Toddler Tribulations

For those of you thinking about having children or who have wee small kiddies who are still in the just sleep and eat stages (I'm looking at you Pam) this is what is to become of your living areas. I didn't believe it when more experienced parents said it would happen to us but it did. I thought, "Oh, no. Not us. We'll be able to contain it." I can't think of one room in the house (including bathrooms) that doesn't have something belonging to The Boy in it. I kind of like it though. It makes walking from one room to the other more of a challenge. Especially in the dark. Without your glasses.

This is just a quick post that I should have done on Friday but didn't. We had our one year doctor visit and everything went fine. We pretty much paid $20 to have the doctor tell me that he is "big for his age, but perfectly healthy." He weighs 26.5 pounds, is 31 inches tall, and his head is 19 inches around. That puts him in the 90th percentile for everything, which is good - maybe we'll end up with a Bears linebacker out it! He had to get two shots, which he wasn't thrilled about, but he got food right away and that always makes things better.

The doctor says he doesn't have any food restrictions now, so we can start weening him away from formula. He likes pretty much every food we've given him. He's not really fond of watermelon, but he likes his veggies. He loves his puffies and crunchies and feeding himself. And ice cream, not that he gets much, but the child is a fiend for ice cream. He's definitely got my sweet tooth.

David had an Easter egg hunt at school. On Sunday, we helped him color eggs. By helped I mean that we did all of the egg coloring while he ate some snacks. Then he drew on some paper with crayons and Daddy helped him put some stickers on his drawings.


He has also learned how to drive the tricycle that he got for his birthday. He just needs a little bit of help to get on, and then he takes off. He doesn't know how to peddle it yet, but that's fine with us. That means that we still have a chance to catch up with him.

We took David to get his first haircut last Saturday. He did really well, and of course he charmed the pants off the lady cutting his hair. He looks more like a little boy now instead of a baby.

Today after school, we went to the park with Gunner and his mom. Gunner is one of the David's classmates. He's still in the older infant room, but he should be moving into the toddler room with David any day now. We had lots of fun climbing, going on the slide, and just checking things out. Gunner showed David how to climb down stairs backwards, which I hope David will pick up on. He makes me so nervous when he slides out of the bounce house head first.


David showed Gunner how much he likes to swing. He had a little bit of a meltdown when I took him out of the swing. I actually had to pry his fat little hands loose - he just wanted to keep going. He fell asleep in the car within 5 minutes. I will try to post pictures tomorrow if I get a chance. I had to sneak out of the living room to get this much done. If I go back in there now for the camera, the boy will have an all out screaming fit.

David loves to jump. Here he is in his crib getting ready for a diaper change. This is also how he normally wakes up from his naps now. We don't hear him cry. We hear him jumping up and down in his bed, yanking on the rail. And you can see that he's a pretty talkative guy. He keeps up his end of the conversation pretty well.

We had David’s first birthday party on Saturday, April 4. I think things turned out pretty good. He had his first real cake with icing. He had a ball with his presents and all the balloons. He’s still not too sure about the jump house. He’ll get in it, but David or I have to be close enough for him to touch. And he slides out of it head first so we have to be there to catch him. I think his favorite toys were the blocks, the Lightning McQueen futon, and the Lightning McQueen car. He plays with the blocks quite a bit and they will keep him entertained for a good 20-30 minutes at a time. David likes crawling all over the futon, especially when he’s tired. He won’t just lay down and go to sleep, but he’ll flop down on it and lay there for a minute and then jerk his head up and grin at us. He knows that it folds up somehow, but he hasn’t quite figured out how to do it himself. The other favorite toy is the Lightning McQueen ride on car. It has lots of lights and makes lots of noise and there is no off switch that I can find (thanks Debbie!). He can get on it all by himself, but getting off is a little trickier. He kind of tumps it over and slithers off of it, but he’s getting there.