15 Months and Back to School

Kellen was 15 months on Thursday. He is changing so much and I feel like I can't even stay on top of everything he is doing now. We are going through lots of adjustments right now. I have started work again and Kellen is at daycare, it seems like we had just gotten into a summer routine and now it's time to make a new one. Kellen is in the "1s" toddler room now. He gets to play with bigger kid toys like a small kitchen, a bridge, and blocks. He gets to play outside during the day and has structured learning time. He has to eat like a big boy in a chair at a table and has to feed himself. He also has to take one afternoon nap on a cot on the floor. I have been very skeptical of the last two things. He has surprised me with eating though and has been eating a late breakfast, lunch, and snack there no problem. I'm a little sad with the food they give him, very much toddler food (waffles, applesauce, chicken nuggets, tater tots, fish sticks, etc) and I think it has been giving him diarrhea this week. I'm trying not to stress about it and tell myself it's not a big deal and his system will probably get used it but I would prefer to keep giving him homemade purees of quinoa, spinach, kale, brown rice, etc for his meals. The naps have not been going so well. He is sleeping about 60-90 minutes a day which is so not enough! He comes home exhausted and crabby. I try to give him some food when I bring him home and we try to take the dogs on a walk (although it has been so hot). When we do this, he falls asleep for an hour or so if we don't do this, we try to play but he usually just whines. We have a hard time getting him to eat dinner but he has been going to sleep easily and sleeping through the night.

Kellen is starting to mimic things we say. This morning, we were getting him to repeat "banana" and he was staying the dog noises in his book "Doggies." He doesn't have many words and even fewer that he uses regularly. Mama, Dada, Kitty, Doggy, and some form of "hi" when he pretend answers the phone are the ones I can think of. He babbles alot though and signs "more," "all done," and "eat." He will shake his head yes or no if you ask him a questions although I'm not sure he is actually answering it, he just knows that's what you do when someone asks you a question. Kellen can blow kisses but mostly does it with Steve and I. He can wave but never does. I still think he's too easy going to care about telling us what he wants.

I have cut out all of our nursing sessions except first thing in the morning and a dream feed before I go to bed. We had a hard time cutting out the dinner time nursing and with all the changes going on, I'm going to wait to cut the last two out. I'm not in any hurry and anticipating a struggle so for now we are all happy.

I'm excited for the weekend. Kellen will be getting his hair cut tomorrow morning (gasp!!) and we have lots of yard work to do to get ready for a new fence. We are also celebrating Steve's birthday with a dinner at Sushi Den and dessert at D Bar (if all goes as planned). If you are still reading my long winded update, I will leave you with a video of Kellen playing. It is not very exciting but I have no pictures or exciting videos and you get to witness him making vrooming noises mixed in with some whining.