Andy is 15 months old and he's finally starting to seem that age.  It seems as though he's grown tons in the past month!  The biggest news is that he's "walking!"  Okay, so not really walking, walking, but you know what I mean.  He has taken more than a few steps and has shown initiative!

Here's how the little munchkin operates.  Of course he crawls most of the time.  But now, he'll crawl to *almost* where he wants to go.  Then he stops, stands up, and takes 5-6 wobbly steps the rest of the way there.  It is so cute!!!!

We've also officially stopped the bottle.  We've been giving him a bottle at 10PM and one at 6AM.  I finally decided that it was more out of comfort than necessity.  So we gradually switched the bottle down to 4 oz, then 3 oz, and then 3 nights ago we stopped altogether.  I'm pretty sure Andy's not happy about it all still, but he's getting used to it.

I love this age!

We decided to take the doctor's advise and wean Andy from a bottle.  He seems to really like whole milk, so no problems there.  The problem, though, is that he won't hold his own sippy cup!  This kid is so stubborn, he'll lean forward with his mouth open and expect me to put the sippy cup in there for him.  I'm not really sure what to do.

My husband and I have refused to hold it for him - we figure he'll grab it when he's hungry/thirsty enough.  This is a good idea in theory, but when we're home with him all day he won't drink anything, and he just eats more bottle (which we do hold).  So overall, this is a bad solution.

You might wonder where he got the idea that someone should hold his sippy cup for him in the first place.  Well, we've had visitors in town and they hold it for him.  (*sigh*)  Anyway, I'm sort-of in a dilemma.  I'm trying to decide if we should just hold the sippy cups until he's totally off of the bottle, or if I should stick to my guns and not hold it for him.  I fell like if I choose the first way, Andy will want me to hold his sippy cup until he's 2 and if I choose the second way, he'll never stop taking bottles.  LOL

Anyway, I'm off to Wal-Mart tonight to buy some different types of sippy cups.  Maybe he'll magically hold a straw one or something!  I'll take any advise anyone has to share.....  :)

Andy turned 1 today.  Oh my, how time flies.  We looked at pics of Livvy's first birthday and there's just such a big difference between our two kids.

Anyway, Andy's at such a cute age.  He pulls himself up on furniture, people, toys, walls, etc. and cruises around, although his main method of transportation is crawling.  He has stood up in the middle of the room before, but that is not a normal occurrence.  He also LOVES holding our hands and walking, although we're still waiting for his first steps.

The nice thing about Andy's small size is that he seemed to stay a baby for his whole first year.  Livvy seemed like a toddler already at one year old, but Andy is still just a cute little baby.  And I do mean little.  He still wears 6-9 month clothes, some of which are a little big on him.  His hair is not long yet, but it's finally growing.  He even has a few curls on the back of his head!

As for talking, he says lots of repeated syllables such as "dadadadada" "mamamamama" (his favorite), "bababa," "lalala," etc.  He talks fairly often and is not afraid to make his voice heard.  A loud scream from him is common if he doesn't get what he wants.

We had a great day that involved the pumpkin patch, train rides, playgrounds, grandparents, birthday cake and presents.  Hooray for Andy's first birthday!