No more Pafowahs!

Today is Wednesday, February 29, and I'm finally ready to say that Wednesday, February 15, 2012 was Desmond's last night sleeping with a pacifier! He was 2 years, 2 months,  3 weeks, and 1 day old.

I was honestly beginning to wonder if we'd ever manage to get rid of it. He was VERY attached to his pacifiers. They have been crib-only since he was about 5 or 6 months old, and he would eagerly go in there to nap or sleep because he knew it meant he could have his pacifiers. He usually had one in his mouth and 2 in each hand. Even though 4 of the 5 were identical, he could tell by mouth feel which was which. In the dark, if you gave him one, he would turn around and tell you, "No. Blue pafowah." (There were 2 blue ones. He could tell them apart. We still can't figure out the differences between them.)

In the end, it was a trip to Tootsie and Pop's house that did it. (That also worked to get Dexter using the potty last summer. I am OK with this trend.)

The first night there, he asked for the pacifiers. I told him, "Tootsie doesn't have any pacifiers." The little negotiator held up his empty hands and said, "Only 2 pafawahs." There was more negotiating, but he ended up going to sleep without them without much fuss, probably because he was so exhausted from being awake and pretty much constantly running around from 7am until 9pm.

The second night, he slept in the big bed at Tootsie's house. He knows there are no pacifiers in big boy beds. Again, his exhaustion helped us along a little.

There were a couple of HORRIBLE nights in there that probably would have been remedied with a pacifier, but by then, we weren't going back.

We decided that he would come home to a big boy bed and that would be the end of it. (I feel like this post should be more about his graduation to a big boy bed. But the pacifier thing is really much more exciting.) He hasn't asked for a pacifier since the weekend.

The big boy bed.
Yes, it's a mattress on the floor. Falling out is still an issue.

The downside is that Dexter and Desmond both LOVED hiding under that crib. It was a source of much entertainment. Eventually, their beds will be off the floor, and they'll be able to have fun like that again. Hopefully they won't have outgrown such things (physically or intellectually) by then.

Overall, I think we're all still adjusting. He's only been in his own big boy bed for 4 nights. Last night, he went to sleep at about 10:00, woke up at 11:45 to get himself some milk from the fridge, then woke up again at 1:30 to get more milk from the fridge, then again at 4:30 - more milk and then settled in our bed.

Hopefully multiple nighttime wakings will phase out quickly, and we'll all finally be on the road to more and better sleep. It's been more than 3 years since we've done that consistently, so it really is time.

YAY for big boy beds and YAY for no more pacifiers and hopefully a big YAY for less orthodontia in the future. So proud of my big boy.

Desmond is 22 Months Old!

And boy is 22 months VERY close to 2, in so many ways. He is more hilarious, more energetic, more verbal, and much much more opinionated, all in one increasingly tall package.

Teeth: ONE new tooth since last month!  His bottom right canine came in on or just before September 18.

Height: Still really tall. Holding out for his birthday for an official measurement.

Weight: If anything, he's lost a few ounces this month, thanks to what we hope is just a standard toddler-esque finicky appetite. (see below)

Sleep: I can't say this has been his best sleep month. In fact, it's probably one of his worst since infancy. Waking up once a night almost every night, often waking up his brother (and sometimes being awoken by his brother). He's also just started, in the last week or so, employing stall tactics at bedtime and naptime. Says he wants a song (often, the "burp burp" song - the one we sang to both boys while burping them as infants. An odd resurgence of that one, I think.) or "rock-rocks," but really he's just stalling. He used to be the kid that would tell you, "Naptime!" and now he is the kid who stalls.  Thank god he is still trapped in his crib, or none of us would ever get any sleep.

Food: Ugh. While we could usually count on him to eat 3 breakfasts if offered, he now refuses food (all kinds of food) often, and when we find something he IS willing to eat, we shovel as much of it into him as we can. Of course, that's the same food he refused the day before and will refuse again tomorrow. So it's not so much what food it is but what mood he's in at the time. He still drinks a lot of milk, which I suppose is better than nothing.


