What he's learned:
He's getting great at signing the few things we've taught him - more and all done - and even signs them to communicate to us instead of just signing them when we first say them. He also loves clapping - all we have to say is "yay!" or "good job!" and he'll start clapping for himself. (A little vain but oh so cute!) Also, if he sees people clapping on TV he'll start clapping.
He's becoming more interactive with us besides signing, too. He likes handing things to us when he's playing, and he also likes grabbing our hands and getting us to do whatever he's doing. Sometimes he'll even just walk up, pick up our hand, and give us a high five. And he now gives us hugs. Too fun!
He's really starting to imitate us and the every day things we do. For instance, when I let him hold my phone he holds it up to his ear and starts jabbering and also when he gets ahold of the remote he points it at the TV. How awful is that?! You'd think we just watch TV all day every day, but let me assure you I only watch the morning news every now and then and that's all. (well, with the exception of the Olympics - when they were on I was watching it throughout the day... maybe that's ruined him!)
He's getting so close with "mama" and "dada" . He definitely knows what those words mean - when Brad gets home and I say "Dada's home!" he gets a big smile and heads over to the stairway, and he can sometimes point to me when Brad asks "Where's mama?" and vice versa. Grandma Dee thinks he's trying to say "bear" because when we play Baby Bear with him he'll say "ba ba." He's also close to saying "up" and he can sometimes imitate us pretty closely when we say "all done."
He has finally figured out how to go down stairs, though it does take him forever and I'm always right there on the step below him. He also knows how get off of higher things like the bed, ottoman, fireplace hearth, etc by sliding down on his belly with his feet first. And yes, we're always there right next to him when he's on the bed and ottoman (weird I know but he absolutely loves sitting up there!).
What he loves:
His mom and dad - I don't know what's gotten into this boy the last couple of weeks, but he has become a little more cuddly! Before he would have nothing to do with snuggling up against me, but since I taught him how to hug he wants to do it all the time! And when I pick him up now, a lot of times he'll lay his head down against my chest. It's pretty awesome, I'm not gonna lie. :)
Sat mornings in bed - ever since he was little, whenever we've had lazy Saturday mornings we bring him in bed with us after I finish nursing him and we just hang out for a bit (what usually happens is I get done nursing him and then we go wake up daddy :) ). He just loves it because he has all of our attention and is usually cracking us up the entire time. We're usually repeating the phrase "Man, this kid is awesome."
Pushing and pulling things around - tables, chairs, baskets, toys, you name it. Nothing is too big or heavy for him, in his eyes. :)
Climbing - on anything and everything. If I'm sitting down next to the ottoman, I know I have a short window before he's using me as a ladder to get on top of it. He can also almost climb into the tub - he's so close and if we actually let him keep trying he'd probably make it (we obviously don't want to do that...).
Playing with anything new or new-to-him, and he almost always prefers non-toys to toys.
Baby Bear book - this will keep him entertained for longer than anything!
Outside - he absolutely loves being outside and exploring, and now that the weather is cooling off we plan to be outside a lot more!
How he sleeps:
Naps have been a little more hit or miss lately for some reason. There have been a few days in the past couple weeks where he will entirely miss either his morning or afternoon nap after we try for an hour and a half or so to get him down. For the most part though he's still taking two approx 1.5 hr naps a day. Maybe he's getting close to being ready to drop his morning nap??? I sure hope not! Although at this point I'd rather have a solid afternoon nap than struggling with him to take two so-so naps.
At night he's doing great. For the longest time I would feed him twice at night - once before I went to sleep (he usually wouldn't wake up for this, and if he did he'd be right back asleep in a minute) and again in the middle of the night just to tank him up with additional calories (often times I'd wake him up for this one too). A couple of months ago I dropped that middle of the night feed and just in the last week or two I finally dropped the last nursing before I went to bed. I knew that I needed to slowly wean him off of that before I started the actual weaning process, so that he'd have to time adjust and make up those calories during the day. I was worried how he'd do - he'd never gone that long without eating and I just felt like I'd be starving him - but he hasn't missed a beat. Since then he's maybe only woken up twice in the middle of the night, and after a couple morning of waking up a little earlier, like 6ish, he's back to sleeping until 7 most mornings. So thankful we have such a good sleeper on our hands!!
How he eats:
He's pretty finicky with eating solids - he may love something one day and then have nothing to do with it the next, but that's all part of the adventure, right? ;) He usually loves cheese, bananas, beans, any sort of pasta dish with red sauce, and bread and butter.
The sippy cup is going much better. While he still doesn't like drinking breast milk out of one, nowadays he'll chug water from them, so at least we know he CAN drink from them. I've given him whole milk a couple times now, too, and he doesn't seem to mind it at all, so hopefully it'll be a smooth (as possible) transition when I wean him.
How he's grown:
Two weeks ago I took him to get weighed and he was 18 lbs 6 oz. YEAH for finally breaking the 18lb mark!!! He's actually moved up a bit on the growth charts too - he's more solidly between 10-25th percentile instead of between 5-10th like he was for quite awhile. Good news!
We can't believe that his 1st birthday is just around the corner. On one hand it feels like he's been part of our family for forever and we can't really remember what life was like before him, but on the other hand it's hard to believe that he's going to be so old that he'll be a "toddler" instead of "baby." And while I acknowledge that every stage has been more and more fun so far, and my love for him will inexplicably continue to grow exponentially, I just can't imagine loving him more than I do in this moment so I want it to stay exactly this way forever. I'm sure every mom has felt this way, and I know someday I'll look back at this and laugh at how I thought it couldn't get any better. :)
Love the updates! I knew he would love the Baby Bear Book. It kept his dad quiet in church for a long time!!!!!!!!
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