Some Andrew Stuff

About two weeks ago, we finished up the 18-month sleep regression.  (At least, I hope it was the 18 month sleep regression, because if we have another 6 week period of non-sleep and screaming in the near future, I might have to quit my job.)  But as Frans Plooij can tell you, after regression comes a leap.  And this weekend I am seeing Andrew think with a whole new level of complexity, it's really incredible

Today in the bath, I unplugged the drain and told him that when the water was gone, it was time to get out.  He looked at the drain, looked at me, and then re-plugged the drain.  When I unplugged the drain again, he tried to turn on the faucet to run more water in the tub.  Creative!

We bought some new snow boots, in celebration of the first real snow of the year:

Andrew brings them to me and wants to wear them around the house.  He's brought shoes before, when he wants to go outside.  But this somehow seems different, like he's really attached to these boots.  Like he thinks they are really cool.

Today, we made snickerdoodles.  I rolled the dough into balls and handed them to him, and he coated them with cinnamon and sugar.  He experimented with many different ways of doing this.  First, he rolled them in the bowl, like I showed him.  Next he let the dough ball sit in the bowl and sprinkled the mixture over them with a spoon.  Then he put the dough ball in the spoon and tossed it up in the air, like he was throwing a pizza.  Near the end he pressed the ball into the mixture, changing its shape.

He has done experimentation before, but this seemed more creative, more varied, and more consistently effective than in the past.  It was pretty fascinating.  Also, he stayed on task incredibly well.  He complained if I didn't hand him new dough balls fast enough, and wanted to "trade" me when he felt he had them sufficiently coated.

After his regression, he's back to giving hugs and kisses, and seems to give them more liberally than before.  He's always keeping an eye out for his sister.  He likes to wake her up from naps, helps to feed her (when mommy's not around and she gets a bottle), and always says "hello" to her when he wakes up from sleep.  He actually asks to have a bath with her - they both go in the baby tub together, and she kicks his chest the whole time - which is the cutest thing.

He's getting more words, and he's using the words he has more often and with more precision.  His new words this weekend are "egg" (favorite breakfast item) and "shh" (used specifically to indicate quiet or to calm Clara down).  His favorite words are "up" (to be picked up, to stand at the kitchen counter and help cook, to go upstairs), "yuck" (for the trash can, the diaper pail, anything with a weird texture, and just because he likes the sound of the word), and "done" (which he alternates with the "all done" sign).  By my count he has about 16 words, although a handful of those are animal sounds, which may or may not actually count.

He'll be 18 months old tomorrow, my little man.