Party time

We have lots to celebrate today! 8 years ago, Aaron and I casually started dating. We didn't know our path would eventually become so serious, so we never paid any mind to our first date. Thus, we arbitrarily picked a day that we thought was close to it. That date was today, Sept 29. (Though my Timehop from a few days ago included a message where Aaron was calling me darling, so we may be off a few days). 

This date also happens to be my mother-in-laws birthday. She got to spend this past weekend with her grand baby Max, and will get to spend this weekend with her other grand baby, Avett... So we are not just wishing her a happy birthday but a happy birthweek! We are looking forward to celebrating with you!

And finally, the 29th of this month makes Avett 17 months old! Man, how different he is this month compared to last. And in comparison to most months, he is a bit more particular (to say it nicely). This kid knows how to throw some mega tantrums, on the daily. And every day, Aaron and I talk about how dreadful his terrible twos will be. His list of dislikes is growing. He continues to dislike the bath...though I am starting to figure out distractors that are helpful (fruit snacks and cars). He is now a very picky eater. He basically only eats oatmeal, PB&J sandwiches, fruit, fruit snacks, Cheerios and Mac n Cheese. Anything else that you try to feed him will send him into a tailspin of big crocodile tears and a lot of head thrusting and slamming. It's beyond frustrating! Along those lines, he hates sitting in his high chair. He will squirm and twist and thrust his body so that it makes it impossible to get him in there. And once you do, there's a full on melt down (which makes it even easier ;-) to feed him anything). He does not like being denied ice cream or cookies when he sees one of the adults eating it, and he hates being told he cannot watch cars. 

He does have lots of things that he likes though. It's no surprise that he's a big car fanatic! Obviously he's crazy about the movie (The original and Cars 2). He has tons of little matchbox cars and cars from the movie. He loves to hold two of them in each hand (this goes back to an earlier milestone where he felt very proud of himself for holding onto two things with one hand). He likes to drive them on the floor, window, couch and coffee table. He usually holds them very delicately from behind, not like your usual grasp around the center of the car. He is starting to make car noises when he drives them. He also likes to line them up and send them flying all at once. He kinda likes to line anything up that he can get standing and then run through with his hands waving all crazy to knock them over. He is really into reading books again, especially books with flaps or books about cars. He has a particular animal book in his bedroom that he likes to read and he has a special place in his heart for Nancy Tilman books. There is a picture of a whale in his bedroom that he likes to wave to and he still likes to stop and say Hi to Frank (Frankenstein) on the window at the top of the stairs. He loves wearing his baseball cap, and pushing his lawn mower. He will now gesture for you to get him his hat and that means he's ready to go outside. He likes eating frozen grapes when he's teething and likes drinking water out of cups and water bottles. He loves to brush his teeth! And do not ever forget how much he loves his blanket and sucking on that left thumb. Some things never change.

Development: Avett has 9 teeth, I think. (He doesn't enjoy you looking in his mouth). He got his first molar on the lower left side, he has those two "fang teeth" (I think they're actually called incisors) that are just poking through on top. He has two others on the bottom just outside of the center two. He has done a lot of teeth growing and has a lot more ready to come bursting through. I'm hoping that this is the main reason for the tantrums and picky-eater spells, and that once all of his teeth have arrived he'll go back to being my easy going baby. He "walks" up the stairs now without really needing my help, and has finally learned how to go down them on his butt. He still needs help with this because otherwise he sails down them like he's on a sled. I'm not sure if this was the right way to teach him, or if I should have taught him to crawl backwards... But I do know it's better than his attempts to walk down. He can climb on and off the couch on his own. He can climb his way out of the crib. He runs. He still likes walking and bouncing on his tip toes. He is very ticklish all over: chin, armpits, belly, knees and those chunky thighs!!! He learned to play "ready, set, go!......stop!" when we're on walks. He started using the tray on his stroller to hold his water, pick up his Cheerios, and drive his cars on. He is wearing size four and five shoes (five only because I can never find size four). He is starting to figure out how to put shapes inside of the matching holes in his toy. He doesn't have any new words but he is making new sounds and doing some conversational babble...he also likes reading his books out loud to himself (it's very cute). He doesn't say yes, but if you ask him a yes/no question and it's something that he wants to do he will do a little happy dance. Our favorite new thing he does is roll his eyes. It's very goofy. And mom gave him his third hair cut (mom's second time...needs some practice).