Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Channing lately

I happened to get some new pictures of Channing the other night so he's up next. I still need to get some new ones of Dawson.

Well, gone are the days of my super laid-back, barely ever cries, and stays in one spot baby. When we're at home he cries. A lot. :( I had him all to myself on Bennett's first day of school when Jon took Dawson to an amusement park all day and we had the loveliest day together. I enjoyed him so much. Mostly because I could actually sit down with him and give him my full attention when he got fussy, rather than ignoring him while I'm doing three other things at once as he crawls after me, grasping at my pant legs.

Oh, and yes. You read that right. I said, crawls after me. He is 17 months old. He'll be 18 months on the 28th. And he's not even close to walking. Like, hasn't even taken one step. The Dr. said if he's not walking by 18 months they'll send a therapist over to evaluate him. Am I worried? Not really. Am I slightly annoyed and impatient? Yes. People always say, "Oh, but once he's walking, look out. Just enjoy it now while he's not so mobile." But that's so not true. Once babies can climb up and down stairs and stand up to reach into drawers and cupboards, that's when things get crazy. Walking means I don't have to carry him everywhere. Walking means we could go to a park or a field or anywhere outdoors without him scraping his little hands and knees through dirt and rocks and woodchips and rough cement and sand. Its gross. I can't even picture him doing it though. He definitely seems way younger than other babies his age because of it. Which I suppose is kinda nice. Prolonging this baby thing...
He sleeps great at night. He's usually in bed by 7:30pm. Some days he sleeps straight through til 8:30. Some days he wakes up around 6:45 and I give him a bottle (Yes, a bottle. Don't judge until you're on your last baby. And he still crawls and tricks you into thinking he's not even one yet.) and then he goes back to sleep til at least 9. He generally takes a nap every day around 12:30 for about two hours but twice already this week he completely refused it. Just cried in there forever until I went and got him up. And today he only slept for an hour. He dropped down to one nap at 10 months (my other two had two naps until 15 months) so I shouldn't really be surprised that soon he'll probably stop napping completely. Lord, help me.

I'm trying to figure out his personality. He was the sweetest baby who hardly ever fussed. But now he certainly has opinions. About a month ago he sprouted a temper. (Wow, right about the time Bennett grew an attitude. Fancy that. Lots of moody boys around this house.) He figured out how to scream when he's mad, usually relating to some food I'm not willing to give him, with clenched fists and everything. He hates having his diaper changed and yells and squirms unless I find him something to eat while I'm doing it. So I'm not sure if he'll end up laid back and sweet once he can communicate a bit better or if he'll end up spunky. Bennett was the easiest to parent at this age because he was speaking so early and because he had my undivided attention. It makes my heart ache to watch old videos of him and realize how simple and sweet (and relatively stress-free) life was then. Makes me wish I could raise one child up all the way and then start over with another one. But then of course we'd miss out on all that sweet sibling love. And we certainly wouldn't be forced down on our knees daily, crying out for strength and patience from a gracious God who's ready and waiting to provide it. And we'd keep on judging those mamas out and about who snap at their screaming children impatiently, at the end of their rope. Now I'm that mama. And when I'm out alone, I sorta want to give all those other mamas a hug and just say in solidarity, "I understand your frustration. I'm right there with ya. And I'm not going to tell you to enjoy every moment because it goes so fast. Cause there are a lot of moments that just aren't that enjoyable. You'll make it til bedtime. I promise. It might not be pretty. But you'll make it."


Other notables-

  • His vocabulary started exploding the last few weeks. He's catching on to different sounds more quickly now. He'll say 4 or 5 animal sounds, 'mama', GG (his great-grandma), 'ball', 'baby', 'bebe' for blankie, 'book', 'down', 'more', 'uh oh', 'hi', 'wow', he's been signing 'please' for a couple weeks and said the word today...I'm sure there are a few others I can't think of. He's currently sitting at my feet pretending to talk into a calculator like it's a cell phone. And it just dawned on me that phones look a lot like calculators now. Funny. 
  • He's now obsessed with books and loves to be read to and spends a lot of time looking at them by himself.
  • He gets super excited when he sees dogs outside and any other picture of any animal. The other day in our backyard, he waved at every single car that drove past and every dog that walked by.
  • He's an expert mess-maker. Just like his older brothers, his favorite activity is unloading the contents of a cupboard or drawer. Actually, Channing's more of a rearranger. Bennett and Dawson would throw everything out. Channing's always moving things from one little spot to another. Mommy's bathroom has been a favorite with all three of them. 
  • We figured out he has a wheat allergy. He's had the worst eczema of any of my boys. Bennett's and Dawson's cleared up immediately when we eliminated dairy but Channing's didn't. This summer, the tops of his feet were constantly scabbed over and bleeding from the irritation of all that crawling. He also had pretty bad diarrhea every day. When I finally got the nerve to cut out wheat (the boy wanted to eat bread and crackers all day long), his eczema cleared up and his poop went back to normal. This would have been a lot more intimidating but I've been on a gluten sensitive diet for at least a year now (for my complexion, energy level and I don't have sensitive, blood-shot eyes all the time anymore) so thankfully I'm sorta used to it. It'll be weird once he starts preschool to make other people work around it. Hopefully he'll start outgrowing it by then. We'll see. 
  • He still sleeps with his little blankie and sucks his thumb at night. 
  • He is such a mama's boy but thankfully he'll let me leave him with Nana and Poppy or a babysitter. He just wants to be with me if he sees me. When I pick him up from church nursery, he usually bursts into tears and starts to crawl towards the door so fast and furiously, as if I'd left him with complete strangers for days on end. 

Here's a video I took a couple of days ago. He wasn't even saying mama consistently then so it surprised me when he said it. (And yes, I'm aware that his doggy noise sounds more like a monkey. I think he has a chihuahua in mind when he makes it.) Also, forgive the awful lighting. I don't have a reversible camera on my phone so I was recording it blindly. I wish you could watch Channing watching it. He's watched it 20 times since I recorded it and its hilarious to hear him say all the words right along with the recording.

3 comments:

  1. I enjoy reading about your boys' personalities and how they are developing -- it normalizes my fears that my sons are wild maniacs who trash out everything : ). I'm afraid Bennett does look 12 in those first day photos, but so handsome and ready to take on the world. Good photography of Channing in this post, too! I like the evening, golden light the best.

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  2. oh that video melted my heart!! I really like getting the run down of all your boys in such and organized, fun to read fashion!

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