James: 14 months

Well, we are right on the verge of a potentially quite terrible winter storm (ice is the worst), and I am scheduled to work tomorrow.  I am currently packing James up and taking him out to my parents' house so that I can go sleep at the hospital to ensure that I am able to work tomorrow.  And my heart is sad about it.  It's rare, but significant times like this that I am challenged by my profession, that our duty calls us to leave our babies and go care for others in the midst of potential days of power outage and terribly unsafe travel conditions.  Who knows how long I'll have to stay at the hospital, or how long James will be stuck in Zebulon, or if either of us will have electricity and heat (well, I will at the hospital!).  Hopefully this will be one of those times that we prepared for the worst and it was overkill!  Nonetheless, we are celebrating 14 months by thinking of others much more than ourselves and praying for snow instead of ice!

All that is to say, I have kept notes over the past month, but there's no time today to expand them into coherent paragraphs.  I think there's enough here, though, to be able to look back and remember when he started turning on the dishwasher by himself (the last photo below: guilty!).  I'm so thankful for my sweet boy and love every little single thing about him.

 Says "Moo" for cow, "brrr" for elephant, growls for lion

Verbalizing more words like duck, sock, shoe, hat

Learned the sign for "help," and we're teaching him to do that instead of whining when he needs something.

Working on table manners: using a napkin to wipe his hands and face (though he usually wipes his ear instead of his mouth), placing his water cup back on the table instead of tossing it to the floor, using the signs for "more" and "thank you" consistently, saying a prayer before our meals (if I forget, he reminds me!), not throwing food off his tray if he is done, but instead signing "all done" (still working a lot on this one).

Pushes his little wooden push toy around (walking) and prefers if it has a passenger - stuffed Pooh, or his classical music toy playing like a car radio

Cruising around furniture! We don't have great cruising furniture (no coffee table or other short pieces like that, mostly chairs and a couch) but he makes it work.

Finally his front bottom right tooth popped through. He's been lopsided for 4 months! Also had a molar or two come through this month.  It's been our hardest season yet as far as teething... Lots of night and EARLY morning waking.  More teeth means he is able to chew better and prefers larger pieces of food that he can take little bites of like a big boy (only soft foods for now!).

Increased our diaper stash, consistently washing every 3rd day so that is nice! Also bought some new night time hemp flats to use for more absorption. Zero leaks since we started those, and better night time sleep!  Switched detergent to a specific detergent for diapers, no leaks and no rash since the switch.  Only $15 for 90 loads!

Still happily and consistently napping twice a day and sleeping 11-12 hours at night.  This boy likes his rest!