Two years ago I was newly pregnant, very freaked out but also hoping that I was on the verge of something awesome.
Boy, was I.
Today, Owl is 16 months old.
I’ve never been big on toddlers. Little babies are good because they’re so simple to interact with. Hugs and tickles = good. The end. Kids are fun, too, because you can play imaginative games and read stories with them and listen to their peculiar world views.
But toddlers are just sort of… in between. Especially the 1-2 year old set. They LOOK like little people. They walk like little people. They have strong opinions like little people. But really… they’re babies. They can’t have a conversation with you, they don’t understand English all that well, and they certainly have no capacity for reason.
And they always seem to have baked beans on their face.
So I always saw the toddler stage as something I would just suffer through.
But actually? It’s been SO MUCH FUN.
Watching Owl’s language capacity expanding day by day is frigging awesome. Before you have kids, you wonder how someone can get so excited just because their child learned where his own nose is. But when you realize that you MADE something that can identify the location of its own nose, you can’t help but get really excited.
Especially when you remember the days when this self same person couldn’t even hold up his own head.
It’s hard to keep track of language milestones when you’re doing baby sign language, because it isn’t mainstream enough to provide a large enough statistical pool.
That being said, I think that Owl is about average for his age. When it comes to actual spoken words, he says “mama”, “dada”, “da” (which means dog, cat, duck, and several other things), “nana” (meaning my mother or a banana), “brr” (meaning book or bear or bird or boat), “ho” (horse), “ball”, “down”, “uh” (up), a strangled “ggraaghhh” which is his attempt at “cracker”, “uh-oh”, and today he developed “awa” (whale or water).
But when you add in his signs, his vocabulary is much larger. It is thanks to the signs that we know the difference between dog, cat, and duck, or between bird, book, bear, and boat. The vast majority of his words are beyond his sad little attempts at pronunciation. We find it hard to keep up with him, but we estimate his total vocabulary to be around 40-50 words.
Sounds impressive, but really, since he only has 8 or 9 spoken words, I think he’s bang on average for his age.
It’s still fun to watch. He is hungry for words and will turn through a book obsessively, identifying nouns, and studying us closely when we show him a new sign.
Do you mind? My book and I are having a private moment.
In fact, he largely ignores all other toys, choosing instead to identify things in his books again and again and AGAIN.
His walking is pretty good now, and he’s almost running. He does a funny little waddle run, which is usually ended by a tumble and a little voice going “uh-oh…”
This seems totally safe to run on!
He’s just full of giggles and silliness (my in-laws complimented us on his “advanced” sense of humor. Not sure what that means considering that he still thinks that being dangled upside down is the height of comedy, closely followed by me pretending to be scared of him).
Daycare Lady still praises his easy going and cheerful nature, which should be hilarious to anyone who remembers his newborn days.
I’m not sure I’d really call Owl easy going. He’s… INTENSE. When he’s happy, he’s very, very happy. When he’s upset, he’s VERY LOUD ABOUT IT. Thankfully he is confidant and generally disposed to be happy most of the time.
The only thing that he really has tantrums about is nursing.
He is still a savage nurser, insisting on milk constantly when I’m around, although he happily goes all day without it at daycare. If milk isn’t delivered the second he starts signing ‘MILK, PLEASE, PLEASE, MILK, MILK, PLEASE?” he starts to freak out – getting clingy and whiny and then I need to talk him into a calm state before I will actually let him nurse.
If I’m holding him and he wants to nurse but I need to put him down so I can, say, take off my coat to expose my boobas, he pulls his legs up to his belly and clings to me like some kind of simian.
He’s a little crazy about the boobas.
I know that if I cut out all nighttime nursing he’d probably be sleeping through the night – we cut down to just one nursing at 3-4 AM and he started sleeping from bed time (the earliest we seem able to get him down is 8:30 pm, which seems late, but he JUST WON’T GO DOWN earlier) until that early morning nurse.
The last few days that seems to have gone to hell, but I think he’s teething again.
I should probably work on getting him off of that 3 AM nursing session, and then I’d have a baby who sleeps through the night, probably, most nights. Some nights any way.
But it’s so hard to stay conscious long enough to put him back down any other way. This is my failing, not his.
The nursing demands cause so many problems that I think I would consider weaning if it weren’t for two things:
1) Clearly he’s not ready to wean, and I can’t imagine what forcing him away from the booba would be like. VERY LOUD, no doubt.
2) He’s still tiny. He’s 9.5 kg, according to the scale at daycare, and that’s in light clothing, including his cloth diaper. Now, he hasn’t dropped his percentiles much (for a while there he slipped down to, like, the 9th percentile, but as you folks predicted, he has regained that lost weight.) but still – he’s wee.
