Adventures in Parenting: 13 Months

Another month, another post!

1. Halloween.  Last year, he was too little (3 weeks old) to grasp the concept.  This year...he still doesn't, but he was at least a willing participant.  (i.e, we let him grab the candy, but Mom & Dad are still the ones eating 99% of it.)

His favorite thing? A balloon they gave out at our church event.  

Blurry babies are happy babies.

2. Molars, yo.  Lil' Man hasn't really ever had a rough time with teething...until molars.  Molars are the devil.  They take FOR-EV-ER to come in, and trouble him the whole time. He's a drooly, fussy, fevery hot mess.

3. New Classes at Day Care.  A spot opened up in the Ones classroom when he was 1y2w, so we moved him up (even though he'll be moving to a totally different day care once we're able to finally move into our new house).  Here, he has to eat off plates, drink from a sippy cup (no bottles), sleep on a cot instead of a crib, and be surrounded by 7 other kids who already know how to walk and run circles around him.

So far, he's done amazingly well--he takes THREE HOUR naps.  On a cot. It's crazy.  He hasn't been doing as great with the sippy cups--he'll drink from them, but not finish it, so he's not getting a ton of fluids during the day, which has resulted in some [TMI] constipation issues.  

4. Still Not Walking.  And I'm okay with that.  He will develop at his own pace.  He's not going to college still crawling.    It's so hard to wait for the big milestones though.  Especially when you see other kids at the same age already THERE.  So here are some other milestones he's hit:

• Initiating games of peekaboo with a blanket
• Hamming it up for the camera
• Throwing a ball to someone (and it actually getting really close to them)
• Putting things into (and then taking them out of) containers
• Dancing while holding on to the coffee table
• Climbing onto the coffee table
• Turning light switches on and off and knowing what they do (when he flips the switch, he immediately turns to look at the light)
• Pointing at things and trying to verbalize (the dog and lights/ceiling fans are particular faves)
• Pooping in the bathtub.

5. Talking.  Our son is a babbling fool--he loves to jabber.  But he still doesn't really use any "proper" words.  Again--not rushing him, I know he'll figure it out and one of these days he'll be following me around yelling "MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA" and I'll be wishing he COULDN'T talk.  But I know that as a responsible parent, one of my jobs is to talk with my son as much as possible so that he learns new words and how to converse, etc.

Do you know how hard it is to be an introverted parent of a toddler?  It's actually really hard for me to force myself to talk to my son.  I just want to sit here and feed you and make faces at you and take pictures of you. I don't want to prattle on about "Would you like some blueberries?  Here, have some chicken.  How about some applesauce?  Do you like your blueberries?  Would you like some milk?  Mama bought it at the store just for you!  Do you see Rocky?  Yeah, he's eating the blueberry you just threw on the floor!  He's a good little helper dog.  Where's Daddy?  Where's Mama?  Do you want some more milk?  What do you see outside?  Do you see the tree?  There goes a car!  There's a bird in the yard!  Did you finish your chicken?  Do you want some more? Are you all done? Where's Rocky?  Can you show me? Can you point at Rocky? Is Rocky a dog? Did you eat all of your blueberries?  Yay, good job! Can Mama wipe your face? Then you can get down and go play!"  It's really...really...really hard.  But I do it. [Sometimes.] Because I love my kid.  I just have to be very, very conscious of it and FORCE myself to talk.

6. Hot Dogs.  He loves them.  This is a new discovery, since we rarely have hot dogs in our house.  And I'm a little disappointed in myself in regards to just HOW MANY hot dogs he's eaten in the last two weeks.  But it's protein, it's easy, we had a bunch of them leftover from a campfire gathering, and he devours them.   I foresee many more hot dogs in our future.

Blueberries cancel out hot dogs, right?

7. Frickin' Vaccines.  It's part of life, I get it.  And I get it if a vaccine makes a kid cranky and out of sorts for a few days right after the shots. I'm mentally prepared to be extra comforting and love on my poor little one for a couple days.  But to the people who developed the MMR (measles, mumps, & rubella) vaccine...WTH?  If you haven't been through it, here's the rundown--they get sickly symptoms two weeks AFTER the shot.  Just long enough for you both to forget that he got vaccines, so all of a sudden your teething kiddo has a fever and feels poopy and run-down and wakes up 6 times a night, and you can't figure out what's wrong, until somewhere around 1am when you're half-asleep and you hallucinate remembering your pediatrician telling you "yeah, if he starts feeling bad about two weeks after the shot, that's probably what it is."  Thanks. I mean, I'm glad he's not going to get measles and all...but still.  I can't remember something my doctor told me two weeks ago. Send me an email reminder.

SOAPBOX:  I don't have a lot of anti-vax friends, but I still have *enough*.  Look--I respect your decision, whatever your reasoning, to not vaccinate your kid(s), even though I don't agree with you.  Please have the grace to do the same.  I made my choice because the people who developed those vaccines dedicated their adulthood, 8+ years of their education, plus however many years of residency and research, to the selfless mission of saving the lives of children and adults, and I would feel pretty arrogant to say, "no, I know more than you do, so I'm opting out."  Because I don't.  They went to school for it, I didn't.  I'd be pretty annoyed if a random person came in off the street and decided to try their hand at MY job.

And the argument of "well, my kid never got vaccinated and they've never been sick" doesn't fly...
a) your kid, who's only ever been exposed to your OTHER kids, hasn't yet gotten measles, mumps, or chicken pox?    Congrats, you've proved that herd immunity works in the small scale.  Try sending them to day care for a week.  
b) Vaccinations aren't going to keep my son from getting sick.  He's still going to come home sick from time to time, because there's no vaccine for the cold, bronchitis, giardia, hand-foot-mouth disease, ear infections, etc. That's part of life, and building his immune system. Vaccinations are going to keep my kid from getting something that could KILL him. (Or in the case of chicken pox, at least prevent the both of us from being completely miserable for 2 weeks--seeing as how his father & I would have to take turns staying home from work with him while he's out of day care.)

8.  At some point, your child may lick a toilet bowl plunger before you have a chance to stop him.  Just...Fair warning.