(with Nana on New Year's Eve)We've entered the stage where Truman can and will repeat any word he hears, so I have taken to saying "oh my" often — in frustration, in excitement, in amazement and anguish, at the TV, at bad drivers and at the things I stumble over. If it's really heated I'll even go so far as to say "oh my goodness!" In this way I have become an old lady to prevent my son from sounding like a sailor. Instead he sound like an old lady with me, walking around saying "oh my!" in a sweet and surprised voice.
These days he's not grown much more in size, though he is inching his way toward 3T shirts, but is growing exponentially in language and other practical tasks. Today he was able to use his scissors himself to cut paper. He couldn't do it exactly the right way, but he found a workable solution. And earlier this week he helped me roll out and cut cookies. He's very smart and intuitive when it comes to activities that involve hand manipulation, like a little engineer.He loves to color and paint, run, climb, jump and dance. He likes snow and hates hats. He likes to watch things that fly and find things in the house. He's getting pretty good at playing catch and making baskets, but he also likes to carry a purse, care for baby dolls and play chef. He is a ball of energy while we are out, but will often concentrate on activities that interest him while at home.
He is getting better at using the potty and telling us when he has to go while we are out, but he still wears diapers when out and at night.
About once a day he talks about a family member who isn't present, either thinking about them, wanting to call them or when he sees a picture. He remembers and loves his family.Here he was a year ago:
(camping at Gooseberry Falls over labor day)It's been a while since I've talked about Truman, so here is a review of this summer's achievements.
Around 15 months he started becoming very interested in "saying" things, but was having a hard time with many of the words he wanted to say because the compilations of sounds were too difficult. So we started practicing animal sounds, which he started picking up right away. The first was "meew," which he picked up rather organically from playing with cats and stated before even being prompted.
Dog (arf), monkey (oo, oo, oo, ah, ah), chicken (boc, boc, boc), cow (moo), tiger, lion, bear (all raaaawr), snake (ssssss, which is also the sound for pee) and a few others followed.
Then, a few weeks later word after word tumbled out of his mouth. Words like pizza (pzzapzza) cheese (cheee) and ball (ba) flow frrely these days. Other favorites include blueberries (bweebewy), water (formerly a tongue-wiggling sound water makes when you poor it and now wa'er), bye-bye, hi, and, of course, mama and dad.
If we tell him a word now, he usually will try to say it.
And it became clear he understood so much more, too. He stared being able to follow directions more (if he was willing=).
On this front he has started to come to the bathroom following my prompting and will even initiate this by telling us he has to go about once or twice a day (usually by patting himself or saying "pee" or "potty.") At 7 p.m. yesterday he was still using the same dry diaper he went to bed in the previous night with no pees having occurred outside of the potty. Today we've had a few outside of the potty, but mostly due to parental misunderstandings, not for lack of initiative on his part.
It will probably be a little while longer before he can reliably be out of diapers full time, but these are huge steps that have resulted from an elimination communication process that began when he was 6 months.
Truman continues to have huge feet (size 8, as of now) but is making up time on the teeth-front, popping molar after molar this month. He now has eight front teeth (4 on top and 4 on bottom) and three molars (one on top and two on bottom) that are coming in.
For the first time he is starting to outgrow the length of pants before the waist.
He loves to be outside and asks to go outside (mostly by whining and grasping madly for the door handle) every time he comes near our front or garage doors. He loved our camping trip and even did his share of hiking.
I am now planning lots of physical activity into our days. And this fall we are taking an art class for 1- & 2-year-olds from ECFE.
We gave Truman his first haircut last weekend, removing the hockey-hair mullet that had been amassing for months. I cut one side and Joe clipped the other; then I evened the whole thing out.
What emerged was a little boy with an almost immediately thinner face. It's been fun to watch him explore the world with his new hair the last few days. The hair is just an outward sign of an inward transformation.
At 14 months it's becoming more and more apparent how physically adept Truman is. He is impeccably aware of his feet and their position. When placed on a tall surface he will move his upper body while keeping his feet still and firmly planted. He runs "drills" in the house, dodging various obstacles at high speeds and loves to flip (with my aid) and spin. Last night he discovered he could look upside down through his legs if he bends his head down all the way to the ground.
