He is officially a little boy/toddler now and is no longer a baby although he calls himself (and every other kid) 'baby'. He is a towhead who has not had one stitch of his hair cut yet. It is definitely time. He has an impressive set of curls that he got from his dad that can appear quite unruly at times (a bit of a mad scientist look about him). His eyes are still blue and he still has the dimples. He runs everywhere and just recently was able to get both feet off the ground while jumping. Still slow to climb up on things, but now makes his way easily on and off couches, chairs and coffee tables (if we let him). He can go down our stairs at our new house without help (they are wide and not as high) – I'm sure we'll regret letting him do it himself the first time he falls, but you have to let go sometime right? The novelty of the stairs is running out, but when we first moved in, he would spend 20 minutes just walking up and down.
He still loves reading his books, and often will prefer to flip through the big adult books with lots of thin pages (like Keith's How to Fix Anything book). He just loves flipping the pages. I once caught him licking his finger to turn a page when he couldn't get it the first time. It is so funny what kids pick up from us.His other favorite toys are his fish puzzle (he is learning his colors – can say blue, purple and pink and correctly identifies them), his toy with the balls that run down the track, his coasters (as always), and just recently the magnetic letters on the fridge. He blew us away the other day when he started identifying letters. It's been a week since he started doing this, and now can identify A, B, E, T, S, O, N, M, P, D, Y and X. For some of them he says the letter (Y, X), for some he makes the sound (S), and for some he says the word we associate with it (truck, papa, nana, dada, mama, etc.).
He had a bout of RSV early in the year, followed by a nasty ear infection and pink eye in March. Since then his nose runs just about all the time. I think we can thank daycare (and the rain) for a lot of that. Daycare is going really well. He goes for half days 2-3 days a week. It is nap time when I drop him off and he now just grabs his blanket and lays down immediately. He used to still cry when I left, but the last three times, he has been silent and just goes right to sleep. When we pick him up, he looks at us, smiles and keeps on playing. So we know he is well taken care of and has fun.
He is a huge momma's boy. I try not to complain, because I know I would not prefer the alternative, but man, give a gal a break. In the morning when he makes his way into our bed (9 out of 10 mornings lately he is up too early for us, so we let him in), and he will scream bloody murder unless he is in my arms. There is to be no snuggling with dad. And most of the time when we're both home, unless Keith removes him from the room we are in, he will want to cling to me, or be picked up by me, and no alternative is acceptable. Of course this is not always the case, more so if he hasn't seen me in a while. He has lots of time during his day where he contentedly plays by himself interacting with us minimally while he draws, reads, or plays with blocks or balls.
Sleep is generally fine. We were on a real nice stretch until we went to Hawaii (in early May). At that point he was sleeping completely on his own from 8:00 PM until 7:00AM. He did good in Hawaii, but since we've been back, we've moved to our new place. So not only was he adjusting back to our time zone, but also to a new house (and there always seems to be a new tooth coming in). So we're back to early morning wake ups with no self soothing capabilities. The line for us is about 4:00 AM. If we wakes before that, we make him try and fall back asleep in his crib. Anything after that, I generally bring him in bed with me and hope he falls back asleep. Usually he does, but we had a run of days where he was up at 5:00 and didn't go back to sleep for anything. Ouch.
Food. Ah, my man can eat. Favorites continue to be carbs, cottage cheese and applesauce. Broccoli is probably his favorite vegetable if you can believe it. I had to hold my nose to finish my broccoli until I was about 10. And his liking for fruit depends on the day. Some days he'll wolf stuff down, other days he'll pass. We were worried that maybe he eats too much, but he continues to grow proportionately. At his 18 month check up he weighed in at 30 pounds and 34 inches tall. 85th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for height. We're OK with that.
His comforts are his blanket and his Raggedy Andy doll, and when snuggling (he LOVES to snuggle), his habit is to reach for my hair and play with it. Unfortunately, when he's excited, he also grabs my hair and yanks with all his might. The more I yell in pain or admonish him, the funnier he thinks it is. He's getting better around other kids. He still pushes Bea a lot, but usually follows it up with a hug. We've started time outs, and they seem to work for a while. I was surprised how quickly he understood that he had to sit there and couldn't get up until I say so. Today when he felt he was done with his time out, he looked at me and blew me a kiss.
And I guess that's about it. He is a fun kid. His vocabulary grows daily, and it blows me away every time he remembers or says a new word. He has the best smile and the best laugh that melt my heart every time, even at the end of a long and frazzled day.
In other news, we have purchased a new home out in the country, took a trip to Hawaii and placed our old house on the market. Oh yeah, and we purchased 22 chickens. (However, we are down to 21 already thanks to Gracie....and my carelessness). Needless to say we have been busy.
The house we bought is a foreclosure property that sits on 6 acres and neighbors a 4 acre parcel we bought several years ago as an investment. We put in a low-ball offer and here we are. It is a dream come true in that the land is gorgeous and the house has more space than we'll ever need (we went from 1200 sq ft to 3700 sq ft! Yikes!). The reason we were able to afford it is because we have amazing parents and the house needs a bit of work. To say it needs a lot of work is almost an understatement. It needs pretty much everything. It has a fun/interesting layout, and lots of potential, and someday will be a beautiful place. It will take time, however, and I must practice patience.
View into the back yard from the living room.
We got to decompress and relax in Kauai with Jenn, John and Bea which was amazing. My only regret is not making it a longer stay. The weather was gorgeous, the fruity rum drinks delicious and the water was warm. Cam did pretty good on the plane. We did not pay for a seat for him, but got lucky both ways is getting an open seat, so we sat three across for the long haul. Our luck did run out on the way home when we missed our connecting flight in SFO and had to stay the night....but if that's the worst thing that happened, I have nothing to complain about.
