naturally diff...: October 2010

Right after turning 14 months IJG improved his ring stacking and shape sorting skills. He then completely quit stacking his rings for weeks, until yesterday, he started stacking them again. I’m assuming it’s like when he quit trying to walk after he realized he could, and didn’t start again until he was pretty good at it. I think he likes to wait until he is better at tasks to keep doing them. He has continued to use his shape sorter though. He is also working on putting his Legos together, rather than just taking pieces apart. He understands quite a bit but isn’t speaking intelligibly yet. He yells “Eeee” or “Geee” when excited. He says “Deee” and points when he sees something interesting. He loves yelling in general and will often start screaming off and on for several minutes. He likes to walk around and say “rawr” repeatedly. He communicates (as he has done for several months) wanting something (more food, a toy) by making panting noises. Some new things he has learned this month are to run back and forth in his room when I say “run run,” and to dust off his hands when I say “clean your hands.” He still will only point to his belly when we review body parts but loves to point to everyone else’s nose. He is getting better at identifying things in the books that we read regularly. He has also finally started moving his feet when he dances and has just about completely abandoned the knee bending dance he's been doing. I’ve officially retired his baby towels this month. They’ve been too small to be useful for months now but I didn’t want to accept it.

He loves to put things into and take things out of containers, hand us toys or things he finds on the ground, shake things that make noise, and walk around with things on his head. He isn’t skilled at putting things on his head himself, and will put things on the back of his neck instead. He likes to push or pull anything with wheels, large or small. We tied a shoelace to his wooden car so he could pull it around. He likes to push the grocery cart, his stroller, and anything else he can find. He likes his books and has a clear favorite, I Love You All The Time. He brings that one for me to read several times a day. When he initiates reading he gives you the book, backs up, and sucks his thumb. He loves the dogs and giggles whenever they give him attention and kisses. He likes to hold their leashes and has realized he can grab Yoji’s and “walk” him from his stroller (while I am walking him). He likes to explore new places and parks and will stop to pick up every piece of garbage he passes. He gets very frustrated when he can’t do his own thing and play with whatever he wants. We have baby locks on all of our cabinets and drawers but this doesn’t stop him from slipping his arm in and pulling out whatever he can grab. He enjoys splash parks and we’ve been to several lately. Last weekend we took him to Discovery Green (new downtown park) for the first time and the water sprays out quite powerfully but he was staying in there with the big kids.

IJG’s schedule has remained the same this month. He has stopped waking in night. For 7 straight days he slept till approximately 7:30 am and on the 8th day he was back to sleeping till anywhere from 5:45 to 6:30 am. He is napping longer more consistently and usually sleeps about 2 hours and sometimes up to 3. He has started frequently not falling asleep at night when I breastfeed him, which is his usual way to fall asleep. When this happens we just put him in his crib and stay in the room until he falls asleep. If I stay in the room there is far more crying then if his daddy does. We have to stay in the room because he will chew his crib rails if we don’t stop him. He has been going out every Wednesday evening after dinner with MNP. They have gone to parks and stores so far.

This month I’ve really increased the amount of “normal” foods IJG eats. When we go out, which is usually once a week, I order things I know he can share with me and I’ve started planning dinners that all 3 of us can eat. So far, new foods he has had at restaurants include bean tamales, crab and shrimp enchiladas (no sauce/cheese), spanish rice, refried black beans, and hummus. Meals I’ve made include broccoli soup, curry sweet potato/lentil soup, bean enchiladas/salsa, Spanish rice, hummus, a quinoa/veggie mix, and spaghetti. He has also had mushrooms, tofu, pumpkin bread (homemade) and a hot mixed grain cereal. He is getting pretty good with his spoon and we’ve introduced the fork. I still have to hold the bowl and help him scoop the food. He would throw everything onto the floor otherwise. He no longer picks up 1 piece of food a time to eat and instead tries to shove a fistful in his mouth. He was allergy tested for egg and the skin prick test came up negative. The Dr wanted him to come back for a patch test but I just gave him egg instead and he was fine. His appetite has greatly changed over the last few months. He still eats a lot at dinner and a decent amount at lunch, but lately is hardly eating at breakfast time (when I’d think he’d be hungriest).

IJG completely stopped biting at home after several weeks of consistent behavior correcting. He bit another child at school twice in one day but has not bitten since. He did begin biting again at home, I assume to test the rules, but didn’t continue. Instead he upped his hitting/toy throwing. We are still working on that. I taught him to “be gentle” one afternoon by softly rubbing his hand down my face every time he was rough. He decided “be gentle” meant face petting and kept doing this to everyone if I said “gentle." When he is scolded for bad actions he tries to avert his eyes and get away so he definitely understands what is going on. He then gives me a hug. Despite having a rough/violent side, he's very loving and sweet and constantly gives me hugs (no kisses anymore).

IJG has 16 teeth now and he is getting a bit better about letting me brush them but it is still a struggle. I bought a new toothbrush today because the one we’ve been using seems quite stiff. We will see if that’s the problem.

IJG might have been sick once this month. He did wake up snotty one day, but it didn't affect him otherwise and coincided with our allergies acting up. He does have some residual chest congestion that I hope clears up soon.

Here's IJG demonstrating some very distracted shape sorting from a couple weeks ago.

We finally went to the zoo on Friday and met up with another mom and toddler from one of the Attachment Parenting groups I'm in. Overall I don't think IJG quite appreciated seeing the animals and didn't like being stuck in the stroller for so long. But, he could have stayed in the Children's Zoo all day, and they now have a little splash park and playground right next to it. Maybe next time we'll go straight to that part and skip the rest.

We saw lots of animals but these are the best from my crap camera.

This is a Shoebill Stork. I thought it was crazy looking!

This is IJG pretending to look at a Jaguar.

And then we got to the Children's (petting) Zoo. I felt so badly for those animals. They have to be tortured by toddlers all day, and if all the ~~hitting~~ petting isn't bad enough, they arm them with ~~weapons~~ brushes to make the experience even more fun. IJG was in heaven. He loved the giant funny looking doggies and he loved that they sat still for his ~~torture~~ brushing.