Oh My Little Bear

Oh my little Bear!  He's 20 months old this week, and it's sinking in that for the last couple of months I've been meaning to write a post about his 18-month mark.  And have not.  Boo.  To me, 18 months is kinda the point where babyhood merges into toddlerhood.

Cody is officially my best sleeper at this age.  I cannot believe how easy it's been since I moved him into the kids' room!  They're all in bed around 7:45-8, and Cody is usually asleep by 8:30 and sleeps till 7:30ish.  Now if I could just get Bret to fall asleep without needing to be "checked on" every 10-15 minutes!  (This is the compromise I've arranged with Bret in lieu of his calling me in for random reasons every 1-5 minutes until he falls asleep.  :P  i.e.,  "Is it morning yet?"  No, I tucked you into bed exactly 90 seconds ago, and if you hadn't noticed, IT'S STILL DARK OUTSIDE!!!  "It's taking too long."  I couldn't agree more.  You always take too long to fall asleep.  "I can't remember my word!!!!"  Ahh, yes, it is frustrating when you can't remember what you were going to say.  Can I just say I'm glad your bedroom is not up a flight of stairs, or I'd probably just drug you.  Of course, I'm kidding!  ;)  "I can't wait till morning."  Okay, try sleeping.)  And Cody rarely wakes in the middle of the night anymore, he just sleeps straight through.  He and Serena are about the same for falling asleep and staying asleep all night.  Bret still throws in the random up-every-two-hours-to-discuss-dreams-or-be-covered-up night once or twice a week.  The other nights, he only gets up once or twice.  All right, that was a total rabbit-trail.  I was intending to talk about Cody.  So, yeah, Cody sleeps really well.  He still takes his paci and his "special blankie."  The "special blankie" is an old nightie of mine.  Serena never had a lovey that she attached to when she was a baby, but Bret also got attached to a "special blankie" (an old nightie).  He went through a difficult sleep phase around a year of age, and I read somewhere about giving him an article of my clothing that I had slept with to comfort him in his crib.  (This is when he was still sleeping in our bed, but I was just trying to get him to sleep by himself for the couple hours before we came to bed.)  The only thing I had handy right then was a nightie, and it actually worked!  For the next year and a half, he always slept with that thing!  I made a rule that it had to stay in his bed, in order to avoid any awkward "Oh, don't mind that, it's just a piece of lingerie my son likes to drag around" moments.  ;)  So, when Cody hit the difficult sleep stage, I thought I'd try the same tactic, except I wanted to get him attached to a real blankie instead.  It didn't work.  One day, I had a basket of laundry on the floor, he crawled over, pulled out one of my nighties, and started snuggling with it.  I kid you not!  At that moment, I knew I was doomed to have another "special blankie" addict.  From about 13-16 months, I had to keep an eye on Cody in my room, because he knew where I kept my nighties, and would toddle over and help himself to whichever one he fancied that day.  It was actually really cute to turn the corner and find him rummaging in my drawer.  I would say, "Cody!" kind of sternly and quietly, and he would jump and turn around so guiltily, and then try to stuff things back in the drawer and shut it!  Such an active conscience for such a little guy!  ;D

AND, he's weaned!!!!  After I moved him into the kids room, he was really down to just nursing before naps and bedtime.  But, gradually, his nursing sessions became shorter and shorter.  I dropped the one before naps, and he didn't seem to notice at all.  And he was nursing for less than a minute before bed, and quite honestly, I felt like it wasn't worth the trouble of getting all situated for him to nurse for such a short time!  I had been open to the idea of continuing to nurse much longer than this, but I was starting to think that Cody really wasn't all that interested.  So, I skipped nursing him one night when he was 17 months old.  Serena noticed, and asked me why I wasn't giving Cody any ninny.  I tried to be calm as I said I thought Cody might be ready to be done with ninny, but inside I was starting to feel hopeful that he might be done and I really didn't want the other kids to remind Cody and make it into an issue!!!  Thankfully, it blew right over, and Cody never nursed again after that night.  He never asked either.  I feel incredibly lucky to have had such easy, smooth weanings with all three of the kids!  And as much as I miss the sweet, intimate moments, it's also kinda nice to be done.  I can wear dresses!  Woohoo!!  ;)

Another big change that has come is that I've been potty training Cody!  I'll probably post more about it later.  Right now, he still sleeps in diapers and wears a pull-up around the house just in case of accidents.  I take him to the potty about every 45 minutes, and he goes (even #2!!), and that way he stays dry all day!  I'm pretty happy that we're not going through diapers so fast anymore!

