Sensitivity

Last week was incredibly warm and sticky.  While my mom was here she decided that Kolton needed a little rinsing off one day.  Well he fell in the sink and a little rinsing turned into a full on sink bath!  I've never really used the sink to bathe him (maybe one other time)  IDK, its just something about trying to get clean where the nasty food has been that seems icky.

I've always known that Kolton is a little more sensitive than other little boys, or really babies in general.  Its hard to explain but he's just so incredibly cautious.  Probably why he has yet to let go and walk on his own.  It takes him a while to warm up to something new; even new toys.  But at the same time he isn't afraid of strange faces; he even seems flirtatious!  But sometimes I wonder if he'll always be this sensitive and I worry about what that will mean for him.  Last night we went to the music class at the church.  He has been there plenty of times but two weeks ago I ended up having to leave in the middle of class because he was having a melt down.  We were a little early last night and he started to cry when we simply walked into the room.  Crying like he was scared.  He calmed down outside then spent the first part of the class hiding behind me before finally warming up and participating without being attached to my shoulder.  But when the song leader turned off the lights to wind things down Kolton jutted out his bottom lip and started to cry.

I'd like to keep bringing him there because I think it's good for him to be exposed to people and kids.  But I don't want to terrorize the poor little guy every week.  When I was in kindergarten I ended up being held back because I was scared to death of the principal when he dressed up in full gorilla costume on Halloween.  I remember being told I should have known it was only make believe and not a real gorilla.  I'm afraid Kolton is going to be the same way.  I just hope this doesn't mark him for bullying or low self esteem.  Am I ridiculous for worrying about this already?

Anyway, here are more photos from Grandma Barb's visit.  We miss her already!

Sharing

Yesterday we hosted a play date at our house.  It was the first time Kolton had to deal with sharing HIS toys in his environment.  He did OK but had a few issues here and there.  I also witnessed him experiencing jealousy for the first time.  One of the babies was having a bottle, and you know Kolton loves his bottle.  I wasn't about to give in, especially since I'm trying to break him from the bottle.  But I did give him milk in a sippy cup.  You know what, he drank the whole thing!  I decided to keep going with the sippy this morning and he drank the whole thing again!  So it looks like I stumbled into the motivation to drink from his cup =)

In other Kolton news; the kid is really throwing me for a loop lately!  After barely napping at all on Sunday now he doesn't want to go down for his morning nap at 10:00 at all.  But he acts tired, or at least a little cranky.  I got so used to having a schedule now I don't know what to do.  Thankfully my mom comes into town tonight for a week (whoo hoo!) so maybe by the time she leaves he will be on a new schedule.

March Madness

Happy March Madness!  I think we're basketballed out over here.  Mike doesn't even seem interested in watching anymore!  Thankfully Wisconsin won both of their games so we are pretty happy campers =)

March also signifies the passing of another year living on the East Coast; number six! Then of course St. Patricks Day-I wish there was an Italian holiday. So there is just something about March; maybe its the promise of warm weather...though usually not as warm as we are already having now. 

Today Kolton got into the spirit of March Madness by refusing to nap.  He slept a total of 25 minutes from 7 am to bed time at 7:30 pm.  But, I kid you not, he was in the best mood all day-except for when we tried to force him to nap, then it was all out crazy screaming.  We didn't know what else to do beside just let him stay up, thinking he'd crash eventually.  He never did...crazy!  I'm a little scared!

Hot Air

I hope I'm not the only one who decided to turn on the air conditioning.  This house gets incredibly hot, especially upstairs where Kolton's room is.  Not long ago I opened the window in his room only to have it break.  They are the crank out kind and the little arm broke away from the window itself.  Thankfully I was able to lock it back into place but it was tough and I don't want to try it again.  But that leaves me without the option to leave a window open to cool things down up there.  So on goes the air =)

Little man had an epic meltdown tonight.  We were in the middle of this music class I take him to at a local church.  Looking back, the signs were all there.  I snuck out of the class before the shit really hit the fan.  He wailed all the way home.  I was worried that he didn't get enough to eat or drink; given his aversion to sippy cups and the hot temperature.  When Kolton gets worked up like this I'm always afraid.  By the time I got him out of the car his hair was completely wet with sweat.  I raced for the bottle and filled it nice and full only to have him bat it away.  I rocked him for a while and almost teared up at the look of pure exhaustion on his face.  My baby just simply wanted his bed.  The kid really loves his crib.

My other baby is really loving this weather too!

Sprummer

I believe it hit 80 degrees today!  I guess Richmond decided just to skip over spring and go straight to summer.  It was really fun to get out a few of the new things I bought for Kolton at H&M....love their kids section=)  I've been purchasing 18 month summer stuff but it may be just a little too big for him yet.  He's still such a little peanut.  We had a fun outside playdate to celebrate the gorgeous day!  But OMG, its slightly uncomfortable inside the house.  Is it to early to turn on the air conditioning?  

Babble Fest

 It's sooooo light out still.  Why don't I remember putting Kolton to bed with it still light outside?  Strange.  Last night he babbled for a long time before finally settling down.  I just put him down and I can tell he's not sleeping; just babbling away.  This weekend was a babble fest!  I'd say "Ma, Ma, Ma," and he'd respond "Da, Da, Da".  But we were still having a conversation.  I'm hoping that this latest development means we're close to his first words.  I'm so excited to get to know him better!

I'm really trying to keep a level head about his development.  But, I will admit, I'm a little anxious about it.    He's on the low end of the learning curve.  At almost 14 months he isn't walking, talking, drinking from a sippy cup, or using a spoon/fork.  My pediatrician wants us to start weaning him off of bottles but the kid has zero interest in sippy cups.  I've tried a slew of different kinds but none have done the trick.  For a while I thought I was going to be able to get him to drink out of a straw but now he just wants to pull it out of the cup like a game.  Right now he has 3 bottles a day.  I'm trying to get rid of the night time one because half the time he doesn't drink it anyway so I don't think I'm depriving him of anything really.  But what do I do if he still won't drink from a cup next month?  If anyone has any tricks please share!!!!

On an unrelated baby note I gotta say how excited I am for the spring/summer color trend.  At first I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it because my wardrobe is typically void of a lot of color or print.  However, once I realized I can now throw on any crazy color or even print combination I'm ready to go color crazy =)

Hungry, Hungry, Hippo

Kolton just couldn't wait for his pancakes this morning.  When they came he shoveled them in like a hungry hippo.  The kid loves his iHop!  I've tried to make pancakes a couple of times and they were an epic fail.  He'll tolerate the hotcakes from McDonald's but nothing compares to iHop.  It's funny to me how he's already showing a preference.  Then again, I had to choke down my iHop coffee and rush home to my Nantucket blend.  When it comes to food and beverages all things are not created equal...its even obvious to a 1 year old!