18 Months and 8 Days

It's official:  Shav has hit the 18-months-and-8-days mark.  What's so special about that, you ask?  Only this:  when Tobin was 18 months and 8 days, Shav was born; and so, if we had repeated the pattern, I would be having a baby today!  Obviously I'm not (and no, I'm not pregnant, for those of you who were wondering about that!).  Although something deep inside me longs to once again bring forth life from my womb, I'm also secretly (or not-so-secretly, now that I've written it here!) relieved that I'm still "just" a mother of four.  Having two babies so close together--close by my standards; I do realize lots of women have babies even closer together than that--was quite the s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g experience for me; and I don't mind a bit that here at this 18-months-and-8-days milestone, Shav is still my baby.  :)

These are some of the things that I want to remember about Shav at this stage of life:

~ When I lay him down in his crib, he lifts his chin so I can tuck his blanket under it, then he puts his chin back down to anchor, so to speak, the blanket in place...so sweet!  Or, more commonly these days, he pushes the blankets off, then stands up and holds onto the crib railing to watch me go.

~ He thinks the BEST thing in the world is climbing our steps...at the top, he sits down, turns around, and looks imploringly around for someone to help him back down the steps so he can do it all over again!  Who needs a playground when you've got steps?

~ After his slow (according to "normal" standards) start in the area of large motor skills, he has progressed by leaps and bounds recently, especially in the area of climbing.  It's not only the steps that delight him; he's perfectly happy to climb on anything he can find:  the black bench in our kitchen, the school desk in the living room, the stool in the bathroom, the little desk in Tobin's room, a little rocking chair in the living room, the couch...not to mention, climb on people!  One day recently when I was trying to fold laundry in my room, he pushed a chair over to my bed, climbed up on the chair, from that climbed onto the bed; and I abandoned my laundry-folding project and switched my focus to Operation Keep Shav from Falling off the Bed!  He can climb up on things much better than he can climb down, so he often gets stuck and needs to be rescued.  Besides that, he has no fear or concept of what happens if he, for example, is sitting on the edge of the bed and loses his balance.  Watching him convinces me anew that a little bit of fear is a very healthy thing to have!  :)

~ He's beginning to enjoy the wrestling and roughhousing that is common around here.  Sometimes I have to remind Tobin to take it easy with Shav; but in general the wrestling with Shav is gentle, and he eats it up.  He's starting to make that familiar transition from being attached to Mommy to being enchanted with Daddy, getting so excited when he hears Jeff's Jeep come roaring into the garage in the evening and scooting quickly towards the gate (that blocks the steps to the garage) so that he can greet his daddy.  He's becoming one of the boys, not a baby; and when the after-dinner tickling and wrestling begins, he wants to be in the thick of it.

~ Shav has not been a world-champion sleeper (as I've written about several times in my previous blog:  for example, here); but I have seen steady improvement in that area during the month of January.  I realize that by writing that, I'm guaranteeing that he will wake up tonight since that's the way it always seems to go!  :)  However, I'm going to take the risk because for the sake of my memory in the future, I want to know that by the time he was a year and a half old, he had turned into a pretty good sleeper.  A few weeks ago, he had some interrupted nights, but we were all battling some sickness and I wasn't surprised.  Once in a while, he will wake in the night and need to be soothed; but those random nights now seem to be the exception rather than the norm.  We have a fan in his room that is rather noisy, and I think that helps his sleep.  When I'm sitting in my rocking chair right outside his room late at night, writing on my blog or doing other online activities, I'll hear him stir in his sleep; but usually he settles himself back down without trouble.  I am SO grateful for this development!!!  :)

~ Another wonderful thing about Shav at this stage is that he generally wakes up happy.  It's not uncommon for him to play contentedly in his crib for a little while after waking.  He stands up, looks out the window right by his crib, throws his blankets and stuffed animals out of the crib and watches them land in a heap on the floor, plays with--and breaks--the miniblinds (it's a very good thing they only cost a few dollars because he loves to twist and bend and otherwise mutilate them!).  David and Tobin love to run to Shav's room when he wakes up to play with him--David gets in the crib and Tobin stands on the floor beside it--and Shav is happy to welcome them to his room.

