Ramble
I really can't get over how much of a person G is. The transformation from baby to toddler is out of this world. As a first time parent who spent limited time as an adult with babies, it blows my mind.
He has his own will, he refuses to do stuff he doesn't want to do (like change a diaper as Daddy is experience at this very second). He is beginning to have crying fits when he does not get his way. He brings me books to read, tries to climb into my lap, sits for what feels like half a second, slams the book shut (usually on my fingers) and then tries to hop down and get a new book. This is some wierd attention disorder game. I discourage it, but I sort of like guessing which books he'll bring me. Does he know which ones he likes? Or does he just grab the first ones his hand grabs?
He knows the ducks. I sort of thought he was ambivelant towards them but then yesterday I said, "would you like to go see the ducks?" And he said, "Du! Du! Du!" over and over again. And when we got there he kept saying, "Ga! Ga! Ga!" I think that may have been quack? The ducks do make a funny noise and come up pretty close when we feed them.
With some things he appears to be quick study. We're practicing eating off plates and out of bowls now, and not throwing food on the floor. This is where I also notice his temper and willfullness. He knows what "no" means. He knows I am not happy when he throws food. But he looks at me with his "how much does she mean it?" face and does it anyway. And he is very smart because he knows sometimes I don't mean it that much.
So quickstudy ... he picked up the snack trap the first attempt and now he loves them. It's part hidden treasure (food), part bongo (banging on the lid) and part rattle (shaking the contents). This has made it quite the desired item, and he dug through the pool bag yesterday cause he knew it was in there. (PS - there are many, many snack traps on the market. Almost of all of them fail at their intended goal of keeping the food from spilling. Kids and food = mess. Deal parents. Is it really so important that your car / living room remain pristine? This is why I have a dog. I got the cheapy ones from target.)
Also we've been practicing going down slides. In Virginia at the soft play room my friend Emily recommended teaching him to go down backwards. He got this right away. At home, I'm trying to get him to walk up the stairs and sit down at the top of the slide. This is a work in progress. But, once he gets sitting down at the top, he scoots on his bum until he starts going down. I still have to help him because once he starts falling his head goes back and bangs against the slide. He's trying to avoid this by going down face first.
He is really a great walker now. He still gets tripped up and lands - KERPLOP! - and he can't stand up in the middle of the room just yet. I know he could because he can bend down in the center of the room, pick something up off the floor, and stand back up. But, my little cautious muller has not done it yet. It makes me happy that his primary - I should say preferred, we still crawl - his preferred method of transportation is walking. But I'm not gloating. He was immobile until 11 months. No crawling, no independent walking no nothing.
He is sitting on the floor sharing his snack with the dog. GROAN. One for me, one for the dog. Hopefully this will endear him more to the dog someday.
He has days were he's pretty verbal. But then there are days where he doesn't say much at all. He says ma-ma pretty consistently, but it is hard to know if that means me or more food or something. He says dog, and what sounds like duck as previously mentioned, da-da (which does mean dad - that story in a minute), and book. I have also heard yellow and blue (when pointing at the appropriate cup for blue!).
So we were driving in the car yesterday and his Dad says, "Noooooo, I don't think so." The "no" being very singsongy and long. From the backseat Grady says "Da-da!" and giggles and laughs. I say, "Grady did daddy say something funny?" Silence from the back. I tell L to say "no" again. Grady laughs again. Pretty cute.
But that's the sort of thing that blows my mind. Two months ago he couldn't do that. Now he is so aware and communicative and mobile. It's hard to say what age / phase is my favorite. I've loved bits of every stage and disliked bits of every stage. And I guess that trend will continue? It seems logical. Like right now he's a mini-person really intent on exploring his world and seeing where the boundaries are. His seemingly endless deathwish ("Let me chew on this electrical cord!" "Knives are so shiny!" "Trust fall off the ledge!") is tiring. His flashes of temper will get seriously old. But his practice with language is super fun. His love of being outside and being in the stroller is cool too.
Oh yeah, one thing I did right was ingraining him in that stroller. Stroller Fit has helped with this. Now he walks up to the stroller and starts pushing it and shouting at me. That means it's time to take a walk. I've seen kids rebel against the stroller and hate being in it. Not my kid. He's happy to be ferried along wherever.
One bad mom thing I've done lately (there's more than one, but this one is the one I dislike the most) is yesterday he was in the sun too long. He's not burnt. We applied and reapplied sunblock SPF 50+. But he has a tan. And yesterday (at the pool pictured below) we were hanging out with my friend the nurse and her husband the dermotologist. Not only did they say, "um Stac you're burnt" but they had to think my son's color was bad (they were polite enough not to comment). These folks where SPF 85 everywhere they go! It's pretty bad to be working in a dermotology office and looking like you just stepped off the CopperTone bus. Next time, I'm forcing the issue on the hat. Grady just pulls them off but as with shoes I'm going to have to just put it right back on till he gets it.
That's the other thing, "Big boys where shoes!" is my new mantra. I say it constantly. His Dad was like, "we're just going to the pool," and I have to explain that every time he leaves the house we have to put on shoes. Backyard, frontyard, car ride, stroller ride ... the kid has to wear shoes. How else will he learn? but I wouldn't doubt that "big boys where shoes" is going to be one of our first sentences.
