Fourteen Months

This post is being written in quick, furtive bursts while the possum is otherwise distracted. In the last month he’s become way too adept at climbing and walking. This gives him the ability to seemingly be in all places at once. And there is nothing he loves more than to come pound on my keyboard while I’m trying to type, so we have to be fast here.

Newest words include cheese (yup, he’s our boy), hug, and trees. He’s also become a pro at signing for food and will do so when he’s hungry, when you mention breakfast, lunch, or dinner, say food, or just hang out in the kitchen. He’s recently developed a love affair with cheese and often signs for food and says cheese. Even after he’s just finished a huge dinner. In this family there’s always room for cheese.

I was starting to feel like he was becoming a grumpier kid than he’d been in the past, and certainly he’s much more opinionated about things (I say that every few months…that he’s more opinionated…), but lately my sunshiney boy has been back. I suspect the mood had to do with our move and getting sick.

He’s now settling into our new place and seems to be enjoying the freedom of being permitted to wander most of the apartment. No drawer or cabinet is safe around him. Last week he was in childcare three times, which is more than the rest of his life combined. He’s with some of the same kids each of those times (it was for church and then some church-related events), so I’m hoping he’ll make friends and that will help going forward.

He LOVES other kids, and he loves a crowd. We have evening service church, and I was afraid he was going to lose it during the social time afterward since it was already late, and then there was the time change. But he was having the best time ever running inside where mama was and then outside where dad was over and over again, weaving through people’s legs and watching other kids.

He’s got two more teeth coming in on the bottom for a new total of eight. And his hair is probably his most remarked upon feature these days—the longer it gets, the more it curls.

When he has a question (not that we understand what he’s asking usually, but he clearly has questions) or when he doesn’t know the answer to something you’ve asked him, he puts his hands out with palms up and sort of shrugs. Kills me.

He can show you where his hair, toes, belly, bellybutton, and eyes are. And where your nose and ears are. He’s also started doing some of the hand motions to some of the kiddie songs when I sing them.

A couple weeks ago we passed the year anniversary of his due date and BabyCenter sent me a “Your Toddler This Week” email instead of “Your Baby This Week.” Since they up and took away my “baby,” I finally went in and changed his birth date to his actual birth date. Lo and behold, he really is acting like a 14-month-old.