Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Dorian at 16 mos - a long overdue update

He's just not a baby anymore. Mostly. He's such a little boy.

He's walking. Running. Talking. Signing.

He says:

  • No. - but thankfully not always in context. So it's still kinda cute. He shakes his head "no" also, but I'm not sure he knows what that indicates yet. When he means it, his tone is very curt. Recently, he's starting pointing to things he knows he's not supposed to touch and says a long drawn out "nooo" as he's touching them with his pointer finger.
  • Up. - This one is pretty new, but he's getting the hang of it. It's used when he wants to be picked up or to have help climbing onto something. We're practicing "down" but that one hasn't sunk in yet.
  • Nose (but sounds like "no").
  • Eye (but sounds like "ah"). He loves to say this as he pokes you in the eye.
  • Dog (but sounds like "dah"). Everything is a dog. The cat. A cow. Goats at the petting zoo.  Every animal is a dog, but at least that means he's making associations.
  • Meow (but sounds like "ow"). It's pretty funny when he follows Weezul around the living room yelling "ow" every time the cat yowls to be let outside and away from the baby.
  • Dada. Kind of. He's said it a couple of times, but he's not using it regularly. He makes the "da" sound a lot, but not in context. 
  • Ball (but sounds like "bah"). This was actually his first *real* word. Dog may have actually been first but we didn't catch it.
That's all I can think of. He understands so much more. He's also signing "milk", "more" and "eat" (or for us, it's "bite"). 

He's running. He loves to be chased, but plays the "I'm gonna get you" game backwards. When I say it, he runs towards me instead of away from me, which is actually very helpful when I'm trying to get him to do something. Recently, he's started hiding behind the curtains to play "Where is Dorian?" as well as using his hands to play peek-a-boo. Occasionally he gets too excited and smacks himself in the face when covering his eyes. 

He likes to walk the dog. For a couple of months now, he grabs hold of the ring on the dog's harness and walks her around the living room. He's started to help me hold the leash when we go for walks. There is a house around the corner that has a couple of large dogs behind a chain link fence at the end of their driveway (in the back yard). They bark every time we walk by, and Dojo stops to yell at them. As we walk down the sidewalk, he stops and turns back to yell at them some more. That seems to be his MO when things scare him - he yells at them. He took on the train on the Mr Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland. Just yelled at it. 

On one walk, he found a potato-sized rock on the sidewalk and carried it home. It lived on the front porch for a while, then on one of the stairs, then on the bumper of the car, now back on the stairs. 

He loves Sesame Street. He dances when the song comes on. It started with a DVD my mom bought for him called "Let's Make Music". It is a Sesame Street DVD from 2001 that features members of STOMP. It has snippets of music from old episodes and is all about making music without instruments - singing, drumming, stomping, etc. There is a song where Bert sings about his oatmeal box and how it is a great drum. "Chicka-boom Chicka-boom!" It gets stuck in my head for days. Dojo loves that DVD and it evolved into full episode Sesame Street love.  And anything with music. Hubbs has been playing short videos of military drum lines and Dojo is mesmerized by them. 

He's climbing. On everything. Can't seem to find a toddler-friendly playground close by, though. 

Oh, and pandas! He's carrying around his (my) pands stuffed animals and pointing out their eyes and noses, and mouths and feet.. We took him to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and he lost his $h!t when he saw the panda. He started squealing and pointing and saying "Da!", which is what he says when he sees something he knows but cannot say, or when he's asking what something is. 

He's discovered the song "head, shoulders, knees and toes" on his singing puppy doll, and will play it over and over and over and over. He learned where his head is, so he throws his hands up and holds his head then touches his toes.   He can point out his head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, belly button, feet and toes. 

He's a busy little guy and I just can't keep up with him some days. 

Monday, April 21, 2014

39 weeks ~ 9 months!

4/18/14: The Dojo is 9 months old today! Here's what's shakin':

*Crawling. He's still belly crawling, but he's fast. And sneaky. It took him only two days to figure out how to get through the baby gates if they are not latched properly. In fact, the other day he was playing near the gate between the living room and dining room. He pulled a book off of the bottom of the bookshelf (that I had to fill in because I caught him laying entirely in the empty bottom shelf playing with a soft block), and when I opened the gate to pick it up, he crawled between my legs and into the kitchen before I realized what was going on. Speedy, he is. I think he planned it, and executed it perfectly.

        *He is, however, beginning to get up onto his hands and knees, then his hands and feet. He's pulling himself up on very low things, usually me, when I sit on the floor with him. I'm not ready for what's coming. A lady at Target yesterday told me that her youngest son started walking at 9 months. Nnnooooooooo.

*Food. This kid is eating everything in sight. His favorite food is anything he can put into his mouth by himself. Last night he tore up some broccoli and couscous. Purees frustrate him, so I am looking for interesting ways to use up the last of the baby food I have. (Any ideas for winter squash puree? Muffins?)