Cody is a really good eater.  He pretty much loves everything.  I can't think of anything he doesn't eat.  And he usually out-eats his brother, and sometimes even his sister and me!

Playtime is pretty great these days.  Cody toddles around after Serena & Bret, and they like to include him, so he stays occupied with them for long periods of time.  He only comes to find me if he gets an owie that needs kissing, and I go find him when it's potty time.  ;)  He went through a phase where he spent a lot of time coloring at the black table, but that's kind of worn off now.  I think it was just so novel for him since we'd kept him away from all that stuff for so long (simply because I didn't want to have to be monitoring him constantly), but now he understands that all the crayons need to stay on the table, and that he should not play with the scissors or the glue.  ;)

Cody is still not much of a talker.  He really reminds me of Serena in this area.  She took forever to start talking!  Cody doesn't do all the noises Serena did; he's more of a mime.  ;)  And he is more amenable to repeating words after us than she was at this age!  He says "Mama" and "Dada" and "Bep" (for Bret).  Serena doesn't get called anything yet.  ;)  He says "Hi" and "Buh-bye" and "No" (sounds kind of nasal and "noo") and "Yeah!" and "Off!"  And gets all excited when he sees a dog ("Dah!") or water ("Wawa!").  He says "Uh-oh" and "O's" and "Jsh" (drink) and "Pah-pah" (potty).  That's about it, I think!

This video was taken a couple months ago, when Cody was 18 months old  :)

Cody is definitely our earliest bookworm.  He spends extended periods of time each day on the floor looking through books and "reading" them to himself.  He gets very animated at times!  He doesn't really have a favorite book, but he loves the big thick Bible books we have.  A couple months ago, he started putting shape puzzles together, and he likes to "build" with Duplos.

Cody waited until he was 14 months old (almost 15!) before he started to walk, but he's very sturdy on his feet.  He goes up and down stairs and climbs on everything, and I really don't worry about him too much, because he seems to have good balance and a good sense of how to get back down from wherever he is.  Cody wants to walk most of the time now, rather than being carried, and he usually doesn't want to hold my hand.  ;)  He has always loved bathtime, maybe even more than the other two kids; but then about a month ago he started screaming when I put him in the tub!  And I mean SCUH-REAMING!!!!  And ever since then, he sadly has not been able to take a bath without screaming.  This last time, I tried bathing him in the kitchen sink, which went a little better, but he was still kinda sad about it.  I'm at a loss as to what brought it on, and what to do to get him to enjoy his baths again!!!  Such a disappointment not to have the bathtub diversion in my back pocket for my little toddler!  :(

I have to say it is a little bittersweet to be navigating this toddler phase this time around!  Bret was born when Serena was 18 months, and Cody was born when Bret was 18 months, so now I keep being reminded of things about Bret and Serena at this age and feeling like I should be holding a newborn again!  Oh, it's just been such a sweet, precious 4 1/2 years with these little babies!!  Such a short time, and so much has happened!  My heart aches and wants to burst with happiness at the same time!  I have no one that needs to be rocked to sleep.  Cody no longer nuzzles down on my chest when he's upset about something.  No one asks for ninny, talks about ninny, pretends to give their babies ninny.  I haven't used my double stroller for months, and my sling and my Moby Wrap are only rarely in use.  I even have time to sit and drink a cup of coffee in the mornings and read my Bible and pray coherent prayers, because the kids are independent players enough that I can usually do those things without any major interruptions.  I've been setting an alarm in the mornings to wake me up, because I don't have a baby to sleep with anymore.  Jordan and I have even watched a couple movies in the evenings in the last few weeks!  I kind of feel like I'm waking up from a very long and vivid dream, and wondering if it was really real.  Those three beautiful babies in three chaotic years marked by change and frequent moves.  Three healthy babies and three healthy births.  The growing, the changing, the nursing, the sleeping, the rocking, the singing, the crying, the reading, the learning, the feeding, the wearing, the happiness, the loneliness, the pain, the joy.  You know, the same stuff every mom says.  It's motherhood, right?  It's a Season of life.  So different for each of us, yet so much the same.  God has called us to this point in our lives; it's overwhelming, but I don't think there's any shame in that.  After all, He's God.  He's the One Who claims to have a perfect plan to bring glory to Himself.  He Himself says we're not perfect, yet He blesses us through the journey He's called us to.  It is truly an incredible thing to think on.

I'm so thankful.