14 Months

The Stats:
Weight - 24 lbs 10 ozs. This actually "drops" him into the 60% for weight, a good sign since his mobility has taken off.
Height - 30.5 inches. Short. Welcome to the my world, kiddo. But not as short as his sisters (percentile-wise) so maybe there's hope for him yet.

Food:
LOVES! Despite the fact that he still has the strongest most sensitive gag reflex in the world he loves to eat and is happily exploring new textures quite well. Of course his favorites remain easy finger foods, probably just for the necessary caveman killing instinct. His seat is always a mess.

Communication:
What a noisy boy! He talks constantly - surely just trying to be heard over his sisters! His verbal words are Mama, Daddy, ball, bottle, up, cup, pop, Papa, open, outside, all-done, again, and I'm pretty sure "mine." He also signs a little bit, mostly "more," "again," and "eat." Aside from that he makes noise and mimics sounds all the time! He also loves to get LOUD!

Play:
Cars and Balls, of course! He's such a boy, climbing over anyone and everything to get to a ball or truck. He vrooms and throws with the best of the boys! He loves his music table and building/knocking down block towers. I love that he initiates games a lot, too. He will get my attention to play patty-cake or peek-a-boo, and loves us singing "Wheels on the Bus" which he signals with "open!" while opening his arms wide. He's quite happy to play independently, too; he'll pull his basket off the shelf and dig through looking for toys and books and play quite contentedly.

Sleep:
ugh. My worst sleeper. To be honest, we've spoiled him rotten with sleeping with us and never on a schedule, plus we've never really let him learn to settle himself. He now screams until he throws-up every time we put him in a crib and he fusses for milk in the middle of the night. We keep saying we have to fix this, but nobody is really eager to make this boy cry in the middle of the night. Just the touch of a hand settles him right down next to us and melts our hearts. Yikes. After reading several sleep books by "experts" and polling everyone I can think of, my conclusion is that we're doomed. And he knows it, too!

Temperament:
Happy Happy Boy! Playful, happy, silly! (well, as long as we're not talking about sleeping arrangements that is...) He is easy to please, loves to be around people, loves to be entertained or to chill by himself.

Mobility:
A fast crawler either on hands and knees or hands and feet. He doesn't seem to mind hard or scratchy surfaces which is reflected in his perpetually scraped-up knees and tops of feet. He has not been super eager to walk. Just in the past few weeks he is starting to use walking toys across the room, but mostly still with our prompting. He pulls himself to stand on everything, though, and cruises along anything. The pediatrician judged Joey's overall development to be in the 12-month range, which is pretty darn impressive given how much catch up he has had to do!