Monday, January 10, 2011

Alec Update


Poor third children. Always getting the shaft.
I realized that I haven't done a full update on my baby boy lately and this realization coincided with him starting to do a few cute things that deserve to be immortalized here.

Alec is 15 months now, and finally made the switch to walking 100% a few weeks ago. He started toddling a few steps here and there, and in a display of carefulness and sensibility that I hope grows with him, took a full 4 to 5 weeks to master walking and make the switch to that being his preferred mode of transport. He still looks like a drunk sailor some of time, especially if he's tired, but for the most part does a great job. He has tasted freedom from carrying and carts and strollers a few times in the grocery store and Walmart with fairly disastrous results: he takes off like a rocket, toddles wherever the heck he wants and flagrantly disregards my lame attempts of offering a hand for him to hold. Alec has also mastered the stairs and freely goes up and down, especially to follow his sisters.

We went for his 15 month checkup last week and he is in the 90th percentile for height, 75th for weight and has a huge head. He is losing some of his baby fat and getting longer and leaner and less dumpling like. He says few real words (his favorite being ba-ba for baby, bottle and SpongeBob) but babbles alot. As I expected, the pediatrician is recommending I get him screened for speech therapy and I am going to get that ball rolling this week. He doesn't seem to be that frustrated by his lack of words, which I guess is a good thing.

He has totally shunned using his booster seat at the dinner table, preferring to stand on a chair and eat like the big people do. This has of course resulted in him falling from the chairs onto the tile floor several times. If we force him to sit in the booster, he screams during the whole meal and then no one is happy, so we're in a bit of a bind here.

One of his favorite things to play with are the grilling spatulas we keep underneath the sink. He'll casually get them out a few times a day, dragging the metal spatula against the tile floor, sometimes just walking around and sometimes moving it back and forth, almost like he's vacuuming. He must love the sound. Of course he just drops them when he's done, so at any point in the day, I am stepping on or picking up metal grilling instruments. He also loves balls, trucks, cars, anything with music or noise, and rough housing.

He seems to really enjoy being in the kitchen with me, sitting on the counter or watching me move around as I cook or bake. The greatest thing he does, which started a few weeks ago, is when he hears the oven timer go off, he opens his mouth as wide as he can, scrunches his nose and covers his mouth while gasping. The kid knows that a beeping oven means hot, fresh cookies. He's no dummy.

The other day he really made me laugh: I was baking something in the oven, and when he heard the timer go off, he toddled over to the drawer where I keep the oven mitts and pulled them out and handed them to me. He's a good little sous chef.

He is in love with his sisters, cries when his dad leaves for work ("It's good to feel loved", says the dad of two daughters who never cared when he left the house), and when you ask him for a kiss, he shakes his head no and giggles. He is just starting to give open mouthed kisses when he's in the mood. He is beginning to find SpongeBob entertaining but has no go-to activity that is guaranteed to hold his interest. He is starting to enjoy being read to, and not just so he can slam the book shut on your fingers, which is how he's "read" for the last 6 months. He sleeps through the night and is the snuggliest of my three babies.

He is a good, good baby. And he is well on his way to not being a baby anymore.

2 comments:

The Davies Family said...

What a cutie! So happy to see our nephew is doing well.

Anonymous said...

Alec seems to have gotten the Gammie gene.....vacuuming with grilling utensils, no less! Love, LW