Saturday, April 7, 2012

14 Months

Maximus is 14 Months old today! I am afraid that in no time, I'll be saying he's 14 years old. Where does the time go?  
Here's what he's been up to:
He goes to bed between 7:30 & 8:00 pm; waking up about once a night; however, he still gets up early, (usually between 5:30 & 6:00 am). Many times we will go into his room after he's been sleeping and he is sitting up or standing in his crib. In the mornings, when we come downstairs, he usually points to his swing and wants to get in there. Most of the time he swings like a wild man and then eventually falls asleep. Depending on if he naps, and for how long, he'll take another couple naps during the day, one before lunch and then another one in the afternoon. His naps average about an hour to an hour and a half long. Today though, he slept for nearly 3 hours before lunch.

Maximus continues to love to explore and get into things. We have had to do some more baby proofing. A couple weeks ago, Rob put in another baby gate, so that we can keep Maximus from going up the stairs on his own. In addition, Rob also installed more fasteners to keep Maximus out of drawers. We put protective covers on the stove knobs and a lock on the dishwasher (awe...sorry, poor baby). Now there's a big toy box in front of the TV to keep him out of those electronics.


Maximus likes to be chased and it has become a game. He'll walk over to the stairs and turn and look at me and smile as if to say, "Come and get me." So, I'll come after him and I'll say, "Where are you going?...I'm gonna get you," grabbing him, squeezing him, kissing him & running across the room, saying, "I got you, I got you, I got you!!!" And then we repeat, over and over again.

Just a few days ago, he started coming over to me for hugs with his arms outstretched when I ask him to give me a hug. PRICELESS!

When we need to go upstairs for something, He likes to climb the stairs. I will say, "up," and he will say, "bup." When we're going to leave the house, I'll ask Maximus where his coat is and he'll walk into his room and point to the coats hanging on his coat rack.

Recently, I bought Maximus some shoes. He's never "really" worn shoes before. Okay...a few times I would put them on his feet as a tiny baby, but he never seemed to like them, so they didn't stay on for long. When he tried them on in the store, it was an absolute hoot!!! He didn't know what to do. At first he rocked up and down a bit on his heels and then soon after, he stood planted like a statue in cement. He was not going anywhere. HA! The salesman and I tried to coax Maximus to walk, but he stayed put. Eventually he did a half turn and we decided the soles were too stiff for him, so I went with some soft soled shoes that gave him much more flexibility.

We have two printers and from one of them, he's been removing the paper. When I go to print something in our other printer, I've been teaching him to get it and bring it to me. It's been working well. He still goes after the computers, mouse & keyboards. And he knows he's not supposed to do this. When we catch him and say, "No, No, No," he'll often repeat it back in his cute little voice. He definitely mimics and is starting to repeat things we say. A week ago Friday, I was on the telephone and said, "Thank You" to the person on the other line, before hanging up. When I got off the phone, Maximus started saying "Dat Do." So cute...so, now he'll walk around saying "Dat Do, Dat Do, Dat Do, Dat Do..." I hope he's always that polite. ha! When we sneeze or pretend to sneeze he thinks it's funny and he'll say, "Hah Do." He is quiet at times, but then other times he will babble, saying "Bee Ahh" or "Bop."  He also says, "Dis, Dat, Dah," or "Doot" usually when he's pointing at something. He also says, "Bah" & "Bap" amongst other blabbering noises. Another thing that he's been saying is, "Wow." I taught him this a couple weeks back. I started saying, "Wow...Wow...Wow," really exaggerating the words as he looked at my lips. Now he'll say it too...and sometimes he says it like, "Ow, Ow, Ow." It's really cute.

It goes without saying that he continues to like music and enjoys dancing. We see him doing squats on a regular basis and sometimes quite rapidly. I wish I could move like him. ha! Lately I've been spinning him around quite fast when we're dancing and he squeals.

Rob will take Maximus and lift him up to reach the ceiling and he gets a real kick out of that. They love rough and tumble play.

