17 month update

 

November was a great month overall, especially in contrast to craziness of the previous month.  I have to say this has been one of my favorite months so far with so many new developments and silly moments with Josiah.  I feel like I've bonded so much more with him recently :)

That said, it started off rocky with major sleep regression.  Josiah would wake up multiple times at night screaming at the top of his lungs, completely inconsolable.  We would ultimately give up and put him in our bed, which we learned was a BAD idea and a hard habit to later break.  Luckily, after a few weeks of misery, we were able to make some progress and regain some of our nighttime sanity.  Some of the tactics that seemed to work was: keeping the lights dim (versus completely off), surrounding him with all his dolls, and gently telling him to sleep (and NOT picking him up) when he would wake up crying.  I hope we continue on this positive trend, as I really can't bear to give up my sleep knowing that it will soon be taken away from me again once baby #2 comes!

Aside from these nighttime antics, Josiah has picked up some fun habits too.  He's really become quite the clown - tickling, dancing around, pretending to sneeze or snore, putting his feet in our face ("stinky"!), trying to stick his binky in our mouths, etc....anything for a laugh.  He chuckles so much, which is the sweetest sound in the world!

He's also picked up some new words.  He finally says "mommy" and "umma", although I am not convinced he knows that's me.  He tends to use "da deee" interchangeably for us (especially when banging on our bedroom door), and I think I even heard him call me "Jee" (for Jane?).  He also says hug ("ugg"), water ("waa"), apple, shoes, cookie, ball ("baa"), and some random letters of the alphabet.  Although not a tremendous vocabulary, he really seems to understand so much more and takes direction so much better than before.  He will shake his head and hand at us vehemently when he doesn't want something, which is helpful, but annoying when he simply refuses to eat his dinner.  He still gets really frustrated sometimes, but I do think the increased communication has helped minimize outbursts.  These days, he repeats so much of what we say and do, so we have to watch ourselves!  He loves playing with shoes and putting them away in the closet.  He also likes to brush his hair, climb onto the couch, change channels on the TV (unless he finds his favorite show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), and watch pictures and videos of him on the iPhone.  Hope this isn't an indication of the stimulating life we lead!


He's still a social butterfly and especially loves all the attention he gets from his neighborhood and church peeps.  He's a bit rough with kids, however, and has pushed a few kids around recently :(  While he loves being around people, he's exhibiting more clingy behavior lately.  He will randomly only want to be with us, or even sometimes just with me.  Even when our nanny comes over in the morning, he'll sometimes run away whining.  But of course, I don't mind the preferential treatment.  The best is when I come home from work and he yells "Oh!" and "ugg!" while running toward me with a big hug.  Best greeting ever!

While there is still so much to discover with this little guy, one thing we know for sure is that he loves music!  He loves listening to praise songs at church (even shakes his body and claps along), enjoys banging on drums and the piano, and will occasionally hum along to parts of songs.  I can't say that he's necessarily musically inclined since he's pretty off-key, but I'm still hopeful that we'll have a musician in the family!