Baby Schwartz 2011: 14 Months!

Some random tidbits about month 14.

Evan's practically running. He's started walking in the grass outside. Previously, it was too lumpy. Outside time is much more fun for me now. He'll also sit on my lap in the middle of the yard and just watch stuff-- squirrels chasing each other along the fence or tight-rope walking along the power lines, birds flying overhead, the leaves blowing in the wind, Laika chewing grass. That's about the only time he'll sit still on my lap, so I treasure those moments. He walks into and out of daycare each day. And, he learned to stand up from the middle of the floor without support this month.

He's starting to climb more. He lifts his leg, trying to climb the baby gate, his crib, the bath tub, the furniture, you name it. That's going to be a challenging time. I feel like he's one of those "no fear" kids.

His fine motor skills are improving noticeably. He puts different shaped blocks through their proper hole, he places gears on the gear table, he stuffs pom-poms into a water bottle. The pom-pom water bottle is my homemade fine motor skill game-- and his favorite. I like it because he can't get them out on his own and throw them all over the house, like the gears, blocks, shapes, Legos, balls.

He's talking. Not consistently. He knows "red" and signs it. He's repeated several other colors but only completely randomly. He knows and signs "more" but I think he doesn't know that it actually gets him more food. He says "water" and "milk"-- again, not consistently. He says "bye-bye" like a pro and knows how to use it properly. When I lift him up at daycare, he says "bye-bye" and waves to the caregivers while I'm still talking to them-- as if to tell them, "Hey lady, my mommy's here. We're through. Buh-bye." He says "hi" sometimes. He points at everything and wants us to tell him what everything is. It's so exciting to watch him learn.

He's quite smart. When I'm sitting on the couch with my feet propped up on the coffee table, he'll run up to me, drop to his knees and crawl under my legs, then get back up and run again. He used to just stand at my legs and whine until I moved them for him to get through. Also, I've been ghetto baby-proofing lately. (Did you notice the blue painters tape keeping the living room cabinet doors closed in the last post's pictures? I'm sophisticated.) We have black hair bands around the cabinet handles in the kitchen. This works for double cabinets, but not so much for the single cabinets on either side of the stove. So, genius me decided to get out the yarn. I tied each cabinet handle to the stove handle. What does Evan do? He tries each cabinet, looks at it for a minute and then starts using all his weight to pull on the stove handle. Too smart for his own good, that kid.

He does really cute things. He lays his head on our shoulder when we hold him and pats our arm. He also lays his head on Laika and attempts to do it to Lars too (that never ends well.) For some reason, he's started trying to eat my face (only mine?). He'll point and I'll say "nose" and then he just opens his mouth wide and tries to bite it off! So, I started blowing into his open mouth when he does that. That makes him laugh hysterically. Weird kid. He's also started opening his mouth wide like that for Laika... TO LICK! Which causes him to laugh even more hysterically. I knew it would happen eventually, but really? REALLY? Laika wakes me up most nights licking her butt. Laika eats her own poop. Laika steals Lars' turds from the litter box when given the chance. *vomit* We try very hard to stop that mess but we separate them and then Evan goes running back toward her with his mouth wide open, laughing all the way. It's hilarious, but also totally disgusting.

Last, but not least, Evan had his first haircut this month. He did great. Just a little fussy when she was cutting his bangs. He was rewarded with Smashburger for dinner. Okay, maybe that was my and David's reward.