Ian-mo15 Ian-mo12Ian had his fifteen month check up on Thursday. I know I’m a little late posting about it, but I’ve been busy the last couple of days. Ian is off with Nana this weekend, so I have a little more time to play on the internet before going to pack.

Anyway, he had is doc appointment. He weighed in at 24 lbs which is actually less than what he was at his 12 month checkout, but only by 3 oz, so it’s not bad. My guess, his diaper was a little fuller than it was this time. He has grown, he’s now 31.5 inches long. This all puts him in the 50-75 percentile for his weight and the 50 percentile for his height; the doc said he’s more proportionate regarding his height:weight ratio. His head is 19.75 inches, which is in the 95 percentile. My little man’s brain grew by an inch!! I’m hoping that is good. He received more vaccinations during this visit, but I was told that after his 18th month checkup, he’ll be done with vaccinations for awhile. He received the Haemophilus Influenzae (type b HIB vaccine), DTap (Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis), and Pneumococcal (PCV). Just a side note, I found these handy vaccination schedules over at the CDC. Overall, the doctor said Ian was developing well. He had Ian do a running test; well, I think it was more of a test to see how well Ian walked, but Ian kinda ran to me instead. Everything looked good, and since we’re worried about Ian developing Asthma since both of us had it, the doc checked and there isn’t any sign of it at the moment. The one thing the Doc did want to mention is to make sure we use suntan lotion on Ian when he’s outside. Even if he’s out for 15 minutes, we need to hit the exposed areas. He’s pale right now, so he’ll burn easier.

While at the doctors office, we did find out something troublesome….Ian can open doors now. The exam room door had a latch handle (the type where you push down to open) and Ian figured out how that works. While we waited for his vaccinations, Ian decided it would be a fun game to escape the room and have mama run after him.

In the past three months, Ian has started clapping his hands on demand or when he knows something is good. His balance has also been improving remarkably. He’s even started trying to run, but he’s not quite there yet. If he gets going too fast, his head gets farther than his body and he ends up falling. Plus, he’s climbing anything and everything. He can easily get on any piece of furniture (end tables, chairs, couches, dinner tables, etc) and he has no problem getting down. Although, there are times he doesn’t realize he can’t simply walk off the furniture. He still has his four teeth, bu the has been teething something fierce, so we’re hoping for some more soon. The doc did say he saw them, but they weren’t broken through yet.

We’ve also started a new sleep habit for Ian. Well, he didn’t have much choice in the matter, so he didn’t take to it right away. Basically, Ian hadn’t learned how to fall asleep on his own since I was always rocking him to sleep, so we started the Ferber Method. It means we stick Ian in his bed and let him cry himself to sleep. The first night was a little rough, but it’s going fine now. Ian cries when I go to put him in his bed, but once I get him in, he generally goes right to sleep. He may talk or whimper for a bit, but he doesn’t do it for long. We’ve even started doing this for his naps and it generally takes him a little longer to go to sleep, but that’s mainly because he doesn’t want to and he wants to stay up and play. Overall, it’s going good.

Speaking of sleeping, Ian’s nap habits have changed. He’s now officially down to one nap a day. He started skipping naps around his 1 year birthday, but I really wasn’t enforcing it since he wasn’t doing it every day. Now, it’s uncommon if he wants two naps, so we’re doing one naps only now. Ian’s been fine with it. He gets his nap around noon and he sleeps for about 2 hours, depending on the day. There are times he sleeps for only an hour and other times he out for 3, but it depends a lot on how he’s feeling. While he’s teething, he doesn’t normally sleep for very long, but I don’t really give him Motrin before his naps, so he gets woken up by the pain sometimes. He gets teething tablets, but they only work for so long it seems like. There are times when it seems like he’s getting tired at night, even though he had his afternoon nap, but he really doesn’t want to go to sleep. This just makes it easier to get him to bed at night, so we’re not really worried about it.

Ian did make his first trip to the Zoo in April and he loved the petting area. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time there, but I know that I’m going to have to find some in the area to take him to. We’ve also been spending as much time outside as we can. It’s been a little hard since the ground outside our apartment building has become a doggy toilet (the complex is working to correct that or so they say), but we’ve been going to different parks whenever we’re able. Ian is really loving the chance to be outside, so I know he’s going to love the backyard when we get a house. Now we just need to get our own toys for out there.

That’s pretty much what has been happening the last couple of months. We’re starting to get into the summer months and this year it’s going to be a lot different with Ian. This time last year, Ian was barely sitting up and moving on his own, so it was pretty much quiet. Now he’s running around and wanting to get into everything, so I have a feeling we’ll be a little busier this year (getting a house notwithstanding). Our Mom’s Group has plans to spend our meetings at different parks and at the zoo this year since we can’t have them at our usually meeting place, so Ian will definitely get his time outside in.