Knowledge, Sleep, Easter eggs, Pushin' a truck, (not) Walking

If I could only share one aspect of what is normal for Jonah right now, it would be how much I feel like his knowledge is exploding. He still asks "washish?" about many things. The obvious connections he is making astound me. Again, I know this is normal, almost all babies do it, and if he were an adult learning the same information, no one would be impressed. I've said it before, but it is the fact that I am watching the learning happen that amazes me. One day he might not know what a closet is called, and the next day he will point to his closet when I say the word. There are so many objects that he has learned recently. Maybe he's known them for a while and is only now able to express his knowledge through pointing. I love that he is soaking up his world!

In regards to his crazy (not) sleeping that has been going on for 4 weeks, it's still happening. He has been going to sleep for naps more easily the past few days. But he's still not sleeping well at night, waking up 2-3 times and taking an hour-ish to get back to sleep, with lots of help. We're almost done weaning, and I'm hoping (perhaps for no good reason) that it will get better when we're done in a week or two. He has been really cute lately snuggling his bear when we're trying to put him to sleep. I don't know if it helps him sleep, but it's adorable. He's still clingy with me during the day, though maybe not quite as bad. It's difficult to get ready in the morning when he won't let me out of his sight or sometimes out of his reach.

We pulled our Easter eggs out a week ago and Jonah was instantly intrigued by them. He has loved playing with them, and is able to find them when Peter hides them. He also "hides" them himself sometimes, putting them in random places. Speaking of hiding, the other night he hid some of his corn in his high chair. He likes corn, but I think he had had enough on that occasion, and I watched him stuff it down in his high chair. It was hilarious.

One of Jonah's current favorite activities is to push vehicles around. It started with his concrete truck. He crawls around on the floor, holding the truck with one hand, pushing it along so that it is facing him (so the truck is going backwards). He pushes it back and forth across the house. He has even figured out to "steer" it by redirecting it before it runs into something. He has branched out and started doing this with a recycling truck and a small truck known as "Mark's truck." I believe I have seen him do it with a school bus too. He is very focused when he does this, clearly on a mission. Maybe he is concentrating on not falling down, because I would think it would be difficult to crawl while holding onto something with wheels.

Lastly, Jonah still doesn't seem interested in walking on his own. He is a pro at walking while holding our hands/fingers, and has taken a couple more steps on his own this week, but mostly he seems content not to be more independent than that. He can get anywhere he needs to by crawling, so he just doesn't have much incentive to walk. I know it will come eventually though and I'm not worried about it. For now, I have fun trying to get him to walk to me because he laughs at me when I try.

New normal, Cows, Biting, Washish, Repetition

Unfortunately Jonah's "normal" of last week has stuck around. He got over his fever from last weekend, isn't quite as cranky, and is eating better. However, he's still very clingy making it difficult to get much done and he's not sleeping well. Oh, how I miss the days of reading to him, singing to him, and laying him down in his crib, letting him drift off to sleep on his own. He has not done that in two weeks. He is fighting sleep like a champ. He only falls asleep breastfeeding or in our arms. Even if he's been asleep in our arms for 10 minutes, when we try to put him in the crib, he knows. He arches his back, kicks his legs, and starts screaming. Then we have to start the process over. He has been waking up in the middle of the night around midnight and staying awake for 1-2 hours, while we try to put him back to sleep. This is not a good long-term situation. I keep thinking it has to get better soon, but it really has become his new normal. I know that he's still teething, and may be mad about being weaned, and probably has a cold, but I don't think that warrants being awake for that long in the middle of the night. Luckily, he mostly sleeps pretty well after that, going 5-6 hours without waking up. When I write about this, it feels like I should be writing about a newborn, not an almost-14-month-old. He should be able to sleep through the night. I'm not exactly sure what went wrong and I don't know how to fix it. But I do know that it will stop at some point. He's not going to be 15 years old and still waking up for an hour in the middle of the night, insisting that we help him get back to sleep.

Jonah likes cows. I don't know if it's because cows are one of the first animals he learned, but he really does seem to be interested in them. I don't think he's seen a live cow since he has learned to say "mmm," but he moos at the cows in the Baby Einstein DVD, and when he sees them in his book. I think it's funny.

A habit that I wish were not normal is biting. Jonah has begun to bite (hard) both when he is mad and when he is excited. He has left teeth marks on our arms, legs, necks, whatever he can get to. And it hurts! This must be innate, because he's never seen or felt anyone bite. We consistently tell him "no biting," so hopefully it won't be normal for too long.

My favorite new "trick" is when Jonah says "What's this?" It sounds more like "washish?" but I'm 97% sure that he is asking what objects are called. He started a few days ago and has gotten into a routine while I change his diaper. He goes from object to object, pointing and saying "washish" to the monkey on his wall, the leaves on his changing table, the cow on his dresser, the bush on the side of his dresser, and (recently added) the smoke detector on his wall. He varies it and points to them in a different order each time, sometimes pointing to the same one over and over. He's very emphatic with his pointing, and really seems to enjoy this game. He also does it in the middle of the night with the things closer to the glider chair where we sit with him.

Jonah is definitely liking repetition. He does it with asking what things are called, as well as with books. He has me read the same book over and over and doesn't get bored. The other day, he handed me "The Foot Book" and sat while I read it. I gave it back to him and he handed it right back to me, making a noise that indicated he wanted me to read it again. We must have repeated this 10 or 15 times before he moved on to something else.