Fourteen Months

I bet you guys thought I wasn’t ever going to return.  I really haven’t been motivated to blog about anything lately, including a thirteen month old post (I know I am a horrible Mom), so that is the reason for my long hiatus.  I don’t know if I will become more motivated in the near future but I promise to make sure I at least post about Smidgel.  In this post I will include his milestones from both months (thirteen and fourteen months).

The above photois Smidgel at thirteen months.  I haven’t had a chance to take his fourteen month photo yet but I will add that once I do so.  Smidgel turned fourteen months old yesterday.  I finally don’t feel like time is flying by as the last two months have gone by at a normal pace.  During his thirteenth month he started cutting four more teeth, all on top.  He also starting walking more regularly and was splitting his time between crawling and walking.  His interest in the animals really started to peak during his thirteenth month.  For the most part he is nice to them but he does get overzealous at times and we have to remind him to be nice.  It is a work in progress but with his new found interest in the animals he has finally lost interest in their water!!!  We also found out that he loves the trampoline and swings.

Smidgel’s fourteenth month brought a little boy on the move.  He rarely crawls now (he only crawls when he is outside and is unsure of his footing) and unless he is sleeping he is constantly moving.  Speaking of sleeping, he has really started to fight his afternoon nap.  He probably only takes it once every three to four days.  We had planned on converting him over to one nap a day at the beginning of the year but if this keeps up, we may be doing that earlier than planned.  His vocabulary has really peaked this month as well.  The words that he has are: mama, dada, sit (which sounds like shit, unless he is saying sit down), more, what’s that, I love you and banana (nana).  I think that he has started to say shoe and night night but I haven’t confirmed them as of yet.  On top of all that he can show you where his feet and nose are.  We are working on identifying his ear but that is taking some time.  He can’t say dog or cat yet but he can tell you what they say.  This month he has also become obsessed with books.  I think that he pulls all his books off his bookshelf daily.  I will take that over him taking everything off his changing table.  Most nights you will find him walking around with a book and sitting down every couple of minutes to look at the pictures.  Now that he loves his books I don’t have to be as concerned with our books.  We have however had to push the couch back so that the built in bookshelf in the living room is covered.  Until I can ensure that he will always be nice to the books our photo albums and yearbooks must be protected.  In the last week he hasn’t been eating well but we have found he will continue to eat if you give him a fork.  I guess he is just trying to be independent.  We are trying to give him the opportunity to practice with his fork during most meals.

The last time we were in North Carolina my Mom and I took him to a playground.  They had bucket swings so he had a blast swinging.   

They also had a little people’s playground so we were able to get him acquainted with that.  He was a bit unsure of everything but that is because he isn’t completely stable on his feet quite yet.  I did however get my most favorite picture to date of him while he was playing on the playground.

Riding in the car hasn’t been pleasant the last couple of weeks.  Most of the time when we are going places it is at least an hour one way.  Smidgel starts to get tired but he really fights falling asleep.  We had reverted to giving him a pacifier to settle him down and ensure that he gets some sleep, as we almost always plan a trip around nap time.  The last three times we have been in the car we haven’t given him the pacifier and we pretty much spend the ride with him screaming.  He isn’t crying, he is just squirming in his carseat and trying to escape.  I could handle it for short trips but for an hour it becomes nerve racking and for that reason I am not looking forward to our next car ride to North Carolina, which we have quite a few of in November.  The four teeth he starting cutting in his thirteenth month are finally through so Smidgel officially has twelve teeth.  I think that’s it for the month so I leave you with the adorable face I get to look at all day, every day!