Junior's Development

Junior figures things out very quickly. He literally studies things. And he never gives up. Never. There is a cabinet that he is not supposed to open. It has dvds inside. He will saunter on over there, open the cabinet and then turn around and smile at you like he knows that he has done exactly what you don't want him to do. As soon as you spot him, his smile grows even bigger because he knows he was right. If you tell him to close the cabinet, he will. And then he will open it again. Then you tell him to close it, and he will. And then he will open it again. The cycle will continue forever unless you physically remove him from the cabinet. If you don't tell him to close it, then he will reach in and take out as many dvds as he can until you move him.

He got a little kitchen for Christmas. It has a little oven that makes sounds when you open and close it. He will take play food, open the little oven, put the play food in, and wait for the toy to say that the food is ready. Then he will open the oven, laugh, take the play food out, and show you the food he has just prepared. He will do this over and over again.

He loves to climb the stairs. Of course he does. Do you know why? Because he isn't allowed to. He will climb about three steps and then look at you with the knowing smile, just waiting for you to tell him to get off of the stairs. When you tell him to get off the stairs he will laugh and slide down on his belly. Once at the bottom of the stairs, the whole process starts over. It's almost as fun as the cabinet. If you don't tell him to get off the stairs then he will continue climbing until he reaches the top of the stairs.

He is also mostly walking now. He can take over 20 steps in a row, balance himself, stop in the middle and start over again without falling over. Sometimes he chooses to crawl still, but it's either for efficiency or for a game. There is always a reason for what he does. He does things with purpose. When he crawls, he likes to tuck his head underneath him and go as fast as he can. It's his game just to see what he will run into. He laughs when he hits something.

Junior and Handsome are almost inseparable. When I took Handsome to play with friends and Junior didn't come, Handsome almost couldn't bear it. He didn't want me to put gas in the car because Junior wasn't there to sit in the car with him. When we got to his friends, he didn't want to go play because he said we had to go home and get Junior because Junior needed to be there with them. With Junior, I tried to give him a bath without Handsome (we usually bathe them together). It was when Junior had a fever and I wanted to get the fever to go down. Junior typically loves his bath. His favorite part is to splash the water, of course, to see the reaction that Handsome will give him. On the day Handsome wasn't in the tub with him, he was fine until he looked over to where Handsome was supposed to be and didn't see him and looked out the door and saw that Handsome wasn't coming. He started wailing and would not stop throughout the entire bath.

Junior has also almost completely given up nursing. The only time he will nurse is in the middle of the night. The past three nights he has slept through the night so he hasn't even gotten those feedings. It may be the end of his nursing very soon.

Peed on my Foot

Yes, it's true. Handsome peed on my foot. I changed his diaper right before his bath and was brushing his teeth while the water in the tub warmed up. I suppose the water flowing sound worked it's magic and Handsome peed. Right on my foot. I screamed mostly because I didn't know what was happening and then Handsome started crying. Then I started laughing so he did too.

Luckily it was in the bathroom right before his bath so it was easy to clean.

Pee Stain

Handsome peed on my carpet last night!!! Yes, it is my fault, so I can't get angry with him but I was certainly tempted.

Typically what happens is that when I turn the water on to fill the tub he pees where it is safely contained in his diaper. If he doesn't pee at that time, then he will pee as soon as he is in the water - although don't tell this to DH. Since he is safely drained, when the bath is over I let him run around his room naked so that he can further dry out and not be in a diaper for a little longer. I am trying to prevent diaper rash by doing this, or else make the redness that he has go away. He needs a break from the diaper occasionally, right?

Last night he apparently didn't drain himself properly before the naked run. He was standing on the other side of his bedroom as I was turned the other direction getting out his diaper and then I hear this trickling behind me. I didn't know what to do!! I first ran over to him and tried to startle him into stopping. He stopped for a split second and then continued peeing with a confused look on his face. Then I stood there with my own dumbfounded look wondering, what do I do? If I pick him up, he'll send pee the whole way through the room. I can't stick my hand down there because I'll get pee on my hands and it'll fall through my fingers anyhow. Finally I think well, I'll just bring the diaper to him and set it under the flow.

By the time I had the diaper to him, he was finished.

So, I put the diaper on him, call DH to get the stain remover, and go get a towel.

You know what I'll do tonight after Handsome's bath? I'll let him run around and air things out. I just don't learn that quickly.

Face Cleaning

Whenever you take a wet cloth or paper towel and go to wipe Handsome's face, he licks the rag. Every time. As soon as he feels the rag on his face, his tongue comes out. If you take the rag away without wiping his mouth, he keeps his tongue out and just looks at you.

It's the funniest thing.

Why does he really want to taste the rag??

Yellow Bathwater

When Handsome takes his bath, the water will inevitably make him pee. I gave up caring a while ago. Usually he will pee in his diaper when the water is running, but before I put him in the water. Even when this happens, he will wait until I've finished washing him to pee once again in water. I don't know how he has so much water in him.

Anyway, a couple days ago, I was holding him standing in the water and he peed. Of course, normally when he pees, he doesn't really notice, but this time it made a noise as it splashed in the water. He looked down at himself peeing and seemed so proud of himself. When he finished he looked up at me like, "How cool was that? Can we do that again?" I told him I had no power over that and sat him down in the slightly yellow water.

Yes, it sounds gross, but I used soap. I was not about to refill the entire bathtub again. He'd just pee in the new bathwater.

Bathtime

Do you know what Handsome was doing during his bath time last night? Crawling. He refused to lay still for his bath, so I had to follow him with the soap to attempt to get him clean. This is definitely going to complicate bath time. Any ideas on how to keep him at least sitting still? I had a toy for him to hold, but that didn't seem to help anything.