16 months!

Dear Leo,

Today your are 16 months old. Most of the excitement of the day is that Grandma and Grandpop got here yesterday, and will be here with you and Papa while Mama is gone away for work.

You're getting to be a little wanna-reader, and will sit (mostly) still for a complete story again. You like to turn the pages, even though it usually means that you're jumping about 15 pages at once (2 or 3 pages, if it's a board book), and you're never sure which way the pages are supposed to move. You'll figure it out, eventually -- with as much as your Mama and I read, you'll have to.

The other major piece of news is that your vocabulary is expanding, both with your mouth and with your hands. New signs that we're pretty sure of include "throw" and your own version of "done." Words include "woof-woof," a recognizable "thank you", and your new favorite, "cracker."

On Wednesday night, you get to spend it with just Grandma and Grandpop, because I have to work really late. On Thursday, it's just us while they're away visiting relatives that we're going to go see a week or so later.

We'll be sure to create addenda as needed, but that's all mama and I can think of for right now.

Tough

This morning at daycare I made a parenting choice. I let Leo get knocked down by another kid while I watched. He didn't get hurt, but he cried. The back story-- in his room there is a boy, E*, who he has known since the infant room, but who is about 6 months older than Leo is. E* is agressive (likes to push and hit, but without any real force) and his mom has been trying to address this issue vigilantly. While we were waiting to check in this morning the boys were hanging out and I could see E* turning to Leo like he was going to push him. E*'s mom immediately told him not to but with no luck, and then after the fact reprimanded E* and apologized to me and to Leo. I didn't step in to stop E* because I made the split-second decision that, 1) it was unlikely to cause bodily harm in this instance, 2) I can't be there to protect Leo from everything all of the time, and that 3) Leo was going to have to learn how to negotiate these situations on his own. So, I let E* push him. Leo was mostly just surprised, and stopped crying quickly. But I felt a little guilty all the same. I will give him extra hugs and kisses tonight.

Book!

Don't mess with book-box boy!


Leo has a favorite book--it's the one he'll dig out of a pile of books to read (over and over again) with us or by himself. It's called "I love the alphabet". My favorite line is "Busy baby bumblebees in their underwear". Heehee. He can now climb into one of the living room chairs all by himself and will do this to read a book.

Leo also has a favorite toy combination. He loves to play with the yellow cup from his stacking cup set and the purple mallet from his music table. Not the green cup and the blue mallet--always the yellow cup and the purple mallet (but he doesn't yet say "Lellow!" like our MI friend Otto).

Here is a picture to illustrate all three favorites:

sleepy

Sometimes little boys don't sleep the whole night through--and then everyone is tired the next day. Leo woke up crying around 11pm and I tried to get him to settle down for almost an hour, but finally relented and brought him back to bed with me--which didn't work--he wriggled and kicked and fussed. So at about 1:30am I said, too bad for you mister, and put him back in his crib. Where he finally fell asleep. Sigh.

I think the transition at daycare is having some effect--he is in good spirits during the day, but I think at night his little brain is just overloaded. He fussed a lot this morning (was probably still tired=cranky)!--which makes me cranky. Hopefully things will settle down soon.

I've got more pics to post--just have to find time to do it. Ok, really, I have to find the energy to do it.

Why didn't we think of this sooner?

At Leo's checkup last week Dr. Murray asked if he liked to imitate us when we did housework. I looked at her blankly and said, "Housework?" She said, "You know, does he like to pretend to sweep or vacuum?" I thought for a minute and said, "Well, if he ever saw us do housework he might!" Housework is not my favorite thing. I am pretty good at keeping the house neat, but clean is another matter. As my mom always said, dust is a protective covering! Now that Leo's not crawling anymore and his little knees don't get so dirty from the floors, I am even less motivated to clean.

Leo has started pulling off his socks and can say "socks" pretty clearly too. He has also started saying "wheeee" when he's having fun--maybe because I say it a lot. That and "boo"--he says that too--which is also from me--I don't know why I say it so often, but I do.

Leo by the Numbers

The results from the15-month checkup, held at 15 months and 1 week:
Weight 23 lbs. 12 oz. (48th percentile)
height 31 3/4" (74th percentile)

No wonder some of his pants aren't fitting any more!

Tonight, as Kirstin was leaving for girls' night out, Leo did something that really, really looked like blowing her a kiss.

No new pictures this time. This is the third night this week of one or the other of us solo parenting. Even with my "snow" day yesterday, we haven't had the camera out much.

(On the "snow": yes, snow fell for a little bit during the morning. But, nothing stayed past about 1:00 or so, and there was no ice accumulation. This, and Durham Public schools [and therefore KHS] had cancelled school the night before, 12 hours before anything started falling. Sheesh.)