14 Months Old

Matthew is such a little toddler now that's he's 100% mobile!  He's our own little curious george that just walks around our house non-stop when he's not sleeping.  Just this week, he learned to get up on his own, without having to pull himself up using any object (chair/coffee table/couch etc).  He has amazing balance - sometimes when he's walking, it looks like he's going to fall over but he ends up balancing himself on one foot and then just continues walking, as if nothing happened.

He understands a lot of what we say to him and I think he's actually starting to understand the meaning behind the signs (sign language) that I've been trying to teach him.  I know he understands because when I was working from home on Monday, I put him in his highchair with some snacks so that I could get some work done.  At one point, he made a noise to get my attention and when I said "Matthew, what do you want?", he did the sign for 'more' - he had finished the snacks I had put on his tray and wanted more.  That was the first time I've seen him sign without me saying the word to him first.

 

Matthew's molars are already coming (I got him to keep his mouth opened long enough to snap a picture - gotta love SLRs).  I think it's because he's eager to eat the food that we eat!  If I try to feed him rice porridge while we're eating something else, he won't eat his rice porridge.  But as soon as I put my fork/chopsticks near his mouth, his mouth opens up wide!  But, I'm thankful he loves eating...eating anything! (sometimes it's stuff that shouldn't be eaten! =P)  When he sees someone eating and he wants some, he'll walk up to them and just open his mouth in front of them.  Right now, he loves to eat fruits and vegetables.  Well, he loves to eat everything...but I've noticed that he'll eat more if its fruits or vegetables.

He still loves making sounds with objects.  Eversince he learned how to walk on his own, he'll walk over to this sports station toy and carry the plastic balls from the living room over to our kitchen and intentionally drop them on the floor.  He gets such a kick out of the sound that comes from dropping the balls on the floor.

Matthew finds it funny to spot you through something.  For example, if I crouch down and try to see him from between the legs of a chair, he'll squat down to look at me and then laugh.  He thinks it's funny when I squat down to look at him through the rails of his crib and he laughs a lot when I look at him through the posts of our stairs.

And finally, he also knows how to fake cry now to get what he wants.  It usually works on dad and the grandparents! =P  But then again, who can resist this sweet little boy =)  Here he is giving a big hug to his little buddy.