The Whaleys: 14 months

These months just seem to be flying by!! Here we go. At 14 months:

-Jackson has found his love of the outdoors. This kid loves to go outside and run free. He will just stand at our front door and grab the doorknob (yes, he can reach it now!) and try to yank it open. He wont budge from our foyer until one of us takes him out. He loves to walk everywhere on his own now, but he understands (so far) that he must hold our hand most of the time. His teacher at mother's morning out says that all he wants to do is play outside the whole time and run around with the big boys and girls. He comes home all sweaty and with dirt under his fingernails like a little boy should!

-Speaking of mothers morning out, Jackson has his first "girlfriend" there! Every time we drop him off, this little 2 year old girl (an older woman-ha!)comes running at full speed toward him. Jackson always gives her a big smile and cocks his head to the side as if he is flirting. A few days ago when Justin dropped him off, the little girl came running up to Jackson and gave him a big hug. Justin said that Jackson wasnt quite sure what to do but he stood there with a big grin on his face. Justin said it was pretty much the cutest thing he had ever seen. I wish I had been there for that!

-Jackson's vocabulary is expanding daily. He has all kinds of words that he is saying now, but some of my favorites: boat, eieio (as in "old MacDonald had a farm..."), doh (window, door), toes, toys, eat, ear, and moon

-He is also getting great at pointing out things in his books when I ask him where they are. The other day while reading "Goodnight Moon", I asked him where most of the objects in the book were and he pointed right to them. I was shocked. I always point them out when we read, but I never knew it was sinking in. They really are like sponges!

-He is learning more and more of his independance and is asserting it daily. When things don't go his way, he lashes out in one of two very different ways: # 1) He either bites, throws his toy, or hits (rarely). OR # 2) he calmly lays down wherever he is and gives me a dirty look until I make him laugh. On occasion, he has been known to stomp around in a circle while fussing. It is so hard for me and Justin not to laugh when he is throwing a fit. By the way, biting or hitting always calls for an immediate time out, and he is learning that time out is no fun. We have the pack and play set up in our dining room, which serves as time out and we put him there for a little over a minute each time. He does not appreciate being left alone in there at all.

-I know I write about this every time and it is probably boring to everyone but me, but I do want to record this. Sleep as a whole has gotten better. He is waking less during the night, which has allowed me to drop a feeding or two. Basically he sleeps from 7:30-1, then nurses, and sleeps from 1:05-5 AM. At 5 AM I put him in bed with us and then he buries his head into Justin and his feet into me and sleeps until about 7 AM. He wakes up in bed with us every morning and he is usually a big snuggle bunny when he wakes up. Occasionally we still have a night where he wakes more than usual, but those nights are few and far between.

-YES I am still nursing him. I can't even believe it myself, but I want weaning to be a gradual process and so we are sloooowly getting there. I am still nursing about 5-6 times a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less depending on his sleep schedule. Overall, the fact that I have been able to drop some feedings has been encouraging. As for food, we are making slow progress with him accepting new foods, but we will get there soon. The same goes for whole milk. He seems to be taking a little more each day.

-He continues to become more sociable with everyone and is hard pressed to meet a stranger these days. He loves to smile, wave, give big slobbery kisses, and "talk" to anyone that will pay him attention. He has begun smiling and squinting his eyes again at people when he gets shy. He had stopped for awhile, but it is back now in full force. He even has been doing it to me lately. He knows he's cute.

-I dont know if I mentioned this before, but THE BEST $10 that I ever spent was on a Fisher Price CD of children's songs. This CD is like baby crack and has been our saving grace on long car trips. It starts out with "If youre happy and you know it". Justin and I can sing you all 27 songs by heart....ha! No, seriously we are SO tired of hearing it, but Jackson absolutely loves it. No matter what, he gets a huge smile every time he hears the opening of the song. Now he has learned how to request that his songs be played in the car. Starting about a week ago, He began to point to the radio and say "oaf" over and over again until we put his CD on. Then he becomes one happy boy. He loves to fall asleep to the CD on long car rides. We have tried playing other music for him, but he insists on his CD. I wonder how long it will last. Justin and I resorted to making up our own lyrics to some of the songs just to entertain ourselves and keep us from going crazy! Those lyrics arent the most kiddie-friendly, though!

I will leave you with a series of pictures from a recent playtime where he got mad at me for not letting him leave our yard. He decided to lay down right beside our driveway...Check him out-We love this little boy so much!

Giving mommy the stink eye-Justin thinks this is when he looks most like me. Go figure!