Words: Favorite new word? "Nope!"  It is pretty cute, I must say, even when he is refusing to do things he really needs to do (see "sleep" above). Strangers laugh when they overhear him saying it. He does string some sentences together, but we're still mostly just working with nouns and verbs. "Mom! Fish! Watch! Fish! TV! Please! Fish!" (That's "Mom, I want to watch Finding Nemo, please.") or "Mom! Fish! Eat! Fish! More fish? Please?" (That's "Mom, I would like some of those delicious vanilla goldfish grahams, please!") There is also the occasional adjective - "yucky" or "orange" (his favorite color, I do believe).

Books: This is another one of his stall tactics at bedtime.  He still does legitimately love his books, but lately he asks for more and more instead of going to bed. He still reads a lot of Frosty the Snowman, and we had a great rendition of "Moo, Baa, La La La" a few nights ago. He also really likes "Good Morning Sun," which is where we learned that he knows what a rooster says. ("Ca ca DOO doo!")  It's a good thing he is so cute saying all of the animal sounds, because that humanoid sun is pretty creepy, if you ask me. (Why are their favorite books always your least favorite?)

TV: We've given up all pretense of being a limited TV family. Now we just turn the thing on and sometimes leave it on. Interestingly, Panda has fallen somewhat out of favor. The new go-to is Finding Nemo, which is kindof putting a wrench into our Halloween and birthday plans (both were going to be Panda-esque). I am considering telling them that the TV is broken for a while, but then I'll just spend all of my time breaking up fights or putting people in time out, so I'm not quite sure if/when that will happen.

Phone: His love for the phone hasn't diminished at all in the last month. Nor do we really expect it to for a while, actually. Usually, he doesn't really want you - he just wants your phone.

Colors: Still being quite the stinker here, and I can't tell how much he actually knows and how much is just laziness.  He definitely gets orange every time, and I know he knows yellow and blue. Green and red are still hit or miss, and he often interchanges pink and purple for some reason. White and brown are pretty solid, too.

Other Likes & Dislikes: Play-doh is a new favorite activity.



He picks a color, tells one of us to "oh-pum-it?!" He gets the play-doh out of the container himself. Then you have to mush it for him to give him a flat (ish) palette for him to make various impressions with different cut-outs. He loves it, and it isn't TV, so we are all for that. 

Outside is still fun, but he'll often choose TV over outside. It's that time of year with schizophrenic weather, too, which makes it a little bit challenging to find the right wardrobe for outside play.

OH!!  Songs!  Desmond does love singing songs. Especially "FAST!" like "Foo foo FAST!" (That's "Little Bunny Foo Foo," sung very fast.) Other favorites are Wheels on the Bus, Baby Shark, and Itsy-Bitsy Spider, all of which naturally come with their own fabulous hand motions. What did we talk about at dinner before we spent it singing Baby Shark? I certainly don't know.

I'll close with a few more pictures from today, because whatever I write wont' come close to Desmond's cuteness. These also show his raw nose, since he has a cold that requires constant nose-wiping, and his recent too-short haircut. (Note to self and future stylists - going too short on this kid means spiky hair.)

Desmond is 20 Months Old!

At least he was, as of July 24.  Today, it's September 3. I'm not even going to apologize anymore, because it's just sad.

I did get LOTS of pictures of him. And to make myself feel better about not blogging his stats, I'm going to put a lot of them in here. So there.


One thing - he definitely still has his gorgeous blue eyes!

And goofy expressions that make us laugh:

He hasn't quite mastered clean eating (despite his top canines popping through on July 23!):

And he still really likes TV. Kung Fu Panda (the original) is by far his favorite thing to watch, though he'll also accept Finding Nemo or Monsters, Inc.

So, that was our Desmond in July. Smart, sweet, funny, and incredibly handsome. But you already knew that. :)

Desmond is 19 Months Old!

'sup?
(Photo taken June 25, 2011.)

As I type, it is July 3. So I am only ... something like 9 days late posting this one. Which, comparatively speaking, is pretty awesome. 

The most exciting thing about Desmond's progress this month is just his explosion of personality (and words!) He does his own thing, talks to you (in a fashion), has definite evolving likes and dislikes, plays, and laughs.

Before we get to the good stuff, here are a few more pictures from June 25.  (I was out of town on June 24, so really, that one is not my fault!)  He was playing on the crib mattress on the floor in Dexter's closet. I mean, it was seriously fun.

