k-strat: Ben is fifteen months old!

Ben is fifteen months old! He has gotten to be such a big boy and has far surpassed his sister in terms of height and weight. The doctor has switched the babies to the WHO growth curves from the CDC ones because they are better suited to premature kids apparently so percentiles are now from those. Ben weighs 23 pounds, 2 ounces (55th percentile), he is 30 inches long (11th percentile and 38% of the way to Chris' adult height), and his head circumference is 18.75 inches (73rd percentile). He also excels at signing and talking and regularly picks up new words and signs. Just the other day I was shouting for Jane to stop at the bus stop (she was riding her bike) and he started shouting "stah! stah!"

He is behind his sister though in gross motor activities. As of the last two weeks he is pulling up on furniture regularly (something he was able to do but wasn't doing with consistency). Now that he can pull up though, the babies just play during nap times! He can stand for long periods of time to play while holding on to furniture and also recently started cruising and climbing stairs. I still think it will be months before he walks, but he is steadily catching up! He also recently started practicing letting go while he stands.

Ben sleeps more than Rosie, going to bed at the same time but waking up between 7 and 7:30. We are in the middle of transitioning him to one nap a day. Ben loves food and also loves to throw food and hide food in the corner of his high chair. He blows kisses and waves, says "bye bye" and is definitely the happiest baby out of all his siblings. He laughs the most and is also the most destructive. Ben loves to take everything out of drawers, baskets, off shelves, and just generally throw stuff. If anyone ever didn't think boys' natures and girls' natures were different, they need only watch Ben and Rosie. They couldn't be more dissimilar! We love our sweet and content little man!