It's been forever since I posted...A is officially a toddler. It's nuts. He has learned to say no--often as in, "nonononono!" accompanied by a finger wagging at you. It's kind of hilarious. Recently he's even been wagging his finger as he falls asleep/wakes up--even if he's alone in his crib. NO idea. Lol.
He doesn't have many other words..."dada" is still the go-to for just about everything. He's finally started saying "mama" correctly, at least, but no "NaNa" yet. I can say, "where's NaNa/Shaina?" and he'll point to me, but if I say, "who's this?" pointing to myself he says "dada". Oy. He makes a lot of other sounds, even "talking" or "singing" sometimes, but never anything intelligible. I could swear he said "elmo" the other day and his mom thinks he said "tractor", but nothing concrete. I hope he starts figuring it out soon! At least he has two signs down--all done/gone, and more. So cute to see him use them. He can also do the itsy bitsy spider hand motion and is starting to do some of the Wheels on the Bus movements and clap when songs tell him to. There is one song in particular that I like, where the refrain is "Put the rhythm in your hands and go clap clap clap, put the rhythm in your feet and go tap tap tap!" and one day with no prompting he clapped and tapped! I was so proud.
He's been sick a LOT lately, and so have I, so we haven't been to any of our groups in a while. He keeps getting colds that don't go away and turn into ear infections and then THOSE don't go away...he's been to the doctor like once a week for the past few weeks. Hopefully this last round of super-powerful antibiotics will do the trick and next week we can return to our normal schedule. The week before this past week he was MISERABLE and clingy and whiny and obnoxious...it drove me nuts. His mom was away, which didn't help things either. The majority of that week was spent with him on my lap on the couch...ugh. I was feeling bad too because I've got some nasty viral cough that has taken over a month to abate...Luckily this past week was a lot better and he was his usual independent self again. Phew.
Sleep has been something I've been struggling with still, but a corner may have been turned! Just the past few days his mom has said that's he's gone down at night COMPLETELY by himself--she's even left the room when he's awake! This is something we haven't been able to do without him getting hysterical crying for the past few months. I've still been rocking him to sleep for naps, but it's getting harder--he's big, he's strong, he's demanding...but today she just texted me that he went down for nap completely alone as well! I'm worried that he won't do it for *me*, though--that he's got it in his head that Shaina rocks him to sleep, mom and dad don't--but I'll give it a shot on Monday and we'll see. It would be so nice to be able to do that again instead of spending 10-15 minutes rocking and singing my throat raw.
Despite some of these struggles, though, he's still my angel baby. His hair is a mass of big blonde curls, his face is the cutest thing ever, peekaboo and tickling make him crack up laughing, and he gives me a big smile when I walk in the door in the morning. Also a more recent development is a marked preference for me at times--as in, he will be in one of his parents' arms and reach for ME. Warms my heart.
It's official now that I'll be leaving him for good at the end of June...thinking about it breaks my heart. His mom has made it very clear that I'll be welcome any time and still involved in his life...but it just won't be the same. And while I'm excited for the challenge of a new family, and for hopefully getting to start again with a squishy infant, I'ma miss my bubbaloo something fierce!
