13 Months

I skipped Oliver's 12 month update. Things were so crazy with his birthday party and with family in town, but, besides, his growth and development is starting to become less drastic. It makes sense to update his progress every few months instead of every month at this point.

Oliver's getting really good at stacking multiple objects. Instead of just taking games and DVDs down from the shelves, he now puts them back (sometimes). He puts them back by stacking them up. He also stacks the rings of his stack-tower (but not on the pole yet). Finally, he sometimes even puts Duplos and Mega Blocks together (but not all the time, as he sometimes puts the wrong sides together), and likes to pull them apart as well.

His favorite past time is climbing up and down the stairs repeatedly. He probably spends two hours a day going up and down, and so I'm also spending two hours a day going up and down stairs.

Oliver also adores playing peek-a-boo. He loves to duck behind the table and pop up to hear us yell, "Peek-a-boo!" My favorite is when he does it behind the glass table at my parents' house. He delights in us hiding behind corners and jumping out while yelling, "Boo!"

His behavior and sleeping habits are improving drastically as well. Oliver slept last night from 7:30pm to 5am. I nursed him, and then he went back to sleep until 6:45am. He's usually napping once a day right now (for about an hour to an hour and a half), although he's sometimes tired enough for two naps. For the first time ever, we're not walking him to sleep for his naps. We wait until he's very tired, and then we take him upstairs, lay him down on his mattress, tuck him in, and then lay next to him while singing the alphabet song. He goes to sleep in about 2-3 minutes.

Tantrums are not much less frequent. Oliver has 1-2 tantrums a day, which is a large improvement on the day-long tantrums we experienced a few weeks ago! I have a feeling tantrums will be a regular occurance for another year, but it's nice that they're not all the time.

He's eating extremely well. He loves to eat Cheerios, banana pieces, orange pieces, and turkey dog slices. He eats baby food sometimes, since we have so much from WIC. He also eats pieces of whatever we're eating at dinner time. Some of his favorites are tomatoes and rice. He likes to eat pasta noodle slices by sticking his finger in the hole first... it's very cute.

We've also started letting him watch some music videos on occasion. He really loves watching "Baby Beluga" and "Mr. Sun" on youtube.com. We were really against using TV has a means to keep him entertained, and while I'm not proud of it, I've also found that I can quick pop on a video and get dinner prepped. I guess the easy way wins sometimes!

Oliver is doing better with other people. He still hates being held by other people if I am around, but, in general, he's more accepting of others. Family has even been able to babysit on occasion, which allowed for Andrew and me to go out with friends to celebrate my birthday this past weekend. I'm hoping we can get a date in sometime this month again, too (especially considering I have a coupon for a free movie!).

In regards to big milestones, Oliver has (sort of) begun speaking. He constantly says, "mah," (more) when he wants something. He sometimes tries to say "boop" (our word for "poop") when I change his diaper, and when he's upset and wants me, he says, "Muuuuuum." He has not started walking yet, although he's getting very mobile on his feet. He cruises along the cabinets and the fridge, and in order to get from one side of the kitchen to the other, he'll grab our pants and walk across. He also likes using the push-walker from Stasa. We leave it next to objects like the coffee table so he can push up and grab on to the walker. Sometimes, if we're busy, he'll surprise us by walking by. It's so cute! He won't even try to let go to walk, though, and he also still won't let go (on purpose) while standing.

Currently, he's nursing 2-4 times a day. Sometimes, he skips his 5am feeding. On occasion, he'll skip his afternoon feeding. Still other times, he nurses at 5am and then insists on nursing again at 10am and 4pm and then again before bed time.

To end Oliver's 13-month post, here's a list of his likes and dislikes:

Likes:
The dryer
The fridge
The microwave
Climbing the stairs
Playing peek-a-boo
Crawling around naked
Pulling down and then re-stacking the DVDs and video games
Pointing at objects to learn their names
Light switches
Toilets and toilet screw caps
Water
Bananas
Watching videos like "Mr. Sun" and "Baby Beluga"
Mom
Dad
Milk (even cow's milk)
Getting his jacket put on (he knows it means we're going somewhere)
Trying to brush his own hair
Playing with Dad's shoes
Playing with blocks with Dad
Looking at photos in books (but he doesn't like the illustrations as much at the moment)
Doing the dishes with Mom
Folding laundry with Mom

Dislikes:
Being told "no" (he gives the lip)
Having the door to the dishwasher closed
Being put down
Hats
Sleeves and collars on shirts