Just in time for his 16 month birthday coming up, Elias has given us the gift of sleep once again. It still seems like he's not getting enough sleep, only getting about 10 hours at night and naps have been, well, all over the place the past few days, but there's significantly less screaming at bedtime and he's slept "through the night" (a phrase I thought would have lost its significance by now) the past few nights. One thing that seems to be helping with the bedtime routine is doing a little more of it while Elias is in his crib, rather than spending 45 minutes bathing, reading to, and generally coddling him and then dumping in his crib and immediately leaving the room. Tonight he even blew kisses and waved (then cried out, but very briefly) as we left, something he hasn't done for five or six months.
Anyway, I'm going to make good on a pact Neal and I made earlier this evening to get to bed early tonight. On that note, more updates later. For now, a quick photo recap of the past couple of weeks: first, during a trip to the Oakland zoo, where Elias managed to walk around the children's area without experiencing any face plants or major tantrums.
He's still not fond of holding our hands while walking, but he seems to be following direction a tiny bit better. Otherwise, letting a toddler this age walk around on his own is like trying to corral a wild animal. Extremely frustrating and potentially dangerous.
One morning last week while I finished getting ready Elias managed to get himself up into the chair we sit in to read books in his room.
I don't know if it's his expression or the fact that he climbed up into the chair on his own or the way he looks at books lately, but he seems like such a little boy to me in these images.
And some fun with a new toy, a toy that proved to be too much of a good thing and will hang out in his closet for a bit until the fun-frustration ratio levels out a bit.
Okay, 15 and a half. Close enough. Let's start with the bad news, shall we? In short, Elias experienced a major sleep regression this past month, ever since our road trip to southern California that I blogged about last time. It's probably too early to say he's turned a corner, but the past week has been mostly better. On the other hand, the nights that have been bad (two stick out) have been really bad (one night getting himself so worked up the threw up not once, but twice) and the protesting continues but it seems putting Elias to bed a tad earlier (by 7:30) helps keep the whining to a minimum. Less whining, more babbling. Over the course of the past couple of weeks, we've also added several new vices to Elias's bedtime routine and nighttime environment, including turning on the projection portion of his SoundSpa, in addition to the white noise, and a new nightlight (after he broke the old one) - a penguin whose belly stays lit all night, thinking perhaps the fact that now it's dark when Elias goes to bed might be part of his issue. At some point, I guess we're going to have to wean him of all these crutches, but when you're in the thick of it, as any parent knows, you'll do just about anything to get a good night's sleep. Let's hope all of this continues to do the trick for a little while.
Other than some newfound separation anxiety and clingyness (surely contributing to the sleep woes above), Elias continues to be a pretty happy little guy, especially when we're out and about and I inevitably have a complete stranger tell me what a good baby he is (and I appreciate that but they don't have to change his diaper or put him down for a nap!). After being in a bit of a funk the first few weeks on the west coast, I feel like we finally hit our stride together in September. It's probably not a coincidence that we started music and swim classes last month. I like having some structure back in our week, otherwise every day I feel a little bit like I have to reinvent the wheel. And keeping Elias entertained and out of trouble definitely gets more fun, but also more challenging. On the other hand, sometimes it's as easy as dropping a soda can:
He loves music - music class, listening to music, swaying even if there's no music playing, you get the idea. I've tried to introduce him to the world of arts and crafts, but alas, it seems those labels that recommend 18 months and up are there for a reason. He looks like he's a natural in this video, but as soon as I turned off the camera, he started trying to eat the brush and drink the water, which is more along the lines of what I expected:
Same thing for coloring books and crayons. The interest is there, pointing to his coloring book on the table and signing "more" and he'll scribble a bit but he doesn't seem to understand the pressure necessary for making a signifcant mark. And ultimately he just wants to eat them.
Otherwise, his language and desire to speak seems to be increasing. In addition to various versions of Mom and Dad (mama, mamu, mamay, dada, daday, etc.), he seems fond of practicing the following words: apple, bubbles, pop, Ando (which appears to be his word for his cousin Alejandro), and two or three other sounds that are consistent but that we haven't deciphered yet. He continues to use a few signs and it's amazing how well you can communicate with such limited resources, especially compared to the first 12-15 months of his life.
Oh, and the kisses, those are pretty great. Closed mouth little pecks on the cheek. Sometimes given freely, sometimes you have to really work for them. In short, a manic kind of month, with some low lows and some pretty great highlights, but I guess that's life with a toddler for you.
