We're starting to see more fits these days. He's really going all out with it. Falling to the floor and kicking his feet. Yep. We have that kid.
Of course, we still completely ignore it. I don't want him to get a single thing out of those fits. Even after the fit is over, he gets at least a 30 second neutral response from us in which we still do not acknowledge him. Then I do my explaining bit. Sometimes I do it at the beginning of the fit, but more and more I'm doing it after the fit, because I don't want him thinking he's even going to get talked do while acting like that.
I have noticed improvement. He's finally started doing this, 'wait a minute, why aren't they do anything?' response. Then, he's scrambling back to his feet and tugging on your pant leg (which is why he also gets the 30 second neutral response).
Like with most kid's fits his happen over the smallest of things sometimes. No, son, you can't have the burning candle on the shelf. No, son, you can't drink dish liquid. No, son, you can't play in the toilet. No, son, you can't stack your foam blocks, climb them, and sit on top of your toy shelf. Ya know... the usual. I do try not to say 'no' that often. Instead I give a verbal redirection and an explanation of why he can't do whatever it is. Don't get me wrong on that one, the word 'no' slips out a lot of the time anyway.
He's turned into somewhat of a social butterfly. Still a bit shy and at times has stranger danger, but at the parks he'll dive right in with other kids. He'll babble and giggle and wave. It's pretty cute. He usually gets to play and interact with other kids at the park 3(ish) times a week. We're still considering a half day program for him by the time he reaches 2 though.
He is still such a little cuddle bug! I love it! He'll get those blankies and run to us. When we scoop him up he'll lay his little head on our shoulder and do his "aw-a-aw-a-aw" sound. Melts my heart.
Just a day or so ago he gave me his first ever spontaneous kiss. If someone mentions kisses, or asks, or has kissed him, or something like that he'll respond. But, it was the first time none of those things had happened and on his own free will he just came up to me with his lips puckered. Sweetest thing ever!
He's still a little sketchy with food right now. With most foods too. Sometimes he'll love something and the next day he won't. Believe it or not, he'll actually munch happily on a salad if it's from one of our plates. He's also finally taken to green beans again. So he is at least eating more vegetables again. Fruits are less of a problem, but sometimes he even protests them. He is on a grape kick though. He loves him some grapes.
He only ever drinks milk, water, and small amounts of pedialyte. He's been drinking a lot more water lately which makes me so proud! We don't offer any other drinks, and as a result he drinks what we do offer just fine. He even just drinks water with his lunch most days.
His sleeping habits are the same. Two naps a day and bedtime between 8:00-8:15pm, wakeup around 8am. Sometimes he wakes up at like 7(ish), and even on those days he usually will screw around in his crib and doze on and off until we do get him up 8:00.
We use a collective babysitting organization. Which is kind of awesome because they screen all of the people and certify them. Every one of them always compliments us on Nolan's schedule and how well he knows it. They say he's one of the easiest babies they've ever watched.
Maybe that's just something that sitters say to parents, but Nolan definitely knows his schedule and follows along with it easily. I'm sure that is pretty helpful to the sitters.
He's gotten more flexible with it too. We'll get a bit off schedule sometimes on a weekend or if we have an evening errand to run, and he usual flows with it pretty easily.
His play is a bit more creative. I see him actually pretending a lot more. This kid has full on baby talk conversations on the phone. Even starting with a 'heh-wo' and ending with a 'bye.'
He'll go get one of his spoons and pretend feed his bear (and me and Cory).
He mimics so much, and I'm fascinated by it! In all of my jobs watching kids mimic adults has been one of my favorite kinds of observations.
He'll try to put on our shoes the way he sees us do it. He'll start unzipping his hoodie when we come inside the way he sees us do. He'll even grab it by the hood and walk it over to the coat stand and reach it upward (!), because he knows it goes up there with ours. He'll run and get an oven mitten from the correct drawer when the oven timer goes off, because he just knows that's what happens next. Anytime he sees a writing utensil he'll put it to paper and move it, because that's what he sees us do with it.
It's just so cute the things they pick up on without even having them reinforced.
He probably understands so much more than I even know.
He knows the difference between: Do you wanna go upstairs, do you wanna go outside, do you wanna go bye-bye. Because, yes, we use different doors if we're going outside versus going bye-bye. If you say bring me a (book, ball, your shoes, blankie) he knows which item to retrieve.
If you tell him it's bath time he heads for the stairs and walks right to the tub.
If you ask him if he's hungry or wants a bite, he'll start signing and saying 'eat' while heading for his high chair.
He can correctly touch/point to his own ears, head, and toes when asked. He can point to our eyes, nose, and mouth in addition to the others things just mentioned. He won't quite point to his belly button, but when you ask him where his belly button is, he does raise up his shirt.
Speaking of, his umbilical hernia is still prominent. We're giving it to the three year mark, before the surgical correction. Hopefully, it'll work itself out. And his is a result of umbilical trauma from the cord clip.
His language is still iffy in my opinion. But this week alone he added several words to his vocabulary. The poor kid cannot enunciate well, but here are words he says that we know what he's saying:
- mama
- dada
- duhs (ducks)
- whoa
- uh-oh
- bah (ball)
- buh (book)
- sahs (socks)
- shushs (shoes)
- aitch (H)
- be (B)
- eat
- puh-puh (purple)
- eh-woa (yellow)
- oje/oge (not sure how to spell how he says it - ha) - (orange)
- kerkle (circle)
- heh-woa (hello)
- bye
Then his standard 3 sign language words: all done, eat, diaper. We're working on verbal and sign language for 'help' and 'more' quite a lot too. He definitely needs to get down some form of asking for help. He gets so frustrated over things that he could just ask for help over.
He's really developing at a fast rate nowadays. I feel like he surprises me nearly everyday with doing/saying something new. What an awesome stage! Toddlers are so much fun (and for once, I am not being sarcastic).
I'm eager to greet more toddler things with this little man:
Yeah, he likes to pull off the petals.
He also likes to try to eat mulch.
This was just funny. On Father's Day morning, after Nolan had already eaten he was bothering Cory nonstop. Cory finally picks Nolan up and puts him on his lap. At which point Nolan grabs both pieces of bacon (turkey) and just starts munchin away.
Daddy's Day presents :)
He doesn't like being bare foot in the sand, but he does like playing in it otherwise.
He squeezed himself right in there and just started giggling about it.
He climbs on everything these days.
Oh boy. Figured out what he could do with these.
Because we're awesome, and because he's a copycat ;)
Yep. Gotta snap a picture first, of course.
Mmm! Sleepy baby snuggles!
He's a cool kid.
Working on having him hold our hand when we're out and about. He's recently accepted it and does really well.
If it fits in his mouth, it goes in his mouth. But, it's cool because he's got a cool trick - whenever you say, "Spit it out" with your hand up... he just spits whatever it is into your hand.
Such a boy. Playin in the rocks and dirt.
He's such a handsome little man.
(He was watching his color show, and let's face it, that's serious business)
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