At thirteen months

Oliver is becoming a new little man. He is definitely no longer a baby, even though he isn't yet toddling. I see glimmers of my little boy when he nods off having his milk before bed, but other than that, he's becoming very grown up very quickly.

New developments, some good, some bad:
1. Ollie is learning to use a spoon. He knows how to hold it properly, can do a basic scooping motion, and can sometimes get the spoon to his mouth, contents still in tact. More often, though, he dips it in his food and waves it around. Or he puts food on the spoon by scooping, but then picks the food off the spoon with his free hand to eat it. Regardless of what he is eating though, he needs a spoon. He often refuses to eat unless he gets to hold a spoon, too. Since we want to encourage him to to learn to use the utensils, I have no problem complying with the request. Unfortunately, he isn't keen on giving up the spoon when dinner is over and often wails when it's taken away. He is completely off bottles but still won't hold his sippy cup for me at home. I often end up holding it, or holding him tilted back while he props it up, to make sure he gets enough to drink. Because we're pushing fluids so much at home, though, he's waking up in the morning soaking wet, which means lots of extra laundry. We've just gotten off bottles in the last week, though, so I'll be patient waiting for him to learn to hold it.
2. Ollie has added a wide range of vocalizations to his repertoire, but he still hasn't said a truly recognizable word. We're doing lots of pointing and naming these days and trying again with some basic signs (with the words repeated at the same time). One essential one is, "More, please." He tends, at mealtime, to lunge for food and grunt, getting more and more frustrated when his efforts are futile. So I keep repeating, "More, please," and doing the sign for more. No success yet, but again, patience. He is definitely jabbering a LOT more, though.
3. He LOVES the playground at school. Every day I find him out there with one of the shovels having lots of fun in the dirt. I'm no longer vacuuming up just dog hair. Now it's dog hair and sand.
4. He hugs me! It seems kind of accidental sometimes, but it's still super special :)
5. Last night, Oliver peed on the rug in his bathroom. This would be funny regardless, but it's extra funny because normally it's the dog who does this. Lucy is notorious for gaining access to one of the bathrooms or our closet (the ONLY places in our house with rugs or carpets) and peeing, even if she's been outside recently. It's an issue we've never resolved with her, so we just try and cut off her access. Last night, I put Oliver in the bathtub and then sat down and noticed the rug was wet. I knew the dog hadn't had access, but it was definitely urine. We often stand Oliver up by the bathtub while we run the water, so I can only assume he was the offender. Unbelievable.
6. Last Friday Ollie had his first temper tantrum. He is often pretty tired by Friday night, as he's still adjusting to one nap a day at daycare (but fortunately is now taking longer naps there, which helps). Friday, he was cranky and seemed hungry, but when I sat him down to eat he cried and cried and threw his food on the floor. When I took him out of the high chair, he got even more upset. Wes took over, so I could finish preparing dinner for some friends who were coming over, and when I looked in the living room (as the wailing was getting louder), Ollie was laying on the floor screaming and Wes was sitting next to him watching baseball. Neither of us knew what to do except wait for him to calm down. I still don't know what triggered it, and I'm not super-excited about dealing with this for the next however many years, but at least it's one first we've lived to tell about!

Reading nutrition labels is very important

Cannonball!

Or at least that's what Wes calls it. Oliver can swing sitting back, but if he gets tipped forward he can't right himself. He does enjoy the swing now, though. He giggles when he starts swinging, in fact. We've started taking him to the park occassionally on the way home from work/school/daycare. This is at a park near campus. It has a huge ceramic tile dragon that's phenominal, but it doesn't really interest him yet. He likes the teeter-totter (which is such that we can all three go on it), the swings, and the tunnels. He'll go down the slide with me, but it doesn't seem to excite him much yet.

Learning to use the spoon

Baby needs a new pair of shoes

Right after Oliver's first day at his new daycare, we had to go shopping for a jacket (it's cooled off here) and a pair of shoes. Both were for the playground. The kids play outside a lot at this daycare (even today, when it rained all afternoon and they were essentially playing in mud), and so they require all kids, even those not walking, to have rubber-bottomed shoes. The only shoes we've owned up to this point are the soft-bottom Robeez-type shoes (except the cheap ones from Target). So off we went to the mall, where I knew things would be more expensive but the one place I knew I could find both things and someone to help figure out the size for his feet. Twenty minutes and a chunk of change later, Oliver got his first pair of shoes. I've tried to tell myself that he only needs good shoes for while he's learning to walk and then we can go cheap once he's up and around really well. But honestly, it's helpful to have someone help with the sizing. I've got no idea -- I've even bought shoes too small for myself! She did tell me that kids tend to grow out of a pair of shoes in about 3 months, which isn't comforting. If he ends up with Wes-size feet, he's got a lot of shoe sizes still to go.

Sick and sicker

Oliver is sick, once again. It seems he's suffered an endless string of colds, fevers, and diarrhea since starting daycare five weeks ago. Not unusual, but challenging in the best of circumstances and even more so when mom and dad are both working and going to school, and neither is in a situation conducive to calling in sick if necessary. Fortunately, I had anticipated this and set up several sitters for different days of the week if Oliver needed to be out.

Ollie got sent home from daycare last Thursday with a fever. It was only 102, but that's high enough to have to stay out for 24 hours. He was home with a sitter on Friday (someone who, we learned last time, knows my sister and brother-in-law -- what an amazing coincidence is that). Erin is a wonderful sitter, very competent with sick ones. She even has a carseat in her car should something come up that required her to haul Oliver. She mentioned that he'd been very still on Friday, sitting with her a lot. That's very out of character for Oliver, so I knew he really wasn't feeling well.

Yesterday morning he played with less vigor than usual. But the Tylenol seems to mitigate his symptoms enough for him to be up and about some. After his morning nap, though, he was a different patient. He barely ate any lunch and spent the next 2-3 hours sitting in my lap or lying on Wes's chest -- not sleeping, just being still. He took a four-hour nap after that (from which I roused him as the evening wore on). He woke up very sweaty, so he got a bath, then ate a bit more for dinner, and was in bed two hours later.

He's showing more life this morning, but the runny nose and cough are still bothering him, and he's still on a four-hour dosing schedule of Tylenol or Motrin (we try to wait to see if he really needs it, but so far, he does). We have a date with a friend to the zoo today, but I fear we might need to cancel. He's also supposed to start his first day of his new daycare tomorrow, but I'm thinking that probably won't happen. I don't want to mix him still feeling poorly with a new day at a new place. I'd rather shell out money for a sitter than have him suffer through that, even if he's not running a fever by then.

Nobody wants a sick kid, but I must admit I'm enjoying my few moments of snuggling with Ollie. He's never been big on being held -- at least not since he could move much at all -- so I have to get my fill when he's compliant.

Gone, but not forgotten

Wes got up with Ollie this morning around 5:30am so that I could sleep in a bit, having been awake myself much of the night with a rattling cough. When I finally roused two hours laters, I sat next to them on the couch, and Ollie reached out for me. I was touched, but then realized he did so to get closer to my chest, which he was not banging his head against. Evidently, Wes had not yet given him his morning bottle.