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| Fun at the library! |
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| Doing a little re-decorating of his own in our living room after Christmas. |
The blog has been notably Maverick-less as of late, and I'm starting to feel a little bad about it. While it's more of a 'creative writing' outlet for me, it's also for documenting our life as a family. Instagram helps me remember most of his milestones, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading through his monthly updates when he turned one...in fact, I was surprised at what qualified as 'news' during his first three months of life. "Finding and eating his hands?" Big whoop, this morning he played at an indoor playground for almost two hours then downed a banana for a snack. How is it even possible that much can change in a year? If I didn't have written documented proof, I wouldn't believe it myself.
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| Spending a lot of time at the mall/library/CFA/church play places these days. |
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| Maverick doesn't like: winter coats, hoods, winter boots, snow pants, hats, and ESPECIALLY not mittens. I think he might always be a summer-loving pool baby. :) |
Anyway...these here are a few of Maverick's Favorite things...it's funny to see what has stayed the same and which things have drastically changed.
BATHTIME- I'm convinced we could leave him in the tub for an hour. Longer if he has toys to play with. I've started flossing, taking off my make-up, putting on lotion, using face masks...an extravagant beauty routine is accomplished every three days when Mav gets a bath. To say we both look forward to it would be an understatement.
SWIMMING - We weren't in a pool for about three months, but we've been to three hotels this month and Maverick hasn't forgotten a thing! It's more fun now that he's able to crawl and walk around on his own (and 'jump' in standing up) but that means pool time is a whole lot less 'lazy' than it was last year. Practicing this winter is a good thing (for both of us).
SNACKS - He frequently walks to his snack cupboard, pulls stuff out, and brings it to me to ask if he can have it. I'm not big on letting Mav snack all day long...but now that he gets breakfast at 8:00, he's allowed a small mid-morning snack. And one small after-nap-snack. The toddler schedule and routine we've finally accomplished is so amazing.
TRACTORS - It's common for Maverick to spend the first half hour after breakfast playing with one tractor all over the house. The tractor he picks changes, but ONE can occupy him for a looooong time. He knows where the farmer goes to drive, and can match each animal to the places they're supposed to go. He's also mastered his farm animal 'puzzle' and matches the animals and is pretty good at putting them in their shape.
READING - He asks us to read to him all the time. He will find a book in his room and bring it out to us in the living room, then climb up on our laps. This morning he crawled into a tiny spot between the chair and the tall shelf in his room and sat reading books while I got ready for the day. I kept peeking in on him because I kept getting that 'he's too quiet something is wrong' feeling and he was just in there flipping the pages of his books! GAH!
TALKING - So. Much. Talking. He's suddenly able to communicate much more effectively than he could even a month ago. He points to things, 'asks' for things, and tries to repeat after us when I request he say, 'More' 'Please' 'Thank you' 'Up' 'Yes' 'No', etc. Most of what comes out of his mouth sounds like 'Deeees?' But his inflection and tone changes depending on what he is 'telling' us. He likes to cry 'Maaaaamama' and say 'Da!' and 'Dada!' all day, but my favorite is when we change his diaper, he points, I say 'Wenis' and he goes, 'Nana!' Haaaaahahaha...his 'real' Nana does not like it so much. He also says, 'Uh oh' and 'OooooOOoooO!' when observing stuff.
TV - This is a bad habit we've started this winter, but I have just decided I'm not going to feel guilty about it. The list of things he's allowed to watch is pretty slim...Baby Einstein YouTube shows, tractor videos, anything on PBS...and we will turn it on if we have friends over and want to visit during dinner like adults without a whiney baby at our feet (or I'm meeting a friend for coffee/we're visiting someone and I flip on my phone for a 20-minute Einstein video). It's never on for more than an hour a day, and never more than once in a day (if he watches in the morning, I don't turn it on during the evening and vice versa)...but he's started going to the coffee table, getting the remote out of the drawer, handing it to me, and then squealing because he's excited. Perhaps a sign of too much TV? Perhaps a sign it's winter and when we're in the middle of an ice storm and stuck inside the house...this is how we deal. Either way...he loves it, it's semi-educational, and on the worst teething days, it gives me the sanity I need to carry on.
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| Cuddled up watching Elmo on a snow day... |
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| So good at playing on his own... |
He likes putting his toys away and just generally putting random things inside of other things (the other day I found Ball jar lids hidden away in a yogurt box I had sitting beside the door to throw away). He likes the vacuum, the dryer, faucets, and 'wrestling' on beds and couches. He LOVES to be scared. He inspects new things very precisely. His favorite thing about Christmas was all the lights being turned on every morning (and his trees, of course)...along that same note, he likes lamps. But not just one being turned on...ALL OF THEM have to be turned on. We have two in the dining room and two in the living room and he will point and shout 'Dees!' until they're all on. It's hilarious. Another 'word' he says all day is 'Dis!' or 'Dhis' (like 'this' but with a D). He likes helping us turn light switches off and on when we enter and leave rooms. He likes looking out the window at the traffic and the snow, though his feelings about snow are still generally negative. He likes walks in the stroller, walks around Target/Fareway/Sam's Club. The play place at Chick-Fil-A and the mall...he likes watching other kids and will observe them as entertainment, but he's still happy to play by himself or ignore them altogether. He doesn't 'get' sharing' yet, but he also doesn't get upset when kids 'steal' things from him...so I'm not tackling that too hard yet. He fully understands what 'no' means...and it seems like we're in a phase where I have to say it a little less these days. Whereas a few weeks ago, it seemed like I spent all day following him around, saying no, redirecting, saying no some more, and enduring the fits that came from that. I guess we're in a spot where we're reaping those rewards before we go through it all over again. He doesn't usually get too 'rough' when he plays, but he quickly learned what 'nice' touching and 'gentle' meant during Christmas. And that translates well when we're in other places and especially when we're around other little babies.
