Parenthood.16

12.5 months 

He is spirited: Aristotle would be proud. He fits all of his toys between the slats in the gate at the top of our steps, hurling them down, one by one. I think he gets more joy out of it the more he likes the toy. (And I couldn't even do anything about it: It was our worst day ever, which began with my crushing his poor little fingers in the bathroom door [the skin came off], proceeded to involve serious teething, including a molar, and to heap insult upon injury, finished with a doctor's appointment and two shots. Which is to say, I couldn't manage to make an issue about the toys being thrown down the steps.

Auntie Ilana has been teaching him to say, "Hello." Now he walks around, ever so cutely, saying, "Hewwo" or "Heddo," sometimes while carrying my cell phone and holding it to the back of his head (he's confused about where phones go on your head).

13 months 

His vocabulary is taking off by leaps and bounds: "ch-ch" for choo-choo train (It's amazing how much faster he learns things when they concern transportation), "brrrrrrr" for all cars, trucks, and motorcycles, "Fff-fff" for "ruff ruff" for dogs. 

He's still a pretty poor napper--an hour and a half, max, per day (often less--sometimes zero when he's at daycare). And at night he still wakes to eat often. I hate to tell him no, since he doesn't take milk when he's at daycare. 

He's ending the crying-when-left-at-daycare deal--today he looked happy to see his caretakers. That of course makes me very happy, and a little sad. He'd better not like them better than me!

He had to have some routine blood work, which was hell: The first day they tried three times to get his blood, poking around even when the needle was in his arm. We had to come back a second time (and I took him to a new lab to draw the blood). These people were better, but it still took until the second poke for them to get blood. And the second time he knew what was up, and started screaming right away. I was crying, too, by the end. 

Baby Leopard just discovered that he loves all the broccoli. Best food development ever. He won't eat anything else when broccoli is in sight. And I intend to ride this wagon till it ends.