Hats off to a hat on

Every time I've put a hat on Guy since he was coordinated enough to reach his head has been cast away in milliseconds after it has been placed on his head. So when school had "Hat Day" in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, I was dubious. I had given up on hats. But, to be a team player, I bought him a hat and brought it to school. 

"He won't wear it," I warned the teachers. "But maybe he'll feel his first dose of peer pressure and get on board with the idea."

They smiled those all-knowing smiles and just nodded. "Oh, he'll wear it." 

I wondered what torture they had planned to result in the hat wearing, but decided I didn't want to know. 

But lo and behold, when I went to pick him up, he was carrying that hat around like a favorite teddy bear. And when I put it on his head he merely touched it and then left it on. 

Of course, I immediately had the teacher take a photo, because adorable. 

He hasn't deigned to wear the hat again since. 

Snowy Days

We had an unexpected cold spell in Tulsa, with a few inches of snow the first week of March. Having a toddler locked inside for a weekend and then into Monday wasn't exactly high on my list if favorite things. 

So, I began running out of things to give him to keep him entertained. And finally I resorted to the picture below. I grabbed all the corks I've collected over the years (or maybe just last month - I'll never tell) and helping him sort them into different containers. 

Maybe that's inappropriate for a 1 1/2 year old, but did it keep him occupied for 10 minutes? Yes. I'll put that in the W column. 

Sleeping Is My Favorite

 

A rare sighting of the Tot sleeping past 7:30 a.m. On a weekday, of course.

You can barely see his little elephant cuddled on the other side of him.

Guy didn't sleep through the night consistently until he was about 9 months old. It was a long, long 9 months. Then, once he did start sleeping through the night, going to bed was still a nightmare. Every night was the same routine: we would read a book, he would lie sweetly on my shoulder as I sang him "Yesterday"  by the Beatles and "Castle on a Cloud" from Les Miserables, he would whisper and smile at me as I put him in his crib... And then he screamed bloody murder the moment I left the room. 

At around 16 months, Greg finally tried something new and gave Guy his musical elephant as he put him down in the crib. He immediately snuggled with it and was happy. Turns out, he just felt lonely. So now he sleeps with his lovey, and we leave his door open and make plenty of noise while he goes to sleep. Some nights we hear him playing for almost half an hour in his bed, and some nights he goes immediately to sleep. The magic is that he does it on his own, and finally has almost a cheery attitude when it's time to go in the crib. 

Even nicer is the fact that he will now often wake up at 6:00 a.m., but after muttering for a while in his crib, will go back to sleep, or play quietly in his crib until 6:45 or so. After spending a year with him going to sleep crying and waking up crying, the simple joy of a happy child in the morning has been enough to fuel me to smile before I've even had my coffee in the morning.

He grows!

Eating cheerios and smiling for the camera are now two favorite pastimes.

I cannot believe my little boy is a year and a half old. Time flies when you're having fun, right? He's talking, walking and melting hearts everywhere he goes. 

At the end of December, he had his adenoids removed and tubes put in his ears. After two eardrum-bursting, pus-spewing ear infections, it was a must. Since the procedure, his language skills took off. The hearing test that he failed so miserably before the operation, he passed with flying colors a few weeks ago. 

His vocabulary, though limited, is delightful. Here are some of my favorites:

• Daddy (pronounced dad-day like a tiny Englishman. It is currently his favorite question as soon as I pick him up or if daddy is not in the bed in the morning.)
• More ("moe!")
• Na-na (which means milk, of all things)
• Boo (Translation: poop. A good one to know)
• Ome (his cockney version of "home")
• Ball (Which typically means "I wish for the dog to bring me something to throw and quite possibly knock over breakable things.")
• Maw-nah (Sometimes means yogurt but really means "I want that thing.")
• Maaaay! (Usually a cry of despair. Translation: "I threw that cheerio on the ground from my high chair so that I could look at it from a distance, and the dog has eaten it! Make her put it back!")
• Bye-bye (Self-explanatory)

A few seconds before this photo he was in a zombie-like engrossed state, watching Willow with his dad.

 Nothing like movies about lost babies for pre-nap prep.

He had the flu, which was miserable, but he was cheerful through most of it. The kid is hard to keep down. And it created an adorable game where he finds a tissue and fake "sneezes" (basically he just does a single headbang with a small whooshing noise) and then wipes his nose. And he's newly obsessed with sitting on the couch with us while I play Zelda (poorly) and dad beats all the hard bosses. 

Sad flu baby.

But really this is the most fun I've had with him so far. He's just a delight, and I love to hear him giggle. He's starting to "help" around the house. He throws things away (mental note: check the trash contents more often) and he will "clean" spills himself (we are not discouraging this, no matter how many tissues we go through in his efforts). 

Bedtime with Daddy. Ignore the tornadic mess behind them. 

Guy takes book selection seriously, and it sometimes gets messy.

Bedtime is even fun now. He sleeps with Crack (so named because he is addicted) the elephant. Guy gets a story and a song while he cuddles Crack, and then he is put in his crib with Crack. He spends between 5 and 15 minutes pulling Crack's tail (making him play Rockabye Baby) over and over. It's such a nice change from the constant crying of the past.