Fourteen Months

Charles turned 14 months old yesterday!  This last month has been full of changes, as usual.  The most exciting one is that he has begun taking steps!  Not "walking" yet, he still crawls for the majority of his mobility, but he can definitely take steps unsupported.  The record so far is about 25 at a time.  He took a few last week while at my parents' house, three on the first day.  The next he took seven, the next 13, and then finally 25!  We got home to Papa Monday night, and so far he hasn't really walked at all here.  I think he's readjusting to his surroundings; we had been gone seven days.

I haven't wanted to rush him into walking, but it is pretty cool now that it's happening.  My favorite thing, though, is how proud he is of himself when he does it!  His whole body shows his delight at his accomplishment; he even claps for himself.  :)  And I am looking forward to him being able to walk as the weather gets nicer:  parks and playgrounds are so much more fun when one is vertically mobile!

This month his language skills have exploded!  While we were at Pop and Mimi's a few weeks ago, he began learning animals' names and sounds, and now he LOVES spotting animals and pictures of animals while we're out and about!  It's a great way to keep him entertained at the grocery store.  His favorites are dogs and bears.  For dogs (and most other animals that make two-syllable sounds) he can go "uff uff" and cows (and other drawn-out sounds) he can go "vvvvvvvvv," which, apparently, to a 14 month old, sounds like "moo."

Some of Charles' favorite activities are playing ball, stacking blocks, playing with puzzles and shape-sorters, banging/shaking musical instruments, and--most of all--READING BOOKS.  Our time together is passing so much more quickly now that he's bringing me books to read, and actually more or less sits still for me to read them!  He loves Brown Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as well as But Not the Hippopotamus and any other story featuring animals.  He LOVES Clifford the Big Red Dog and can identify pictures of trains and say "ch! ch!" ("choo choo," of course).

The past month or so Charles has also begun "singing" little songs.  Sometimes he'll sing "with" me, sometimes with the radio, and sometimes just because he feels like it.  As a music-lover, I hope his new-found enjoyment of song lasts a lifetime.

I think we're finally over the hump sleep-wise.  Most nights he'll sleep from around 8:00 PM to somewhere between 6:00 and 7:30 AM.  It's fantastic!  I feel like a new woman.  He's making up for missing his night-time nursings by still nursing around five times during the day, which I love.  I read on a blog somewhere that most 13-month-olds nurse 2-3 times a day and just chuckled.  I hope the day when he only nurses twice is still a long, long way off!

As you can see, Charles is really growing from a baby into a little boy.  This all really happened after he was mostly done with cutting all four of his one-year molars at once (which of course has expanded his menu options as well).  The molars have been accompanied with a prodigious amount of snot and congestion, but he's handled it well and hasn't seemed too uncomfortable.

Another contributing factor to his development might be the time we've been spending with other toddlers at the Morning Garden program at our local Waldorf School.  He's the youngest there, with most of the other nine children around two years of age (the range is one to two-and-a-half).  We really enjoy our time spent with other "green" moms and toddlers--it's nice being a part of a group where I'm not the weird one!  I also love seeing the other moms close-up in action:  loving on their toddlers, teaching them, disciplining when necessary.  And since most of them have slightly older kiddos, they're able to assure me that whatever phase Charles is in that's not so happy will pass, that we're not the only ones.

Overall, the past few months have been awesome.  Each stage so far has been my favorite!

*Photos by Rachel Stricklin, taken at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Charles is One!

This is a picture of my first glimpse of Charles, and his first glimpse of me.  He looks slightly concerned, but it's one of my favorite pictures of all time.  That tiny, not-so-sure face belongs to a boy who is now one year old.  My boy.  

Charles has changed so much these past weeks.  Right before his birthday, he had a super rough week with sleep and wanting momma.  He went from waking up once a night to waking up like a newborn, not wanting to go down for any naps unless I was holding him, and not even wanting to be left with Trevvor or a grandmother when I walked out of the room.  In hindsight, I think that's when he hit a big developmental jump, because he seems to have shifted from baby to toddler in just that week.  He was also cutting a tooth, which I'm sure didn't help.

Charles at his newborn well-baby check-up

Charles isn't walking yet, but he's getting more adept at cruising around furniture and along walls.  He's learned how to "steer" us when we're walking him holding his hands (and he's quite proud of it).  Trevvor taught him how to swing his legs around to get down off a bed or sofa or lap, and he's really quick at getting up the stairs (even the big flights at Nana & Grandpa's), but isn't sure enough to get back down.  He loves climbing and navigating through small spaces while crawling.

