Gerrit: 18 Months

June 12, 2016 nk330Leave a comment

Seriously, Gerrit is halfway through his 2nd year already?! This year is just flying by. I was so excited for him to turn one, since I love this age, but I feel like it’s kind of slipping away. I try to savor all the little moments, but, man, they go by so fast!

You’d think getting a good picture would be easier as they get older, but someone wasn’t particularly cooperative the day he turned 18 months!

Age: 18 months on 27 April 2016
Weight: 25.5 lbs
Height: 33.07 inches
Teeth: 11 with 1 more about to come through
Clothing Size: 18 months
Diaper Size: size 4 in disposables
Milestones: can say more words, although they are not always easy to understand; starting to do some ‘pretend play;’ can identify nearly every body part; beginning to understand emotions (he can sign “happy,” “sad,” & “mad” appropriately); beginning to understand time (first we will do this, then we will do that); can complete simple puzzles & shape sorters; shakes head “no” and nods “yes;” can pull off pants once pulled past his butt; dances; spins in circles; can throw, catch & kick a ball; can brush his teeth (rudimentary); showing affection/empathy

I feel like I need to expand on all of his milestones! Things Gerrit can say: Mama, Dada, Papa, Mimi, dirt, bird, ball, bubbles, bowl, no, baby, nose, elbow, Lamb, nut, blue, green, orange… I’m sure I’m missing some. A lot of these are very rudimentary, and only I can understand him sometimes. But as soon as Andrew hears how Gerrit says something, he understands too. I’m so thankful Gerrit is patient with us, haha! I know some kids get really mad/frustrated when people can’t understand what they’re trying to say, but Gerrit is quite good about repeating himself and complying when I say, “I don’t know, Baby, show me.” I love how he tries to say “lemon” (I posted a video on Facebook), and his newest one that makes me smile is how he says “orange,” which I’m pretty sure is his favorite color right now.

Gerrit and pretend play? So freaking cute. I love his little truck and airplane sounds, I love seeing him kiss his stuffed animals, and I love watching him “cook” with his bowls and spoons. It’s just so much more fun to play with him as he understand more of what it means to pretend. One night, Gerrit was very busy making a puff ball concoction before dinner, and Andrew brought it to the table to include in our dinner (seriously, how adorable is that?!). So we had our dinner plus Gerrit’s “puff ball salad.” We all kept taking more helpings of it (including Gerrit asking for more constantly), and we all pretended to eat it, Gerrit included. We were impressed that he understood that we were just playing and that Gerrit “contributed” to dinner that night.

Gerrit knows so many body parts now: head, hair, forehead, nose, eyes, ears, cheeks, chin, neck/throat, arm, elbow, shoulder, armpit, finger, thumb, nipple, belly, belly button, penis, leg, knee, foot, toe, butt, tongue, teeth, nostril, back… he constantly wants to know what things are and likes showing that he knows what different body parts are. And he remembers everything! I think we talked about our nostrils one afternoon, and when Andrew asked Gerrit where his nostril was the other day (not knowing that I had showed Gerrit where they were), Gerrit promptly pointed out his own and ours. Smarty pants!

I was so impressed when I started seeing Gerrit use sign language for emotions. I know emotions are really tricky for toddlers, and I try to label emotions frequently to expose him to them. He has actually appropriately used “mad” when he was frustrated by something. That surprised me! He is starting to recognize emotions in others. Gerrit will give me a snuggle when I say I’m sad or show him that I’m sad. It’s so sweet. I have not seen a really terrible temper tantrum from Gerrit yet. I don’t know if that’s just his personality, or if it’s all my hard work and effort and being calm with him and trying to help him understand his feelings. 🙂 If he hurts me (on purpose or accidentally), he’s quick to hug that area. He accidentally hurt my foot the other day (I think he dropped a book on it), and he gave my foot a hug… too funny. If he stomps on a stuffed animal, he then picks it up and gives it a cuddle. And did you all see my Facebook post about me singing “5 Little Ducks?” Oh my gosh, his tears when the sad mama duck goes out to find her babies just broke my heart! Emotions & empathy are tough things to learn, but I feel like he’s doing really well so far.

Sleeping: January (14 months) was a rough month. Things slowly improved in the sleep department in February & March, although we had some bad nights when we traveled, which is nothing new. Our worst night was 9+ wakings the night before we flew home from our trip to Reno. It was pretty rough! Eventually I just laid in the guest bedroom with him to get through the night. He was so restless; I don’t know if either of us got much sleep. Our best nights were 3 night wakings, which really isn’t great. But compared to the “bad” nights, I’ll take it!

