Chopsticks

We made a vegetable/tofu stir fry for dinner last night.  Stanley really likes tofu and the vegetables proved to be a hit as well.  I think the veggies are making a slight comeback recently as he has started to eat more of them, but still not quite as much as the fruits.  While he was eating his tofu chunks, Stanley noticed that we were using these funny sticks to put our food into our mouths.  He wanted to try.  He has gotten reasonable at using a fork to get some stuff in his mouth, but I thought this would prove to be more than he could handle.  He did surprisingly well, though, and even managed to get a few pieces of food into his mouth (with a little assistance from Mom).  Take a look.

Learning

Everyday Stanley picks up new things. Last night, Stanley decided to turn his bedtime routine into classroom learning. I had decided earlier in the day that we should teach him the sign for 'help'. He had started earlier in the week to give these very short high pitch noises when he wants help on something. The noise is pretty annoying. So, during his bedtime routine, he wanted help putting a sock on his foot (over his PJs). Steve and I both asked him if he wanted help a few times using the sign and then about 10 times into putting the sock on his foot and him pulling it off, he gave us the sign that he wanted help. He was very pleased at himself both for the fact that he could ask for help putting it on and also for pulling it off his foot about 20-30 times.

Then we turned back to his book "Big Little". In this book, there is a baby on each page. For weeks we have been asking Stanley to point out different things in books, but he never really got that we wanted him to point to it. Last night, he got it, it would turn the page and we would say "Where's the baby". He would quickly point to the baby and then clap for himself, smile, and laugh. It made all three of us laugh. He was so proud of himself, he kept turning to different pages and pointing the baby faster and faster so that we could get to the clapping and praise for him. He for sure enjoyed the praise over anything else.

After this, our little guy was pretty tired and, like usually at night, he was happy to head to bed.

Science museum

Yesterday we went to the California Academy of Sciences. We are members so we have gone about 4 times before. As soon as I got Stanley out of the car, he knew where we were going. He immediately started happily walking to the museum. When we got to the front area, we needed to wait for our friend Zuri and Carolyn, so I turned Stanley away from the museum to walk along a little path. He threw a fit! He knew where we were and wanted to see the animals right away!!! He just could not understand why we weren't going inside.

When we got inside, Stanley happily walked around. We also found an area with really low fish tanks. He loved looking and pointing at the different fish.

 

***WARNING LELE and those afraid of snakes: Stop reading here**

He also found it fascinating that he could point to the snake and the snake would follow his finger.

 

Party!

We went to Wheeler's first birthday party yesterday. Stanley had fun running around the park and playing with all the other people there. The weather was great and we had a fun time. We have some more pictures and will post them soon, but here are a few to tide you over...

Bubble blowing

I'm not sure when he learned this, but Julia said he has been doing it for a little bit.  Stanley figured out how to blow bubbles into a glass of water and make funny noises.  He was pretty amused with it.  I also found it pretty funny, but I'm curious when he discovers that using milk is much more effective...

What you get when flounder does your hair

Go broncos

Stanley got a great present from his great uncle Mike. A baby sized Denver Broncos Payton Manning jersey. I think it looks rather dashing.

GO BRONCOS!

Applause

Stanley loves applause.  We clap for him and cheer him on whenever he does something good, like going down the stairs and not killing himself.  The other night at Lolo and Papa Doug's we had a whole bunch of guests over for dinner and Stanley was very busy training all the adults how to give him applause.  He was quite pleased with himself and it got to the point where he could just pick up a ball, put it down and look up and they would give him applause.  It felt a little bit like those TV show filming sessions where they have the "APPLAUSE" sign that lights up when the audience is supposed to clap.  Only here, Stanley was his own light board.

Obese to underfed

If you remember, Stanley was considered obese when he was an infant. Not anymore. We spent a doctor's visit yesterday discussing how to get more calories into our little boy. Since Stanley's 12 month visit his weight has really hit a plateau. At 12 months he was 22 lbs 7 oz and at 15.75 month he is 22lbs and 9 oz. That is a total of a 2 oz increase.

We had to go in for a new weight gain because at 15 months, right after Stanley's stomach bug, Stanley weight 21 lbs and 14 oz.

Stanley loves fruit, but Lolo is going to push on eggs, protein, and almond butters for our little guy. Geoff is trying to trick Stanley into eating fattier foods, but Stanley has him pegged. After 3 or 4 times of getting tricked, Stanley is onto his uncle's antics.

Lucky Boy

Lolo and Papa Doug have been here for 3 weeks and Stanley has loved it! He is going to be very sad tomorrow when they leave--I think our next post might have to be named, 'Sad Boy' or 'Spoiled Boy'.

At the Cal Ac of Sciences

With grandparents around for so long, Stanley has really developed. His sentences are coming together--granted the words are just gibberish, but he creates sentences of different sounds. His walking or should I say running has also improved. With Lolo, Stanley has been walking all over the town. Stanley walked all the way to the post office; that is 0.6miles and includes a hill for part of it. Lolo has lots of patience. Stanley loves to walk, but his little legs just cannot take big steps so he is not very fast. Plus, he stops and enjoys looking at little pebbles, twigs, and sticks. Stanley love to walk with Lolo so much, that now if Lolo says 'let's go on a walk', Stanley will run over and grab her finger to go on his walk. Just as an aside, Stanley doesn't need to hold a hand, but we are always trying to hold his hand when we walk on the side walks around town--it seems a bit safer.

Also, Stanley has started understanding lots more lately. For example, if I say "Stanley where the light" he will point up to the ceiling to the light. We can also give him things and ask him to take it to somebody, but I'm not sure he knows who is who. Also, we are instituting a policy that pencils stay on the table, Stanley understands when we say 'put the pencil on the table'. This is all thanks to Steve's patience while Stanley screamed for an entire night about wanted to run around the house with pencils in his hand.

Stanley has also decided to go along with Papa Doug's idea that walking is just too slow. Stanley wants to run everywhere. He is quite good at running and very stable, except he has a nice big bump on his head after he tripped over the edge of the carpet and hit his forehead on a marble stair. It wasn't good; the doctor evaluated him and said he got lucky and we should probably move the carpet away from the staircase.

We have also gone on many fun adventures with Lolo and Papa Doug. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Sous Chef

Uncle Flounder finally found some local crabs for us to eat last night. Stanley enjoyed being his sous chef with the lemons and limes.

Below are a few photos of when we were at the water earlier this week. More to come. Stanley enjoyed looking at the water.