14 months

Sweet little man is 14 months old and busy as ever. We just got back from Austin and a wonderful week with family, that trip deserves its own post with lots o photos. Here's an update on what's going on with Carter this month for my own little record.

Stats:
Weight: 20.1 lbs at pulmonologist 2 weeks ago
size 3 diapers, 4s at night
mostly 12 month clothes

EAT:
For some reason he's not so into his breakfast meal, but eats a ton the rest of the day. He's still picky, but I would say expanding his food repertoire more than last month. I've realized I've enabled some of the pickiness by offering mostly foods I think he'll like/eat vs consistently exposing him to non-preferred foods. On our trip to Austin he surprised me a bit and loved fish, kiwi, and pork ribs which are foods I typically wouldn't give him. So, we're making progress! Typical foods he likes: waffles, pancakes, bananas, cheerios, cheese, ham, bread, crackers, strawberries, yogurt, applesauce, chicken, pasta, ground beef/turkey...notice not a whole lot of veggies made this list?! I still attempt atleast 1-2 veggies/day, broccoli is hit or miss, but that's about the only veggie he'll eat. However, he LOVES the baby food pouches and will down any pureed veggie via the pouch (including spinach, peas, carrots--things he won't touch on his plate!) so he still gets those on a regular basis to get more veggies in his body. I do need to be better at expanding our veggie repertoire like I did with baby food. He's been going to a daycare downtown on Wednesdays while I work and I've intentionally not sent any food so he has no choice but to eat what he's served. They say he's a great eater--and "gobbled up" all his veggie casserole, which is music to mama's ears!

SLEEP:
Officially dropped the morning nap! At MDO/daycare he naps from 12-1:30 or so, at home he goes down closer to 11 and will typically sleep until 1-1:30. Nighttime is still 7:30-7ish when we're at home....grandparents like to keep him up later which actually means he wakes up earlier, so we're sticking with a 7:30 max bedtime around here.

PLAY/DEVELOPMENT:
My Dad said "I wish I had a pedometer to put on him" because the boy is busy. Walking everywhere. When he gets really excited he walks really fast. Not sure if I would call it a run, but a lady at the park did say she was impressed he was running at 14 months, so it's getting *really* close to a run.  He is constantly moving! Loves to climb, can climb all the way up the big slide at the park. Will get down and crawl through "tunnels" or anything that mimics a tunnel--like the kitchen table :). He will bang objects together to make noise, and of course, he still loves to be outside. New this month is learning to be a helper. He wants to help and is actually becoming a help! If I have a load of laundry, he can put the clothes from the basket to the washer and then move from the washer to the dryer. He also puts all of his bath toys back in his frog pod at the end of bath and can put all his toys in the toybox or back on the shelves with minimal assistance. He also thinks he's "helping" and likes to re-arrange by grabbing things all around the house (ie:toys,  mail on the counter, items on the lower shelf of the pantry, etc) and bringing them to me or anyone else around. Mom calls this the "thank you" game. As far as talking, everything is still pretty much /dadada/ but he "talks" constantly. I mean *constantly*. I'm working on imitating sounds and oral movements (ie: sticking out tongue, puckering lips) but he's much more interested in touching my tongue/lips than imitating. He now knows his head and belly and blows kisses. It's adorable :).

HEALTH:
We repeated labs this month and found out his immunoglobulin levels are low so we're meeting with an immunologist at Children's on Monday to find out what this means. As far as asthma, he's got a constant "rattle" in his chest and snotty nose off and on, but it's winter and I'll take that over RSV or the flu any day :). He now has all 4 1-year molars, so hopefully we'll have some teething relief in the next few months!

I'm working on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays Carter has MDO and I pick him up at 2:30. On Wednesdays he goes to a daycare downtown, but we're looking for something more consistent as we're using Caleb's "back up" benefit from work. Thursdays he goes to MDO and I'm enjoying my day "out". I'm really LOVING this age! It's so fun to watch the world through his little eyes and watch him discover new things everyday. Caleb and I talk on a daily basis about how much "we love the little guy". Being parents is pretty great :)