21 Month Update

If I don't start writing some of this great stuff down I'll completely forget all about these precious times!

 

So yes, our "baby" is in the last quarter of being 1 year old.  It's an amazing time.

 

I'm sure I have lots of stories, good, bad, funny, scary I could share, but let's do the basics.

 

Eating:
He weaning about 4 months ago, so he's on whole milk, VERY watered down juice, and water for the most part.  He can be a good eater and he can be terrible eater.

He LOVES fruit.  He devours it.  He always eats that first on his plate and will let a whole plate of food plop on his face while he's trying to drink the fruit juice left behind.

He is a fast eater.  It's like he eats what he wants and he is done, time to throw the plate, fork, drink, rip off the bib and squeeze his scrawny little butt and legs out of the high chair.  That's all while there is still plenty of food on his plate.  A lot of times he gets out of his high chair, finds a seat next to one of us and starts begging for us to feed him off our plates.

He loves raisins, cereal, cheese, smoothies, peanut butter, and any kind of fruit.

As long as he has ranch dressing he'll about eat anything if there is a dip.

 

Sleeping:

We still go through our ups and downs with this.

He finally started sleeping through the night on a regular basis probably around 18 months.  He didn't really do much of that at all till 14 months.  And it's gotten better as we go along.  He had reflux so bad as a baby that I think that really messed things up for his sleeping habits.  Now usually sleeping gets messed up if he's teething, sick, or has a bad dream.  But for the most part down if he wakes in the middle of the night he can get himself back to sleep.

I updated on our new bedtime routine HERE

 

Communication:
He is such a babbler.  I know there are kids his age talking a lot better then he does.  He really tries to say a lot of words, but they just don't come out right at all.  I spoke with his dr. about it and he seems to not be concerned.  He is understanding what we are saying, follows directions (most of the time, he is a toddler), and signs words plenty.  Plus he IS babbling so he has something going on as far a speech goes. 
Words he says well: BYE, HI, baba, trash, booboo, truck, nigh-nigh, no no, bubbles, he says "mommy" now instead of calling me "meme" and calls Steve "daddy" instead of "dada",  "where'd it go?"  I'm sure I'm missing a bunch.
Then words he is signing regularly are:
light, night-night, more, eat, water, juice, please, thank you, poop, potty, open, he's always shook his head "no" but now he is shaking his head "yes" a lot.

 

Which brings me to Potty Training:
We've been putting in on the potty for months now.  And he has been going.  But he's never been much for telling us to go.  He does sometimes but usually it's me asking and he will say yes or no.  Usually he say yes, but then he won't go.  He's said he needed to poop on the potty 2 times and both times has.  So that's awesome!!  I think he goes pee on the potty at least once a day.  Usually after a diaper change or before a bath. 
We haven't used cloth diapers for months now.  They all need a very deep cleaning with stuff I need to order and haven't done it.  I went ahead and put some on his one week just to save money and he hated them.  He has been out of them for so long now, he just doesn't get it anymore.  He just says "MY BUTT!"  :( 

 

Health update:
He had blood work done about 2 weeks ago to check his anemia.  It has greatly improved to the point where we don't need to give him meds every morning.  He was taking a iron supplement first thing everyday, and did that for 3 months.  But other then that he is in great shape.  He has a cold that has him congested right now, but nothing to be concerned about. 

I need to weigh and measure his height to see just how big he really is.  I know we just had a growth spurt, he's pretty well pushing the limits of his 18 month footed sleepers.  Problem is 24 months pants do not fit him around the waist and nearly fall right off.  Weird stage in size right now.

 

He has 11 teeth now.  4 molars, 4 front on the top, and 3 front on the bottom.  Pretty sure he's trying to get more right now.

 

He is a CLIMBER.  Wow, boys are much different then girls in that area.  He has hacked some of the baby proofing.  He's tried climbing over gates.  He can climb INTO his crib, I'm trying to deter that so he won't climb OUT of his crib anytime soon.  Lord help me when it's toddler bed time.... ugh... just the thought makes me loose sleep.

 

He's such a funny little guy.  His baby voice and his silly faces.  The way he plays pretend.  The belly laughs.  The way him and his big sister play together and laugh and laugh.  The kisses he's always blowing.  Bringing up blankets and then climbing into our laps to snuggle.  The fact that he already thinks it's funny when he toots.  And a million other things.

 

We just love our Little Man

 

Not feeling well eating some strawberries

Morning bedhead

He climbed up on the couch with a blanket all on his own with the pillow

Wanted to wear his backpack like sissy one morning while taking her to school

Morning breakfast smoothie



Betime Routine Update - 21 Months

 

Little man is 21 MONTHS OLD.

 

What.  In.  The. World.

 

 

We have a new bedtime routine!

 

 

 

Carter is finally FINALLY going down, by himself, in his crib.  BOOM.

Back story, he nursed till he was almost 18 months old (that's a whole different story).  So he had just ALWAYS been held to go to sleep.  Nurse and he was out.  Naps and betimes, were all on my (the mom's) shoulders.  Till one day, he decided that nursing wasn't good enough anymore.  But he still was wanting to suckle to go to sleep, but didn't want a paci.  Sooooo... we introduced a bottle, yes, we did, at 18 months old. 

That leads us to the part where, now mom is no longer the sole provider, yay!  Dad's turn!  Night time was now daddy/Carter time and I still had him for his 1 nap during the day.  We split it equally.  Steve loved it.  He finally got that time with Carter after all these months.  Then came the trouble.  He was starting to wake up as soon as he'd lay him down in his crib.  It got to the point where he would be in such a panic even after we were well out of his room.

 

Onto the solution.  He's got his bottle, why not lay him IN the crib WITH the bottle.  It eliminated the transfer from lap to crib.  Should work right?  His first day of this was a little rough.  He wanted to be held (of course) to go to sleep.  But I really took it slow and got him comfortable with the idea after a couple days he was running for the crib asking for his "baba" and ready to go to sleep. 

 

The catch here, I was sitting - on a stool - next to his bed - waiting for him to fall asleep.  I did that for a couple weeks, and after the first week I sat on the stool next to the door where he wasn't able to see me, and then by the 3rd week, we were out the door. 

 

So now we are finally, after 21 months, able to put our little guy down and walk away during nap and bedtimes.  Shewww... Long haul there.  Our daughter had no trouble with sleep or us not being in the room.  Carter is very much a momma's boy. 

 

So now onto the next task... weaning from the bottle.

He will be 2 in less then 3 months and I think that will be a good time to kick it out the door.  I mean, he's only had it a total of 3 months period of his entire life.  So yeah, some might think he's too old for a bottle, but he'll be on it much shorter amount of time then the average baby anyhow.  So it is working for us right now, and for that I'm grateful.