Friends of Finn, Orry, and Oshin: 16 months old

Here it is ladies and gentlemen! Your monthly update! (woooo!)

Finn is now 16 months old. Here are his pictures side by side:

15 months old

16 months old

Pretty bad, as usual - so here are the obligatory outtakes:

I don't know any of his essential stats at the moment, other than that he feels pretty heavy and looks pretty tall!

Also, he has gone and got more teeth. He now has 16. So he managed to carry on getting around a tooth a month! He had 4 at 4 months, 12 and 12 and now 16 at 16!
Anyway, we are hugely thankful for it, because it means we can lay off the teething for a while - or at least I hope! The only teeth he hasn't got are the very back molars which I think come a lot later. But I could also be jinxing it...

So that's the bare essentials down. Other stuff of interest:
Hi still isn't really walking with confidence. The last update mentioned that he had taken a few steps, but that's still where we are. He can go a bit farther and is very very good if he's holding a hand to steady him. The main problem is that it's only been in the last week that he's managed to stand up off the floor. And even then, it's only really happened a few times. So he can't really walk until he can stand up. But by the time he figures the standing thing, I think he'll take to it pretty quick. I think he is the only baby of all the ones we know that still isn't walking!
He does however have some very good dance moves:

We're not entirely sure why he does that stomping thing - he can be convinced to do, but he will also just randomly start doing it when he's excited. And it usually involves panting at the same time (hence why I'm making that odd noise)...

He's talking a lot and has lots of new words. A current favourite (of his and ours) is WOW! Most often said as "wow wow wow!" It's very silly the things he decides to favour with a wow so it continues to amuse us (for example, showing him the shirt you want him to put on - "wow!" umm... not quite sure how to interpret that). He also can count to three, which is fun. Buuuut like everything it's not quite there. And no one other than James and I would know what he's saying. It sounds a bit French as well - "Un, Do, AH!" I should explain the 'three' - I realised that we often count to three when we're doing something fun, and therefore the three is an excited higher pitch. So he doesn't say the word, just the high-pitch sound... I'll try and get a video of it, it's pretty funny.
He also says Dada, Mama, uh oh, hiya (his previous ones) and his new words include hot, all done, bye bye, shoes, cheese, and this. Like all babies, he understands a lot more than he says and has recently (as in, on Wednesday) started pointing out things in books (much to our excitement!). So you can ask him where the 'dog' is or the 'car' etc. And if it's an animal he'll point and do the noise. Just today he learnt to hiss like a snake. Again, it's pretty funny (that's a reoccurring theme).
Also, he communicates very well even without speaking. I'm sure all parents go through the same sort of things but it's like he's worked out a sort of code. I've always wondered how parents were always so certain of what their toddler was trying to tell them. And now I know. When you spend so much time together you DO understand them. Half of it is words that don't make sense unless you know what he's trying to say (un-do-AH) and half of it is code. So when he's thirsty, he points to the sink and say 'this.' When he's hungry he crawls over and points at his highchair. And when he wants to go outside he goes and finds his carrier or his shoes and gives them to you. As mundane as it sounds, it is rather amazing how much you can communicate with someone who knows literally twelve words!
Here's an excellent video of him being very clear, without speaking (and it's pretty funny as well, of course):

We've discovered that he is very good at putting things together and have gotten him some puzzles that he really enjoys. He gets a bit bored with the ones that are simply shapes that you match up and much prefers the pieces that snap together. He has a train set that he LOVES. And a large part of that is laying the track. He's a lot quicker now than in this video, but this was taken (I think) the day after he picked up the pieces for the first time. Clever boy:

His other favourite thing to do is to be under things. We often make sheet forts and tunnels and things like that and he thinks they are amazing things. This last video is lovely just for the glee on his face. I brought home a giant white sheet that we use parachute-style at work (it needed a wash), and Finn and I had some fun before I took it back:

What else? I can't think of much more. We didn't seem to take very many pictures in January seemingly. And James already did a post with some of them. Here are some new ones though - we had a big snowstorm! This was when Finn was ill (I think James mentioned that in his post) so we didn't get him out to play in it, but we all enjoyed the walk around to see the other people playing.