Month 22: Randomness

I have decided... THIS is my favorite stage. I think I have said that every day for the past (nearly) two years... but this really is my favorite. Daniel is more fun than I imagined in my pre-child wildest dreams.

I never want to forget...

- His fascination with snowmen ("No-bet").

- How he says "too hot" for everything remotely warm.

- How quickly he learns and absorbs new words. It's easy to teach him! He loves his zoo books, so the recent new words have been "ostrich" "walrus" "seal" "dolphin". Pretty amazing for a 1-year-old.

- His love of the game "airplane"! He now lays on his back and plays airplane with his stuffed animals and toys.

- His mastery of possessive pronouns... mama's shoes! dada's bed!

- How whenever he's excited about anything (approximately every two minutes) he inhales sharply, makes an "oh" with his mouth, and opens his eyes really wide.

- He loves colors - and knows them so well. The only one he cannot pronounce well is green... it comes out "reegee".

- How he counts from 1 to 10 in English AND Spanish... and for a while, he would skip the "2" in both languages. Instead of saying "zero" he says "oval". Walking through Wal-mart is now so much fun - they have giant numbers hanging everywhere. Daniel calls them out as we roll by.

- When he wants to be picked up, he says "Uppy" plus the person's name. "Uppy TK! Uppy TK!"

- His obsession with books. Obsession. We just bring books with us wherever we go and he's happy. He requests them by name at night, and we can use them as leverage. ("Daniel, if you brush your teeth nicely we can go read 'Fish Kisses'!")

- How he impresses everyone in a ten mile radius with his charm and cuteness! When people were stressed out in the stores before Christmas, he beamed and said "hi!" to everyone and (quite literally) spread goodwill toward men and Christmas cheer. No kidding.

- How he is not interested in opening presents at all. Once the gift is unwrapped, it's a different story.

- How he takes our hand, pulls us somewhere and says 'show me' when he wants to play with us.

- He is going green at home. He runs around behind us, turning off all the light switches. He can only reach high enough to turn lights off, not on! We are having to use lamps instead.

- His beloved rhino stuffed toy named Zona is now "Zoona" (instead of Nano).

- A little whistle/lisp has creeped into his speech on words with the letter "s". Cars = Carsh. Gussy = Gushy. Bus = Bush. It's cute... I hope it's not permanent.

- Every time (with zero exceptions) we are in the car, he inexplicably takes off his left shoe.

- He has mastered animal noises, except that quite a few say exactly the same thing (roar!). Bears... Monsters... Dinosaurs... Tigers... Lions... and occasionally Zebras. :)

It's harder and harder to leave him. Be it daycare, at Fernando's parents, or with a babysitter. The time is going so quickly - the seconds aren't sticking around like they used to. Daniel doesn't want to leave us and this makes it all the more difficult. When we do have to leave him for a while, the absolute best 30 seconds of the day are when we come to pick him up.... "Maaaa maaaaa!!!!! Daaaaa daaaaa!!!!!" and the tackling-bear hug that ensues.

There's so much more to say... but I'll save it for another post :)

Month 22: Snuggle Bug

I know, I know. That title is devastatingly sappy. But lately, I cannot seem to stop myself from hugging, kissing, tickling and just snuggling with Daniel. He is changing so quickly that suddenly it doesn't feel like long before his independence will overwhelm his need for physical affection.

Last night, Fernando had to work until (very) late. I was exhausted and planning to head to bed early, and Daniel was equally as tired. I put him in the crib after lots of books and songs, and he was drifting off to sleep quickly. I headed to my room to get ready for bed but was interrupted by a sudden yelping type of cry - I ran back to the nursery. Daniel was sitting up, blankie and Diego the turtle in hand, reaching for me. This isn't uncommon, but last night felt different. I hugged him while he stood in his crib, leaning on me. We swayed together in a hug for quite a while, and every time I attempted to walk away, he began crying inconsolably. He was lonely.

Throwing caution (and my "Babywise" book) to the wind, I scooped him up and carted him off to my room. We hit the lights and crawled under the sheets. Daniel didn't try to sit up or leave the bed once - he just laid on his back, eyes wide in the dark, watching the fan. He would occasionally lean his forehead onto mine, look into my eyes and whisper loudly, "Hi!" I wrapped an arm around him, and as I fell asleep, he stroked my arm with his tiny sweet fingers.

At nearly 1 am, I woke up next to my son. He was in a deep sleep, and I moved him back to the crib so that Fernando would have room in the bed when he got home. (I'm so thoughtful!) :) But I think Daniel would have done fine sleeping in a grown up bed for the remainder of the night. Maybe it's time to start transitioning him out of the crib.

I love the feeling of his tiny warm body nestled next to mine. I don't regret the decision to have him sleep in his own crib, but I do relish the exceptions!