Where he is.
I had decided that for this second year of the Bug's life I would only do the monthly update style post every 3 months since (I thought) things would be slowing down for him. In one way, this is correct. His physical growth is very slow. But in everything else, agility, language, reasoning he is rapidly advancing. So this post is as much about me documenting that and what he is doing right now, at 14 months, as anything else.
He started walking just after 12 months and has been fairly steady from day one. Or maybe I should say, sure of himself. He falls a ton of times everyday but rarely hurts himself. You can almost watch him calculating the best way to land on the way down. He is graceful getting back up most times, easily handles 4" to 5" steps himself and is now capable of going up and down our stairs without assistance (though we do hold his hand most of the time and never intentionally let him have access to the stairs on his own.) Yesterday he climbed up my legs and into my lap while I was sitting at the table.
He is most interested in things that roll right now. His pull toy wooden train is played with everyday all day long. His giant, heavy bouncing ball can easily entertain him for 45 minutes straight. More if we play with him too. I bought a little plastic wind up car at the bookstore the other day for him and he and his papa can play with that for 30 or 45 minutes straight as well. Of course, he loves to empty containers or fill a bucket and carry it around too.
Communication is ramping up as well. He says dog (dah or woowoov), up, hi, yes, down, help, bottle (ba) and a few other words I'm blanking on right now. He also signs hello and bye-bye and all done. We are working on giving him the sounds animals make. (Lions say roar! etc.) He clearly understands directions, even ones we don't use all the time. He learned the words for open and close the door the other night. He problem solves to get to things he can't reach, sometimes seeming to think a couple steps ahead (move this chair this way, now that one that way, now crawl under and get the car.) He tells us what he wants with pointing and bringing us things. The coolest part of this is now I can tell how he feels sometimes, and I can tell that he knows how to change how he feels. I may be just a proud parent but I feel like that is pretty advanced emotionally. Example: We have been working on weaning and now he goes all day without nursing (um, yay!) and you can tell it has made him feel a little separated from me (and John interestingly.) How does he get more time being closer to us? He walks over to the Ergo
and pulls on it or brings it over to us and says, "Up." This only started the last week since the morning nursing session was cut from our schedule. Once in the ergo he fairly quickly falls asleep if it is close to nap time or cuddles and observes if it is dinner making time.
His interest in books is returning after a brief hiatus (hello walking, why would you sit still??) And I got him a table and chairs his own size for the living room yesterday at Ikea. He is just starting to understand that you might not just eat a crayon, it also does cool things on paper! This will be a few more months before it becomes an activity we can do. He likes to look at magazines and junk mail (of course :).
We are also trying to sweep more since the combination of the heat making the animals shed like crazy, having a sand and water table on the front porch (an excellent freecycle score) and the nature of toddlerdom being dirty and eating every speck of everything off the floor is all too much. But E always wants the broom so he can "help" so I ordered him a Little Helper Broom Set
so that he can work along side me. (Having him in the ergo so often is helping with house cleaning as well. You have to keep moving for it to work. :)
So there you go- all the news that is from his world.
PS- there is a little video on flickr if you click through the pictures which shows him playing with the train and going up and down a stair. More fun for grandparents than others I imagine :)
He started walking just after 12 months and has been fairly steady from day one. Or maybe I should say, sure of himself. He falls a ton of times everyday but rarely hurts himself. You can almost watch him calculating the best way to land on the way down. He is graceful getting back up most times, easily handles 4" to 5" steps himself and is now capable of going up and down our stairs without assistance (though we do hold his hand most of the time and never intentionally let him have access to the stairs on his own.) Yesterday he climbed up my legs and into my lap while I was sitting at the table.
He is most interested in things that roll right now. His pull toy wooden train is played with everyday all day long. His giant, heavy bouncing ball can easily entertain him for 45 minutes straight. More if we play with him too. I bought a little plastic wind up car at the bookstore the other day for him and he and his papa can play with that for 30 or 45 minutes straight as well. Of course, he loves to empty containers or fill a bucket and carry it around too.
Communication is ramping up as well. He says dog (dah or woowoov), up, hi, yes, down, help, bottle (ba) and a few other words I'm blanking on right now. He also signs hello and bye-bye and all done. We are working on giving him the sounds animals make. (Lions say roar! etc.) He clearly understands directions, even ones we don't use all the time. He learned the words for open and close the door the other night. He problem solves to get to things he can't reach, sometimes seeming to think a couple steps ahead (move this chair this way, now that one that way, now crawl under and get the car.) He tells us what he wants with pointing and bringing us things. The coolest part of this is now I can tell how he feels sometimes, and I can tell that he knows how to change how he feels. I may be just a proud parent but I feel like that is pretty advanced emotionally. Example: We have been working on weaning and now he goes all day without nursing (um, yay!) and you can tell it has made him feel a little separated from me (and John interestingly.) How does he get more time being closer to us? He walks over to the Ergo
and pulls on it or brings it over to us and says, "Up." This only started the last week since the morning nursing session was cut from our schedule. Once in the ergo he fairly quickly falls asleep if it is close to nap time or cuddles and observes if it is dinner making time. His interest in books is returning after a brief hiatus (hello walking, why would you sit still??) And I got him a table and chairs his own size for the living room yesterday at Ikea. He is just starting to understand that you might not just eat a crayon, it also does cool things on paper! This will be a few more months before it becomes an activity we can do. He likes to look at magazines and junk mail (of course :).
We are also trying to sweep more since the combination of the heat making the animals shed like crazy, having a sand and water table on the front porch (an excellent freecycle score) and the nature of toddlerdom being dirty and eating every speck of everything off the floor is all too much. But E always wants the broom so he can "help" so I ordered him a Little Helper Broom Set
so that he can work along side me. (Having him in the ergo so often is helping with house cleaning as well. You have to keep moving for it to work. :) So there you go- all the news that is from his world.
PS- there is a little video on flickr if you click through the pictures which shows him playing with the train and going up and down a stair. More fun for grandparents than others I imagine :)
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