The Grubers: Charlie’s Seventeenth Month

16 Months to 17 Months

(October 19 - November 19)

Well, it is official, Charlie is a single napper now! I was so sad and resistant to give up his second nap (especially since starting work), but he was showing signs since 15 months. So at the very beginning of 16 months, we made the switch. He takes one nap a day around 12:30, and it usually lasts between one and a half to two hours. Every once in while, he will take a three hour nap. While I was sad to accept the change, it has been nice not having to be bound to the house twice a day.

Charlie just loves eating from those food pouches. They are all over the place, and I totally see why. There is something about the fact that they can hold it and suck it out like a straw that babies/toddlers love! Charlie will eat basically anything if it is in one of those pouches! It is great! Things like vegetables and certain fruits that he wouldn’t touch if I pureed them and put them in a bowl, he will gobble them up if they are in the pouch. For me, personally, the expense of the pouches are only really worth it if I am using it when out and about. If we are at home I don’t really use them. I just feed him whatever we have at home. But if we are out visiting people or on errands during lunch or dinner, they are well worth it. They are so easy to carry around, you don’t have to refrigerate them, you don’t have to pack a bowl or spoon, he can feed it to himself, and he loves it so I don’t have to fight him on it. It is fabulous!

He has started bringing me his shoes so that I will put them on him and take him outside. Even though it is getting cold, he still loves going outside. Now when we are outside, he will come and grab my hand so that he can walk farther out down the sidewalk. He knows he can’t go alone, so he forces me along with him. He loves when we walk to the mailbox and he gets to open and close the mailbox over and over again. He seems to be getting over some of his playground fears. He enjoys sitting in my lap while swinging, and will let me help him go down small slides. He is still unpredictable when it comes to swinging on his own. Most times he still doesn’t seem to like it. But we are making good progress.

Play date at the park:

Watching Daddy fish near Sundance:

November leaves:

Up at South Fork while Daddy fishes:

Daddy, wait for me!

In the bathtub he likes to dunk his face in the water and blow out bubbles. It makes me nervous to see him put his face in the water, but he seems to be doing really well with it. Hopefully this will be good practice for future swimming days. I want him to be comfortable in the water.

Getting close to crawling out of the tub...oh no!

He is starting to push my face away with his hand. So frustrating….but funny at the same time.

He loves to be up on our bed, crawling and running around. He will stand next to the bed and whine until I lift him up there. Once on the bed, he loves to run in circles and throw the pillows off. He also loves sitting up on the bathroom counter, especially whenever I am in there getting ready for the day. He is especially interested when I am doing my makeup, and he will go through my makeup bag. He also likes to turn on and off the water. He always throws a fit when I try to get him down.

He loves piling things! He will pile things and then move them from one pile to another. He will do this with towels, shoes, rags, makeup, whatever. He is becoming quite the little organizer.

Oh, and a new spot for our shoes...sweet

He is starting to throw little tantrums by laying on the floor and rolling around. Oh great, and so it begins!

During this month he got a weird blister like rash near his diaper area. In the morning the bumps would be in one place, and by bedtime they would be somewhere else. This went on for a couple days, but then they went away. I still don’t know what it was all about, but I didn’t worry too much because they never seemed too bad and they went away on their own. He also got another cold this month.

We changed up his bedtime routine. He was wetting through his pajamas almost every night! It was getting out of control. We got some bedtime diapers, and that seemed to help half of the time. So we finally decided that we couldn’t feed him a bottle as we were putting him down for bed anymore. I was really nervous because that has been what worked his whole life! Sometimes I think we get into routines that do more to help us (as parents) than really helping the babies. Like parents need it, mentally, more than the kids need it. So now we feed him his bottle, then give him a bath, change him into his pajamas and night time diaper while he brushes his teeth, wrap him in his blanket, then hold him and sing to him for like 30 seconds (sometimes he won’t allow that much holding and singing), and then lay him down in his crib and leave the room. He usually goes down like a champ! I am so happy we made the change. I think I will make the change a lot sooner on our next kids.