14 Months Old

EH is 14 months ago, and he just keeps getting more amazing.

Those people who have infants and say they don't want them to grow? They're crazy.  Those people made me worry that once EH started crawling or walking that I would go crazy keeping up with him, and that I'd miss the infant years.  But that has not been the case.  I LOVE the toddler months, and I wouldn't trade this in for anything.

Does he get into everything, including bathroom drawers, kitchen cabinets, dresser drawers, and everything on top of anything he can reach?  Absolutely.  But we just have to be smarter than him - keeping the doors closed to rooms we don't want him in and keeping things off of end tables and night stands.  Easy enough. 

He is so smart.  So. Stinking. Smart.  It blows me away.  He will repeat almost anything that we say, and learns new words on a daily basis.  Right now at daycare they are working on learning the sounds that each letter makes, and he's already mastered H, T, and M and a bunch more that I don't remember.  When I ask, "Are you hungry?" He usually says, "Mmmm mmmm mmmm" to indicate yes and when I say, "Ok, go get in your chair," he walks over to his high chair and tries to climb into it.

He regularly says "more" when he's eating something that he likes.  And he still has not developed a taste for meat of any sort, including chicken and turkey.

When you give him a bowl and a spoon he stirs around the imaginary food and then holds out the spoon to you to "eat."  If you ask him where his tongue is he'll stick it out.  If you ask him where his nose is he'll point to it (or his ear, he gets those two confused pretty regularly.)  

When it's time for bed he comes into the kitchen to watch me make his bottle and then when he sees that I'm almost finished to starts walking back the hall to his room and stands by the rocking chair and waits for me. 

The say that toddlers appreciate routine because it's predictable for them and they know what to expect, and that couldn't be more true for EH.  While there are rare occasions (mostly on weekends) when his strict schedule can feel somewhat limiting, the majority of the time the schedule works like a dream for us, and I don't think there is anything about it that I would change (other than the time when I get home from work, which is far too late in the evening, in my opinion, but sadly something that I have no control over.)

14 months.  I can say with certainly that THIS so far is my favorite age ever.