Riku at 15 months

Things he can do now:

Get on to and off his little car and push himself around with his feet
Go down slides by himself

Drink from a normal cup or mug, which leads to...

Wipe up water if he has spilled it (he makes an attempt anyway!)

Carry a cup of water and put it down carefully (usually)

Climb onto the table from the sofa (not liking this one!)

Open doors of the non-sliding kind

Stick Lego pieces together as well as pulling them apart- he is still pretty hit and miss with this and gets frustrated if he can't get a piece to stick, but he's getting better all the time!

Hold a pen or crayon and make squiggles on the paper- before now he couldn't apply enough pressure. I would have expected him to hold a pen in a fist, but he uses a proper pen grip- it is amazing (and a bit scary) to think how much they are observing and absorbing!

Things he likes:

Playing in paddling pools/water play areas
Walking around on the road outside our house (for those who haven't been here, we live at the end of a dead end street, there is no through traffic or traffic at all really!)
Looking out his bedroom window (he climbs on a low table to see out, currently there is no danger of him falling out as he doesn't know how to open the insect screens)
Blueberries
Eating three proper meals a day- he loves his breakfast cereals and will now usually happily sit in his chair and eat all three meals

Piece of cake to climb this!

Enjoying the view

Things he is not so interested in these days:

Coat hangers- he was quite obsessed with them for a while, but doesn't really ask me for them any more
Our cell phones
TV- he was never that into TV but now he doesn't give it more than a minute or so of attention before heading off to do something else
Baths- for the last few days he has refused to sit down in the bath and tries to climb out after a minute or two, surprising because he used to love baths. Maybe it's because of the heat?
Hats- before we went to NZ he was finally leaving his hats on when I put them on, but since we got back he is back to throwing hats off as soon as I put them on.

Broom broom!

Why? Because it's there.

Words:

Ayah/Ay-ay, usually accompanied by waving- not sure if this is hello or bye bye, at the moment it's an all-purpose greeting!
Papa
Mama (I haven't heard this and been sure it means me, but T says Riku says it when I am away and he sees pictures of me)
Udd- this is a Riku original, and means either "thank you", "give me that" or "here you go"- not sure where he got it from, but since it's verbal communication it's all good, right? (^-^;)
Yay- said while clapping or putting both hands up in the air, this is his latest word and it is so cute to hear him say it because it's perfect, he's like a real little person when he says it!

We are noticing an explosion in the range of sounds and tones he uses in the last couple of weeks as well as his ability to imitate words we say. It looks like learning to walk was taking up most of his attention for the last couple of months and now he has mastered that he can progress with the talking- it will be interesting to see what we will hear next!

So that's a short round up of Riku at 15 months- it's just so fascinating to see him grow and develop, sometimes frustrating since the naughtiness increases along with newfound skills, but very gratifying as well. Love you little guy! xx