The past couple weeks he's starting scrunching up his nose into the most adorable face, and he tilts his head to one side and grins when he's being impish.  He also has a face for when you ask him to do something he knows how to do (like stick out his tongue), but he doesn't feel like doing it--I wish I could describe it.  He loves playing peekaboo around furniture or curtains, and often initiates it.  When he wants me to stick out my tongue, he pokes at my lips until I get it.  He can wave bye-bye and has a different wave for "hi," usually accompanied by a wide-mouth grin.  He shakes his head for "no," and has really learned to push things (or people) away when he doesn't want them near him.  (The other day he climbed from my arms to Trevvor's then looked at me and pushed my face away with his hand.  Forcefully.  It was like he was saying, "Okay, it's my turn with Papa!")

Charles at his One-Year well-baby check-up

Charles is still nursing throughout the day and once or twice at night.  I love it.  He's quite the acrobatic nursling, so we're trying to teach him nursing "etiquette" without much success.  (He is getting better at lying still on the changing table though.)  His most common solid foods are egg, avocado, meat (salmon, chicken, beef), and whatever veggies we're eating.  He likes sipping coconut milk and he LOVES rice crackers and rice puffs.  Trying to keep grains to a minimum, but it's hard to find healthy non-squishable finger-foods for a one-year-old!  He's started sharing my apples with me after I eat the peel off--his eight little teeth are helping with that!

Charles isn't super independent yet, which I'm not rushing.  He's usually playing right at my feet or I'm wearing him on my back while doing housework.  He loves things with wheels, which is good because he got lots of cars for Christmas and birthday!  He is getting better and better at throwing that ball back and forth and really seems to delight in his skill.  I've loved watching him discover relationships between objects, like that a smaller cup can fit in a bigger one, or this toy can roll through the tube or fit in the hole.  When he figures something like that out, he'll sit and do it over and over and over again, very studiously as if it's the most serious business in the world.  And rightly so:  learning like that is his job right now!

His FAVORITE toys are some little animals.  When he was born, his Uncle Chris gave him a little toy tiger.  It's been sitting on his chest-of-drawers all this time until recently we handed it to him during a diaper change.  He carries that thing everywhere and can even say roar when asked what the tiger says.  So of course Nana got him three more little animals for his birthday last weekend--they're in the picture below.  Tiger is still his favorite, followed by the panda bear.

Playing with his favorite toys:  tiny animals

Charles loves music.  Several months ago he started "dancing" to music when he heard it, and he just keeps adding to his moves!  He dances in his car-seat, while nursing, while eating, while sitting, while standing... Now he's added his arms to the mix and likes to "conduct" the music.  It's. So. Cute.  He got a xylophone for his birthday and he's enjoying making a little music of his own.  I see violin lessons in his future... ;)

Verbally, he's gotten much more chattery with still very few words.  He's had "mama" for a while, and sometimes we'll hear a "baba" (papa), and my mom said last night that he said "nana."  As an English major, I was very excited and proud that his third spontaneous word was "book!"  That was just yesterday.  He's very good at imitating sounds, especially nonsense sounds or animal noises.  He's also repeated "ball" a few times, said "pot" clear as day when I pointed one out to him, as well as some other things once or twice.  Most impressive was when he parroted "danger" back to me--the "d" and the "g" were there at least! ;)  The past few days he's exploded in sounds and parroting skills. He's just soaking it all in.  I'm trying to do better about labeling things now that I know he understands.  He often amazes me with his comprehension.  He has his toy tiger and a stuffed tiger, and earlier today we were standing in front of my parents' fridge and I asked him, "Where's the tiger?" and he pointed to a tiger magnet (that really looks very different from his toys) from the zoo!

Hmm.. other random tidbits... We're still cloth diapering with pre-folds and covers and loving it.  The few times we use disposables I can't wait to get him back in cloth!  Charles has had two fevers, both in December, both were treated very successfully at home.  He's never had any ear infections.  He's had a little bit of a rash on his cheeks and nose and chin at times, usually when he's teething and/or snotty (which often occur together).  His hair is so long now that it really needs a trim, but I can't bear to think of it!  Poor guy... it's in his eyes more often than not.  Charles loves rough-and-tumbling with us on the bed--it's one of his favorite places to play... which, now that I think about it, may not be creating the best association for when he has a "big boy bed" of his own.... Oh well.

Our family, Fall 2013

I just love being Charles' mom.  I have so much fun with my little buddy, and Trevvor does too.  It's not always easy, but thanks to him, each day is the best day of my life.

Christmas Fever

...And no, I don't mean rabid excitement over everyone's favorite holiday!

We spent Christmas Eve and Day with my parents and brother in Huntsville, per tradition.  This year was a bit different for several reasons:  We were all trying to save money and buck materialism, so gifts weren't as big as usual; we're all trying to eat healthier (and still recovering from prepping our giant Thanksgiving meal), so the food was pretty basic; and--oh yeah!--this year we had a baby to enjoy Christmas with!

