Fifteen Months Old!

We think Cole is officially a "big boy" at 15 months old (despite the thumb-sucking you see above).  And big boys equal big fun!  Much of Cole's energy has been spent on perfecting his walking . . . and running!  He pretty much mastered the walking right away (as he should have, after all those months of cruising practice!), and has since begun picking up the pace.  Let's just say Cole hasn't quite perfected the art of running yet, and has the bumps and bruises to prove his lack of skill.  The little guy thinks his legs are moving faster than they are, and he tends to get a bit ahead of himself.  This results in him, well, literally getting ahead of himself, and tumbling face-first into walls, floors, doors, you-name-it.  In other news, Cole continues to love tickles and giggles, which of course makes our day, every day.  One of Daddy's new favorite games is to start laughing (guffawing, really) at nothing in particular, and Cole will start giggling hysterically right along with him.  I guess our little guy is not immune to the contagion that is laughter.  Cole has also taken up a few new hobbies.  First, he is "cooking" and loves it.  Come on over and ask him to cook you something, and he will oblige by getting his sweet little hands on the first spoon (or drumstick, he's not choosy) and bowl he can find.  He will start stirring away and will almost certainly offer you a bite of his pretend concoction.  Second, Cole has been loving art projects lately, which is super fun for Mom.  He doesn't always get the correct end of the marker on the paper, and often would rather eat crayons than draw with them, but once he sees his utensil create a mark on the paper in front of him, he expresses a great amount of joy in his creation!  Third, he's really getting into dancing.  Whenever he hears a song with a good beat, he'll start bobbing right along and sometimes even starts shuffling his feet a little.  He definitely has his preferences, and if you ask us, he seems to have pretty good taste in music so far.  On the language front, Cole's favorite word is still "ball," and his favorite kind of ball is the basketball.  He's trying really, really hard to say it, but it always comes out something like "ba-ba-ball."  And, man, he goes nuts when he sees one:  He's all, "Ba-ba-ball!  Ba-ba-ball!!  Bababababallllll!!!!!"  It's adorbs.  Other current faves are "cracker" (sounds just like it!), "banana" (more like "nana") and "cheddar bunny" (sounds nothing like "cheddar bunny," but somehow I know what he's saying).  Oh, and notice a theme?  He's loving food (mostly bananas and grains, but he's still pretty good with meat, fish and veggies, too, knock on wood).  Cole is also mastering parts of the body and will point to his nose, head, toes and ears when asked.  Not so quick on the eyes, but, really, who wants to get poked in the eyes, let along poke himself in the eyes?  Can't blame him.  One more thing:  Cole has taken to gleefully yelling, "Weeee!!!!" when he gets excited during play.  Weeee!!!!!!  7/21/2012.