Bennett at 14 months

It's probably high time that I record a little more about what's going on with our boy these days. Every single day Bennett is changing and he is such a toddler all of a sudden. He officially took some first steps on a Sunday morning, May 5th, just past 13 months. Michael was convinced that it was never going to happen and considers this to be quite late, since he was a very early walker and has always had high/unreasonable expectations for Bennett in the motor milestones department : ) Within a week or so he was very steady on his feet and was walking full time. In fact, after he took those first steps, I think he only ever crawled again a handful of times, like when I would pick him up from daycare and he wanted to get to me as quickly as possible. He never really did the zombie walk with arms stretched out while learning to walk and instead he kept them up and bent at the elbows. We have noticed with Bennett that he may take a little while to come around to something, like crawling or walking, but once he does it he masters it extremely quickly.

 Kind of along those lines, he's extremely quiet, observant, and reserved in unfamiliar places and around new people, but once he warms up to the new environment he's back to his usual noisy, outgoing, confident self. Now that he is walking, he loves to cruise all around the house from room to room, gathering random things and redistributing them in odd places. He's really into things that are not toys of course, like my Neti pot and salt packets under my bathroom sink. Ha ha! He will get in there every single morning while I'm in the shower.

Bennett is talking up a storm and I think that we've counted about 30 words that we easily recognize. By 13 months he was saying ball, balloon, book, dog, cat, banana, daddy, mommy, keys, bye, that, vroom vroom, done, bird, up, down, again, and yum yum, and was signing milk, all done, and again. By 14 months he also had hi, cheese, duck, uh oh, food, cup, moo, and please, and he signs bird, more, book, food, and please. I nearly die from the cuteness when he signs and says, "please", and it's almost impossible to say no to whatever he is requesting. I guess I'll have to get over that, because obviously he does need to be told no occasionally! His most commonly used word is definitely "up", which comes out as "bup". He follows me around all day and night with his arms outstretched repeating "bup, bup!" SUCH a mama's boy, but also crazy about his dad. For some reason he rarely says "mommy" but without fail when he sees Michael he says, "Dad!" He also loves to say "bah/bye" to Dad every morning and at bedtime while waving over the banister or at the window. (Although, despite the fact that he is in the extreme mommy phase, he's also very independent and confident and doesn't hesitate to wander away for a while when he's in his comfort zone and knows where to find me, which I love. It's so much fun to watch him toddle away and then go to find him and discover him sitting at his little table or getting out some toys.)

He is obsessed with books still and his favorite thing to do is bring one to you, plop himself in your lap, and say "book" or "please". Or, if he's requesting a book from Daddy and Daddy is lying on the floor, he reclines on the floor with him and drapes himself across Daddy's neck and nearly suffocates him while Daddy reads. He loves to point to the pictures and identify the things he recognizes, especially balloons. After you read a book that he particular likes, he will sign and say "again" until you have read it many times, or until he gets bored partway through and goes to get another one. At night he loves to lean over the side of his rocking chair and take every single book out of the pockets on the chair and hand them to me one by one.

Other things Bennett's into: dancing, going down the street with Mommy to get the mail in his wagon then sorting through the mail and tossing it on the floor piece by piece, being outside, gathering random sticks and leaves, the dogs (any dogs for that matter), balls, falling asleep in his new toddler carseats, going to the grocery store and Costco with Dad (sometimes they allow Mom to come along), banging on computer keyboards, giving kisses, making a mess of piles of laundry and emptying drawers, crawling/running away during diaper changes, climbing up the stairs, climbing anything, but especially the ottoman at the bottom of Mom and Dad's bed, playing with and eating toilet paper, being naked and investigating his boy parts, pooping in the bathtub.

Dislikes: when Mommy leaves his sight or can't pick him up when requested, diaper changes, school drop off, getting strapped into the carseat (sometimes), the skin on green beans, naps at home.

He now has four molars either partway in or all the way, one in each quadrant of his mouth. For a while he had just the three top front teeth but finally now he has all four of those. Still just the bottom two in front but he's working on the third and fourth down there and they are giving him a bit of trouble.