On average, Gerrit got mostly 9-10 hours of sleep at night from 15-18 months. According to the experts, it’s really not enough, but it’s clearly all I could get from him at that time haha. Total sleep was 12-13 hours at 15 months but only 11-12 hours at 16 & 17 months. Seriously, when I read how much sleep kids are supposed to get at Gerrit’s age, I worry that he’s chronically sleep-deprived.

Naps… one thing that I usually don’t have issues with is naps. Gerrit normally gets at least a 2 hour nap, although he’s had some short nap days. When we traveled to Reno, Gerrit refused to nap on the plane, so that was almost a no-nap day. But in February, he also took a 4 hour nap! When this kid wants to sleep, he sleeps! Too bad it doesn’t happen very often haha!

Eating: Back and forth, back and forth… Gerrit eats well, then he goes through a few days or weeks of not eating well. It seriously drives me nuts. I wouldn’t necessarily call him a picky eater, because when he DOES eat, he eats almost anything. Sometimes I think it’s teething, sometimes I just don’t know.

Things we can normally count on him eating: scrambled eggs, fruit, pasta with sauce & meatballs, Goldfish crackers, and Cheerios. He used to LOVE meat, but now he is hit or miss with that too. Some nights he loves broccoli, other nights he won’t touch it. He’s done well with peas, carrots, and corn here and there, but nothing consistent.

Gerrit is still very actively nursing both day & night. This goes up and down as well. Sometimes I think, Wow, maybe he’s starting to wean! And then he goes back to wanting to nurse every hour or two. Sometimes I think he’s genuinely hungry, because he just doesn’t eat enough solids. Other times I think it’s primarily for comfort and affection. I do think the nursing increases when he’s teething, but giving pain reliever doesn’t seem to do much for him, so I guess nursing is what helps.

(Andrew took this sweet photo of us while we were sleeping)

Any night wakings are still dealt with with breastfeeding. I’m very back-and-forth on pushing Gerrit to night wean. My heart wants to continue waiting for him to do this on his own. My head tells me that this is really hard on my body. It’s hard on my body to not be sleeping enough for this long. So we’ll see what happens over the summer… stay tuned!

Mommy Update: I have good days and bad days. When Gerrit is sleeping better and eating well, my stress level is lower and I’m feeling pretty good. When things go downhill, I feel exhausted and frustrated. I get impatient and angry. But maybe that’s just parenthood!

A few weeks before Gerrit turned 18 months, I started working out. I was hoping the exercise would be enough to start losing some weight. When the numbers on the scale didn’t budge, I started making healthier food choices. Still nothing. I knew that it could be hard to lose weight while still breastfeeding, but I found out that it can be very hard to lose weight if you’re not getting consecutive hours of sleep at night. So for now I’m still working out, still making healthier choices… but I guess I won’t be surprised if I don’t see any changes for awhile.

20160330_195105 — This momma turned 31 in March!

I also made the decision to start selling Usborne books in April! I’m still learning a lot and figuring out how all of this works, but Gerrit loves the books, and I love that I can get him and other kids access to them!

Best Moments: From now on I’m going to combine this with our Memorable Events (down below)

Likes & Dislikes: Gerrit really likes “helping” us. He likes helping us unload the dishwasher, and he is actually getting really good at remembering where everything goes. Although he started out not being very helpful, he actually does make the job go faster now! He also likes helping me vacuum (he’ll use the attachment I’m not using to vacuum the floor near where I’m cleaning), wash up spills on the floor, and do laundry (he tells me who each item of clothing belongs to haha).

He also loves being outside! It’s definitely one of his favorite things to do. He loves coloring with chalk, digging holes, making and playing with mud, splashing in any water he can find, and just exploring.

He loves the garden! We have to watch him to keep him from playing in the dirt, damaging any plants, etc, but I’m pretty sure he thinks that is HIS garden!

When he sees the little onion plants, he shrieks, “Bee-bee!” (baby) since I first told him they were baby onions growing in the dirt. He loves checking on the progress of the poblano peppers and the tomatoes, and he has learned which plants he can pick (salad greens) to sample from the garden. I hope we can always have a garden, because I think it’s a great way for him to learn about plants and growing your own food.