I'm a sucker for those tiny lips!

Action shot!

FUN!

And now, the details:

Teeth: No new teeth. Sorry to start off with something so boring. We're still waiting on those canines.

Sleep: He still has the pacifier. ("ah-faw-uh") He loves it. He sleeps well. There's enough other sleep drama going on (::cough:: Dexter ::cough::) that we aren't tackling the pacifier issue just yet. It is so strange and amazing and awesome (the theme of today's musings, I suppose) to behold a child who willingly goes to sleep and sleeps well. He even takes naps! Will run down the hall saying "Nap! Nap!" when we say it's naptime. Craziness.

Food: No big changes here, though he seems a little less willing to try new things. He is also playing more games at the dinner table. Stuff along the lines of "Hey watch me while I be sneaky and throw this food on the floor! And my fork! And I'm going to knock my sippy cup over!" Except he's so freaking cute when he does it that it's tough to be angry at him.  But there is indeed a reason that there are TWO bath towels under his "eating chair."

Words: Holy explosion of words, Batman!  There are so many that I think I may stop counting as of today, and I'll put a separate post listing all of them. It's pretty awesome, though. (See? Awesome!)  I do think I figured out today that what we thought was "happy" is really "help me." Clearly, he's never been in real peril - we never looked at him stuck beneath a giant rock or something, saying "happy!" and we just smiled and said, "You're happy?! I'm happy, too! Everybody is happy!"

Mostly, though, he is surprisingly easy to understand, even for people who don't see him very often.

Books: Desmond still LOVES books and will ask you to read a book randomly in the middle of the day sometimes. Of course, bedtime books remain a staple.His favorite at the moment seems to be "Mystery in Bugtown." He mostly just flips through it, tells us who is sad, then talks about all of the bugs listed in the back. (Ant, Bee, Cricket, Grasshopper, Centipede, Spider, Slug, Cockroach, Ladybug, Katydid... maybe some others.)  And then he tells us that the little bug on the last page is "running." (which he is!)  It's really cute. Awesome, even. :)

TV: Desmond does love TV, too. I'm not sure what would win in a book vs. TV contest, but it's sadly probably the TV. If he hears mention of any of their movies ("Monsters," "Fish," "Two Frogs," or "Panda"), he is in his favorite TV-watching spot before you can finish your sentence. It's seriously a case in which we watch what we say, because something like, "After lunch, we can watch TV" will turn lunchtime into a whinefest.

Speaking of TV, his favorite thing lately is Kung-Fu Panda. (The original one.) We realized today that he says "Pee-ba!" ("Panda") when he wants to watch it. There also seems to be an arm motion that goes with it. It's pretty freaking cute. Hilarious. (And yes, AWESOME! - The Panda says "awesome" a lot. Maybe that's why it's in my head.)



Likes & Dislikes: You know how you write a blog post and then realize later half of the stuff that you should have put in it? That's what happened with Desmond's 18 month update. And I was going to fix it, but I did that one so late that by the time I kept NOT getting around to it, it was pretty much time for the 19 month one.  So, anyway. Desmond really really really likes SWIMMING! Since he loves floating around in the bathtub so much, we started doing swimming lessons a while back. (Hopefully there will be a backdated blog post about that sometime. Maybe.) He loves them! And he's getting pretty brave. He doesn't need to hold your hands to jump into the pool. And he really isn't even all that clingy, although he certainly can't swim by himself, even with a bubble belt and pool noodle. But yes, the kid loves swimming. LOVES it!

He also likes the usual stuff - being outside, going downstairs. Those are pretty big.  He likes cars. A lot. He likes playing with cars and driving them around on the furniture, complete with sound effects. He likes watching cars driving through parking lots or down the street. He likes playing inside Mom's and Dad's cars.

And how best to combine cars and outside? A lawnmower, of course! He doesn't have a whole lot of patience for actual mowing. (It is pretty hot, after all.) But he LOVES sitting on the lawnmower when it's parked in the garage. He just climbs up into the driver's seat like it's exactly where he is supposed to be. As I've said before, I hope their love for the lawnmower and all things outside and yardwork-related sticks around for the next 18-20 years or so.

