Dear Etrain

Dear Etrain,

Oh son. Can we talk about how you're totally becoming a toddler?! You still do plenty of baby stuff, but then there's things like the tantrums. At your 12 month check up at the pediatrician's office, Dr. Ball said we're supposed to stop giving you a bottle and formula. Now it should be sippy cups and milk. Guess who doesn't like either. I can get you to drink milk if I only give you half, then the other half formula - and it must be in bottle. You'll sip from the cup, but only sip, and only if it's water. This morning I thought I'd try the milk/formula combo in the cup you like. This is how you felt about it - it gets fun around 40 seconds.



Your dad is out of town right now so I sent him this video so he could see what fun we were having. Then I took the video below. Son, I love you, but you can be a little turd.



You had quite the morning. Nothing really made you happy and it was like you were crawling out of your skin. Lots of crying and fun screaming like that. After your nap you were happy as can be. Hallelujah. But oh my, the screaming. Now that's a toddler scream. And it's new. We'll work on that sippy cup.

Being a toddler isn't all bad though. You're not walking yet, but you still love crawling around and exploring everything. Still love drawers and pulling everything out of them. Still love to open and shut doors. Still love to go up and down the stairs. What's changing is how you're doing it. Especially the exploring. You seem to have a longer attention span. Once you find something interesting you will sit and play with it for much longer.



Oh, and there's the Thomas the Train you got for your birthday. Talk about attention span for one thing. There's buttons you can push that will make train noises and play a song. One song. The same song. Over and over again. You LOVE to push that button and hear that song. I hear it probably 20 times a day minimum, and yes, it can get tiring after a while. You'll push that button over and over and over again. But oh man does it make you happy. You sit there and smile and do the cutest butt dance. I love how happy it makes you. And I LOVE that butt dance.




You're also getting more into books. You still love to just turn the pages, but you'll often let me plop you in my lap and read you a story. Sometimes we read the story two or three times in a row. Then you'll want to get up and move around, but minutes later you're back with a new book. You've always been good at independent play, which your dad and I think is important, but I like how you're starting to want to play with me. If not books, you'll bring me toys. Or if I'm playing with one of your toys, you want to take it from me. We'll work on sharing when you're older. ;)

The last thing that's new for us is eating food. We've always given you food to eat, but not usually enough for full meals. Now that you're supposed to drop the bottle and formula, your meals are supposed to be grown up food only. As Dr. Ball says, "he should be eating what you're eating." Well, we're getting there. You still get a bottle before nap and bedtime, which I'll slowly work on phasing out, meanwhile getting you used to food only. You hate dairy. You'll eat yogurt, but no milk, no cheese, and you're 50/50 on eggs. Chicken nuggets and turkey meatballs are a big hit. Sometimes you love banana, other times you're over it. Same with sweet potato. Meal time is super messy, but and interesting adventure.




You had quite the exciting first month of being one. There was Christmas, New Years, a trip to Las Gaviotas, tons of new toys to play with, and new food to eat. This month let's work on the sippy cups. Sound good kid?

Love,
Mama