Sleep is still a bit frustrating. I think Bennett was finally sleeping through the night consistently around 10 months or so and it is rare now for him to wake up at all during the night. If he does, he might cry for a minute or two but he puts himself back to sleep. He goes down very easily around 7 pm after the routine of a pretty long bath, jammies, playing in his room with mom and dad, reading books, then turning on his noise machine and nursing. He either falls asleep nursing and then easily transfers to the crib and rolls onto his tummy and crashes, or if he doesn't fall asleep nursing I can put him down awake and sit next to the crib for a few minutes and he will chat and sing himself to sleep. He's had a few nights where he has had me laughing by running from corner to corner of the crib, putting his blanket on his head, sticking his feet through the bars, etc. until he finally crashes and passes out. I really wish we had invested in a video monitor cause I'd love to be able to see what he's up to without being in the room. Unfortunately he is quite an early bird and his night time sleep usually maxes out at about 10 hours and he wakes up anywhere between 4:30 and 6 am, usually in the 5 am hour. Even if we keep him up a bit later than 7, he's still awake before dawn. Sometimes he will go back to sleep nursing in our bed but more often than not lately he's up for good. This makes for one tired mama, especially since I'm not good about going to bed as early as I should and am usually not asleep until 10:30 or so. Plus I just don't sleep nearly as well as I did before having him and I feel like I'm awake several times in the night and sleep very lightly, which I NEVER would have said in the past.

Naps at home are also still a struggle. He just can't stand to nap in his crib on the weekends and it is a battle of wills. If/when he does finally go to sleep in his room, he's usually awake and crying again within an hour. Most days at home he's getting a total of a one hour nap, making for a somewhat cranky boy. I'm really not sure what we are doing wrong here or why he wakes after such a short time once he is asleep in the crib. I try letting him cry it out a bit when he does wake up after a short time, but it never seems to work and he just gets really worked up. I follow the same routine that I do at night with the book, dark room, noise machine, and nursing and try to put him down awake, but it still can take him upwards of an hour to fall asleep, if at all.

Bennett's a pretty decent eater most of the time. Breakfast is typically some scrambled egg with fruit--usually blueberries, raspberries, or banana, or a combo. Sometimes I'll mix it up and offer him something extra like a little waffle or muffin. He loves cheese, fruit, and carbs. Michael has adapted a Paleo diet (no grains or dairy) but Bennett and I still eat pretty much anything. We just try to eat a balanced diet of healthy foods and avoid anything highly processed and junky and we buy as much organic as we can. Bennett hasn't ever had chocolate or ice cream and we really limit things that we consider to be treats like graham crackers/cookies/etc. He's kind of hit or miss with snacks/lunch/dinner at home as far as how much and what he will eat. Sometimes it takes him a bit to warm up to the meal and he'll get off to a slow start and then end up eating more than you think he will. He's still nursing several times a day and requests it any time he's remotely tired or bored. He drinks cow's milk at school and will drink a little bit at home, but usually when I give him a cup of it he'll have a few sips then put it down and sign for milk to nurse. I'm mostly okay with continuing to nurse for a few more months but I really would like to cut out the daytime sessions sooner than later. We don't really do juice and he's a great water drinker. He will say, "bup" for cup when he wants a drink and will also frequently grab our water bottles and help himself.

We did about 6 swimming lessons at the YMCA this Spring and had fun with that, and try to make it to our neighborhood pool at least once every weekend. Bennett is pretty happy in the pool but is also just as happy cruising around out of the pool and people/bird watching. There's a ton of bird nests and babies under the shade cover in the baby pool area and he is fascinated by watching them come and go. I'm hoping that by the end of the summer when he's closer to 18 months he'll really be loving the water and will be jumping in, going down the baby slide, etc.

This is such an awesome stage and I find myself constantly staring at Bennett and watching him intently, trying to memorize every facial expression and all the little details and mannerisms that make him who he is right now, because I know how quickly he is changing and I already struggle to remember what he was like as a newborn, a crawler, a brand new walker. I loathe being apart from him for any length of time because I know how fleeting this time is, and in all honesty I am just about as needy of his time as he is of mine!