Alright I've outlived my time on the computer. But you know, his family doesn't live close and they are not getting to watch him grow up. I share this information to keep them, mostly, up to date, and so they can feel involved. So if any of you out there in the void have a problem with my son's updates ... tough cookies. I imagine I will keep writing posts like this for the next 6-9 months. And then I have to re-evaluate my son's online presence.
Happy Sunday folks. Today is a day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.
He has his own will, he refuses to do stuff he doesn't want to do (like change a diaper as Daddy is experience at this very second). He is beginning to have crying fits when he does not get his way. He brings me books to read, tries to climb into my lap, sits for what feels like half a second, slams the book shut (usually on my fingers) and then tries to hop down and get a new book. This is some wierd attention disorder game. I discourage it, but I sort of like guessing which books he'll bring me. Does he know which ones he likes? Or does he just grab the first ones his hand grabs?
With some things he appears to be quick study. We're practicing eating off plates and out of bowls now, and not throwing food on the floor. This is where I also notice his temper and willfullness. He knows what "no" means. He knows I am not happy when he throws food. But he looks at me with his "how much does she mean it?" face and does it anyway. And he is very smart because he knows sometimes I don't mean it that much.
So quickstudy ... he picked up the snack trap the first attempt and now he loves them. It's part hidden treasure (food), part bongo (banging on the lid) and part rattle (shaking the contents). This has made it quite the desired item, and he dug through the pool bag yesterday cause he knew it was in there. (PS - there are many, many snack traps on the market. Almost of all of them fail at their intended goal of keeping the food from spilling. Kids and food = mess. Deal parents. Is it really so important that your car / living room remain pristine? This is why I have a dog. I got the cheapy ones from target.)
Also we've been practicing going down slides. In Virginia at the soft play room my friend Emily recommended teaching him to go down backwards. He got this right away. At home, I'm trying to get him to walk up the stairs and sit down at the top of the slide. This is a work in progress. But, once he gets sitting down at the top, he scoots on his bum until he starts going down. I still have to help him because once he starts falling his head goes back and bangs against the slide. He's trying to avoid this by going down face first.
He is really a great walker now. He still gets tripped up and lands - KERPLOP! - and he can't stand up in the middle of the room just yet. I know he could because he can bend down in the center of the room, pick something up off the floor, and stand back up. But, my little cautious muller has not done it yet. It makes me happy that his primary - I should say preferred, we still crawl - his preferred method of transportation is walking. But I'm not gloating. He was immobile until 11 months. No crawling, no independent walking no nothing.
He is sitting on the floor sharing his snack with the dog. GROAN. One for me, one for the dog. Hopefully this will endear him more to the dog someday.
He has days were he's pretty verbal. But then there are days where he doesn't say much at all. He says ma-ma pretty consistently, but it is hard to know if that means me or more food or something. He says dog, and what sounds like duck as previously mentioned, da-da (which does mean dad - that story in a minute), and book. I have also heard yellow and blue (when pointing at the appropriate cup for blue!).
So we were driving in the car yesterday and his Dad says, "Noooooo, I don't think so." The "no" being very singsongy and long. From the backseat Grady says "Da-da!" and giggles and laughs. I say, "Grady did daddy say something funny?" Silence from the back. I tell L to say "no" again. Grady laughs again. Pretty cute.
But that's the sort of thing that blows my mind. Two months ago he couldn't do that. Now he is so aware and communicative and mobile. It's hard to say what age / phase is my favorite. I've loved bits of every stage and disliked bits of every stage. And I guess that trend will continue? It seems logical. Like right now he's a mini-person really intent on exploring his world and seeing where the boundaries are. His seemingly endless deathwish ("Let me chew on this electrical cord!" "Knives are so shiny!" "Trust fall off the ledge!") is tiring. His flashes of temper will get seriously old. But his practice with language is super fun. His love of being outside and being in the stroller is cool too.
Oh yeah, one thing I did right was ingraining him in that stroller. Stroller Fit has helped with this. Now he walks up to the stroller and starts pushing it and shouting at me. That means it's time to take a walk. I've seen kids rebel against the stroller and hate being in it. Not my kid. He's happy to be ferried along wherever.
One bad mom thing I've done lately (there's more than one, but this one is the one I dislike the most) is yesterday he was in the sun too long. He's not burnt. We applied and reapplied sunblock SPF 50+. But he has a tan. And yesterday (at the pool pictured below) we were hanging out with my friend the nurse and her husband the dermotologist. Not only did they say, "um Stac you're burnt" but they had to think my son's color was bad (they were polite enough not to comment). These folks where SPF 85 everywhere they go! It's pretty bad to be working in a dermotology office and looking like you just stepped off the CopperTone bus. Next time, I'm forcing the issue on the hat. Grady just pulls them off but as with shoes I'm going to have to just put it right back on till he gets it.
That's the other thing, "Big boys where shoes!" is my new mantra. I say it constantly. His Dad was like, "we're just going to the pool," and I have to explain that every time he leaves the house we have to put on shoes. Backyard, frontyard, car ride, stroller ride ... the kid has to wear shoes. How else will he learn? but I wouldn't doubt that "big boys where shoes" is going to be one of our first sentences.
Alright I've outlived my time on the computer. But you know, his family doesn't live close and they are not getting to watch him grow up. I share this information to keep them, mostly, up to date, and so they can feel involved. So if any of you out there in the void have a problem with my son's updates ... tough cookies. I imagine I will keep writing posts like this for the next 6-9 months. And then I have to re-evaluate my son's online presence.
Happy Sunday folks. Today is a day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.
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