15-16 months part 1

I'm a horrible blogging mother.  We've been busy the past two months doing toddler things and enjoying family visiting and my time to sit down and blog has decreased.  This week I am going to play catch up and rather than one long post about Ben's growth over the past two months, I will post a snippet each day.

Stats:

At 15.5 months  (officially)...
Height:  33 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 22 lbs. 4 oz (15th percentile)
Head Circumference: 19 in. (80th percentile)

Our once tubby little guy has slimmed down and grown straight up as he runs through life!

Teeth:  10--four top, four bottom and two top molars are poking through.

Ben is currently enjoying a strawberry snack so today we will look at Ben's relationship with food.

Ben eats with his fingers most of the time, but recently has shown an interest in forks and spoons.  If it is a food he can pick up with a fork he will.  He also really likes his food served on a plate or in a bowl, especially if he sees Andrew and I with plates and bowls.  We give in to the request sometimes but he still likes to throw said plate/bowl onto the floor to watch the food fly so we are on guard.

Ben's feelings about food are very clear.  He either loves it and gives out a delightful "MMM!!!" or hates it and spits it out with disgust.  He enjoys three meals a day and several snacks.  For breakfast he typically likes scrambled eggs with cheese and lately he has enjoyed drinking smoothies.  Occasionally he will eat some Cheerios and fruit but since Andrew and I eat a lot of eggs, Ben joins in.  For lunch and dinner he dines on whatever we are eating with an avocado here and there.  He recently decided that he loves blueberries leading to some colorful waste.  I tried to get him to eat strawberries months ago but it wasn't until I found some fresh strawberries at a local market did he decide that they were an acceptable choice.  (I heartily agree--there is no comparison between a California rubber strawberry and a local juicy berry).

He loves foods with strong flavors such as curry, Parmesan cheese, Mexican rice.  If it is ethnic, Ben will eat it.  For snacks he enjoys organic animal crackers, cheese, Annie's cheddar bunnies, and fruit.  He has a sweet tooth and will eat anything with sugar.  If we are enjoying ice cream he will travel the room for a bite from everyone.  We gave him his first ice cream cone on May 11th, when my parents were in town for a visit and he enjoyed it so much that his little face was red from the cold treat.
He sometimes helps himself to things in the pantry if I forget how tall he is and leave them on a low shelf.

He is still nursing three times a day and we consider that an accomplishment as it is down from 5 or 6 two months ago.  He nurses when he wakes up, before nap and before bed.  If I'm not here when he wakes up in the morning he is fine with drinking "dada milk" which often has a bit of chocolate in it.  My goal for the next month is to cut out the before nap feeding (which if I am not here he is okay going without.)  He loves to nurse and I have enjoyed our extended breastfeeding time.  I never thought that I would go past a year but it has been such a wonderful thing and I don't mind when my busy toddler snuggles up to me and enjoys his snack.  That said however, we would like to be totally finished with nursing by the end of the summer.