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fourteen months
Today the prince is fourteen months old.
He's still not quite walking; at day care they can guide him to within a couple of steps of a seated adult and let go his hands and he will "walk" (= stagger) toward her, but with us he almost invariably does not do this - if we let go his hands he sits down and crawls the rest of the way to where he's going. But holding our hands - or, more often, holding just one hand or pushing his train - he's steadier and steadier.
He's also not quite talking, although he clearly thinks he is. Today we've determined that "ah baaa" means "I'm the baby," which is true. He's started pointing to himself when he says it, which is awesome. :-) He can also point to his head, his nose (generally his upper lip, with his mouth closed), his mouth (generally his lower lip, with his mouth open), and his toes. (That's my favorite one, probably because his little feet are my favorite part. "Where are your toes?" we ask, and he flexes his foot and looks down at his toes to make sure they're there and we can see them. I cannot textually render how freaking adorable this is.) He doesn't know "tummy" and we're working on "ears." When he says "ma maaa" I always answer, whether we think he's talking to me or not, because I want him to know that's my name. His dad does the same when he says "da daaa." (We do call him by his name as well as calling him "baby.")
He's enjoying a variety of foods, but in phases. I'm having to find my own peace with his ebbing and flowing appetite. (It's fine. He's gaining weight and filling his diapers and if he eats yogurt at three meals in a day, fine. It's fine.) He likes to put his own spoon in his mouth if we've put yogurt or applesauce or whatever on it for him. He'd also like to put his own fork in his mouth, but we're not letting him drive the fork yet. With bite-sized pieces of meat or cheesy toast he often takes the bite right off the fork; other times he likes to pluck the bite off the fork with his fingers and put it in his own mouth; other other times he likes to pluck the bite off the tines of the fork, set it back on the fork, and then have us put the food in his mouth from the fork. It is not possible to predict when he will shift from one preference to the other. :-P
He's in a slight period (apparently, according to the "Wonder Weeks" book my brother sent me a couple of months ago, we can expect this period to last four or five weeks; we're halfway into week two) of sleep and behavioral regression probably connected to frustration at not feeling like the boss of what happens to him. For example, he seems to agree that clean diapers are more comfortable than wet or dirty diapers, but he nevertheless often screams (screams) when we change them. I know it's harder for him than it is for us. Nevertheless I'm heading into the second week of a bad cold and today I have a headache and I'll be glad when my sunny sweet boy is back. :-) I mean he's also apparently in a growth spurt, because I can see that he's taller and his legs have got skinny and that makes me conclude that a large part of the screaming is that he's hungry more or less all of the time. And we're not keeping food from him - except when we make him wait until his diaper is changed before giving him his bottle at bedtime, for example. But he's not, as I said to my mother-in-law, on any sort of calorie restriction at this time. If the only thing that will make him stop crying is another teething cracker (oh yes: lateral incisors are coming in slowly and his little gums are even bleeding some of the time; he can have all the teething biscuits he wants), let's do it.
Some mornings he wakes up crying so pitifully that one of us will go get him and bring him back to the big bed with us. We know some of the time he's whimpering to test how we respond to which of his efforts, so we don't go get him every time. This morning he was fussy starting at about 4:30 a.m. but only sort of one minute or less of noise, two to five minutes of quiet, repeat. It's very possible he was cold but I knew if I went in to pull his blanket up he'd see me and then scream when I left the room, so I burrowed under my covers and let him sort out his own shit. And he never got anywhere near the level of upset that sends us in to get him. So we didn't - but we were both awake most of that hour and a half before the alarm went off, so. (We are not terribly concerned that we're setting up unsustainable patterns; we don't, as I said, bring him back to us every day and we expect that when he's out of this period of turmoil he will sleep better through the night again.)
♥
He's still not quite walking; at day care they can guide him to within a couple of steps of a seated adult and let go his hands and he will "walk" (= stagger) toward her, but with us he almost invariably does not do this - if we let go his hands he sits down and crawls the rest of the way to where he's going. But holding our hands - or, more often, holding just one hand or pushing his train - he's steadier and steadier.
He's also not quite talking, although he clearly thinks he is. Today we've determined that "ah baaa" means "I'm the baby," which is true. He's started pointing to himself when he says it, which is awesome. :-) He can also point to his head, his nose (generally his upper lip, with his mouth closed), his mouth (generally his lower lip, with his mouth open), and his toes. (That's my favorite one, probably because his little feet are my favorite part. "Where are your toes?" we ask, and he flexes his foot and looks down at his toes to make sure they're there and we can see them. I cannot textually render how freaking adorable this is.) He doesn't know "tummy" and we're working on "ears." When he says "ma maaa" I always answer, whether we think he's talking to me or not, because I want him to know that's my name. His dad does the same when he says "da daaa." (We do call him by his name as well as calling him "baby.")
He's enjoying a variety of foods, but in phases. I'm having to find my own peace with his ebbing and flowing appetite. (It's fine. He's gaining weight and filling his diapers and if he eats yogurt at three meals in a day, fine. It's fine.) He likes to put his own spoon in his mouth if we've put yogurt or applesauce or whatever on it for him. He'd also like to put his own fork in his mouth, but we're not letting him drive the fork yet. With bite-sized pieces of meat or cheesy toast he often takes the bite right off the fork; other times he likes to pluck the bite off the fork with his fingers and put it in his own mouth; other other times he likes to pluck the bite off the tines of the fork, set it back on the fork, and then have us put the food in his mouth from the fork. It is not possible to predict when he will shift from one preference to the other. :-P
He's in a slight period (apparently, according to the "Wonder Weeks" book my brother sent me a couple of months ago, we can expect this period to last four or five weeks; we're halfway into week two) of sleep and behavioral regression probably connected to frustration at not feeling like the boss of what happens to him. For example, he seems to agree that clean diapers are more comfortable than wet or dirty diapers, but he nevertheless often screams (screams) when we change them. I know it's harder for him than it is for us. Nevertheless I'm heading into the second week of a bad cold and today I have a headache and I'll be glad when my sunny sweet boy is back. :-) I mean he's also apparently in a growth spurt, because I can see that he's taller and his legs have got skinny and that makes me conclude that a large part of the screaming is that he's hungry more or less all of the time. And we're not keeping food from him - except when we make him wait until his diaper is changed before giving him his bottle at bedtime, for example. But he's not, as I said to my mother-in-law, on any sort of calorie restriction at this time. If the only thing that will make him stop crying is another teething cracker (oh yes: lateral incisors are coming in slowly and his little gums are even bleeding some of the time; he can have all the teething biscuits he wants), let's do it.
Some mornings he wakes up crying so pitifully that one of us will go get him and bring him back to the big bed with us. We know some of the time he's whimpering to test how we respond to which of his efforts, so we don't go get him every time. This morning he was fussy starting at about 4:30 a.m. but only sort of one minute or less of noise, two to five minutes of quiet, repeat. It's very possible he was cold but I knew if I went in to pull his blanket up he'd see me and then scream when I left the room, so I burrowed under my covers and let him sort out his own shit. And he never got anywhere near the level of upset that sends us in to get him. So we didn't - but we were both awake most of that hour and a half before the alarm went off, so. (We are not terribly concerned that we're setting up unsustainable patterns; we don't, as I said, bring him back to us every day and we expect that when he's out of this period of turmoil he will sleep better through the night again.)
♥
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