Merrick at 14 months

Merrick has taken off in so many areas this last month! He is now walking most of the time, can pivot, turn around, crouch down to pick something up, and then take off again. He is also climbing more and learning to use toys as tools to climb up onto furniture. One of his favorite toys is this box. Someday, he'll enjoy the bike that came in it, but for now, the box rocks. He pushes, climbs on, and stands on this thing. We're going to have to reinforce it with tape soon, just so the fun can go on.

We went through a rough couple of weeks when he was fighting a little cold and teething with his molars, but he's better now and the molars finally all cut through and we have our happy little guy back. His sense of humor keeps developing and he loves laughing. He particularly loves being tickled, playing peek-a-boo, and mimicking silly noises.

Merrick's language and sounds have really increased this month too. Some of the words he's been using more frequently now are: up, cup (both sound like 'bup'), dog, throw, all done, diaper, car, and truck. He has also been screaming more lately, which we try to discourage, and has learned to hold one finger up to his lips after he screams, like he realizes he needs to be quieter. Another interesting noise that Merrick made more this month is growling.

It has been fun teaching him animal noises. We ask him, "What sound does a ____ make?" and he responds with the sound. He really enjoys making them, particularly the lion (more growling). His repertoire; started with duck, and has grown to include horse, lion, dog, bear, and goose. I don't think this new skill has anything to do with Merrick's first trip to the zoo in early April, but it is fun. Merrick really likes animals. When we recently went on a walk at a friend's house, he was so excited to see the alpacas and llamas that I could hardly contain him.

He's still in 12 month clothes, but will probably be growing out of some of them soon. Thankfully, we have scored big at garage sales the last two weekends and have a complete wardrobe of 18 month size items for him, and it only cost us about $25. Until this point, a friend I used to work with let us borrow the clothes her son had grown out of, but since the sizes are in bigger increments from this age on, Merrick has almost caught up to his friend.

Ah, this month has had a lot of good moments, punctuated with a few lows (teething and illness), but overall, it was still a decent one. I adore getting to see Merrick grow, change and learn. I love who he is now and always, and it will be fun to see what the next month will bring. I'm already getting excited to spend more time with the whole family this summer--there is just a little over a month until the end of the school year!