Sixteen Months!

Happy Sixteen Months, Monkey Boy!


April 27, 2009
16 months old

Let's compare back to the same time last year and see if you notice any change....

April 27, 2008
4 months old

Holy cow - is that the same kiddo?!?! He sure has grown and continues to change every single day...learning exciting things and new ways to amaze and frustrate his parents. :)

Sorry that this gets a little long, but I just started typing and it just kept going....

We are beginning our "independent" stage already! For example, he wants to walk up the long flight of stairs when we leave daycare each day rather than be carried. However, he refuses to hold my hands to help him up the stairs, and would rather hold onto the railing himself. The railing is a little out of his reach though...so he stumbles and falls multiple times and will gladly grab for my hand during the stumble...and as soon as he's righted himself, he will stubbornly swat my hands away seemingly to suggest "Quit helping me! I am fine!"

The little guy is fascinated with pushing things such as the grocery cart or his unoccupied stroller. He cannot see where he is going (nor does he care) and will run into just about anything in sight, but as soon as he sees a guiding hand on the top of the cart/stroller, he loudly proclaims "NO...NO" in case we happen to have forgotten that he prefers to push it himself.

Quick funny grocery cart story...during our most recent trip to Costco, we checked out at the register furthest from the exit. We allowed Mitchell to push the cart (with a little secret guidance) out of the store. He would push the cart to the next register, and then stop pushing to walk up the end of the register and tap the end wall of the register - come back to the cart, push it even with the next register - walk up to the end of the register and tap the end wall of the register - back to the cart - so on and so forth through maybe six registers. It was very strange and very enterating for Jacob and I...and probably very annoying for the line of strangers that had to maneuver carts around us on that busy Saturday!

Mitchell is OBSESSED with cars/trucks/tractors/wagons/bikes...really ANYTHING with wheels! He LOVES them, touching them, pointing to them, riding in them and the BEST is pretending to drive them! He either says the words or signs them 100's of times daily. I took him to the Pet Expo a few weeks back thinking he'd really enjoy seeing all of the cats and dogs, little did I know that his favorite attraction would be the small display of new models of cars from a local car dealership. He was more excited than Christmas morning to be able to climb around in them! (Yes, I asked first!)

Next to things with wheels, books and balls continue to be his next favorites. He is starting to know the difference in the kind of sports balls...and I have no idea how because I don't think I've been teaching it to him. He can typically pick out a 'basketball' from a 'baseball' and can say both words. Just tonight as we were heading home from our nightly walk to the mailbox, he pointed at the neighbors basketball goal in their driveway and eagerly proclaimed "bas-ket-ball." I thought "How the heck does he know that?" That phrase often crosses my mind these days.

We had a first today at daycare....and it's not necessarily a good one, but one that is inevitable and unavoidable -- our first teethbite marks from another child. The daycare teacher apologized up and down. It did not break the skin, but I could definitely make out the upper and lower teeth marks right above Mitchell's wrist. His teacher did not offer up which child was the assailant, but I will be paying close attention to which child has a slightly crooked upper bicuspant - just kidding. Kids will be kids and although Mitchell doesn't seem to show too many biting tendancies yet..I can already envision the day the daycare will tell me that he was the one that bit another kid...and the guilt that I will feel. He's a tough boy and doesn't even seem to notice the marks. My co-worker attended a funeral last week for a friend who's 18 month-old daughter was somehow strangled to death in her daycare provider's fence on the very FIRST day they used this new daycare provider. The daycare provider happened to be in our same suburb of Kansas City (Shawnee, Kansas). I can NOT even imagine the pain this family must be enduring and the thought of receiving a phonecall of that nature is unimaginable to me! I think I can deal with small teeth marks.

Mitchell is still an active little fellow. He loves the outdoors, but gets a little restless in his stroller these days as he'd rather be pushing it instead (so long to my days of leisurely strolls around the neighborhood enjoying the spring weather). He is very fond of climbling stairs, outdoor stairs are very intriguing!

Mitchell has become a 'spider monkey' at bedtime. Right around 8pm, you can just see him start to get drowsy and slow down. We go through the bedtime rountine, which ends with starting his nighttime music CD and rocking him in our arms by his crib. He will proclaim "no, no" a few times as if to suggest that he was only pretending to be tired and is not really ready for bed yet. We know the truth and press on... He will slowly lay his head on your shoulder and start to slowly fall asleep, but as soon as you make the move to try to lay him down into his crib, he will become a spider monkey and wrap his little arms around your neck and legs around your waste as tight as he can to prevent you from laying him down! I usually give in a time or two and continue rocking him, at which time he'll reach his hand around to the back of my neck and play with my hair as he continues to slowly fall asleep in my arrms. Sometimes I just take advantage of this time, knowing that there will be a day that he will be too big and independent to allow his mom to rock him to sleep...but eventually I will lay him into his crib and if I'm lucky he'll curl up on his tummy in a ball with his legs under his body in fetal position and drift off to sleep.

Mitchell's nighttime schedule is fairly good these days. He still wakes rather early some days (5 or 6am), and usually when we go get him out of bed he will request one of three things...1. Banana, 2. Crackers 3. Drink. If we give him his requests and then sit down and rock him in our rocking chair, he'll lay his little head down on your shoulder and fall slowly back to sleep. If you're lucky this might last up to an hour, during which time he'll probably wriggle around and pull back at times to look you in the face and smile or give you a little giggle. I love this time, and somehow it's not so hard when I hear him yelling for us to get him out of his crib at the early hour.

My biggest struggle with Mitchell as of lately is getting him into his carseat. As mentioned above, he LOVES cars but would MUCH rather be driving the car than buckled tightly in the backseat. He is a strong little fellow too..so when he thrusts those little hips upwards and wriggles and kicks around, it TOUGH to get him buckled in. We have gone round and round more than a few times, but somehow Mommy always wins. Somehow the victory is not so sweet when you're frustrated, frazzled and sweaty, and have a bawling 16 month old in the back seat. :(



Mitchell, may the battles continue and God grant me the patience to deal with them.

May you enjoy daycare just enough not to throw a fit when we leave you, but not so much so that you're still excited to see us at the end of the day.

May you continue to teach Mommy and Daddy as many new things as you learn each day.

We love you, Monkey Boy.