15 months old!

Carson is now 15 months old! We go on Monday for his 15-month well-baby check-up... he gets at least one shot this time. I'm anxious to see how much he's grown since his 12-month appointment. He's just growing and developing so much. It still seems like he's learning something new everyday. He's still practicing balance all the time - walking and running on his tip toes, taking sideways steps across the room, walking backwards down small steps without holding on to anything and without falling, turning circles while looking at the ground which makes him dizzy... then he tries to walk and just giggles hysterically as he stumbles. He very rarely crawls up steps anymore, only when he's getting very tired. He almost always will take the railing (or your hand if there is no railing) and will walk up the stairs like we do. He's very good at walking down them now, too. His favorite thing to do is still to climb... anything and everything. He climbs up his little climber with no assistance from us anymore and then slides down the other side all by himself, too. He's just growing up so fast.

Carson is also learning how to take his shoes and socks off. It can be a struggle to get him to keep shoes on him nowadays... especially when we're at home and getting ready to go some place. Not only is it just a novelty right now, but he just loves being barefoot. Carson is a great hand-washer now, too. He loves to wash his hands in the sink with soap. Its so cute to watch him rub his hands together and then know when to rinse. He's showing a lot of interest in the toilet recently, too. Always wanting to flush it and see how it all works. There have even been a few occasions where he's told us before he's wet his diaper - by saying "puh" and pointing to his diaper. We'll check it right then and it's dry, but within seconds, it's wet. If he keeps this up, potty-training may not be too far off on the horizon... we'll see... I'm not really in a big hurry for that, I want him to be ready for it. But I think we're going to buy him a potty in the next couple of weeks... just to try it if he seems interested.

We're looking forward to a fun summer ahead! It will be so fun to take Carson swimming at the lake (Silver Lake). We're hoping that he loves the lake as much as he did last year and as much as he loves swimming pools right now. With all the pool time we've had lately on our hotel stays, he's even learning to kick his feet to swim. We're hoping to spend a lot of time at the lake this summer. Not only at Silver Lake in Fenton, but we're planning on taking a week-long trip up to Kevin's grandparents' trailer on Big Star Lake in August. So far, that is the only summer vacation we've committed to, but we may possibly be taking a trip up to Sault Ste. Marie for a long weekend and maybe even down to Lafayette, Indiana for a long weekend. We'll just have to see how plans work out.

We recently bought a family membership to the Impression 5 Science Center in East Lansing. We're able to get into the Flint Children's Museum and Sloan Museum for free with the membership, so I'm sure we'll be taking some trips there on rainy days this year. I signed Carson up for some Toddler Science Days at Impression 5 - a Splash Time class in July and a Dinosaurs class in August. They're specifically aimed at 1-2 year olds, so I think he'll enjoy them a lot. I think we're also going to be signing him up for some music classes at the Flint Institute of Music on Wednesday evenings. He really enjoys music, so I think he'll love the class. Not to mention, it will be great exposure to other kids his age. We'll also be attending lots of Silver Lake ski shows on Tuesday evenings this year, as well as some of the different waterski and wakeboard tournaments on the weekends that are held in the area... there is even a pro tournament being held at my uncle's private lake in memory of my cousin, Jason! We're very excited for that one, especially! We want to expose Carson to as much waterskiing and wakeboarding as we can... and we're hoping to get him up on his toddler ski this summer, too!

Sorry there are no pictures in this post... I just haven't had the time to upload them recently. I'll post some on Monday night next week when I update on Carson's check-up.