Linnaeus 15.2

The cutest thing Sprout's started doing this week is 'driving' from room to room now. I imagine his thought process to be like this: "I want to go play with the toy monkey that's stuck to the back door, but it's soooo far to crawl there from the living room. I'll just hop on my fire truck & ride over!" Sometimes he doesn't ride, he pushes his walker over. I'll find him standing at the tub in the bathroom, walker parked askew next to him on the bathmat. I think the fire truck might win the prize this week for most popular toy, by a hair. I can't wait until he sees his Wheely Bee that we've got him for Christmas! Because it has casters, rather than regular wheels, it's really manoeuverable on hard floors.

Not all the developmental milestones are cute though. Lately Sprout's also been screeching at the top of his lungs randomly. He's not complaining or crying, just screaming for fun. It's often painfully loud & he does it more if I pay any attention to it, so I'm trying to ignore it, hoping it will pass.

Maple syrup as styling aid.

He's also gotten more destructive in general, banging on things constantly, picking things up & throwing them to the floor. It's funny when he does it with a ball or soft toy, but when he did it to Papa's phone, he smashed the screen & when he banged a glass on the table at a cafe, it shattered into bits. We're having trouble keeping things he shouldn't play with away from him because we have so few places to lock stuff away. There are TWO closets in our entire house, in our bedroom & his. We don't have a lot of furniture in the living room & the majority of it is low enough that he can access everything on it.

On the eating front, Sprout is still chowing down with the best of them. He seems to be back on vegetables. At dinner Thursday, he ate half his broccoli & a few pieces of carrot. Of course, about 90% of what he consumed was udon. He just slurps them up & I think he swallows without chewing. It's hard to know what he's going to like or reject from week to week. For a while there, he was loving Oaty Bites cereal, but then refused it a couple of days running. Now he's back on it. Ah well, keeps me on my toes. & I guess I should be happy that he doesn't just categorically refuse anything for the long term. Except for mandarin oranges. Until recently, we hadn't given him any citrus because he seems to get such a bad diaper rash from acidic foods like kiwi & tomato. But several times now, he's tried a little piece of orange offered & immediately spat it out with an utterly disgusted face.

Sprout has also started to realize that we're not drinking the same things as him at dinner. He knew when we were eating the same or different by the time he was about six months old, but with drinks, he has taken longer to figure it out. He was pointing & squeaking insistently at Papa's pink lemonade Emergen-C drink last night at dinner. He's often quite curious about my hot tea too.

No new teeth lately--Sprout's eyeteeth are still sloooooowly making their way down. I kind of thought they'd be faster, given what a dagger-like point they have on the ends. Still no walking yet either. He's cruising lots & standing once in a while, but still prefers to crawl or 'drive' to go anywhere.