Gerrit dislikes coming in from outside, haha. Usually I have to suggest that we go in for some Goldfish to get him to agree to go inside without tears. He also dislikes getting his diaper changed. I don’t think he so much dislikes getting a new diaper, he just doesn’t want to stop what he’s doing to get changed.

Memorable Events: I feel like February was a pretty quiet month for us. The only “exciting” thing to happen was our switch to cloth diapers! I had wanted to use cloth when Gerrit was a newborn, but that time in our lives was super stressful. I was so overwhelmed with everything (breastfeeding, sleeping, my crying baby, preparing to move), that I thought adding in learning how to cloth diaper would just be too much. I told myself that once we got settled at our new home, I would give it a go. By the time we were settled into our house in North Carolina, Gerrit was nearly 6 months old. And I thought, Well, it’s too late to switch to cloth diapers now. How silly, right? I was talking to someone about how I wished I had cloth diapered Gerrit, and she said, “Well… why don’t you do it now?” So I bought some inexpensive diapers from Amazon and we gave it a shot!Overall it has been a smooth transition to cloth diapers. We get leaks occasionally because Gerrit has a tendency to “flood” (he holds his pee and releases it all at once, and the diaper can’t absorb it fast enough) his diapers once in awhile. But I’ve just gotten more diligent about checking for wetness so I can change him more often.

I have a good wash routine, and I’ve only had one little hiccup (we needed to switch to a stronger detergent) so far. We still use disposables at night, not out of necessity, but to get through the big box of size 4 diapers Andrew bought! Overall I am glad we switched: I love that we are not going through so many disposable diapers, I LOVE the cute designs, and I’m hoping it helps Gerrit with potty training when the time comes.

March was a busy month for us! In the middle of the month, we boarded a plane headed to Reno to visit Andrew’s parents. Traveling with a 1-year-old can be a little crazy, but our time in Reno was a lot of fun! Andrew’s parents LOVED their time with Gerrit and made some cute memories with him. Gerrit notoriously sleeps terribly when we’re traveling, so I slept in most mornings. But that was fine, because Gram & Gramps had a great time entertaining our little guy. 🙂 Andrew’s mom got a lot of fun books and toys for G to play with, and Gerrit loved playing with Andrew’s dad on the pool table and exploring outside with them.

Another exciting thing happened while we were in Reno: Andrew found out that he was accepted into Officer Training School for the Air Force! He had applied earlier in the year, and it was great timing that he got the call from his commander while we were at his parents’ house so they could celebrate with us! He leaves for OTS this summer, and we will be packing up to move again sometime this fall.

Right after we got back from Reno, we unpacked and repacked our suitcases to drive to Tennessee to spend time with my family for Easter! It was a little hectic having back-to-back trips, but I figured if Gerrit’s schedule was going to get off track, might as well just keep it off track, right? My parents rented a house that would accommodate all of us coming in from out of town not far from their house. It was great! The house we stayed in had lots of room for the kids to play, a nice kitchen with a dining table that could fit all of us, and enough beds for all of us and our kids. Plus it was out in the country, so it was quiet (minus the frequent trains passing by haha) and pretty with all the plants blooming.

20160326_200354 — Rub-a-dub-dub, 3 babies in the tub! Gerrit, Lexy, & Nolan

The day before we headed back home to NC, we went to the Chattanooga Zoo with all the kiddos. I feel like the zoo was just the right size for Gerrit (and toddlers in general): we saw lots of animals, but in only took a couple of hours to get through the whole thing.

It was a fun outing with my mom, sisters, nephews, and niece! The weather was pretty much perfect that day too.
As you can see, we’re still getting a lot of use out of the ring sling. Gerrit still loves it, and gets excited anytime I tell him to “go get the sling” so I can carry him around with me.

I think the memorable part of April was getting outside! The weather was beautiful, and Andrew spent a lot of time building raised beds for a garden in the backyard. Gerrit wanted to help with all of it, of course, but he really just enjoyed being outside.

Gerrit would stay outside all day if he could! We’ve gotten him a slide and some outdoor toys. We’ve also gotten him some plastic gardening tools to play with.

Of course the beautiful weather quickly moved into hot weather. I got Gerrit a little sprinkler to play with, but he’d much rather let the water turn our yard into a muddy swamp than run through the water!

So that wraps up months 16, 17, & 18! Gerrit continues to grow and learn, and we love watching him figure out new things. He is becoming quite the handful (toddler terror!), but he is also very sweet and loving. I love that I am still able to be at home with him, and I try to cherish all the special moments we have together!

