Autumn Makes Me Sing: 15 Months

Dear Autumn,

The best time this month was having Uncle Mike visit! Such fun to play with him. You loved to say "unc-cool" over and over.

Uncle! from Deb on Vimeo.

It has taken you the past 4 weeks to get those two top teeth in place. I can still see a bit of gum underneath one of them, so they aren't fully in. A few days ago I looked in your mouth and found a bottom molar peeking through. You seem to still to be handling the teething pretty well, with occasional outbursts and hand chewing. I haven't been able to see if the tooth on the other side is coming in as well, but it wouldn't surprise me. We started brushing your teeth with a real toothbrush. You LOVE it! And it is very hard to get it back from you when it is bedtime. The first time I handed it over to you after brushing your teeth you walked around the family room chewing on it and making the brushing motion. Then you saw Rosalyn and bent down to brush her teeth! It was pretty cute. You now also put your cup up to Rosalyn, Baby, and Sully's mouth or eye or nose to let them have a drink. You also make little smacking noises with your mouth to indicate that they are drinking!

We seem to be having a bit of trouble in the eating department. There isn't much that you eat these days. You seem to actually eat all of your waffle in the morning, which is new. Half a container of baby yogurt, with the baby facing you so you can point to it and say, "baaay-beeee" over and over between bites. Maybe a bite or two of banana, some water and a few pieces of cereal. It sounds like a lot more than it is when I am listing it out like this. Then before your nap you have a cup of milk. For lunch, hmm..., what for lunch... Cottage cheese - maybe, raisins/craisins - a few, some green beans - once in a blue moon, grilled cheese sandwich - once or twice... Not much is eaten for lunch. Maybe a cracker, a few bites of cereal bar. And then another cup of milk after lunch. Nap time. Another cup of milk and something to snack on, maybe some animal crackers. Dinner. Not much. Repeat some of lunch, maybe something we're having, but most likely not. We're having a big problem getting some balance in your meals, and we're not really succeeding. Which brings me to your digestive system. It is still really hard for you to poop. Lots of red faces, watery eyes, a few bouts of crying and you saying "ow". It breaks my heart. But it is just so hard for me to get you to eat something different. You don't eat meat, so you get your protein from cheese, which doesn't help, you need fruit, but bananas bind you up. I've just in the past week gotten you to drink juice, which I was hoping would loosen you up, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I keep trying to find some magical food or cure that you will eat that will change this. You have your 15 month appointment on Thursday, so we will be discussing and taking notes about this for sure.

Speaking of saying "ow". When you hurt your hand on the cactus you connected pain to your hand, so whenever you say "ow" you point to the palm of your left hand and repeat "ow" over and over. You like to point out the scraped knee you had (which had completely healed) and say "ow" and point to any other bruise on your leg, or on Momma. Then annoying part of this is that whenever you are upset or feel an injustice has been done to your person you also say, "ow". So as you are throwing yourself on the floor because I couldn't pick you up you are whining and saying "ow". For the most part though, when you do get hurt, you say "ow" but there is rarely any crying involved. It is just like "oh, I just hurt myself, okay, time to go play again."

You've started throwing tantrums and let me tell you, I am not ready for that! A few weeks ago I was in the bathroom and something upset you, so you cried all the way down the hall, stood outside the door and cried. Every few seconds you would stop crying, peek one eye around the corner to see if I was looking, back up and then start crying again. Hilarious! They aren't always funny though, which means that the decent into toddlerhood is commencing. Luckily though, for the most part, you are the happiest kid around. As Gram pointed out, you wake up very happy from your nap, you are happy to see people, you make transitions to people very easily, and just get a bit upset when things don't go your way, which Gram also pointed out doesn't happen very often!

The new words in the past few weeks are: uhn-cool (uncle), apple, and Ava. You sort of snort for a pig, make a noise in the back of your throat for a duck, and you are making these new noises with your tongue and teeth that sort of clicks and sucks at the same time.

I did a really good job getting all your good photos posted this past month, so all we have is a look into the past!

Retrospective Perspective: