14 months: A month of laughs and cuddles

At 14 months Little Man has 7 teeth, some hair growing in, and a beaming personality.  My baby boy is a mess.  He is non-stop!  His precious personality shines through more and more with each passing day.  This age is so much fun.  He is always doing something to make us laugh.  Some days it is just an expression in his face that will do the trick.  While part of the month was no fun, 10 full days of crankiness due to an ear infection turned throat infection.  It was a rough week and a half.  But, we survived and we are now back to our smiley and playful selves.  We are also working slowly from being super clingy, which was made worse by being sick, to being ok playing by himself some. 

Hey ladies, want a ride?  Really just an evening walk in this cooler weather

Brusha, brusha, brusha

 

Hey Daddy, what are you looking at?

Some of the new characteristics he has picked up this month:

First, the not so fun and adorable traits, pushing and hitting.  We have officially hit the "I am a toddler and I want my way" phase.  If someone sits on his couch, he pushes them off.  If someone gets on the climber with him, he pushes them off.  If someone is sitting on a push toy, he pulls their shirt to get them off.  Needless to say, there have been a lot of battle of the wills around here.  He has also started making bedtime a treat -- oh wait, you can't hear my sarcasm online.  The blood curdling screams at night are super.  Any suggestions on dealing with this are welcome!!  You can contact me via blog, email, or Facebook.

While it may not be all fun and games, it is mostly fun and games.  Little man has picked up the need to move that body.  We first noticed while were at dinner with the Flynn crew on Sunday night.  Cee Lo Green came on overhead rocking some Forget You.  We turn to see Ethan bobbing his head and waving his arms to the beat, smiling all the while.  He has been non-stop ever since.  This has made car rides over the past week a lot more fun!

This has nothing to do with dancing, but he was practicing his driving skills too!

One of his new favorite things to do these days is to wave "bye-bye".  Even if we aren't leaving, he just goes around yelling, "bye-bye, bye-bye".  Sometimes he will even add a name to it, usually Dada.  He has also picked up putting his hand on his mouth and "ahh ahh ahh"ing.  You know, like the way Hollywood has told us Indians used to do.  I am not sure where he picked this up.  I have caught his Dad, and Aunt Carissa doing it with him.  So whoever started that, thank you! 

Mealtime has also become an event.  Fortunately for me, he is not really a messy eater, no matter what the picture belows tells you.  However, he does feel the need to remove pieces from the plate or bowl, set them on the table, floor, or wherever else we may be eating, and then proceed to eat those pieces first.  We are working on mastering the spoon.  He knows how to put it in his mouth the right way, but can't quite figure out the scooping.  He just dips it in the yogurt (or other food) and then proceeds as normal.

I look good with a yogurt beard.  It's distinguished

We have also started partially carrying around a lovey.  He isn't super attached to it, yet.  I can see that he may become that way.  Only time will tell.  Thank goodness his lovey is adorable.  It was given to him by his "Aunt" Cici, who we don't see near enough these days.  *Cough* come see us *cough*.  It is a little monkey head and arms attached to a fabric hankey with his name embroidered on it.  Little man has been sleeping with it in his crib, along other toys for playing when waking up, for weeks now.  All of a sudden, this is the toy to have.  He cuddles it when we walk around or have our morning milk.  So, thank you Aunt Cici.

And the biggest change this month, rather this past week.......walking!  While we are not a full time walker, I think that is not too far away.  He has started taking multiple steps at a time for the past few days.  He really started taking interest in standing and taking a couple of steps on Saturday while he was spending some time with Daddy.  But, today was actually a big day in the walking game.  Leave it to the deliciousness of McDonald's sweet tea to give him motivation.  The big number for the day ended up being about 15 consecutive steps.  He was SOOOOO proud of himself the entire night.  Each time he would finish walking he would give me or our friend, Sarah, a big hug with lots of giggles.  I blame him being a late walker on the mere fact that he is a diligent crawler.  Why walk when I am so speedy in this method?  We are finally making some progress in the area.  Let's just hope it keeps up.  Thanks, Sarah, for helping us get through this, the biggest of milestones!

Playtime with Abigail.  Yes, he is actually sharing his couch!

Up next:  A summer of redos and road trip crafts!