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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Carter-Carter at 19 months

I say it all the time but I can't believe how fast time has flown. I can't believe my little guy went from being a cuddly, tiny little floppy legged newborn to being a walking, running, jabbering, opinionated 19 month old. In just over 4 months he'll be two years old!

So where to begin to try and describe what this little boy is like today? I suppose I could tell you all our challenges, new things and things he loves. 

Challenges:
This child has a problem with sleeping. I mean, a real problem. I *refuse* to leave him in his bed crying. It may be how some parents choose to address sleep issues but I am not one of them. I'm a cryer, it's how I handle stressful situations, anxiety and sometimes I just need a good cry to release my emotions, good or bad. If I get to the point where I'm crying so hard I can't breath and to the point of exhaustion, I don't sleep well, I don't feel better when I wake up and if I'm just ignored, I feel betrayed and abandoned. These are feelings I do not want my son to have. I want him to know that I will always be there for him, no matter what.

I think part of the sleep problem is that he still nurses at night. Since that's when he does that majority of his nursing and I'm in no way ready for another pregnancy, we've chosen to not night wean him yet. I feel that if we night wean, he may wean completely and I'm not ready. So, we just sort of deal with the sleep problems. He usually wants to fall asleep on me for nap, which is where babywearing comes in real handy. I can wrap him on my back, at home or away, and he's asleep before too long. I can either leave him up there and go about my day or lay him down. For night time, he falls asleep next to me. He doesn't fall asleep nursing but he usually is curled up pretty close. I don't mind so much, he's not going to want to cuddle with me forever and I'm trying to cherish this time. We usually move him to his bed, either his crib, the full bed in his room or the crib mattress in our room and he moves back to our bed when he gets thirsty, anywhere from 2-8 hours later. 

Another challenge is he sometimes gets frustrated and will strike whatever it is he's frustrated with. Say he trips and bumps into the wall. If he's cranky, he will turn around and hit the wall. He's not too bad about hitting people but when he does hit, we warn him and if he does it again he goes in time-out. Time-outs have been great for him, he really seems to understand that if he stops the behavior he won't be sitting against the wall.

This kid can get undressed so quickly! Thankfully he is not to the point of taking his diaper off, yet, but I'm sure it's coming. He just started taking his pants off and pulling at his diaper when it's dirty. I've gotten his potty chair down and he's sat on it once. He's really interested in the toilet and flushing and wiping and washing hands but I'm not sure he's quite there yet for potty training. He only acknowledges the dirty diaper after he's gone, not before. I think it's time to start reading him some potty books and we'll go from there.

New Things:
I love watching him grow and learn! He's hilarious at this age and so entertaining. He's learning animals sounds and the differences between animals. He loves to hold the vacuum extension up to his mouth and be an "elephant" and he thinks every bird is a duck so will start quacking anytime he sees a bird.

He's recently started trying to jump. It's so cute how much effort he puts into jumping, he gets this sly smile on his face, bends his knees and jumps up onto his tip-toes real quick. He's yet to get air-born but he tries so hard.

He's working really hard on learning the alphabet. He loves his alphabet magnets and other letter toys and games. We are working on shapes and colors but he seems to like the alphabet more.

He is talking so much! We really have to be careful about what we say in front of him, you never know when he'll choose to repeat a word or phrase! Yesterday, Max and I were talking and I said "duh" to myself about something and Carter starts saying it over and over again. *facepalm*

Things He Loves:
I generally hate gender stereotypes for such young kids. Carter is a boy but he loves to play dress up and carry around buckets and play cook and take care of his mickey doll. On the other hand, he loves to get dirty, eat mud, play at the park, collect rocks, run outside and climb. 

Now that the weather is getting warmer and slightly less wet (we do live in Oregon, afterall) he wants to be outside all the time. Our apartment backyard isn't quite ready for summer time, we are planting grass this week and plan on buying him so toys for outside, but regardless, he wants to be out there every minute of everyday. He hates it when I bring him back inside, for whatever reason. 

He is obsessed with babies. He sees a baby and is mesmerized. He is a bit weary of them but he likes to look.

I will add pictures soon!

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