He's starting to 'help' empty the dishwasher. He's learning how to carry his dirty diaper to the door (for me to throw outside in the trash). When I come to take something away from him (like my phone, the remotes, my earrings) he's started 'handing' things to me when I ask for them like he's helping instead of me just snatching stuff he's not supposed to touch. I let him put the wet laundry in the dryer if he doesn't throw too much of a fit about the door being closed (another favorite...opening and closing ALL doors). I've started getting out paper and Crayons every couple of days for him to try so we can start working on colors, but he's not super interested in that yet. He knows where his hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tummy, wenis, feet, and toes are, which I'm pretty proud of. And he likes the 'So big!' and 'Where's Maverick? - PEEK!' games. Loooooooves being tickled in his neck, the palm of his hand, feet, and my favorite, in his 'arm pitties' (don't ask me why we say it that way, we sort of just started to and went with it). Some days he prefers speed-crawling to walking, but some days he will just 'tour' around each room of the house and do laps for 20 minutes before settling in to play with toys. He likes giving and getting kisses, but doesn't always like it when Josh and I kiss and leave him out. Which we find to be hilarious. He likes throwing and 'catching' balls...and by catch I mean chase after balls when they've gone right by him.
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| How I find him at least once a day...in a random spot in the house flipping pages and pointing at his books. |
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| Brushing all those naughty new teeth he has... |
TEETH - Why are teeth so hard. He got three during the last bout of teething (two in the back) and with it came my very first, "I can't handle him being like this for another minute so he's going to bed at 7pm" mothering-moment. We made it through with a couple bottles of infant ibuprofen and extra cuddles before naps and bedtime. However, today he woke up for the day and from naps whiney and his toothbrush was pink after brushing...so I think we're in for another interesting week.
FOOD - I'm pretty sure if he could, Mav would be happy with bottles of milk all day, a couple snacks, and nothing else. Some days he seems like the worst little eater. Some days he's great. We definitely have more bad days than good in this department though. I've tried to be diligent about offering a balanced meal, he eats what he wants (he doesn't get more of his 'favorite' item) and the rest either goes in the garbage or back in the fridge for him to try again at the next meal. When he was getting those dang teeth, we spent almost every mealtime plopping him down, letting him fuss and cry for 20 minutes (barely eating anything), then calling it 'done' and moving on with life.
DIAPER CHANGES - This comes and goes, but it seems like for the past couple of months...diaper changes and changing clothes are the worst thing about his little life. He haaaaates them, especially if he's interrupted while playing. I try and do them as soon as he gets up in the morning, after nap, and as the first thing in our bedtime routine...but the extra ones thrown in throughout the day are a struggle. I rarely have to discipline him about it, but kicking, flipping, rolling, and waving his arms to hit are not allowed in this house.
LONG CAR RIDES - For so long I was training Mav to NOT fall asleep in the car while we were cutting his morning nap...so now I think he associates being in the car with staying awake. I'm not really mad about it...but we generally avoid trips longer than two hours for this reason. And that's not exactly hardt, being that my parents live an hour and a half away and Josh's parents are only 30 minutes away. There are times, though, where even that hour and a half drive is more than he's willing to put up with and toys and snacks don't even do the trick. So we crank Jon Foreman or Katy Perry (depending upon who is driving) and high tail it home. Christmas Day is the only time we've traveled during naptime in the past six months...and I'll say, it certainly wasn't the highlight of our Christmas memories this year.
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| Doing some exploring at Reiman Gardens. |
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| Trying the snow day after day to see if he will warm up to it (haha see what I did there) but we haven't had much luck. |
I guess based on the fact that his 'dislike' list is significantly shorter than the list of things he loves...he's pretty easygoing and sweet overall. I think we'll be keeping him. ;)
Here's what every day looks like right now (this is more for me to remember in the future than anything):
8:00 - Wake up, diaper, breakfast
10:00 - Small snack
12:00 - Lunch
1:00 - Bottle, nap
3/4:00 - Nap over, small snack
6:00 - Supper
7:30 - Bedtime Routine, diaper, bottle, books, cuddles
8:00 - Bedtime
18 month pictures are scheduled for March and I can't even believe Mav will be a year-and-a-half old! Last year during his six-month pictures, it was one of the warmest days of the spring (we were both in shorts by the end of the day!) and it gives me hope that winter might be winding down a little bit and spring (and even summer!) is in sight! Here's to hoping anyway... ;)
MmB
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