*Biting. Yes. Four very sharp teeth. More on the way.

*Sleeping? Sometimes. Just enough to fool me. Earlier this week he slept ALL the way through the night (until about 4 am) two nights in a row. The first night - a fluke? The second night - could this really be it? The third night - he woke up every two hours. Sigh. We're working on a graduated extinction method (sort of) so he'll learn to go to sleep at night on his own instead of being in my lap. It's been a little painful, but each night there is less crying, so I suppose that is the goal.

*Babbling. He doesn't stop, unless there's a camera out, in which case he sits and stares blank faced and stoic. He's talking a lot, though, and doing the Cthulhu and the "indian" noises with Daddy. He's full blown laughing now, and I think the hysterical fits of giggles are right around the corner. Just need to find something he thinks is funny and see what happens.  Also, I think I'm starting to understand his language. When he's distressed or wants to be moved/picked up/held, he makes a drawn out, higher pitched "mmmmmm" sound. If you ask him a question and the answer is "yes", he makes a short "hmmph" sound, sort of like a mini laugh. We are trying to learn the words "up", "hungry", "Ohs" (for Cheerios), and "no". To my dismay, "no" is a funny word, and the more serious I try to make my face and voice when I say it, the more he laughs. Figures.

*This week he's started pressing his open mouth onto my face. Dojo kisses? I'm not sure, but I'll take it.

In other news:

*Yes, we had to butcher our tree :( It's pretty much just trunk back there now, with a growing fluff of green on one side. The tree guy said it will grow back in time, and said it looked as though someone had done the same thing further up a long time ago. It is nice, however, to not have a billion tiny leaves to contend with. Going to be a hot summer with no shade on the back end of the house, though.

*A hummingbird has set up shop on our back porch. Her name is Millie, and she's building her nest on the string of lights we have hanging from the ceiling. She's right outside our kitchen window so I've been able to watch her. I've always wondered how birds weave their nests without hands, and now I know:  I didn't see from the very beggingin, only from about the size of a dime. She brings material from other places, drops them into her nest, pokes her beak through like a sewing needle, then hovers above it while she uses her feet to move stuff around. We're on day three of nest building and it's looking like a proper nest now. So awesome. I'll try to get good pictures, but I won't be able to get high enough to see inside without disturbing her.


Saturday, March 1, 2014

32 weeks, holy crap!

This kid has changed so much from week to week. I'm sore with myself for not keeping up with this space, and failing to record new things as they happen. It's going to be rapid fire from here on out.

First, the gripe stuff:

Sleep. What? Who? Look! A shiny!

I have no brain power anymore. Can't plan, can't add. Going to the grocery store and trying to plan dinners for a week is suddenly the most challenging thing my entire life. I'm pushing the limits of sleep deprivation for sure.

Had a meltdown on Tuesday because I hadn't slept in four nights. Dojo is getting both a bottom tooth (his second) and a top tooth at the same time. Last weekend he was up every hour or two, and wasn't napping on top of it. If he did, it was a30 minute cat nap. Every time I tried to lay down, he would wake up just as I started to doze, or the dog would bark, or the cat would meow. I chased Weezul halfway down the hallway beating him with a pillow because he just wouldn't shut up.   I couldn't catch a break.

Finally, as if he knew I had lost it, he slept four hours at a stretch on Tuesday night, and a little better each night since. Napping is still all over the map, but that is getting better, too. He just fights sleep so hard. He wrestles and squeals and kicks. Some if the time I can lay him in his crib and he'll talk himself to sleep, but not always. It's a start.

He started scooting a couple of weeks ago. Like a caterpillar, he starts on his belly, crawls up onto his feet with his bum in the air, then puts his face down and slides on his forehead. It's pretty funny to watch. He only does it when there is something he really wants to get to (more often than not, it's my phone).

He's babbling a lot now. Mostly when he cries. I think it's hilarious. Currently, beeping his nose and tickling are funny. Oh! He's beginning to laugh! Right now it's only when you shake a toy in his face while he's lying on his back, like a kitten batting at a toy. But it is adorable. Will try to capture on video.

Oh, the baby in the mirror is pretty awesome too. And his jump chair. And breakfast. And bananas. And that noxious talking dog mom got him for Christmas. He smiles whenever he sees it.

We are having weekly play dates with Dove and Brody and Soren. He thinks other babies are awesome, and Dove tries to eat him.

In other news:

I got my diploma in the mail (woot) and we're planning for graduation.

The storm that whipped through here (and is still hanging around by the looks of it) broke our tree. Fortunately, it fell towards the neighbors and not onto Dojo's room. Hopefully we can salvage the tree and not have to cut it all down.

I think that sums it up for the moment. Can't believe this kid is 7 1/2 months old already. Life is a blur when you don't sleep.