Daley Ponderings

Whenever Daddy opens a bottle of Blenheim ginger ale, Noah takes several sips, too.

Tuesday (4/2) Noah thoroughly inspected the dishwasher handle.  You can tell he's in a family of engineers!

He can say "mommy" now, though not consistently.  He also says "me."  He said "cashew" unprompted once, but we're out of cashews now, so he has not had another opportunity.  He says "nana" unprompted for banana.   He also says diaper, which sounds like "dai-doo" or "ba-boo" or some combination depending on how he's feeling.  His new unprompted signs are help and apple.

I feel that on the talking front, it's like he took a year break and now he's making progress the way he "should have."

He can open doors pretty well, and he knows how to open our fence gate.

He can do the small knob puzzles, though sometimes he still gets frustrated if the piece is completely upside down (turned 180, that is.)  I guess he doesn't feel he should have to turn it that far for it to fit. 

He loves playing whatever Jonathan is playing, copying him precisely.

Speaking of precise, Noah likes for things to go in their places.  When he stirs a soup, he taps the spoon on the side of the pot, and then places it on the spoon rest.  He complains if the spoon rest is not there.  He likes putting away, but since Jonathan doesn't we are still working on cleaning up before moving on to the next thing.

I'm working on a slow night weaing process.  At this point, I don't want to do anything abrupt, and this is what has been working:  letting him nurse when he asks but limiting it to ten minutes, giving him a one minute warning.  Often he would stop and turn over at the warning.  If he does get upset, we help him calm down and he's been doing better at that.  Now I'm down to five minutes with a one minute warning.  He will often ask for more, holding up one finger for "one more minute" (which is very cute!)  If he asks nicely with no complaining, I usually say yes.  I will offer to hold his hand when we're done with nursing but he's still awake, and he usually accepts.  I change his diaper whenever it's wet and sometimes he'll just go back to sleep without nursing once he's dry.  Nights have been so much better recently, and I'm thankful.