15 Months

Little Joe plays with one of his
toy fire trucks at our cabin
in Normandy, France.

Little Joe turned 15 months old over the weekend.  He's come a long way in just the last month, both physically and developmentally.  He has grown at least two inches since he left for Florida in March, which has partially reduced our concerns about possible hormone issues and his short stature for his age, and seems to be eating and sleeping more than he had been even just a few weeks ago.

On the development side, he can now stand on his own without any support or assistance from a person or object and can walk (cautiously) across a room if there is nothing in his way.  He generally prefers to be near a box or wall that he can grab onto for assurance but just in the last few days has been walking a lot more and crawling only when he gets tired from walking.  He can also climb stairs on his own, including the steep, twisting staircase in our home.

He also has been doing a much better job of communicating with us; he can say 'firetruck' - his favorite word - and usually does several times a day when he wants to play with his toy firetruck or watch the videos we've found for him on YouTube.  He will also let us know when he is hungry, thirsty, tired, or wants to get down and play through words or hand signals.  He's learned most of the basic barnyard animal sounds and will make them either when we ask - "What sound does the cow make?" "Mooo" - or, even more amazing to us, if he sees the animal.  We took him to the zoo over the weekend and he made pig sounds for the warthogs we saw, along with horse, elephant, and sheep sounds when we saw those respective animals.