compass needed

A few days ago, a friend posted a picture of her 17 mos old laying on the floor, face down, with arms above her head. The caption read “My 17 month old is so talented, she can throw a fit like a 2 year old!”. I thought this post was funny, and chuckled to myself, as this is our life right now too. It seems like overnight, my cooperative toddler suddenly has an opinion.  And when he wants something, he lets you know. His two obsessions these days… baby einstein and toothbrushes! When he sees the remote in our room, he starts pointing at the tv and whining until you turn it on. If you don’t, he will have a meltdown. When you go into the bathroom, he follows you, and willl point at the cabinet and whine until you give him a toothbrush. If you don’t, he will have a meltdown. You get the picture. In the two short weeks that this has been happening, I already find myself in a panic sometimes. As the mother of a baby, sure, there are lots of things to worry over, like  “Is he getting enough milk?”, “Will his belly button ever fall off?”, “Is he getting enough tummy time?”, “Will he ever sleep through the night?”, but when the toddler stage suddenly has the word DISCIPLINE ringing in my ears, it feels like I have stepped into a whole other arena. I desperately want to do discipline “right”, but I know that this is a tall order. So for now, I am thankful for those mommies who have gone through the trenches before me, and share their wisdom and knowledge with honesty and love. And for the Christ loving authors who pen books for first time moms like me to read.

So, these days you may find my toddler watching baby einstein while chewing on a toothbrush… or you may not ! ; )

16 Months

Grayer here is what you are up to at 16 mos.

You love dogs! As soon as we walk in the door from being out somewhere, you want to be put down so you can go see Hogan. “Dog” is your very favorite word, and you call most animals dogs these days, but you are getting good at pointing to the correct animals in a book, so I know you are aware of the difference. You love to give Hogan hugs (and kisses), and try to ride him, but he usually stands up and you slide off within a minute or two of climbing on. This drives mommy nuts, because you always come out covered in dog hair, (yuck!), but the love affair is very sweet!

You are fully aware of things in the sky. You LOVE looking for birds in the backyard, and will point, babble and stare at them for ages. You also love squirrels, and think they are so funny scurrying up the trees. Your favorite thing in the sky are airplanes! You get so excited anytime you hear one (which is often at our house since we are so close to Love Field) and run towards them. It’s so cute :) When we go out at night, you always look up in the sky and try to find the moon. You call it “ball”, which is adorable :)

You rarely walk these days; you are always running off to your next adventure. Your Mimi just can’t get over how fast you are! One thing is for sure, you have the cutest little “penguin waddle”. Your whole body moves from side to side, whether walking or running, and everyone in our family thinks you look like an adorable little penguin. I will remember this walk forever!

At the beginning of December your daddy went on a trip to D.C with one of his good friends, and you and I spent a night with Mimi and Papa. While we were there, we tried to put you in the bath, because you have always loved bath time, and always enjoyed splashing in the water. For some reason, this new tub really scared you, and you have not wanted to sit down in the bath tub since. This has been a little sad for mommy, since bath time had always been our little place of solace at the end of the day, where we would listen to toddler tunes, read books, and chatter on about the day. You still get excited when we turn on the water, can’t wait to take your clothes off and show off your sweet little tush, and want to be lifted into the tub, but you don’t want to sit down in the water. You will stand by the side, holding on with one hand, and splash water around with the other. Because of this, you don’t want to stay in the tub for long, so bath time is usually pretty short. I’ve put you in your bumbo a few times in the tub, but you don’t quite weigh enough, and if we put too much water in, you start to float, which you don’t like. I know this is just one of those quirky stages that will soon pass, but I am looking forward to longer bath times in the future.

The park is one of your favorite places to go. We’ve tried out a few new ones lately, but your friend Hunter showed you a really fun one by SMU, and it’s by far your favorite. You can’t get enough of the slide, and want to go up and down over and over and over. You squeal with delight each and every time, so we find it hard to refuse you another turn, even when our arms are weak with exhaustion. You like climbing up and down the stairs as well, but surprisingly usually only want to stay in the swing for a minute or two. You love to watch the big kids play, and want to chase them around. Any time there is a dog at the park, you always want to go over and pet it. You can’t get enough of those four legged animals. You also love the zoo, and when I took you this week, we went in to see the goats as usual. You kept walking over to them, wildly waving your arms to say “hi”… so funny!

Your cousin Elle got a trampoline for Christmas and they put it up in their dining room. At first you were unsure about all the bouncing, and always wanted out if Elle jumped too high, but now you love to jump, and have become much more fearless. The two of you are quite a sight jumping, squealing and laughing together, and it always brings a smile to my face. You and cousin still get along well, except for the occasional battle of wills that is bound to happen with a 2.5 year old and a toddler.


All 4 of your one year old molars are finally through! It took several weeks, and pints of drool, but you finally worked them all in. Last week, while you were working on your 4th and final molar, you were touching your right ear, so we took you in to see the doctor, because we thought you had an ear infection. Turns out you didn’t (thankfully!), and it was all due to teething. I know we will all be glad when all your teeth are in. Your sweet, toothy smile melts our hearts on a daily basis. I don’t think I can ever get enough of your sweet giggle and grin :)

You love to dance! You know how to turn on and off the CD player in your room, so this has become a fun activity for you. You turn the music on, stand up and dance, then hit the pause button, say uh-oh, and then turn the music back on, and dancing ensues. Seeing you shake your little groove thang is adorable! You also got an electric guitar from Santa for Christmas, and love to walk around the house playing it and dancing.

We went to a new church last Sunday (The Village) and you did GREAT in the nursery! There were no tears at all when we dropped you off, and when we came to pick you up, you were playing sweetly with a little girl. The last several times we’d dropped you off at Fellowship, there were lots of tears, and most times it was apparent you had cried some during the service as well. This would always break my heart, and made it hard to drop you off, knowing that you were sad, so we are hopeful that we’ve found a good church to begin going to. I’ve been listening to Matt Chandler (Pastor at The Village) for months online, and have wanted to try out the church, but for one reason or another we never did. Your dad and I both enjoyed the service, but it was very different from Fellowship, so we will give it some time before we make a permanent switch I think. Knowing that you are happy, makes us happy though, that’s for sure!

Grayer, you are such a blessing in our lives. Watching you grow from a baby to a toddler has brought us so much joy, and we are so thankful that you were entrusted to us. Your sweet spirit and exuberance for life teach us daily, and we are so excited to be on this journey of parenthood. We love you sweet munchie-moo!