- has made destroying our house his daily agenda and is remarkably efficient at it. Homeboy can tear a room apart faster than I ever knew possible. He gets into a lot of things he knows are off-limits and does it with a smirk on his face and that daredevil spark in his eye. His favorite off-limits parts of our house: the toilet, the garbage can, the stairs, my baking cabinet (for unknown reasons, he loves to take the bottle of vanilla), and the pantry.
- would eat all day long if I'd let him. For real. The boy is a snacker, just like his mama. He tries to break into the pantry. And if we accidentally leave it open, he'll grab a snack and bring it to us. He is ready for breakfast the moment we get downstairs in the morning and just asks for food nonstop from that point on.
- had his first real haircut this month. His barber? Me. The hair at the back of his neck was getting out of control and the top was looking unruly. With all of my knowledge of boy hair cuts (read: none), I snipped away one night after baths. Considering no one has even noticed I did anything, I'd say I did a good enough job!
- throws stuff out of his bed when he's mad. It's kinda funny, actually. If you let him cry for a few minutes in his crib, he'll start chucking everything out of his bed: pillow, bear, seahorse, blankets, pacifiers, even his clothes sometimes. The other night at 3 a.m., after deciding that picking him up and rocking him back to sleep was a terrible habit that I was so sick of doing, I began the dreaded cry-it-out routine. (How did we acquire that bad habit, you ask? It's something all parents of 2+ kids can attest to. You slowly give up all of those ideological philosophies you read in the "perfect parent books" in exchange for just a little extra sleep/quiet because you know your older children will be ready for breakfast at 7 a.m. whether you slept or not. Hence the rocking while one of us falls asleep in the rocker.) After the 3rd or 4th 5-minute meltdown session, I could hear the loud thump indicating that he'd heaved the seahorse overboard. Knowing that he gets even angrier once he sees all of his beloved things on the ground, I headed for his room, only to find him bare-legged, stamping his sockless feet in a rage. He was so exhausted from the tantrums that he was asleep before I could get his pants all the way up.
- is in the middle of a sleep strike. It hasn't broken me yet, but we're getting close. Remember when I said he was up at 3 a.m.? Yeah, that was after the 11:00, midnight, and 1:30 wake-ups...to be followed by 6:15 at which time the husband held him for a while because I did not need an awake toddler on top of a screaming baby if we had tried more cry-it-out (it's impossible to be consistent with multiple children. Whatever works, that's my motto.) Not sure what has been keeping him up lately, whether it's teeth or ears or something else. I've been freezing lately, so in case being cold is the culprit, we've started putting an extra layer on him at bedtime and jacking up the heat. I'm hoping it's just teeth and not ears again.
- is still in the "may need tubes in his ears" danger zone. He's had 2 double ear infections and lots of fluid in his ears in the last 3 months; if he continues on this path, tubes might be in our future.
- is completely bottle- and formula-free. And, to limit the amount of milk he has, he now gets it ice cold out of the fridge. We were warming it up for him because we're suckers to those adorable brown eyes. But those high-maintenance days are over. He can't suck down the cold milk quite as fast, which has reduced his milk consumption. (Doctor says no more than 24 oz of dairy a day, and he gets yogurt and cheese daily, too.)
- loves to play with his sister's stuff. And she is less than thrilled about it. He follows her around and tries to take whatever she's playing with. Unfortunately, it's hard to explain to a not-quite-3-year-old that 1-year-olds are even worse sharers than not-quite-3-year-olds. There have been a few fights. Okay, many. But no serious injuries, so that's good.
- is wearing size 12 or 18 month pants and 18M shirts. At this age, his sister was in 2T everything. At 1 year, he was 1.5 inches shorter (he was 31 inches) and 3 lbs lighter than she was at the same age. Makes guessing sizes for him for upcoming seasons almost impossible since he's growing at a normal rate and I'm used to superhuman growth rates. It still baffles me that my kids are different.
- is a chatterbox! His speech has exploded in the past month. It's so much fun to listen to him repeat words. He has entered my favorite mimic stage where you can say, "Joe, can you say ___ ?" and he does it. He has a huge list of words already (I'm only including ones that sound pretty darn close to the real thing. There's another list of words that are getting close, but only we really understand them right now.)
mama (used sparingly)
dada (used all the time b/c he's still obsessed)
grandma ("mawmaw")
grandpa ("papa")
baby
pappy
thank you ("dank you")
please ("peese")
more
cookie
Elmo ("Melmo")
bye bye
no
ball
snack ("nack")
cracker
- is slowly learning manners. Yes, we expect him to start using manners at this age. We believe that if you have zero expectations for your kids, you get nothing out of them. Gotta start early. There are very few things our kids get from us without a "please" and "thank you". (Hugs, kisses, the occasional drink refill; that's about it.) He knows to say "peese" when he wants something and then follows it up immediately with "dank you" (which really impresses people when we're out, btw.) The first time he actually said "thank you" instead of just signing it, he got a few extra handfuls of puffs because I thought it was so cute. The cuteness is still there, but I'm immune to its extra-snack-inducing powers now.
- has started cramming as much food as possible into his mouth at one time. This morning, he had 1/2 a banana in there at once. If I give it to him in pieces, he just shoves 7 in. That banana was gone in 90 seconds, I'm not kidding. Then he took his waffle, which I gave him 1/3 at a time, and did the exact same thing. I just looked back and realized Brooke did the same thing as this age. What's the deal, 13-month-olds? Worried we're going to take it away?
- had a bad reaction after eating a quarter of an M&M cookie at the mall one day a couple weeks ago, a reaction we assume was due to the eggs. So it's looking more and more like baked goods are going to be off the table for him. Saddest. News. Ever.
- is so in love with the Itsy Bitsy Spider. Easiest way to calm him down? Start singing. He does the motions and even tries to sing along. It's just too cute for words, so I'll have to catch it on video soon.
- when sleepy, will come up to us, grab our hand, and rest his head on it. Sometimes he'll even climb up & lay his head on my shoulder. And, in those moments, I remember that this walking, talking, full-of-life toddler is still my sweet baby boy :)
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