I’m okay with his teenyness, but right now the last thing PH and I want to do is deprive him of any possible extra calories because clearly he needs them. His enthusiasm for food rivals the average Labrador Retriever.
Last month Daycare Lady handed him a piece of cheese, and he was so excited that he fell right out of his chair and knocked his face on the side of the table. He then screamed until he ran out of air and contiued to scream silently for a while BUT NEVER ONCE RELINQUISHED HIS HOLD ON THE CHEESE. He then proceeded to continue to cry for the next 5 or 10 minutes – a long time, for him – WHILE DEVOURING THE CHEESE.
No, I don't beat my baby. There was just an incident with some cheese.
Today I fed Owl several mandarin oranges, some waffle, some crackers, and then two bowls of spaghetti with meat sauce and cheese. Then we want to a friend’s house where he spent the next THREE HOURS eating grapes, strawberries, nuts, pretzels, carrots, brocolli, and more NON-STOP.
This is NORMAL for him, and still you can see the knobs on his spine when he bends over.
Wee Owl
In fact, since we’re afraid that giving him cow’s milk will bring back the diarrhea, and since I can never seem to pump more than two or three ounces in a day, we’re seriously talking about buying him some formula for daycare, because I have forbidden juice, and water just doesn’t have enough calories.
We have to keep up his calories, because clearly he’s burning them somewhere.
Either that or he has a tapeworm.
I wish I had this problem.
If By Yes 
Owl continues to delight me with his adorableness. I love this age! Yesterday, I got so excited because Lil Sis said “tickle” and “moo” (though not in the same “conversation”, as hilarious as that would be). She is also doing the zombie lurch all over the house and trying to eat everything in sight (Triscuits are her crack, apparently). I forgot how much fun toddlers can be, and I’m trying to soak it all up as she’s my last baby.
Zombie lurch – perfect description!
The stage that Owl is in now is my favorite stage. They’re like drunken Ewoks, and it is so cute and awesome.
Drunken Ewoks – also an awesome description.
I remember my sister telling me that it wasn’t the “terrible twos”, it was that year from one to two. It’s adorable, yes, but they have NO SENSE!
Weaning’s hard. I didn’t stop nursing until she turned three, but I did cut out that middle of the night thing. It was hard – for about a week, I’d have to go into her room and cuddle her without caving in to the breast. Hard, really hard. But she got it and then, huzzah! She slept through the night.
I am positive that our sleep issues with Owl would be over if we bit the bullet and weaned him for good off of night nursing. If only we could find the stamina…!
Oh, now I have sad. I’m in the same sort of breastfeeding situation as you, but my little one is resolutely avoiding picking up any spoken words. Or signs. He doesn’t even say Mama. He can just wave goodbye, and sign the “around and around” motion for ceiling fan (or helicopter). *sigh* *thinks I must be doing it wrong*
Megan, how old is your little one? Is it possible he has a hearing issue? My little guy is two and three months, and has been behind in his speech since he was a year old. I had him tested at 18 months and found out that he qualified for speech therapy. Since then, while we’ve been waiting to get into the public (i.e., free) program, we found out he is a bit hard of hearing and needs tubes in his ears. He’s been making great progress with private speech therapy in the past three months, though!
Just to give you hope, and also as a reminder to keep an eye on it. Trust your instincts, and if you think he’s behind, talk to your doctor. Sometimes kids just are a bit behind for no reason and it will sort itself out, but other times, they need a little help. It’s totally NOT because you’re doing anything wrong. *hugs*
I wouldn’t worry yet, Megan. Keep in mind that Owl wasn’t even saying “Mama” when he turned 13 months old. All of this came in a rush after he mastered walking. I think I just had to wait for him to turn his attention to language. Maybe yours is just focused on other things.
As Kerry says, keep an eye on it. But don’t worry yet.
My public health nurse gave me an assessment sheet – apparently all the public health nurses have him – that you can score your baby on to see if you should be worried or not.
Thanks guys! Yesterday was one of those days where everything was a bit much (not helped by a night of sleep deprivation), I’m usually a little more positive. He’s 16 months as well – and I don’t _think_ he has a hearing issue, I suspect language acquisition may just be one of those things that will take longer for him – but I’ll definitely quiz the doctor and public health nurse if nothing’s changed when I take him in for 18 month appointments. And I’m going to start working harder at signing.
He’s definitely learning new tricks at least – he’s now great at getting us to do things by pulling us around by the finger, and moving our hands in the directions he wants to go (or towards the button he wants us to press).
