Update on our little man

Since my last post, I have been toying with the idea of shutting my blog down. Being a working mum to a growing, active toddler is really leaving me very little time these days. And I feel like you have reached most of your huge milestones now, which is leaving me less to report on. However, I still feel the pull to write on occasion. And even though you have reached your major milestones, you are still learning and growing every day. And there are still new things to report.

We're not sure why, but for the past week you have become an eating machine. It's like you have discovered you love food all of a sudden. In fact, I can't even keep up with the snacks fast enough. It could be a phase- or we're wondering if you are eating out of boredom. Hopefully, it is not the latter. But we are grateful that you don't seem to be an overly picky eater. I cook one meal and we all eat it together. So far, you have tried tons of stuff that I cook. By far, your favorite is noodles or pasta. You never seem to tire of this. And because of your latest obsession with food, you are also obsessed with our fridge. You want to look in our fridge about every half hour. We don't know if it's because you are hungry or just nosy. But you like for us to open it so you can touch everything inside, and pull things out. And yes, you have broken a few eggs doing this.

We're still waiting for this burst of dialogue that we know you are going to have one day. You are definitely more animated lately, using tons of gestures and facial expressions. And it really does seem like you are trying to talk to us. You go into long explanations of things, as if you are telling us a story. But it's still a bit of gibberish. Lately, I have been trying to coax you into talking more and using words to get across what you want, instead of grunting and pointing to things. But you will have moments where you surprise us, and a spew of words come out. Last week, you said 'mu...goo mor!' Translation- 'mum, good morning!' And while I say that you still speak gibberish, I should acknowledge and give you credit for words you DO say. You say 'da' for dad, 'mu' for mom, 'bye', 'hi', 'good', 'ya' and your favorite word 'ban'. You say 'ban' to everything. Thankfully, you haven't said 'no' yet. But you still shake your head vigorously when you mean 'no'.

Even though your verbal language is limited, you DO understand and comprehend A LOT. Definitely a lot more than we thought. We can talk to you normally and even though you can't respond back, you do know what we are saying. We can see the comprehension on your face. And when we ask you to do something such as "Griffin, go get your toothbrush", you will run and get it.

You are almost an expert walker. In fact, you are quite close to running. Actually, in our apartment you do run. You especially love to run around naked after your bath. I guess it must be very 'free-ing' for you, to be naked. But as soon as you've been towelled dry, you take off and we have to try and catch you. But you haven't run outside yet. This past weekend, we took you to Jericho and let you walk on your own. You LOVED it. You loved looking at the ocean, walking on the seawall alongside us and independently. It is really a preview of what is to come in the spring/summer and how much insane fun we are going to have with you outside. I am quite impressed by your physical abilities. It makes me feel that perhaps, you will excel in sports when you are older.

You are a very sweet child, but I can't get over how cheeky you are. You really like to test us. If we don't want you to do something, you will do it anyways. You have no fear of us at all. In fact, you find it quite funny when we try to discipline you. If I say 'Griffin, don't draw on our couch'...you will look at me, draw on the couch, laugh and run away. If we try to discipline you, you have begun to throw tantrums. Your idea of a mini tantrum is throwing your toys around in anger. And maybe I shouldn't say this, but I find your mini tantrums to be quite cute. Of course, once they become full blown (which I am praying they won't), I'm sure I won't find them cute anymore!

Your other obsession is The Wiggles. You love listening to their cd, and you love watching them. You dance to all of their songs. We listen to The Wiggles so often that both Daddy and I wake up with a Wiggles song in our head. And then we have the same song in our head all day and we go to bed with it too. It has come to a point that I don't even mind them! And Daddy and I are starting to know all of their songs by heart. I wonder if your music classes has taught you to appreciate music more.

In about a month and a half's time, you will be a year and a half. I like looking at other kids that are around that age, or around two years old. I am curious to see how you will be when you get to that age, and what you will have accomplished by then. Right now, every day is a new learning experience.