Never a Dull Moment

Our little daredevil, energizer bunny of a toddler never ceases to amaze me... he really does have a new trick every day, if not every hour. This week he has been focusing on what he can make his tiny, but quite capable, body do. He stands on his trike, tries to do somersaults, spins in circles until he's dizzy, climbs on anything and everything, "sits" on chairs (if you can call standing up and looking backwards "sitting," and "jumps" (his feet haven't left the floor yet, but his knees and arms sure do a lot of work). We spend a lot of time at the park and outdoors trying to satisfy his desire for physical challenges.

Not only is he working on gross motor skills, but his fine motor skills as well. He will sit for 20 minutes at a time playing with stickers. He points to the one he wants, wants patiently for mommy or daddy to peel it off for him, then he transfers it carefully from his own fingers to the paper. He is extremely dexterous! He also scribbles with crayons (even the thin ones), turns pages of books, and plays with cards (taking them in and out of their box). Those little fingers are always working.

He is talking *so* much these days and is refining some of his "older" words that weren't so understandable before. He is very good at telling us what he does and doesn't want. He also remembers events that happen during the day, and sometimes even several days ago and will mention them if his memory is jogged. We went to the doctor last week (to see if he had an ear infection, which he did *not* have. yay!), and when I told him we were going he said, "Ish!" (fish) "Achtor!" (doctor). "Yeah!" and ran to the door. He remember that the doctor's office has fish tanks and wanted to go. Later that night I was brushing his teeth and he touched his mouth and said "Mowff" (mouth) "Achtor." I was confused at first until I remembered that the doctor had looked in his mouth to see if he was teething. Then he went on to tell me that the doctor looked in his ears as well. I'm really surprised at his language development. He was kind of quiet as a baby, didn't really babble that much until maybe 9 or 10 months... but he was *so* observant. I think he must have been absorbing and processing and now is putting it to use.

Reshen has formed a strong attachment to one of his stuffed animals- a panda bear. Totally out of the blue! I have been trying to get him to become attached to a baby blanket and teddy bear since he was 6 months old, but he still doesn't really care about them. Then Friday he picked up his panda bear and didn't want to put it down- even for a bath! He has slept with it two nights in a row now and carries it downstairs with him in the morning. I have no idea why he has chosen this particular stuffed animal. Although he is also forming funny attachments to other objects too. He has been carrying around a piece of his blocks set all day (it has a butterfly on it and he keeps calling it "dye" (meaning "fly" I think). Toddlers are so funny like that- becoming obsessed with certain things for short periods of time. I wonder if his panda will become a permanent "lovey" or if it will pass as well.





We have had a rough couple of nights. After a really sleeping streak for a couple of months, he has woken up around 10 the past couple of nights just screaming and will not go back to sleep. Friday night he was up and down for about an hour. I thought that was bad until last night... 3 hours!!! No kidding. From 10 pm- 1 a.m. we were all awake. We tried everything- rocking, Tyelnol, milk, diaper change, pj change, sleeping in our bed, letting him cry a bit, turning on his night light, etc.. He didn't really act like he was in pain or sick, just that he couldn't sleep an didn't want to separated from us. He kept telling me "Mama. Rock." in a whiny tone. He just wanted me to hold and rock him. I was OK doing this for awhile, but not 3 hours! If he was with us, he was OK, but the second I laid him in his crib he would scream and thrash about. I'm wondering if he woke from a bad dream and was maybe in some kind of weird sleep state- like between sleep and awake and couldn't get back to sleep.. Like I said, he's not sick, no ear infection, he's fine and happy today. Teething maybe? He finally fell asleep after some more rocking around 1 a.m.. And then he tried to get up at 5:30 this morning!! I was able to rock him back to sleep then too and he slept until 7:15. *sigh* needless to say, we are all tired today. I really hope this doesn't happen again tonight.

He has become very adventurous with his food this past week. He will try almost anything now, he even ate a small piece of raw green pepper today! Meals have become a bit easier, as he will usually eat whatever Alan and I eat (as long as it is not too spicy or difficult to chew). Today he had a meatball sandwich (cut up, of course) and a veggie casserole containing eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes. He still prefers dairy products and carbs over anything, but it is nice that he is eating a better variety of veggies and meats these days. He loves going to Costco because of all the food samples they have. He points at them and says "Um!" (yum) even before he knows exactly what food it is. Perhaps he's becoming a foodie just like his daddy and mommy :-)