Happy 18 months, Gerrit! We love you, you silly boy!

Crafts · Daily living · Parenting

Our Favorite Sensory Activities

April 14, 2016 nk3302 Comments

Gerrit was a high-needs baby. He needed to have something occupying his attention almost all the time, and he got bored with toys fairly quickly. One way I found to keep him entertained was by making him “toys” and doing sensory activities with him.

Around the time Gerrit was 6 or 7 months old, I started noticing that he was really interested in sensory things. I think this may have been the age that he started seeming more interested in his touch-and-feel books, but I honestly can’t remember. I just know that this was around the time that I started busting out all my “teacher” activities, haha! I had been itching for Gerrit to get to the age when I could start doing some more interesting things with him, so I didn’t waste any time once he started sitting on his own and moving around a bit.

When we lived in England, I spent some time working at the child development center on the base we were stationed at. I worked in a few different classrooms, but all of them were the pre-toddler age group (12-24 months of age). It was not the age I wanted to work with initially, but I grew to love it. I even got to be the lead teacher in one of the classrooms, which was really fulfilling. I was sad to leave that job, that’s for sure! Anyway, we did a lot of different sensory activities with our kids, and I really got into planning fun things for the little ones to do and explore. Needless to say, I was eager for Gerrit to get closer to that pre-toddler age so I could start having some fun!

1. Boxes

I don’t know why, but kids love boxes. My mom tells me about one birthday or Christmas when I unwrapped a gift and gleefully exclaimed, “It’s a box!” I didn’t even care what was inside. I still love boxes. I have a bad habit of saving them to re-use. Usually they get used for shipping gifts to people, but now I’m always thinking of ways to use them for Gerrit.

Sensory Box
I already knew that Gerrit liked his touch-and-feel books, so I decided to expand on that and make him a sensory box.

It’s just a large-ish box that I wrapped in colorful wrapping paper. I covered all the edges and corners with packaging tape, since I knew they would get chewed on eventually! Then I just looked through the house for different textures. The ones you can see in picture above are the green mesh from a bag of limes we had purchased and some fine grit sandpaper. I’m pretty sure the side he’s playing with is bubble wrap — his favorite! The other three sides had a piece of felt, some rubbery material meant to help one open jars, and a plastic baggie filled with gel (aloe gel, although I was looking for hair gel). I ended up covering the entire plastic baggie with packaging tape since Gerrit loves to use those sharp little fingernails on everything.

Ribbon-Pulling Cause-and-Effect Box
I made this box before Gerrit really knew how to use it, just to have it ready for him. I think he (at nearly 10 months) started realizing that when he pulls one end, the other end gets shorter.

I have a pretty large supply of craft items on hand (including ribbon of various widths), so this was a fairly quick project. All I did was punch holes in the sides and top of the box with some sharp scissors and push the ribbons through. I used a crochet hook to help get them through on the opposite side, then knotted the ribbon as many times as I needed to to for it to not go all the way through no matter how hard I tugged on it. I made sure I varied the lengths of the ribbons to give some variety to the box. Then I taped the box closed and covered the edges and corners with packaging tape.

2. Finger Painting

Mess-Free Painting
I think I found this idea on Pinterest. I was hoping it would encourage Gerrit to tolerate Tummy Time a bit longer, but it didn’t really work, haha.

This was simply a piece of paper with some dollops of finger paint placed inside a gallon size zipped plastic bag taped to the floor. He was mildly interested in this. Gerrit has always enjoyed standing, so I moved the bag to the window to see if he’d be more interested.

He was… for a few minutes. Eventually I just took it down and gave it to him to play with:

Like everything else, it ended up in his mouth. But that was fine, since everything was in a plastic bag. He enjoyed moving the bag around, hearing the plastic sound, and moving the paint around. Even though he crunched and squeezed the heck out of it, we still got a nice finished product:

It was the first piece of artwork to go on our fridge, and it was made at only 6 months old! I used to let Gerrit do this activity occasionally until he was about 9 months old, but that’s when he started losing interest.

Edible Finger Painting
I’ve seen several different recipes for edible finger paint, but the quickest and easiest for me was to use infant rice cereal. Plus we already had rice cereal on hand that Gerrit had no interest in eating, so I needed to figure out how to use it up!

