May | 2017 | The Stork and the Beanstalk

Growth & Appearance: Keeping your hair out of your face has become a problem so we’ve started giving you a little whale spout on the top of your head. You’re called a girl whenever we leave the house, but that’s okay. Your hair has lightened significantly and I’d damn near call you blond. Or at least on your way to blond.

I stuck you on the scale the other day and I think you were 23 or 24 lbs. Still in size 4 diapers. Size 18m or 2T pajamas.

You have a bunch of teeth that have popped through. Still waiting on one of your top middle. I think you have three on top and three or four randomly dispersed teeth that have popped through on the bottom. There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to the asymmetrical nature in which your teeth are coming in.

Sleeping: Much of the same, still two naps a day, one from 10ish to 2ish and another, not long after, from 4ish to 6ish. Asleep for the night between 8 and 9 and up, with your brothers, around 7:15.

You’re growing more attached to your blanket and oftentimes, as I lift you out of your crib, you motion for me to grab your blanket too.

Nursing puts you to sleep some nights but they’re in the minority. You go to sleep fine on your end anyway, without so much as a whimper most days / nights.
Eating: You’re all about grapes these days. You even turned down an avocado and whined for more grapes.

I breastfeed you in the morning, before your morning nap, before your afternoon nap, and before bed (we cut out the feed after your morning nap, so we’re down to four). I notice that my supply has dropped and I’m not sure you’re getting much so I’m hoping the ending to this relationship happens more or less naturally. I’ve stopped pumping on the days I work because I wouldn’t get anything. You’ll drink from a bottle but don’t drink much. Not sure if this will increase once we’re done with breastfeeding all together or what. I trust it will all work out as it should.

Development: Personality explosion as of late. So much humor and spunk. You love to say ‘boo’ and wait for everyone to scream.

You destroy everything in your path. It’s useless to pick anything up around here because as soon as you’re awake, everything is strewn about once again. Like a drunken octopus.

You’re learning how to go down the stairs but are still far too dangerous to leave on your own and we still have no suitable solution for blocking the stairway from you. We end up moving the entryway bench in front of the stairs when you’re awake so our house is never quite put together and, even when it is, you soon ruin it.

Words you say: “hi”, “thank you”, “boo”, “mama”, “doggie”.

You go limp when you’re moved from something you don’t want to be moved away from. And you bite the shoulder of whoever it is pulling you away.
Favorites: You LOVE your g’pa Jeffers and prefer him to even me. In his arms is some of the only times I see you ever still. It’s pretty sweet.

You also love Jimmie and are keen to share your food with him, even when what’s in front of you is something you love.

Growth & Appearance: We took you to your 12m appointment late, in true third child fashion, and -in even more third child fashion- can’t remember what your stats were. Except to say that you are in the 60th percentile for weight (and I think you’re around 24lbs, per our shipping scale) and 90th percentile for height (can’t remember how many inches, though).

Your hair has lightened significantly over the last month as is more of a golden color. You still only have three teeth; your two fangs and one top middle tooth. Feels like your teeth are taking forever to come in and you enjoy using your one fang tooth to chip away at most things.

You’re in size 4 diapers, size 18 or 24m pajamas.

You most always have some sort of scratch or scab or bruise on your knee and/or forehead.

Sleeping: Same as always; you wake around 7:30am, down for a nap around 10am, up around 2pm, down again at 4pm, up at 6pm, and down for the night around 8pm. Like a constant game of whack-a-mole. Because you’re more mobile than ever, nursing has been putting you to sleep more than it had been in the months prior but you’ll happily put yourself to sleep too, which is nice.

Eating: Gone are the days you’d eat anything. You’re much more particular these days and, in general, you eat most in the morning and then just a little for lunch and either a lot for dinner or nothing at all. But breakfast is always a sure bet and somedays it seems like you eat enough in that one meal to last for the whole day.

Your favorites are still your favorites: avocado, banana, sweet potato, taco meat.

You still breastfeed 5 times a day: morning, before and after morning nap, before afternoon nap, and before bed (we cut out the feeding after your afternoon nap). You don’t drink a lot of the cow milk we give you from the bottle; only a couple of ounces a day, I’d say.

Development: You’ve started this fast-paced walking style that’s surely a transition to running; you look grossly off-balanced and teeter far from side to side resembling a drunken sailor. It excites you when you make it across the room moving in this speedy fashion and it brings the biggest shit-eating-grin to your face.

You still walk with your arms in the chicken wing position.

You love playing peek-a-boo and will come around the corner and say ‘boo’ and expect everyone to act surprised.

You can move from a squat to a stand without using your arms. You can also move down or up a small step and when you do so successfully, you tend to want to do it over and over and over again.

Words you know and use on and off: “ut-oh”, “thank you”, “hello”, “doggie”, “love you”.

Your scream hits a decibel that’s sure to deafen a few. You use it often to be heard or to get what you want and it’s hard to ignore because as soon as you hear it all you want to do is stop it.