Where We Are

I found a cheap copy of "What to Expect: The Toddler Years" yesterday. I have a love/hate relationship with these books. Sometimes, when Little Man is surpassing even the "might even be able to" things I love the book; other times, like when he hasn't even attempted the "should be doing" things, I hate them and vow to not look at them anymore. So, mostly for my own remembrance, here are the things Little Man is achieving these days:

• He can say Dad, hi, bye, shoes, cheese, hot, and Jesus.
• He can make the sound a duck, a cow, a sheep, a rooster, and a monkey make.
• While looking through books, he can find and point to lots of objects. Some that he knows especially well are grapes, ball, guitar, and fish.
• He is showing some early signs of potty training-readiness. When you ask him if he pooped, he will look down at his diaper, then shake his head or nod.
  
• He has mad dance skills. When he hears music, he starts bouncing up and down. Sometimes he will grab my hand so that we can dance together. And my favorite move is the turning-in-circles move. He giggles the whole time he's spinning, then falls down with dizziness.
  
• He's getting good at scribbling. We try to keep him away from crayons (he eats them) but he does very well with colored pencils.
  
• When we say that it's time to have a prayer, he folds his arms (for about 5 seconds).
• He's very close to running. He has perfected prancing, however.
  
• He's very good at building with his blocks. The book says he should be able to stack two blocks, but he's been building towers for awhile now.
  
• He knows several "commands." When asked, he will throw something in the garbage, shut a door, go get his shoes, hold hands, give kisses, go to his highchair, and go into the bathroom when it's time to brush teeth. We're still working on "Come here" and "Stop that".
  
• He will drink his milk cold. Since we switched him to cow's milk, the only way we've been able to get him to drink it is by warming it up. Finally, just in the last few weeks, we've been able to get him to drink it straight out of the fridge. (In a related story from the week, the other morning, James got him a cup of milk when he got up. Little Man handed it back to him and said, "Hot." So maybe we haven't completely broken him of the habit.)
• He had a molar break through. He's still missing the two teeth in between the front one and the molar, so hopefully those don't end up crooked. The molar seems to have stopped moving down, but there is a tiny sliver of sharpness back there.
  

Although it is not an achievement by any means, he is still enjoying his baby food. He is such a picky eater! Mostly, he's unwilling to try anything new. Last week, while having dinner at my mom's, he tried bread (in the form of a roll) for the first time. We can usually get him to eat noodles, corn, beans (as in dried beans), tomatoes, and graham crackers. And don't even mention the word "yogurt" unless you plan on giving him a bowl-full.

Making mischief.

Playing guitar with Daddy. We tried to go camping a few weeks ago, and ended up packing up and coming home at 11:30 because Little Man had been crying for about two hours. He doesn't like to sleep anywhere except in his crib.

Every night after his bath, Little Man enjoys running around the house with his cape. It is one of my favorite parts of the day.