least 1/4 cup sweet peas, a slice of cheese, and 6 ounces of whole milk. He likes almost anything, but his most favorite foods are mandarin oranges, grapes, cheese, turkey, salmon and animal crackers. We have a big tub of animal crackers on our counter, and even though Jesse can't see it, he knows it is there and he stands under it and whines for them.

The other morning Jesse decided it would be fun to eat his snack in his former book basket. In the picture below, he is grinning at his friend Alyse, who was eating her snack in his high chair.

• Speaking of friends, our little man appears (at least for now) to be quite the extrovert. I find this very humorous, because I am a pretty strong introvert and James is somewhere in the middle, but probably closer to the introverted side than the extroverted side. Jesse seems to thrive on social interaction and getting out of the apartment. Pretty much as soon as he wakes up he is ready to get out, and I have to be careful about saying anything about going anywhere, because then he will go straight to the door and scream and bang on it, wanting out. He also knows how to get the attention of everyone on the street. He is always smiling and waving and saying "hi" and "bye" to random people...he gets tons of attention around here! The other day we were standing on a street corner waiting for a friend, and Jesse greeted everyone who passed by with a smile, a wave, and a "bye bye". Actually, he failed to greet one person, and that guy said he was sad that he didn't get the same treatment as everyone else was getting.

• The other day we hadn't left the apartment all day, but after his nap Jesse was going to go over and play with Alyse while I got out and did some stuff. We went downstairs together to check the mail before I took him over to my friend's place (one floor up from ours), and when we went back towards the elevators to go up to Alyse's apartment, he started throwing the biggest fit. I reassured him that we were NOT going home, and once he saw that he was headed somewhere different, he was totally fine. The exact same thing happened today when I took him outside to the playground, only to find out that it was too cold and windy to be outside. I decided I'd take him to the tot lot instead, but as soon as we headed back inside he started kicking and screaming because he thought we were going back home. As soon as he could see we were going to the tot lot, he was happy.

• Last night we got out our keyboard for Jesse to play with. He discovered it under our bed the other day, and I thought it might be fun to plug it in and let him experiment with the keys.

• Jesse still really loves the garbage truck and he also gets excited about buses and street sweepers and bicycles (which he calls "sue"). Whenever he hears the garbage truck beeping (this guy has good ears because lots of times I don't even notice the sound until he reacts to it), he perks up and holds out his arms for me to pick him up and stand him in his window to watch it. He loves going on walks and seeing all these things up close.
• Just in the past 2-3 weeks Jesse has begun to have some issues with separation anxiety. He no longer likes being left in the nursery at church, and he gets really upset when I have to go to another part of our apartment, even when James is with him. Although I can't complain about being "the favorite", it sure is exhausting sometimes.