Finger painting with colored rice cereal

Here’s what you need for this one: rice cereal, food coloring, water, container for paints (I used a muffin tin), and a cheap white plastic tablecloth.

I had the idea to use a plastic tablecloth because it wouldn’t get saturated like paper, Gerrit wouldn’t be able to tear it and eat it, and it would be an easy clean-up! In the picture above, I had taped it to the backside of a waterproof blanket for some padding for us to sit on and, again, easy clean-up.

The thing with rice cereal is that while it’s really not nutritionally significant, it’s also not bad for your baby to eat. I didn’t even know if Gerrit would want to eat it, since he wouldn’t eat it when I tried to feed it to him as cereal! But, of course, since it wasn’t presented as food, he needed to try it! The other thing with rice cereal is that you can change the consistency of it. Add as much or as little water as you’d like to get the thickness that you want.

This is obviously not a piece of artwork you’re going to keep and hang somewhere. But I do try to get a picture of the finished product just for the memories. 🙂

Regular Finger Painting

So once you trust your baby/toddler with regular finger paint, be prepared for things to get messy! But you can offer finger paint in a variety of ways:

Sensory
– Finger paint on wax paper
– Finger paint on felt
– Finger paint on aluminum foil
– Finger paint on bubble wrap
– Finger paint on sand paper
With objects
– animals/dinosaurs: let your child make footprints with their plastic toys on paper
– sponges: kitchen sponges, sea sponges, make-up sponges, kitchen scrubbers, etc.
– plastic shapes
– fly swatter
– cotton balls/pompoms
– toy cars
– balls (roll them within a high-sided container)

3. Sensory Bottles

Sensory bottles are great for a variety of ages. You can make them very simple for babies and tailor them to your child’s age as they grow. Gerrit’s first sensory bottle was just a half-full water bottle that I put a few drops of green food coloring in. He loved it!

The plastic was thin enough that he could squeeze and crinkle it for fun sounds. He could gnaw on the covered end. He could shake it, roll it on the floor, and tip it any which way. What an inexpensive and entertaining toy, huh?!

Since Gerrit enjoyed that green sensory bottle so much, I started thinking of new items to put in bottles for him. We took a trip to Michael’s for some craft items, and I got to work during nap time.

20150822_161138

The things I used are beads, little rubber bands, pipe cleaners, pompoms, water, and some baby shampoo.

There’s baby shampoo in the bottle with the rainbow beads so when Gerrit shakes it, it gets bubbly.

Side note: Gerrit is currently 17 months old, and still really enjoys the bottle that has the baby shampoo in it. He brings it to me to shake up, and just loves all the bubbles it creates!

Gerrit’s favorites are still the bottles that are made of thin plastic, because he loves to squeeze them and hear them crunch and crinkle. I haven’t made any bottles in awhile, so that it probably going on my to-do list!

Other items that I have put in bottles (not pictured) are water with vegetable oil and food coloring and popcorn kernels (makes a fun shaker!). Basically the things that are great for infant sensory bottles are items you don’t want them to play with… things they can choke on, things that are messy, and things they could hurt themselves with (like pipe cleaners). At Gerrit’s age, I haven’t had to seal the bottles yet, but you really should close them securely with super glue or hot glue.

Not wanting to make sensory bottles? Just give your child empty bottles to play with! I also wash out and remove labels from other containers for him to play with. His favorites are a plastic cornstarch container, a parmesan cheese container, and the container his puffs come in.

4. Fine Motor Activities

Now that Gerrit is older, I’ve come up with some fine motor activities that he really enjoys. The first one was

Large Bottle with Opening

All I did was cut a wide opening in the bottom of an apple juice bottle and cover it with duct tape. When Gerrit was younger, he would push pompoms through the top of the bottle. When he had that mastered, I gave him clothes pins to drop through the top opening. He always seems to enjoy a bit of a challenge.

Parmesan Cheese Container

I offered Gerrit a Parmesan cheese container and straws cut to about 3″ length. It’s great for dropping the straws into the holes, and they can shake out the straws from the other opening. Another idea is cut-up pipe cleaners, but they do have sharp ends to watch out for.

5. Large Bin Activities

“Sand” Play

When Gerrit was a baby, I did not want him playing with sand, only because I knew he would try to put handfuls of it in his mouth. An alternative? White corn flour. It’s very fine, so be careful about your baby’s eyes, but it’s a fun alternative to sand play.

