Nico is 13-14 months old, and it is definitely a fun age that I can not imagine forgetting!
Our morning starts off around 7:30 or 8:00 with a cute little babbling noise of mama, dada, or doggie. He is happy as ever and ready to function at 100%. He sometimes even thinks he's funny and runs to the other side of the crib as we are half asleep, leaning forward to pick him up. We have a class clown on our hands. David and him have this thing where he lets Nico pull the ceiling fan chord to let the light on, so Nico tends to immediately look up and reach at the fan whenever we pick him up. It seems to really make him proud to do that.
So we make him his bottle first thing. Halleluya, he is drinking "real" milk now! (well, soy milk). He is still quite the milk snob, however, and will only drink it warm. I actually have tried periodically to give him cold mild. He will take a sip, and then give me a WTF look with his mouth open, as I can still see a milk puddle underneath his tongue. He then hands me back the bottle or throws it on the ground. I didn't know kids already had an attitude at this age?!
Then it's breakfast time. Stay-at-home dad of the decade makes Nico breakfast omelettes, hashbrowns, sausage, pancakes... you name it.
Nico spends his morning as busy as ever just playing nonstop. He has a pile of about 50 toys in the living room that he will work his way through. He is really good at actually entertaining himself. His latest developments consist of driving little toy trucks around while saying a mumbled version of the word "vroom," playing with his size cars (pushing them around, letting us push him around in laps around the house, and also standing on top of them), flipping through the pages of books and bringing them to us to read, throwing balls (he has a nice little arm, wahoo), and carrying around his broomstick. Yep, that about sums it up.
When he's not playing with his toys like a good little boy, he's antagonizing the dogs, attempting to pull the stair gate down to climb up the stairs, climbing on the furniture (or all over us if we lay on the ground- one of my fav things to do with him), going in and out of the doggy door, or trying to get into something he shouldn't. The word "no" is used quite frequently in this household. He responds to that maybe 10% of the time.
He is constantly babbling. So far his vocabulary consists of: mama/mommy, dada, doggie, Mi Mi (for our dog Miley), woof, ut-oh, bye bye, hi, and mumbled versions of "brown bear" and "vroom." He is just getting to the point where it's believable that he knows what those words mean. Last week, David claimed that Nico was looking out of the window when my car pulled up, and he kept saying mommy repeatedly. He also was apparently saying hi to every single person in Walmart the last time he went, as well. When one lady continued to ignore him, he didn't give in. He just kept at it. Pretty entertaining.
So this brings us to his morning naptime, which is a few hours. Lately, this has been his best nap. He gets another bottle when he wakes, and then has lunch. He eats about anything, literally. I can't think of anything he has turned down. You know he's done when he starts throwing his food on the floor.
The afternoon/evening is basically a repeat of the morning with all of the playing. He's a little busy body. He seems happiest when he is outside or around other kids. David stays home with him 4 days/wk and they have a little routine of things they do together. They go to the mall ("Mall Mondays"), play outside, and go on walks to Walmart often. He takes showers with David too. Can't even remember the last bath he had. He still goes to Misty's, but it is just 1 day a week now. It's a good chance for him to be around a few other kids his age.
Nighttime comes, and after he devours his dinner, he tries his best to fight off sleep. He goes and goes at 100%, and then it is so obvious when he's done. David and I can often just look at eachother immediately when that moment comes. And then he sleeps peacefully for 11-12 hours straight. We are so lucky.
I can best describe Nico the same way as I have been.. a very happy boy! He is usually smiling and laughing (but he can be such a little shit too!) He's started having temper tantrums. He literally SCREAMS when you take something away from him, tell him no, or open a door and shut it without letting him out. When he really gets going, he thrusts his head backwards and arches his back. Good times.
Couldn't love him anymore.
And here is an excessive amount of pics that I love from the past month or so...