Maximus gets excited to see the garbage & recycling truck come by our house. If we're home and we have the chance, we'll rush over to the window to watch the action of the arms coming down, grabbing the can and dumping it into the truck.

He is getting faster and faster in the walking department and loves to make a mess. We have "normal" toys, but still, he enjoys the everyday household items the best. We give him a lot of empty boxes and he'll put things in and dump things out. A few weeks ago, he was fascinated by some empty Pringles cans with lids on them. Well, one of them was on the floor standing straight up and Maximus came running along and fell smack on it, hitting him right in-between the eyes. He got a nice little bruise from that. He likes going into our closet and getting into a bag of old ties & belts of Rob's and then drags them around the place. About a month ago he discovered some cedar shoe trees and had fun playing with those as well. 

One of his toys given to him by Rob's parents for Christmas was a little V-Tech Train that has alphabet blocks. It plays sounds and music. For example, you'll hear "A is for Apple. A--A--A." When this happens, Maximus bounces up and down and waves his hand to keep in time with this rhythm. I expect he'll be singing the alphabet by the end of this year. Kidding!

He's been enjoying grown up oatmeal these past few weeks for breakfast. I've been adding a little bit of olive oil along with some milk, cinnamon & nutmeg. And yesterday when he saw me with the spices, he started breathing through his nose as to sniff them. I have been doing this to him for a while now, saying, "MMM...it smells so good!" It appears that he has caught on. He shares my peanut butter sandwich with me most days for lunch. We've been trying to eat more vegetables. He likes cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, broccoli, carrots, peas, corn, green beans, black beans & kidney beans. There's not a lot that he won't eat; however, the other day he tried refried beans and did not care for them. Most of the time he eats what we eat. Which means, we're all trying to eat more balanced meals. I'm so happy that he loves the pesto that I make. Yep...this kid likes garlic and even onions. About a month ago I made some guacamole and he couldn't eat it fast enough.  

As far as liquids, he prefers water over whole milk, any day of the week! I still nurse him, but not as much as before. I've been trying to keep it to night and morning, but that doesn't always work. One thing for sure, is that this guy is healthy and happy. He hasn't been sick a day, as far as we know. But, he has been in some discomfort with teething again. He now has 9 teeth and is working on another bottom molar. Poor guy...his gums are so swollen where it's trying to poke through.

Yesterday, his new "big boy" car seats arrived at our door. He has been in his original car seat up to this point. The specs on the one we had said that it would hold up to a 30 pound baby. Well, he's probably around 20+ pounds by now, but he's starting to look a little big for the thing and we think he'll be much more comfortable sitting upright and being able to face forward. When we went for a drive in the car this afternoon, I spent most of the time staring at him, while Rob drove. It was so fun to see him look around at his new forward facing surroundings.

Whew...that was a lot of info. I am going to have to blog more often so that I'm not posting once a month. That way, I'll be able to track things better and include more pictures. Aren't you happy? haha...

Happy day!
hi-d

5 comments:

Castles Crowns and Cottages said...

HEIDI DEAR!

I was thinking of you yesterday, but your new blog post JUST BARELY showed up for me today!

LOOK AT HIM!!!

I am so glad to come to find you!!! I know you must have been terribly busy during your time off.

Enjoy this joyous day of celebrating the new life that awaits us who believe.

Anita

Castles Crowns and Cottages said...

Oh precious Heidi!!!! You have been a busy mum and so blogging MUST take back seat! Look at your darling Maximus. I bet he just loves his mummy. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING BY! Did you celebrate today in a special way?

HAVE A GREAT WEEK and I look forward to KOOKY and Maximus!!! Anita

Martina said...

OMG Heidi, i can't believe it, but, Maximus is not a baby anymore! So gorgeous your litle boy! Easter hugs from germany! xx

Shirley said...

YES - blogging more! :) My Dad told me to get off facebook and stop neglecting my blog - ha!
Maximus just keeps getting cuter and cuter - what a sweetie.
Love you!

Luna said...

I loved reading all of that. Reminds me so much of Tauren at that age. Just last night at 22 months, he said No! for the first time... and then he had a big chuckle about it.