Water Play

I think kids of all ages love water! When Gerrit was really young (like 6-8 months), I put water in a walled cookie sheet for him to play with with a few toys.

Once he was sitting on his own, I would put water in a bowl with toys or put him in an under-the-bed storage box filled with water as a tiny pool for him to splash and play in.

Noodle Play

Noodles are fun! They are squishy, edible, AND they hold food coloring! I’m sad to say I only did this with Gerrit once: I dyed elbow macaroni with food coloring and let him play with it with bowls, spoons, and measuring cups. He had so much fun with it!

I am sure I have more ideas, but I wanted to get this published sooner rather than later. I need to dig out more photos to add to this post, but just picture an adorable bald-headed boy having fun with a sensory activity. 🙂 I hope to follow this up soon with a Sensory Activities Part 2 Post!

Daily living · Holiday · Parenting · Travel

Gerrit: 15 Months

March 2, 2016March 2, 2016 nk3302 Comments

Well, this is going up a little late, but photos at 15 months are mostly blurs haha. I finally gave up and just used one that looked good enough.

This was the best photo smile-wise, but the only way I could get him to smile like that was to ask him to sign “happy” haha.

Bear with me… this is covering 3 months, so it’s a long update. I just don’t want to forget anything for when I read this when I’m old(er) and have an even worse memory. Plus, sorry, I’m long-winded!

Age: 15 months on 27 January 2016
Weight: 24.27 lbs
Height: 31-1/2 inches
Teeth: 6
Clothing Size: 18 months
Diaper Size: size 4
Milestones: more signing (more & please), he makes so many animal sounds (cat, bear/lion/tiger, fish, snake, bunny, octopus, horse, cow, sheep, goat, bug, duck, elephant, monkey) plus sounds for an airplane & helicopter, standing independently from being seated (without using furniture), walking backwards, recognizing colors, can stack items, can scribble, learning to use his spoon & fork, can take his clothes off… especially socks (all the time)

Sleeping: No major improvements. We officially dropped from 2 naps to 1 nap around 14 months. I really wanted to push 2 naps longer, but it was such a struggle, and it wasn’t benefiting anyone. I think the hardest part of dropping from 2 naps to 1 was Gerrit’s body getting used to only one nap. When I made the conscious decision to drop to one nap, I think his body was used to sleeping for fewer hours. So the transition was a little tough: he was overtired a lot, which probably contributed to night wakings…

From 12 to 15 months, we never had fewer than 3 night wakings in a night. It was far more common to have 6 or more night wakings, actually! January was particularly rough; I’m blaming it on teething and Wonder Week #9. I have to wonder, as frustrating as it is for me to deal with Gerrit’s frequent waking, how frustrating is it for him? I tried giving pain reliever at night when I realized his 1 year molars were coming in, but it didn’t improve his sleep, so I figured the teeth couldn’t be bothering him too much. And I hate the idea of regularly medicating him for no reason.

On average, Gerrit got mostly 10-11 hours of sleep a night at 12 months, but dropped to 9-10 hours a night at 13 & 14 months. Total sleep was at about 12-13 hours a day in November & December, but it dropped to 11-12 hours a day in January. Of course, I worry that he doesn’t get enough of sleep, but the older Gerrit gets, the more I realize that he just doesn’t need as much sleep as the average baby or toddler.

^ This kid took a 4 hour nap one day! It was crazy, and I feel like it will never happen again! It may have been a growth spurt.

And yes, as you probably guessed, I’m still tracking Gerrit’s sleep. It’s mostly habit now, but I love knowing all about Gerrit’s sleep patterns. I feel like I don’t have a good memory of his sleep because I haven’t gotten a solid night of sleep in so long. So I like to track it so I can look back and see changes. Call me crazy… you won’t be the first! 🙂

Eating: Around 14 months, Gerrit turned a corner with solids. He started eating more, eating more variety, and eating more consistently. I was thrilled! I had to get used to spending a lot more time at the table. Usually Gerrit would move his food around, maybe take a few nibbles, then sign “all done.” Now we are sometimes at the table for half an hour!

