16 Month Summary

Hopefully this month’s summary won’t be quite as lengthy as last month’s! I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

Favorite Book: For sure Go Train Go. His aunt and uncle got him a little carry-all set of 4 Thomas the Train books. They appear almost identical and yet Forest can pick out Go Train Go from the group every single time. I’m almost convinced he can read at this point… 

 
Favorite Toys: 

His dino is still king of the playroom but anything stackable is also a major hit. 

 He also loves to drive his stuffed animals around in the back of his dump truck and then dump them out. It’s very cute/sorta sociopathic. 

Favorite Foods: Cheese is still the winner. Lima Beans, Bananas and peanut butter are also big hits. 

Schedule. Still AHHHHH. He is finally down to one nap a day. We actually started to see consistent results of a 11:30-1:30 naptime and even had 4 days in a row of 2.5 hour naps. It was glorious. But then he started teething his 2 year molars (true story) and caught a head cold which has been throwing everything off again. 

But in a perfect world his schedule is basically: Wakes up between 6:30/7. Eats breakfast at 7. Has a snack at 10:30. Takes a nap at 11:30/12. Eats lunch at 1:30/2. Eats dinner at 5:30. Has bathtime at 6:30 and is in bed and hopefully sleeping by 7. 

It’s nice when it works like that but we are still having some days of super early wake up calls and super short naps. Maybe once his two year molars are in and cold season is over we will have a bit more predictability. 

Forest set his all-time nap record yesterday, coming in at 3 hours and 15 minutes! It would have been longer but I got paranoid and snuck into his room to ensure he was still breathing and accidentally woke him up. He's still the lightest sleeper on earth.

Stats: Unfortunately we had to take Forest in to the doctor around his 16 month birthday for a lingering cough that hasn’t fully subsided since he caught the flu 6 weeks ago. Because of that I know his weight is 25 lbs, 11 oz, up almost 2 lbs in one month! Not sure of his height but I’m assuming around 33 inches or slightly taller. He’s fitting more snuggly in his 24 M clothes even though his weight is in still in the 12-18 month range. 

Words: In addition to the words he had at 15 months he can now say: Moon, Ball, Bird, Barn, Up, Bye, Eyes, Cold, Sheep and Mouse. He is saying daddy pretty frequently but momma is still hard to come by. I guess 'Mouse' is just a more relevant vocabulary word than 'momma' in his mind… I'll try not to take it personally (sniff, sniff).

Forest has a pretty extensive vocabulary for his age but we’ve noticed that at any given point in time he is mainly focusing on about 10 words and will drop words he said in the past. ‘Dog’ was his first consistent word but once he learned ‘Cow’ suddenly every animal, including dogs, were called ‘cow’. He’s back to properly identifying dogs but we’ve noticed this to be a trend. He’s also gotten much better at saying ‘no’ and ‘yea’ in the proper context which makes communicating with him much easier. 

Physical Milestones: I feel like the pace at which he is meeting physical milestones is slowing down considerably. Right now we are working on walking up and down steps and he’s attempting to climb the ladder at the park. 

We are hoping that he is not going to be much of a climber since he’s had the ability to climb for some time and still doesn’t seem too interested. I have caught him trying to use the couch as a way to climb out of the playroom but with a bit of correction he seems to be leaving well enough alone (knock on wood). He’s also throwing much better and obsessed with stacking blocks, cups, etc.   

Observations: Forest continues to be quite shy. Around people he is familiar with he is pretty confident, charming and outgoing but around new people or crowds he becomes very quiet and subdued. 

I’m a textbook introvert so even though he may have inherited his dad’s good looks, he may have got my personality. My entire family is introverted so that’s some powerful genes I handed down. Nothing wrong with being quiet though! Hopefully my experience will allow me to be a good parent for Forest and helping him navigate his strengths. 

Of course, he may still turn out to be plenty outgoing. He is loving the gym daycare recently. He hops right into the workers’ arms, plays the entire time I work out and then comes right over to me when it’s time to leave and is just a-chattering with excitement the whole way home.  I’m so thankful this has become a fun outing for both of us. 

My biggest challenge: Probably just second guessing myself. This nap transition left me feeling pretty incompetent and confused. And even though he’s mostly well behaved in our household, when we go outside or out in public he is basically a wild animal. At the park he has a tendency to roam, and he will get so far away from me without even glancing back. Calling him back is futile. Same thing if we are just out and about and I let him walk instead of putting him in his stroller. 

He’s just wild with an instinct to run after anything that catches his eye. I feel myself being envious of those mommas whose toddlers stick to them like glue and seem content to hold their hand. I know Forest is independent and confident and curious and fearless and those are all AWESOME traits to have, but they can be a challenge to parent in these early years.   

I don’t want to crush his little exploring spirit but I also want to feel like he’ll listen to me when I call him to my side. I end up using the stroller a lot more than I’d like because it’s just not worth the struggle to chase him around. 

Alright, this post is still kind of long but much shorter than last month’s. I’ll try to keep these up on a monthly basis. Thanks for following along!