Now thinking about trying this Dr. Jay Gordon method. We’ve been contemplating having a second, but until I start breastfeeding a little less, it won’t even be possible!
Yay for a great vocabulary and finding his own nose!
I have a wee little boob-addict, too. (11.5 kg at 27 months. Eek!) My intention was to nurse until he finished teething, since they’re so needy at those times, and play it by ear from there. I figured it would gradually drop off on its own. Unfortunately, he seems to need it now more than ever. I’m not sure if it’s because of his on-going ear problems or what, but he really doesn’t seem to associate it with food and drink since he’ll immediately ask for it RIGHT after a meal. It’s about comfort, for sure. Like you I’m concerned about his weight and want to make sure he gets all the calories he can, so there’s also that. Unlike Owl, he’s actually quite a bad eater: picky and doesn’t eat much, either. It’s a struggle!
I’m supposed to be going away for several days in March, so I’m starting to panic a bit about getting him weaned by then. He can manage all day without it, but the nights are a big problem. He can’t seem to STAY asleep without nursing. It’s a real pickle, all ’round.
Anyway, good luck to you!! The only way I got Liam weaned was to get pregnant again, so there’s always that… 😛
Yes, teaching Owl to sleep without booba is a challenge!
We tried the Dr Jay Gordon method a while ago (post coming on that) and it worked pretty well.
http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html
Problem is he immediately got sick JUST as he started sleeping through the night, and that 3 am nursing crept back in!
Thanks for the link! I await your post with great interest. When the Boy turns a year old (less than a month!) I am totally doing this.
I tried Dr. Jay Gordon’s method with Liam when he was about fifteen months old. It was starting to work, and then Chris’s mom came for a visit and I didn’t want to disturb their sleep (he was still crying), so we put it on hold. Then he was teething again, then when I tried again, it was a no-go. So, it never happened. That’s why I decided to wait till teething was over this time, but then there’s all these illnesses.
Ugh. It never seems like a good time!
I know – as soon as we get him to sleep through the night, he gets sick and it all goes to hell.
Don’t you wish they came with a manual sometimes?
“This model will not sleep through the night until 29 months, 2 weeks, and five days. Don’t even bother trying before then.”
“Baby will get cold virus two days before first birthday. Wait until healthy before commencing night weaning program.”
“He won’t walk until he’s fourteen months old. Deal with it!”
And so on. It would take so much of the stress off!
That method sounds a lot like the Sleep Lady method I used for my first (only we weren’t in a family bed / extended breastfeeding situation so the baseline assumptions were a bit different). But it was the same idea; gradually and gently decreasing the amount of reward for night wakings over a period of a couple of weeks. It certainly worked for us.
It is very much like the No Cry Sleep Solution – just in a much shorter time frame, and therefore with more fussing. Of course, that’s why he recommends it for 12 months plus – I don’t mind Owl doing some fussing now as long as I am in the room and he knows I care.
I just care about sleep MORE.
G’Day! Ifbyyes,
Very interesting, I suppose my small boy will probably have interest deficeit disorder. He is now 1/two and does not discuss in complete sentences. He may make noises and talking sounds. He has about a data of about fifty-sixty phrases. He also is quite hyperactive and can barely focus on one particular thing at a time. He is a evening owl who frequently stays awake till the wee hrs of the early morning.
He has been tested by his college district and they have seen that he is at the intellectual and social degree of a 22 month aged. This has me very apprehensive and I am just a anxious wreck.
All the Best
Holy cuteness in a box!
Nothing wrong with adding in the formula for added calories. My Girly was less than 5th percentile for a loooonnnng time. She’s just built like a stick. I gave her whole milk way past the recommended cut off in an attempt to bulk her up a bit.
Good call!
I have the opposite problem! RuRu is 8 months and bigger than Owl… it’s getting challenging to carry him. I’m going to have to switch him to carrying on my back.
I nursed Thing One until 15 months and for some reason thought that the middle of the night feeding would be easier to wean than the going-to-sleep feeding, so I cut the mid-night one out first. But then she refused to nurse at bedtime, so that was that. I felt cheated b/c I didn’t technically know that the last time she nursed WAS the last time.
Then I nursed Thing Two for 24 months. I had gradually cut her back to twice a day. The day after her second birthday she wanted to nurse in the morning and I told her, “mommy doesn’t have milk after the baby turns two,” and she started to cry, but then she had hot cocoa and Doritos for breakfast and all was well for a while. Now at age six she still says she remembers “nurse nurse” and that she loved it so much.