Gerrit used to only eat Cheerios and some strawberries at breakfast. Now he’ll eat pancakes, scrambled eggs with salsa, and even oatmeal! He still loves strawberries, but he’ll also eat blueberries, raspberries (he loves ’em!), bananas, oranges, grapefruit, and pomelo. I’m not a big fan of citrus fruits, but Gerrit loves sharing them with his Dada. 🙂

Gerrit is still a big fan of chicken, but he eats almost everything I make now. His favorite vegetables are broccoli and peas. He still loves spaghetti & meatballs. He loves cheddar cheese! If I’m cooking something that has shredded cheddar cheese as an ingredient, I end up giving quite a few of the shreds to Gerrit while I’m cooking, haha. It keeps him happy while I cook, and I figure there are much worse things he could be snacking on. And speaking of snacks, this kid loves Goldfish crackers. He wants them anytime he sees them in the cupboard!

Gerrit still nurses a lot though. Mostly comfort nursing, but he always nurses first thing in the morning, before his nap, right after his nap, and before bedtime. Some days he nurses more often than other days, but the bottom line is that I don’t see him weaning anytime soon. And, as you can see below, he always wants to have Lamby with him when he nurses!
He still nurses every 2-3 hours at night, if not more often. Sometimes I feel really concerned about how often he nurses. And then I read something or talk to someone that makes me realize how very normal Gerrit is! And I feel like I’m really doing a good thing by not forcing him to wean.

Mommy Update: Generally, I’m good. I’m tired most mornings, but if it was a particularly rough night, I nap when Gerrit does. I really love this age! Gerrit is a lot of fun, he’s learning new things constantly, and he’s just so cute.

He’s also starting to test us: throwing things, scratching, crying when he doesn’t get his way. It’s the switch from baby sweetness to toddler tyranny! I really don’t like it… I love being fun and silly, and I don’t like switching gears to being stern and being the disciplinarian. But I feel like that really is parenthood, isn’t it? Finding that balance between being a playmate to your child and teaching them what is right and wrong.

I have to say, with Gerrit’s longer single nap, I’ve gotten more time to myself at that time of day! That’s when I watch “my” shows (ones Andrew really doesn’t want to watch haha!), scrapbook, crochet, catch up on emails… it’s a great time for me to just relax and do things that make me happy. I do that after Gerrit goes to bed too, but nap time is truly Nicole Time. Except I don’t drink any wine at nap time. 😛

Best Moments: I think the biggest one was Christmas. Gerrit’s first Christmas was such a crazy blur… this year was much better! We did a little lifestyle photo shoot with my sister Becki, which was fun! I loved getting some photos done of just the two of us, and it was just a nice way to remember a less stressful Christmas.

I don’t care how tired we look… we had a happy little Christmas! That little guy brings so much joy to us, it makes sleepless nights a little more worth it.

We also traveled up to Wisconsin for Christmas with my family. I was very excited about this! I hadn’t spent Christmas with my family since 2010, and I was looking forward to getting all the kidlets together.

I wish I had a super cute picture of all of the cousins playing together, but I’m sure you all know that that is just not possible. So here’s one with 4 of the 5 cousins, haha. And this is the best one I had on my camera of the 5 of them by the Christmas tree:

Haha… no smiles…but most of them are looking at the camera, and Gerrit is getting a smooch from Braxton. Cute!

At the end of January, my mom came to spend some time with us, and we loved having her!

Gerrit & I had so much fun with her, and it was so helpful to have an extra pair of hands. Seriously, how does one kid need 3 adults?! Anyway, we had so much fun, and Andrew & I even got an afternoon sushi date out of it! Now I just need to convince my mom to move in… 🙂

Besides the big moments, it has been so much fun seeing Gerrit learn and do new things. I know I’m biased, but I’m always thinking, My kid is so smart! But whenever he tries to say something new, or he signs something new, or I just see him do something like helping me unload the dishwasher or clean up the floor with a rag… I’m just so impressed and proud of him.

Likes & Dislikes: Gerrit likes keeping busy. All the time. His favorite thing to do is still reading books. He seriously loves his books. And we read the same books all the time… no matter how many we have, he seems to zero in on 2 or 3 per day. Some of his favorites:
Planes Go (and the rest in the series by Steve Light)

Down by the Station

If Animals Kissed Goodnight

Where is Baby’s Belly Button?

Mommy! Mommy!

Curious George Rides

Dear Zoo

Guess How Much I Love You

There are so many more that he really enjoys, but I could write a whole post just on that! We have so many books that I’ve divided them into 4 rotation groups just to keep Gerrit from getting overwhelmed by all of them. And to keep Andrew and I sane! My limit is reading the same book 3 times in a row. Then I make Gerrit find a new one. Andrew is not that patient, haha!

