Big-Huge successes!

Andrei has FINALLY begun taking naps on a consistent basis over the course of the last week and a half. He really hasn't been consistent since we left Krasnoyarsk, and he is so much more of a joy to be around when he's rested. He's in that difficult in between stage now of sometimes 2 naps are too much and 1 nap is not enough, but AT LEAST HE'S NAPPING! 60+ days without any type of consistency of day time sleeping for a 14 month old wears thin in a hurry. He's been taking two 1 1/2 naps or a 2-2 1/2 hour single nap these days. HALLELUJAH!

I had asked God for a laid back child--a phlegmatic. I don't have much experience with this personality type as I'm not one, Doug isn't one, Annsley isn't one, and the world knows Kennedi isn't one either, but I knew in order for me to survive I couldn't entertain a demanding child. One of my friends from high school who has a baby girl Andrei's age thinks that it just God being nice to us "older" folks. What ever it is, I'll take it. That being said, I'm starting to think Andrei is really going to need to work on the "git" in his git-along. Point one: The boy can stand without holding on to anything for a good 5-10 seconds. Does he try to take a step? No. We try to coax him to take a step to one of us, and he just grins, drops to his knees, and speed crawls to us. I've never seen anyone crawl so fast in all my life. I wish there was a Toddler Crawl Race somewhere. He'd clean up. Point two: I decided last week that he should really be moving past the pureed stage of mom feeding him and on to feeding himself. Yes, pureed food is easy, not messy, and probably it's number one selling point...it's fast. But toddlerhood is calling. I tried hard to think back how I transitioned the girls to finger foods, and I kept drawing a big blank, so I came to the conclusion that it must have not been a big deal. I figured the same with Andrei. After all, he handles the Puffs, potting soil, and rocks from the yard with ease.

The boy just sat there. Literally. Didn't put his hands on his food--nothing. Five quiet minutes went by. I picked up a piece of carrot and tried to put it in his mouth. He just pressed his lips together. I tried having him pick up a piece with his hand, but again he just pressed his lips together. I gave him a spoon. He just pulverized his food with it. I finally got out a spoon and offered the carrot in the spoon. Ahhh....success! Yes, he was waiting for me to feed him, and he was ready to refuse to eat otherwise. Unfortunately, I'm as stubborn as he is, and after basically skipping his lunch in lieu of waiting for me to feed him, he wiped his tray clean at snack time of cut up cheese, toast, and yes, those carrots all by his little ole self. It's taken about 5 days, but he is finally feeding himself for the most part of the day. He's still getting Mom to feed him his cereal because I load it with all sorts of vitamins and other stuff that most adults would turn their noses up and his yogurt because I mix fruit with it to make sure he gets some kind of fruit every day. He gets broccoli/avocodo fed by me once a day to make sure he's getting his greens, but other than that, he's taking care of his own business which also means I'm having to clean the high chair after he's used it. (One more caveat of me feeding him pureed food....) He's even taken to eating Yogurt Melts now, something that he has adamantly refused for two months.

His favorite finger food so far? Hands down a Tyson frozen chicken nugget. He scarfs those things like there is no tomorrow. I'm not too crazy about some kind of processed food being his "go to" meal, but at least bananas seem to be pretty cool too. Can a toddler live on those two things? He did, however, have about 5 pieces of his peach at lunch today, so maybe he's starting to branch out and enjoy the array of fine food his mother prepares for him daily!