It's one of my most favorite days of the year! Happy St. Patrick's day everyone. Not only is it a special day for me because I am almost 100% Irish, but also because it's technically my 1/2 birthday. That doesn't seem as exciting now that I'm solidly in my 30s, but when I was younger it was fun celebrating St. Pat's while also being 6 months closer to getting my driver's license, turning 21, etc.
Unfortunately, Jonathan doesn't share my Irish heritage, but fully supports keeping up family traditions for Forest's sake. This year we celebrated by taking Forest to nearby Dublin (seriously) for their St. Patrick's Day parade and festival. The parade was a bit of a dud, but in all fairness, we may have unrealistic expectations growing up in Louisiana which is Parade central.
The festival was fun, full of good food options and rides for the little ones.
Today we had a busy morning of music class, a play date, and of course a photo shoot with the baby.
Just like that...BAM our babies are full-on toddlers!
Love these ladies and babies!
Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. May the luck of the Irish be with you!
We have been having some spectacular weather this winter in
San Ramon. Short bursts of rain have ensured that the hills are lush and green
which make the 70 degree and sunny days all the more enjoyable. It’s like we
get the beauty of Scotland without the dreary winters. Score!
We have been
trying to take advantage of the sunshine and mild temperatures by getting out
and hiking again. A few weekends ago we went to Las Trampas Regional park, a
local favorite, and hiked up to the peak, which offers great views of Mt.
Diablo, Oakland, and even extensions of the Bay.
It took us about 1.5 hours to
do the whole trail, and Forest did fine until the tail end of it. We were
starting to encroach on nap time which always gets him a bit fussy, so we
allowed him to get out of the carrier and walk a bit.
It was fun but he kept
trying to dash off trail after birds and such which got a bit tiresome to herd
him back onto the path and endure his wrath of temper tantrums when we
redirected him. A tired toddler is nothing to mess around with! He ended up
conking out for a mega nap when we got home though so I think enduring a few
little fits was totally worth it.
Then for Valentine’s day the forecast was
lovely so we headed out for an early morning hike in the hills near our house.
The trailhead is just a mile away so we parked and headed up Hidden Ridge
Trail, which is my favorite trail for running. I never get to take my fancy
camera running with me so I was excited to get to take some high quality photos
on our hike. Unfortunately the focus was completely shot on our hike so I
wasn’t able to take any photos worth a darn. I must must must get my camera
fixed pronto! Good thing iPhones always work in a pinch so we were able to at
least have some record of our hike.
Forest surprised us by falling fast asleep
in the carrier. He's never been much of a napper when we’re out an about, even
in his newborn days, so it was quite astonishing that he managed to doze off for
45 minutes while we hiked along the path.
He woke up right as we were
descending down to the car so he at least got to see some of the local cows
while we were out.
We are hoping to enjoy some more trails in the coming
months. We also have trips planned to Napa Valley and Monterey so are hoping to
explore some of those areas on foot as well.
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!