Gerrit also has really started enjoying “cooking.” He has some plastic pots and pans, I have given him some plastic containers (i.e. garbage), and he cooks his pompons (we call them puff balls). And he loves helping me cook too. I bought a ring sling, hoping it would help me at dinner time… and he loves it! When I put it on, he starts giggling, because he’s excited to be a part of the action in the kitchen.

I let him stir some things on the stove, and I think he just loves watching me measure things and tell him everything I’m doing. I so look forward to when he can actually help me in the kitchen. I think it will be a great bonding experience for both of us.

Gerrit loves animals! I don’t even know what his favorite would be… monkeys, elephants, tigers… he likes so many! And cats. He loves meowing like a cat, he loves any books with cats or kittens, and he loves YouTube videos of cats. I think if his love of cats continues, we’ll have to consider getting him one as a pet in a couple of years. 🙂

Gerrit also has started really enjoying being tossed around by Andrew. Andrew will toss him in the air, toss him on the bed, flip him on the couch… Gerrit loves it! He likes being silly and crawling around on us, but he often gets too wound up and starts scratching us or will bite. I can’t wait til he gets over that, because I am sick of looking like I got in a fight with a cat.

Gerrit still likes bath time, and it can be hard to get him out of the tub. He will stay in there playing until his teeth are chattering! I’ve gotten him some cups that he can stack and pour, and he loves them. Between those and his books that change color in water, he is a happy kid in the bath.

And of course, Gerrit loves Lamby. He has started always wanting Lamby while he nurses. If he asks to nurse and doesn’t have Lamby, he’ll stop and ask for “Mam” (Lamb), and then I’m expected to go help him find Lamby. He always sleeps with Lamby. We haven’t gotten to the point where he needs to take Lamby with him when we leave the house, and I’m hoping we can avoid it! Heaven forbid we would lose that lamb.

Gerrit does not dislike sleep as much as he used to! I can actually say, “Are you ready for a nap?” and he will look for Lamby and willingly go to his room. I will close the blinds, and he closes the door. I think part of the reason he’s okay with going to sleep is because he loves nursing so much, and he always nurses to sleep.

Gerrit dislikes waiting. If he is done with dinner before us, he gets very upset about being made to wait. He hates waiting to nurse, and gets really frustrated and angry with me if I’m not ready to nurse when he is.

Gerrit still dislikes me cooking or doing anything in the kitchen. It’s really frustrating having him whine and cry and push me away from the cutting board or the stove. Dinner often happens later than I want because Gerrit slows me down. Either I’m trying to cook with him in the ring sling, or I’m taking frequent breaks to read him a book or try to get him involved in an activity. Thankfully, Andrew has been pretty good about keeping him entertained while I cook, except for when he’s trying to study for his tech test.

Memorable Events: Everything Christmas! Picking out a tree with Gerrit, decorating that tree with Gerrit, opening presents… It was all a new experience for him, and it was fun seeing him have fun with it all.

I wish this one wasn’t blurry. 😦 But it’s really cute anyway!

I have all these traditions that I want to do with him, and I’m excited for when he’s old enough to be involved in them and enjoy them.

One tradition is the stockings. When I was growing up, the stockings got filled on Christmas Eve by Santa. And I’m continuing that tradition with Gerrit. With all the little gifts from Santa, we also got a new ornament for the tree. Here’s Gerrit getting his first ornament for the tree:

A little stuffed penguin ornament! He loved it, and did not want to leave it hanging on the tree, haha.

Gerrit also went sledding for the first time while we were up in Wisconsin. A few of us drove to the big hill in town that I went sledding on as a kid. I can’t remember the last time I went sledding down that hill, but it was so fun!

Look at my little snow bunny! Haha, the poor kid could barely walk in that get-up. But isn’t he adorable? I’m so glad my sister had stuff for Gerrit to borrow so he could go sledding with the big kids. 🙂

Whee! Going down the hill with Dada!

I can’t believe I almost didn’t go! I decided to go at the last minute, and I know I would have been so sad to have missed out on this with my boys. We didn’t keep Gerrit outside for very long because it was pretty cold. But I know he had fun too!

Well, that’s it for November through January. It was a fun three months with holidays, family, and some winter fun. This momma is still not getting much sleep, but it’s been wonderful seeing Gerrit continue to grow, learn, and develop into his own little person. He’s such a great kid, and we love him so much!

Happy 15 months, sweet boy! I am so proud of you and love you to the moon and back!