16 Months Old

I got a little behind on my monthly posts about our Little Man, but I'm finally getting caught up now that Daddy is on Christmas break!  He turned 16 months on October 13th.

You are 16 months old, Sweet Boy, and becoming more of a toddler every day.  I love this stage where you are a big boy who runs around, but you are still my sweet baby who needs to be rocked every night.

• You LOVE eating at the DC.  We have started going there every Wednesday night, and you get so excited.  I think it's the combination of all the energy from the students and the special treats Momma and Daddy let you eat (i.e. pizza and ice cream!).  Momma and Daddy love it too, and we all look forward to that night each week.  There is a hill outside of the DC which you fearlessly race down.  You could do it all night if we let you.  You go straight towards the hill once we leave the DC. 

• Daddy accidentally sat on your ankle one evening when you were playing on the playground.  He went to give you a hug at the same time that he was beginning to sit down, and your foot got stuck under him.  You cried a little, but Daddy said the tears didn't last long.  However, when Daddy brought you home, we noticed that when you tried to walk you would limp for a few steps and then fall over.  You were very brave and let us ice it for 10 min (I think the Baby Einstein's video and big piece of bread we gave you helped).  The next morning you wouldn't walk on it at all so we brought you in to see the doctor.  You cried as soon as the doctor came into the room but he said your ankle was just fine - and sure enough, you started walking on it later that day.
• You are becoming very good at playing with your toys, which has lead to increased independent play. I often just sit and watch you as you go from one toy to the other, coming up with ways you are going to play with them.  I think your ability to pretend-play has helped a lot as you push your cars around making car noises and looking for things to load on top of them and haul around the house, or feeding your stuffed animals from your snack cups, or sharing your pacis with them, or waving goodbye to me as you crawl through the door of your play house.
• You really enjoy story time at the Gas City library.  It is fun to see you following directions – Miss Rita will tell you to come forward and get a scarf or shaker, and you walk confidently towards her, get the item and then proudly come running back to me.  You do the same when it is time to return the item to Miss Rita – you go up, put it in her bag, and then come back to me, sometimes remembering to sit back down.  Now that we are regular attenders, you anticipate when it is time to go forward and you are not shy at all about participating.  Your favorite part of story time is the bubbles at the end.  I think you have become better at sitting down when asked at home because you do it at story time and also see other kids doing it when asked.  You still enjoy Upland story time and are becoming even more participatory.  We have started staying afterwards to play and color.

• You have learned to blow on your food if we tell you it’s hot.  You will also blow on pretend food before offering me a bite.
• You initiate putting your dirty clothes away in your closet, sometimes I will find clean clothes mixed in with the laundry because you found it on the floor.
• Your vocabulary continues to grow leaps and bounds and you will imitate most words we ask you to repeat.  You have really started to "chat" and are constantly talking as you go about your day, making a great variety of noises. You have really started "talking" - looking at me right in the eye, often pointing and taking out your paci so that your babbling is clear.  I can tell you have a very coherent thought that you are communicating to me.
• You say "baby" (sounds like “ba ba”) and will say it when you see a picture of a baby, or you can point one out if we ask you to show us the baby in one of your books.
• You love going to visit Barb, who lives right below us.  You will point to her apartment and say “Ba”.  You are very comfortable with her and will walk right in if she has her door open.
• Grandma and Grandpa came to visit this month for Daddy’s recital.  You had a great time with them!

• You had your first paid babysitter.  Momma put you in bed and then went to Daddy’s recital while the babysitter stayed at our house and did homework.  You did great!
• You call Dada “Momma,” even though we have heard you say “Dada.”  You will say Momma for a variety of people especially if they leave – you will point and sadly say, “Momma?”­  You have started getting upset when anybody leaves.  You cry when Daddy leaves for work, or you cried when Grandma and Grandpa Angell went to a concert.  You recover quickly but you prefer that everyone just stays together.  This eased up as the month went on.
• You have started dancing on command or on your own if you hear music.  One night we were walking on campus and you heard music coming from the soccer fields.  You started dancing and dancing!
• You love to do "fast feet", as we call it, where you pick your feet up and down as fast as you can.  Sometimes you will simultaneously spin in a circle.
• You love, "If You're Happy and You Know It" and have started stomping your feet for the second verse.
• You love carrying sticks around.  We spend a lot of time outside and you can entertain yourself for the longest time with a stick.  Usually you make sound effects as you push and pull your stick.

• You sit down when you want to put your shoes on.  Again, I think story time has helped you learn to sit, since you will often sit down when the librarian tells all the children to do so.
• You have started "jumping" (more like bouncing) but you love to bend your knees and go up and down (your feet still stay planted). 
• We went to MN and celebrated an early Thanksgiving with the Pegelow side.   Daddy could only stay for the weekend, but you and Momma stayed for almost a week.  You really liked playing with Lily and proved once again that you love companionship.  You wanted to see her whenever you woke up.  Lily taught you how to walk around in all the leaves, and how to jump in the big leaf pile that Papa built for you.  Naps and nighttime were often accompanied by unusual tears because you knew other people were awake in the house and you hated to miss it all. 

• When we were in MN, Grandma and Lily picked out a stuffed lion for you.  You have just recently become very interested in stuffed animals.  You loved the lion and have started sleeping with it.  It is the first comfort item (besides your pacis) that I've seen you cuddling at night.  You love to hug and kiss all your stuffed animals.
• You got 6 teeth this month!!!  This included 4 molars!  The other two were on the bottom next to the two middle teeth. We knew these two were coming in but had no idea about the molars until one day you were on your back laughing and Daddy spotted them all already in.  You have been the easiest teether.
• You have become much more independent at playgroups.  You take a few minutes to take in the environment, wanting to stay close to Momma, but the social side wins out soon after that and you will venture off to go see the other kids and check out the new (to you) toys.
• You love to push things (toys or non-toys).  We cleaned out a small garbage can and it was one of your favorite "toys" all month.  You pushed it all over our apartment, filling it with different items all day long.

Your schedule at the end of this month:

7:45am wake up (we dropped your morning nursing session with ease)

8:00am breakfast
8:30am you and Momma walk Daddy to work and often stay on campus for a while
10:00am snack
11:30am lunch
12:45pm stories
1:00pm-3:00pm nap (your nap slowly started extending this month)
3:00pm wake up and milk
3:00pm snack
5:00pm Daddy gets home from work
5:30pm dinner
6:00pm park with Daddy
7:00pm bath and get ready for bed
7:30-7:45pm bedtime

Little Man, one of my most cherished times of day is right before bed.  We close the window and curtains, turn on the fan and sound machine and rock in the chair in the corner of your room.  I think we have the best of both worlds right now: you are perfectly relaxed and will rock as long as I let you, but you are also content when I lay you in your bed, and able to fall asleep on your own.  You don't fall asleep when I rock you anymore (this is new within the last month or so).  We usually rock together for 15-20 minutes with you nursing a little still, and then switching between your sippy cup with milk and your paci.  You cuddle up close, and even though you keep your eyes open, I can tell you're slowly settling down and getting ready to sleep.  After our busy days together, I love the quiet time at the end of the day to hold my little man who is now usually on the go, and pray over him. I hope it's a time for you to feel so loved and safe.  I know it's not a coincidence that God gave a little one who loves hugs and cuddles to a momma who needs them.