15 Months Old and Talented Artists

Tristan is officially 15mos old (as of yesterday). He's becoming his own little person more every day. There are major differences between he and Noah. I know they look a lot alike, but they are so different. When Noah was 15mos he was interested in blocks and other mechanical type things. I have videos of him building block towers at this age. I think Tristan could possibly do it, but he's absolutely not interested yet. Instead he wants books. He follows me around with books all day long. He will sit there and let me read to him forever. Noah would NEVER sit that long... he still doesn't, actually haha. Tristan is interested in relationships... relationships of objects to other objects, people to other people. He likes to know how things work together, how they interact and react. He's definitely not as obsessive as Noah, but just as demanding! And he does NOT forget something just because you put it away or left. Tris cried for 30 minutes because he wanted to ride the escalator up and down at Sears. I finally told Josh to just take him over there and he immediately was fine (until we left and he had to stop). Must be his long attention span ;)

Tris very recently started being interested in object manipulation. He will put balls in bins and phones in pots, keys in the trash. With Noah it was EVERYTHING in the trash and constant object manipulation all the time. He was also already using a spoon. Tristan is more interested in the dog and his brother. What can he do to make Noah laugh or yell. Where is Mommy? Why isn't Daddy home yet? He has an internal clock for 5pm when Daddy gets home (that cries when it goes off if he's not home yet). He goes to the front door and cries. He goes to our bedroom door and cries. Tristan already plays hide-and-go-seek with us. Noah didn't understand the concept at all and still has trouble focusing and listening to instructions. I think the main difference between my boys is Noah is an engineer and Tristan is a sociologist :) They're both very smart!

Tristan got to paint for the first time today. He still loves to mouth everything he gets his hands on so I was waiting. He had a good time and got nice and "painty". They both painted on the same paper, but at different times. I wasn't up for a HUGE mess. I was cool with two little ones though :) Next time I think it will be better to let them both paint at the same time because Noah was going to explode, trying to hold back all his big brother helpfulness. He wanted to show Tristan how to hold the brush and fingerpaint and make footprints. Tris probably would have liked it better too if Noah had been painting with him. This was a project for Christmas though so I needed specific things to happen.

Noah had a wonderful time painting (as always). He painted a snowman and our family portrait. He also made a lot of footprints and handprints all over the place. He thought it was sooooo funny that he was sliding around in the paint, falling on his butt. I thought it was funny too :) I love these huge rolls of brown paper. If anyone wants to know they're at hardware stores in the paint section! They're also great for wrapping packages to ship.

I found Noah all curled up like this the other night. It was so precious :) He's such a cuddler! Trsitan isn't much for cuddling at all, but Noah is all over me all the time to give hugs and kisses. He says "I love you" about 500 times a day. It doesn't get old :) Noah and I had a little one-on-one time today after Tristan went to bed. We made some chocolate chip cookies for Daddy... since he's working all weekend. We're also going to make him some banana creme pies (his favorite). Noah mixed everything himself. He is pretty good with our little hand mixer! After that he wasn't interested in anything but licking the batter off the mixer so I was able to drop the cookies onto the sheets myself (a welcomed change).

This week is going to be pretty lonely for me so I have planned a few things with myself and the boys. Among the fun times I will also be trying to get us ready for our roadtrip. Josh has to stay at the barracks for 3 nights (on a cot) to assure smooth sailing while the trainees head out for Christmas Exodus. He also worked all weekend. He's at work right now. I think I've seen him awake for maybe one hour total all weekend. At least he will be home tomorrow on recovery until 6. I miss him. The 3 month TDY is going to be rough.