Alex is not just walking a little bit, he's just about mastered it. To hear Steve talk, when Alex & Ethan are playing and he gets excited, Alex will even run across the floor. He still wobbles a little but for the most part, he has mastered it and I think he's a couple weeks ahead of schedule as Ethan wasn't to this stage until our first wedding anniversary which was 3 weeks shy of Ethan's 1st birthday (and we're currently about 5 weeks out from Alex's 1 year mark). Then again, Ethan wasn't really trying to catch anyone. Alex is constantly trying to catch his brother and do exactly what he's doing.
Alex often wakes up before Ethan in the mornings so I'll get him up and bring him to our bed. On a weekday, I make him another bottle and give him to Steve who, on a good day, gets him back to sleep until Ethan wakes up on his own. On weekends, he tends not to want to go back to sleep (maybe cause Mama is still home so he knows it's the "play" day). However, it's not me or Steve that he wants to talk to and play with. Nope - that was when he was still a baby...now that he's toddling around, he spends those wee morning hours looking for his brother. We'll lay him down and try to coax him into sleeping and he'll pop back up and gurgle around and keep checking the door. He's totally looking for his brother. When Ethan does wander in (it's almost like Alex telepathically calls him to the room cause he's not all that loud), Alex instantly starts laughing and smiling. Ethan crawls in and Alex is all over him. For the rest of the day, Alex wants to do everything with his brother.
I am always cold so I have an extra comforter downstairs that is referred to as "Mama's blanket." Not sure if it's because it has my scent on it or because he likes the feel of it, but Alex loves to play in and around this comforter. A couple of nights ago, Alex and Ethan were taking turns rolling around in it and covering each other up and playing peak-a-boo. It was the cutest thing. They play really well together like that.
Tonight when Steve was getting ready for work, Ethan came up to take a shower, too, and then take a bubble bath. So I had what I thought would be quality time with Alex. I say "thought" because he had other plans...he would let me hold and cuddle and kiss him for about 30 seconds at a time then he'd be down and toddling across the floor to find something more interesting. So I started reading the mail. We had cookies for dessert tonight and Ethan had dropped a piece of his chocolate chip cookie which I'd set on the toy box for him to eat when he came back down. I failed to notice that's exactly where Alex found it - Alex, who isn't allowed to have chocolate just yet. He didn't seem to mind that he wasn't supposed to have it. He came and sort of plopped on me with the paci in one had, chewing with chocolate all over his mouth. I looked and sure enough, the cookie was gone...I told him how rotten he was and he just popped the paci back in grinning. As "punishment" for eating the chocolate chip cookie, he let me cuddle and kiss and have my quality time for about 3 minutes...then back to the floor.
It was almost 6:30 which is Alex's normal 30 minute nap time - one last boost of energy to get him through till bedtime. So now he's down on the floor and he looked like he was looking for something. He was; he was trying to find just the right angle to pull the blanket and get it off me completely so he could curl up in it. I had been on the couch and what I didn't realize is that he had already positioned a little pillow right beside the couch (it hadn't been there when I laid down but somehow missed him dragging it over there - probably around the same time he'd gotten the cookie). When he managed to get the blanket off, he then pulled it just into the right spot (it's a big blanket and when all piled up, a little heavy for him), he laid his head down on the pillow, popped the paci back in his mouth and then turned to look at me - dimples shining - and when I said "rotten to the core," he grinned behind the paci and hid his face in the blanket. Such an imp....He didn't actually get his little power nap cause Daddy came down and he got all excited trying to give the goodbye kisses and then he & I headed upstairs to monitor big brother in the bathtub.
So now we welcome our weekend on a good note, walking all over the living room being all imp-like before snuggling in with Mama to fall asleep while big brother enjoys a rare bubble bath by himself (more room to play with all the toys that way and no sharing necessary). Of course this was at 7:00 that he fell asleep and when he awakened at 7:45 (in his crib where Mama sneakily deposited him without his knowing) it was basically bedtime so he got a bottle and night night kisses for bed....this likely means he'll be up around 6 in the morning. His brother went down at 8:30 - though he fought it, wanting to sleep with Mama even playing the "I'm sick" card (and I'll apologize if he turns out to be really sick) - he should sleep till his normal 7:30-8:30 wake up window...maybe I'll get lucky and Daddy will take the early shift if the imp does wake up at 6:00 so I can sleep in....maybe
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