Saturday, September 6, 2008

14th month


Rylen has now turned 14 months old. As usual the month has flown by. He is still shy of the 20 lb mark coming in at 19.8 lbs. With a wiggly child and a measuring tape, my rough estimations have him at about 28 inches in height. I'm sure the doctor's office will be better at measuring him next month. He is jabbering up a storm, though we have still to hear some audible words from him. We still have a lot of "da da de da" as well as other sounds that do sound like he is having a conversation. Which means that there are possibly words in there that we have yet to identify. In the communication department, Rylen is doing a lot more signing. Of course, we have nodding of the head for "yes" and shaking of the head with his finger pointing for "no" (we can thank our "What time is it" church song for that one), but we also have "more" which has been signed with his fists together. "Daddy", with the hand to the forehead, has been shown a few times, but no "mommy" in any form yet. We also see a big arm and hand flop up and down for "good-bye" as well as "hello" and lastly, he will sign "milk" for something to drink. Not too bad for a 14 month old. His favorite hand gesture song is the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and he will do similar hand motions as I sing it and then promptly clap at the end followed with "more" and another round of the song. We have also finally started really putting objects inside of buckets instead of just dumping everything out. I am thankful that playing doesn't always consist of just throwing everything. I bought one of the toys where you place shaped blocks into their appropriate holes just yesterday. It will take a while for him to truly understand the shapes, but he was doing very well and got excited when one would go in.

Rylen is officially at 2 naps a day and will sometimes survive on 1 if the day is hectic. I try to not let this happen too often because I know how important sleep is for his development. Besides, who wants a tired and cranky child? NOT ME! We are also completely off of jarred baby food here at the house. I sometimes still use it when we are out, but Rylen really doesn't want anything to do with it if big people food is around. He has even eaten some of our food at dinner which is a little richer than his mixed veges. This makes for a lot more work in the kitchen for me. I basically prepare 6+ meals a day. I will be glad when we can give him exactly what we are eating. This in between stage is hard to figure out and prepare.

A major accomplishment this month is the wearing of shoes. Rylen has always managed to find a way to remove any shoes that I put on him or curl his toes to make any attempt to put on shoes seem like to much work. So, he ended up in socks or bare feet. I wasn't concerned as I've read that leaving them barefoot is better for their development anyway. Well, now that he is walking and running everywhere, he needs to start wearing some shoes when we are out or at the park. At the house, he still remains barefoot. We achieved this challenge with two types of shoes. Robeez and Pedipeds. Robeez are nice, but would have been nicer had I found them earlier. The bottoms are just a little bit too soft for all of the exploring he does, but we do use them as a very casual shoe. Pedipeds are also made of only leather, but have a much firmer sole, so they will keep his foot from getting poked from a rock, etc. The great thing about these shoes is that they are so light and the leather makes it feel like he isn't wearing any shoes. Therefore, the shoes stay on his feet. From the moment I put them on, he walked like he had worn them his whole life. SUCCESS!! Now these shoes are not cheap. They run $30-$45, but if you can get them on ebay for half price, they are soooo worth it. And that is exactly what I did. His pair of pedipeds were only $19.95 and he will be able to wear these for a while. He just fit into them so there is room to grow.

Well, what else can I say about our champ. He is growing just as he should and we are loving every minute we have with him.

2 comments:

Nancy Lynn said...

we love the shirt. I know we are excited for the babbling to turn into words-somehow I expect it to be a da da as opposed to a mama first too..oh well, we get to see all the little smiles and get all the hugs during the day

Anonymous said...

I can't believe that there is a small gap between Rylen and Jonathan's weight/height! The age difference is at least 9 months. My goodness! I will let you know the new stats at his next appointment.