Life of a 14 month old boy

To say life with Colter is busy would be an understatement. On April 21st, Colter learned how to stand up on his own in the middle of the room and from that moment forward, he has been a full blown walker. Now that he is upwardly mobile, he wants to constantly be exploring things that are now at his eye level. He has also become absolutely obsessed with being outside. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we barely play with toys inside any more. During his morning awake time we normally go for a walk and listen to the birds and soak up the quiet that morning brings. During his next awake time, we normally venture out to a play date at someone's house, meet up with friends at the park or beach, or run errands. In the afternoon, you can usually find us throwing rocks by the mailbox, looking for the kitty in the window across the street, or walking up and down the street, with of course stopping at the storm drains to look at the water down below. Colter almost always has a rock in his hand, and this month is learning how to throw forwards instead of behind his head. His poor fingers have multiple scrapes on them from falling because he refuses to let go of the rock when he falls.

                             

Some of the other things that keep him entertained at this age are watching the screensaver that has bubbles on it, blowing bubbles (he actually would rather dip the wand in and out of the bubbles himself instead of actually blowing bubbles), watching caspar babypants videos, playing at his water table, trying to make friends with every dog in site, sitting in the dirt pile in the backyard, pretend driving in the car (this was his #1 past time until we realized that it was draining the battery like crazy and I was left with a dead car and had to call roadside assistance to get a jump), crawling under the bar stools and some how managing to get out, playing hoops, and occasionally indulging me in a pinterest activity like water beads, and bath time fun with color tablets and submersible lights.

His vocabulary is exploding. He rarely says a word on his own besides ball, mama, "bubb" (bubbles) and "keee" (kitty), but he will mimic a ton of different words. Some of the recent ones are diaper, danger, bopper, J (James), bath, clock, and choo choo. It is so crazy to see how quickly he is learning new things. Just today I noticed that he has figured out how to put an Easter egg together, and can put lids on containers. 

Life is not always rosy with this little toddler man. He has recently started full blown tantrums that can be a little overwhelming. If he doesn't get to do something he wants, or we have to go inside early, or if he is just plain frustrated he can put on quite the show complete with dropping to the ground kicking his legs. Not the first moment where we have had no idea what to do, but we're trying different things and by the grace of God, we'll get through this stage like we have with others. 

One thing for sure is that Colter is ALL BOY!