~ One more thing I should mention about sleep issues is related to my query back in December about whether he was having night terrors.  I don't know this for a fact, but I have a strong suspicion that it was not night terrors we were dealing with, but instead was some kind of pain.  My theory was supported by an event that occurred a couple weeks ago:  Shav was playing in Tobin's room and fell fairly hard, hitting his head, I believe...and then he cried...and cried some more...and cried even more.  He hardly knew what to do with himself--one minute holding up his arms to me so I would pick him up (which I did, of course), but after a few seconds, squirming for me to put him down.  He seemed beside himself and would not settle down to receive my comfort.  In other words, he acted just like he had during those nights when I wondered if he was having night terrors.  So that made me suspect that during those spells, he was really dealing with some kind of pain and couldn't express it in any other way than crying inconsolably.  But who knows?  It's still somewhat of a mystery; and if it was pain, what kind of pain?  Head?  Tummy?  At any rate, we seem to have moved past that for which I am very grateful; and even if it does recur, I think I'll have a little better idea how to handle it.

~ He loves to wave bye, and he has such a cute way of doing it.  I love to watch his little hands as he flaps them in the air!  He'll wave to me when I'm out on the porch getting wood for our woodstove, at Grandpa and Grandma as they prepare to go home in the evenings, at cars going by on the road outside our house, at the servers at Golden Corral where we recently ate for Jeff's Family Night, and at anything else that captures his attention.  Before he outgrows this stage, I have got to get a video of him waving.  :)

~ He hasn't taken his first solo steps yet.  He cruises like a pro, and he occasionally crawls on hands and knees or on all fours like a bear; but when he's in a hurry (like when my parents are saying goodnight and going down the hill to their house after supper and he wants to go over to them to get a goodbye hug), he scoots.  :)  I can't think of any good reason to hurry him into taking his first steps, so I just wait patiently, knowing that the day is drawing nearer (and hoping that I'll have my camera ready to take a video when it does happen, just like I did with Tobin!).  :)

~ Shav has become my faithful laundry "helper."  He loves to stand on a stool in front of the washing machine and use my laundry stick (AKA wooden spoon) to poke at the clothes I put in the washer...not that he can really reach them, but as he gets taller, he'll be able to...and when I'm done filling the machine, I lift him up so that he can reach inside better.  I'm a little concerned that he'll lose his balance and fall off the stool and hit his head on the hard cement floor, so I stand right next to him and also pull our hampers over to him so that he's surrounded by soft(er) things if he takes a tumble.  That's only happened once so far; and oddly, it happened at the exact same moment David was falling down the stairs right outside the laundry room door.  I had two crying boys to comfort; but thankfully, neither was seriously injured.  And it didn't stop Shav from being my cheerful laundry helper the next time I was ready to tackle the piles of dirty clothes.

~ When Shav started his recent unauthorized climbing expeditions :), I got out the playpen again so that, when I wasn't available to supervise his exploits, he could play safely in it.  He has done really well with this!  Right now there is a box of blocks in the playpen, a big popcorn tin of cars, and the plastic tool set Tobin got for his birthday.  Shav can entertain himself for quite a long time with those things.  He loves moving objects from one container to another, and I appreciate the fact that he's learning the joy and self-discipline of playing alone (and not needing to be constantly entertained by someone else).  Although, he's not always alone in there.  Frequently, David or Tobin will want to join him in the playpen.  :)

~ Shav loves to watch what his brothers and other people are doing.  Even though he can play by himself like I just mentioned, he also really, really loves being with people and interacting with them...especially his big brothers.  ;-)

~ As far as food, I basically give him whatever we're eating, although if we're having something that he's not very familiar with or that would be hard for him to chew or something like that, I'll add in something for him that's easy.  I'm not even sure of what his favorite foods are because he's usually content to eat the same food as us, but I have noticed that he likes having a bowl and spoon and is getting more skillful with them.  Of course, he still does a lot with finger foods, but at this stage of life, he really seems to enjoy the thrill of a bowl and spoon.  :)

Despite these pictures...

...he doesn't really drink...

...lemon juice!!  ;-)

~ Shav has been in the delightful stage of shaking his head "no" in response to any question.  We've had a lot of fun with this--especially David, who has invented all kinds of silly questions to ask him.  I tried to make a little movie of this the other day, but he didn't cooperate like I wanted him to.  Oh, well, it still holds a memory for me.  :)

~ Shav gives great hugs.  He'll lay his little head down on my left shoulder and put his arms around me.  Makes me melt every single time.  :)

My blogging friend Patti wrote a wonderful post yesterday in honor of her son's fourth birthday, and she ended with words that I'm going to borrow.  After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?  :)  So, in the words of Patti, but applied to my Shav...

I love him so much it aches.  What joy to have a son.