But baby Charles' body didn't know it was supposed to feel good for such a joyful occasion, and so Christmas Eve he woke up with only his second fever ever.  His first fever was a couple of weeks ago, and had he not been too warm, I never would have known he was ill.  This time was a bit different--he obviously didn't feel well at all, and he was pretty pitiful for the rest of the day.

Both fevers seemed to be related to constipation and teething, and the Christmas fever added some congestion to the mix.  Both were under 48 hours, and both were relieved when he finally did have a good diaper-full.

I didn't run for a fever-reducing medication at the first sign of a temperature, though I monitored it fairly closely.  We've learned that fevers are a symptom, not a disease and that you should treat the baby, not the symptom.  That means that 1) fevers have a purpose and are a vital part of our body's immune response, so suppressing fever is actually suppressing the immune system, and that 2) since in both cases Charles was handling the fever just fine--no screaming, no extreme lethargy, no glazed eyes or bulging fontanel--we should let it run its course while trying to keep him as comfortable as possible and supporting his little body's efforts to heal itself.

I'm still learning how to do that well, but these are the measures we took to help him:

• We wore him a lot while he was feeling icky, which both comforted him and helped his body regulate its temperature and immune response.
• Since he still nurses for over half his food, we went back to a "liquid only" diet of breast-milk and sips of water to allow his body to focus its energies on healing rather than digesting food (and since constipation was also a problem, he didn't need to be packing any more solid food in there!).
• We pulled out our new Essential Oils and boosted his immune system with Thieves, comforted him with Lavender, and helped manage his fever with Peppermint.  We applied the oils (diluted in coconut oil) to the soles of his feet, the back of his neck, and behind his ears, and we also diffused the same blend into the air.
• We tried to keep the atmosphere calm and relaxing--soft lights, no extra noise, and little stimulation.
• Since constipation seemed to be the main known issue, we tried to help him have a BM by massaging his little tummy with Peppermint oil and encouraging the intake of liquids.

That's about it!  Both times he's recovered well and seemingly quickly--and by Christmas morning, though not 100%, he felt well enough to enjoy opening his presents!  Hopefully we'll post pictures of that fun time soon.

How do you help your child when he/she has a fever?

This is his "I really don't feel good, and this silly hat isn't helping" face

Teething Time! And other random tidbits.

Whew--this is the beginning of a fun ride!  Our normally content, happy-go-lucky baby has become quite a cranky-pants over the weekend.  I've been blaming minor fussiness on "teething" for weeks simply because it was so strange for him to be fussy (unless he was hungry or overtired, obviously, but once his needs were met he was fine).  But this is something else entirely!
So far we've given him a frozen wet washcloth to chew on, pulled out the chilled Green Sprouts teether from the fridge, had him wear his amber necklace, and yesterday finally resorted to giving him two Hylands teething tabs.  Gave him two more again this morning, and after both doses, he was immediately ready to fall asleep.  Poor guy.  :(

On a more positive and cuter note, Charles has been quite the chatterbox the past few weeks.  He was a silent baby for a while, but when we got home from our West Virginia/Pennsylvania trip at the beginning of June, he found his precious little voice.  Every day his sounds get more purposeful, articulate, and varied.  I love hearing him jabber!

He's also just started reaching out towards us.  Often when Trevvor is holding him and he's fussing because he's ready to eat, he'll smile at me and reach towards my face with his precious hands when I come into view.  He's also begun to lift his arms up when he's ready to be picked up--not obviously or insistently like older babies, but there's a definite reaching toward us.

Right about when he turned five months old last week, he started to show signs of "stranger, danger!" mode. It's so pitiful, but also gratifying that he sometimes feels safe with Trevvor and I when he doesn't with anyone else.  I've waited so long to be preferred by a baby as only a momma can be preferred.

I'm really excited to start solids with him in a few weeks.  I'm trying to resist.  Not because I'm tired of nursing--I LOVE nursing--but because Trevvor and I love food and we can't wait to share it with him!  I've got the bibs, little bowls, spoons, and sippy cup all ready to go.  (I am letting him experiment with some water in his sippy cup, especially since it's been so hot.  Not sure how much he's actually swallowed, but he enjoys gumming the nub.)  I also want to get one of those mesh feeder things so I can give him more raw, fresh food to gum on before introducing cooked items.  Apparently they're also great for teething since you can freeze fresh fruits and let them nom on them through the mesh without risk of choking.

The other day he started opening and closing his mouth, working that little jaw, kind of like a fish.  He often does it while watching our faces, so I'm not sure if he's trying to copy us talking or eating!  Either way, it's kind of adorable.  :D

One more cute thing!  He's just started rubbing his soft head while he nurses.  It's precious.  His little hand just rubs and rubs his hair, especially when he's sleepy.

He's also begun chewing on his tiny toes!

Anyway, I suppose that's enough random gushing for one post!  I just feel like I need to be doing so much better about documenting and sharing all these adorable developments!