I am behind, as usual, so this month I’m combining the last 2 months since I never got your 16 month blog written. Oops! We’ve been busy with trying to get the house renovations finished before your baby sister arrives, and I’m hitting the third trimester exhaustion again, so I haven’t been on top of things lately. But you’re changing daily so I want to document it!
First and foremost, wherever Daddy is, so are you, which makes for renovating a house quite interesting. Luckily your daddy is the most patient person on Earth and couldn’t love you more if he tried, so he doesn’t mind all your “help”. You love to be right there in the thick of things, no matter what we’re talking about. Being with the big kids, playing outside, watching tv, eating popcorn, renovating – if there’s action, that’s where you are and we love your adventurous spirit. However, the other day I was in the kitchen and glanced outside and you were all the way up on the third step of the kids playhouse – about 4 ft off the ground – as you had climbed up there by yourself. Scares the crap out of me sometimes. You fell off of it on to your butt before Daddy could get to you, but you weren’t hurt, thank God. I, however, still have nightmares about you getting up there and falling all the way off of it, on the side that’s by the side walk. You know how to give me a heart attack, that’s for sure. Half the time when we’re outside you’re trying to drink water, face first, from the dogs bowl. Never a dull moment with you!
You still flip out when Daddy gets home. You go RUNNING to the door now yelling dada! daddy! and throw yourself on him. He loves it. Every time I call anyone in the car too you say “hi daddy” as soon as you hear it start to ring. Super cute. I love the connection you two have. And I love even more your matching tan lines (pictured below). Nothing makes Mark more attractive than when he has a baby in his arms.
I feel like you, out of all my kids, are the one that’s most attached to me. The big kids couldn’t care less about where I am when Daddy is around, but you still keep a pretty close eye on me and you come to me for comfort and get upset if I go out of your view. You’re at the age where they started being ALL about Daddy, but I think you might be a little different. We spend lots of time cuddling during the day as some days you don’t let me get anything done really. You are such a snuggler and you love to be held, which makes it hard for me to do pretty much anything else. Sometimes I get frustrated because I’m so unproductive most days, but I know you’ll be leaving for college before I know it so I might as well soak up all these cuddles now and worry about finishing projects later.
You also LOVE your brother and sister. You can say “Abbie” now and you say “hi Abbie” when we pick her up from school. You’ve said Ben a few times when I’ve asked you to, and you definitely know who they are. You follow them everywhere, and lots of times if Abbie is sitting on the floor watching TV, you will walk right over to her and sit in her lap. She loves it when you do that. Both of them are really good with you and I know you’ll benefit so much from your relationships with them. I love seeing all 3 of you interact – when you’re getting along anyway. Benji gets frustrated when you ALWAYS want to do whatever he’s doing, but he’s learning patience with you and he’s getting better at redirecting you or sharing whatever it is he has that you want with you.
You are still a pretty good eater. You do pretty well with a spoon now and can drink out of a cup by yourself if we only put a little bit of water in it. You still mostly just drink water and organic milk, with occasional watered down juice. I probably need to cut back on your milk intake, but you LOVE milk. You get a 4oz bottle in the morning and another 4 oz bottle after nap and then an 8oz bottle before bed. But lately you’ve been asking for more when you’re done with the 4oz ones. You can say “milk”, “more” and “bottle” now too, along with “please” and “thank you”, and you also sign milk, more, please and thank you very regularly. (You also sign all done and bath and you say all done too. Today I think I heard you say “wipe” to when you were asking for a wipe for your hands.) You are learning new words every day and that’s super fun.
We’ve been working on animal sounds and body parts these last few months. You can point to your hair, ear, eye, nose, tongue, teeth, fingers, toes, chin, belly button and arm pits. You can say eye, toes and belly button. You know the sounds for chicken, dog, cat, lion, monkey, cow, pig and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. We’re working on bee and elephant.
You love playing peek a boo and so big. You will go get your baby and give her hugs and kisses and push her around in the stroller. And you say baby now too. You LOVE when I sing songs with you and you go nuts if we turn on music for you to dance to. You can get on and off your giraffe bike by yourself now and you climb on the Gator any chance you get and love sitting in it even if it’s not moving. You walk around on your tippy toes sometimes, just like the other two did/do, and you can pretty much run now. Yesterday for the first time you tried to crawl up on the couch by yourself because you saw Ben was sitting up there. I’m not ready for you to be climbing…
I made little hooks in the hallway for the big kids book bags and I hung your little book bag up next to theirs. The other day you were watching the big kids get their book bags on for school and you went and got yours and brought it over to me and turned around and stood in front of me so I could put yours on you. It is adorable when you do stuff like that and you’re doing it all the time now. You watched me trim Daddy’s neck and stood there in fascination at what we were doing. As soon as I stopped you came over to me and turned around in front of me again, so I could do it to you. SOOO cute! I turned the clippers on and held them against your head for a few seconds and you were happy with that and off you went! This month I was also helping Ben roll up his pant legs and you saw me doing that. So of course you came over and stood in front of me with one of your feet out so I would roll up your pants too. I absolutely love that you’re so observant about things like this and you want to be involved.
You are currently sleeping from around 830pm to 8am and you typically take a 2 hr nap in the afternoon. It’s a nice break for me since Ben will do quiet time while you’re napping. (That’s when I’m writing this blog.) You went through a short stage where you were crying at naps and at bedtime, but you’re over that now. You’ve had a snotty nose for what seems like a month, so maybe that has something to do with it, I’m not sure. But other than the snot and occasional coughing you are fine. Although I say you’re sleeping better but I think I hear you in there “talking”. You have your favorite paci’s you sleep with and you throw all the other ones out of your crib every single time you’re in there. Kinda funny.
You are pretty much the only one that likes Sadie. She’s good with you, so that’s good and you love petting her. You also like Ollie and Sam though. You have sat on Sam’s head I don’t know how many times and he just lays there. Ollie growls at you like he does everyone else, but you don’t mind.
I switched you over to 18-24 month clothes a while ago and got out the 2T recently too. You’re getting thinner though so some of the pants are too big. I have issues getting shoes to stay on you, but I think you’re in about a size 6 now. You wear size 4 diapers during the day and size 5 at night.
We get compliments on you all the time from the girls that work in the child care at church. They always tell us how you are super laid back and easy going and how you have a great personality. And they think you’re super cute too. You don’t cry any more when we drop you off, which is really nice and I think you have fun playing there and I know they have fun with you.
You truly do have a great little personality that is quickly turning in to a very big personality. You are so happy and responsive and interactive and we seriously just can’t get enough of you sometimes. You hit the ground running when you wake up and then you take a good nap and wake up again in a good mood. You know our routine somewhat now and I think that helps. You are so much fun! Don’t get any bigger, little man.