He continues to concentrate heavily on finer motor skill tasks, as well, and is now able to twist lids on and off. He can use a spoon, but prefers his hands. Actually, he prefers tipping an entire bowl up to his mouth as though he were Winnie The Pooh. He still loves food on a stick and can now hold a tooth pick.
He's doing well with potty learning and is starting to tell me when he has to go more often, though the signals are varied and I sometimes get confused until after the fact. Yesterday he even tried to sit on the potty by himself.
He's seems to be taking a detour in the spoken language department, but continues to find more and more non-verbal ways to communicate and continues to enjoy music, exhibiting good rhythm when he plays the keyboard, other instruments or in his dancing.
He loves to kiss and hug and snuggle. He has become incredibly secure with himself while exploring the world and understands that Joe and I have to leave him occasionally but that we come back.
He is incredibly independent when we are out and wants to explore the whole world without holding my hand; yet when we're home he usually wants me near him.
Truman in the grass at 10 weeks:
and now:
At twelve months Truman is a 25 pounds on-the-go toddler. It's hard to believe that a year ago I was still waiting for him to come out and say hello. Or, "Hi, I'm new here," to be more exact.
There is so much accomplishment that comes with this birthday for Truman, but also for Joe and I. He has grown from a little, nearly-helpless being into a pint-sized boy who feeds himself, uses the potty, signs for milk and calls my name when he's looking for me. He sings along to music in his own little language, much of which I am convinced is real words pronounced strangely because he hasn't yet mastered the art of uttering them. He says mom, dad, poop, pee and boo often and he has said peak-a-boo, book and hi a few times.
We watched him journey from rolling over at two-and-a-half months to walking at 5 days before ten. Now he runs all over our lawn in his little red shoes bearing the four slow-to-arrive teeth he has.
At a year he loves music, looking at books himself but not reading them, and anything that involves stacking things or placing lids on things. He will sit for 5-15 minutes if concentrating on a task or studying if something will fit inside or stick to something else. As a result, we call him a little scientist or engineer.
Of course with his cool red kicks and harmonica (our birthday gift to him) he looks a lot like a little rocker, too.
I am an entirely different person than I was a year ago. I am calmer, happier and more confident, even if I'm running all over the place chasing a toddler and telling him that crayons are not food for the 100th time. Parenthood is as amazing as everyone said it was going to be and I can't wait for the adventures yet to come. He's a kid now and we're ready to explore the world together.
Rest assured it will be a rock'n, well photographed adventure.
At six months, Truman is a whopping 19 pounds 4 ounces and 27 and 1/4 inches tall. That's only 1/4 inch taller than he was at 4 months, but it puts him in the 75% for height and weight; and he wants to explore the world.
He spent the last month mastering his army crawl and discovering the ins-and-outs and dos-and-don'ts of our home. He's used this skill to satisfy a pressing need to chomp. Like a very teething caterpillar he's chomped cardboard puzzle pieces, felt food, banana peels, clothes, spoons, fingers, teething rings and leaves. And would like to chomp every cable ever made, although I think he's getting the picture it's not going to happen. We see no teeth budding yet.
He's been babbling in recognizable ma-ma's and ga'ga's and da-da once or twice. He seems to get the idea that ma-ma is either me or "help," scooting over to me and uttering an endless ma-ma-ma-ma-ma until I pick him up.
He's becoming simultaneously more independent and more tied to me. After a big exploration, he likes to refocus. He smiles often and giggles much.
Smiling at 3 weeks:
And, today:
Sometimes it's hard to believe he's two months old. It sinks in more every time I see a baby who is younger than him. Although it would be nice if he would take the occasional nap by himself, I'm very much enjoying motherhood and all the wonderful snuggle time I'm getting with Truman.
Truman's done a lot of growing in two months. He's holding his head up very well now and is a star at tummy time. He's even managed to roll over from his tummy to his back three times. He's also able to get from his back to his side and struggles to try to roll that way. He smiles often now and smiles when he sees me or Joe. It's been really great to watch him truly become aware of us. He's very interested in the world and enjoys being out and about more than he does being at home. Most of all, he's really chubbed up.
Here he is leaving the hospital at two days:
And at two months:
