16 Months

Well, time has flown. Everett is 16 months old. I thought I'd do a brief "where we're at" post so we can look back and remember these fun times.

-Everett is VERY into being outside these days. He asks for his "saww" (socks) and "shoo" (shoes) and then walks over to the back door. He sticks his finger in the crack between the door and the frame, looks at us, and says "side?" At one point it was "pside?" (please outside?). Crying always follows if we are unable to go outside at the moment.

-Which reminds me...he uses "please" and "thank you" signs. He sometimes confuses which one he is supposed to say, but he knows it's one of the two. He verbalizes please sometimes, which comes out peas.

-He is very verbal. More of it comes out as real words every day. Yesterday he said his second sentence. "Oh no! Where'd it go?" He really likes to drop things and say "oh no!" with his hands upturned in classic uh-oh fashion. I think this is so cute. His first sentence was "where is Dad?" a week ago when I got him up in the morning as Dad usually does that. The words are awesome, but his babbling is still so hilarious. "Diddle, diddle, diddle" is one of our favorites.

-He is really sweet. He has started blowing kisses and is starting to get the hang of kissing faces, though it's still pretty difficult for him. He nuzzles his head on the cat every now and then and nuzzled his head against our friends' newborn recently. He gives hugs when he feels like it, which is getting to be more frequent. He likes to carry around his Elmo and Cookie Monster and gets really excited when he sees Elmo on TV.

-The separation anxiety is strong these days. This has been very difficult for me as I am unable to leave his line of vision without him crying. I am trying to do this more little by little to help lessen it, but it still really stresses him out when either of us leave. This also includes Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Lauren. I have been trying to leave him in the daycare at the gym, which only lasts about 10-15 minutes after which he is crying so hard he can barely breathe. And we plan to start looking for a babysitter before little brother gets here, so we will see how that goes.

-He has a long attention span for figuring out how things work. Particularly in a dexterous fashion. For example, this morning he spent a good amount of time working on how to get the straw of his cup to open and close. Often he will work on something, get frustrated, cry, and keep trying until we take it away. We had to take away a ring that his hand just wouldn't fit into because he kept trying and crying.

-He's a really good walker, but not a great listener yet. What a combo! hah! He really wants to walk when we are out places, but he doesn't exactly stay near me or following directions like "come here", "hold my hand", etc. It seems like evolution would have made this happen in the opposite order, but I guess that's just how we learn. I really don't want to become one of the moms with a leash on their kid, but I certainly understand it now and rescind all previous judgment. :)