No big dislikes. He doesn't like it when Dexter "dog piles" on top of him. He isn't a fan of diaper changes. But he is mostly smart enough to avoid things he doesn't like. See above about actually napping when he's tired. And if he's too hot outside, he will actually come inside and drink some water instead of soldiering on.

See? Happy AND smart. (And awesome!)

Desmond is 18 (and a half) Months Old! (with official stats)

Dude. These boys never want me to blog about them. At least, that must be the case, because they keep me way too busy feeding them and cleaning up after them and reading to them and going outside to play with them. :)

About 2 weeks ago, Desmond turned 18 months old!
(Even though this post is dated May 24, I am actually writing it up on June 11.)

So much has already changed in those two weeks that I don't want to wait any longer, or I won't have anything to write about when he turns 19 months old.

The short version is that we've (finally!) had a Word Explosion! Our Desmo is talking up a storm, speaking surprisingly clearly for someone who's really only been doing some serious talking for a few weeks.

Let's get down to business, shall we?

Official Stats:
Weight: 30 pounds (91st %ile)
Height: 34.5" (95th %ile)
Head Circumference: 18" (14th %ile)

So yeah. He's tall. I hope you were sitting down for that one.


Teeth: Still hanging strong at 12 teeth! I keep waiting for those canines to pop through, but they aren't quite here yet.

Sleep: Desmond is still a very good sleeper. He has started to fuss a little bit at night when he goes down, but he either stops quickly on his own or is easily soothed. He still has his pacifier in the crib, though. Hopefully none of that changes when we take it away. (Which will be soon. We hope. We're trying to find a few days where it won't be tragic if we are sleep-deprived.)

Food: Desmond is still a good eater, though he seems to have slowed down a bit. He has some favorites - still mostly vegetables and carbs, though he is also a big fan of scrambled eggs. Daycare likes to joke about how much he eats. (But really - their "normal" breakfast is half of a waffle and 1/3 of a banana. At home, he's more of a 2 waffles, a whole banana, and 8 ounces of yogurt kind of guy.)

Signs: Really, we're down to "more," "please," and "done." Which is fine, especially since all are accompanied by their respective words. This will probably be our last "signs" update.

Words: At his official 18-month appointment, Desmond had about six words. Which was fine, because they were only looking for him to have 3 or more. (They set the bar really high over there.) Anyway, it was good to know he wasn't literally pathologically behind in his speech development.


But NOW he has at least 45 words:



Fish
Uh-oh
Blue
Dad
Airplane
Ball
Dexter
Pop
Please
Diaper
Thank you
Hot
Mine
Mom (as of May 29. Finally!)
More
Up
Down
Apple
Horse
Boat
Bear
Book
Birds
There
Spoon
Bread
Pee-pee (as an anatomical structure, not urine)
Feet
Bus
Car
Outside
Downstairs
Arm
Baby
Bee (Story below)
No
Sip
Truck
Dirt
Stuck
Help
Tractor
Flowers
Table

Shoes

The Bee Story: The evening of June 6 (a Monday), we were all out on the back deck, mostly doing our own things. Desmond suddenly let out a huge wail, followed by another plaintive "Beeeeeeeee!" Disbelief generally delayed my reaction speed a little bit, but sure enough, a bee had stung him on the tip of his right index finger. The stinger was still there.  It was clear that it hurt a lot. Poor baby.  His dad, ever the Eagle Scout, quickly whipped up a paste of baking soda and water to help ease the sting. Even Dexter was eager to go get him some ice for his finger. It was probably only 5 minutes or so before it started feeling better, but it seemed like an eternity. For days afterward, he'd show you his index finger and say a sad "Beeeeeee."  Poor baby. :(


Likes & Dislikes: I hate to say it, but Desmond likes TV. I mean, he really likes TV. All you have to do is mention "TV" or "a movie" or "Monsters" (Monster's Inc.) or "Fish" (Finding Nemo) and he runs to his little TV-watching spot between the sofa and ottoman. So, we pretty much just try not to mention it, because if he isn't thinking about the TV, he really does love being outside or playing downstairs or reading a book.

He tends to prefer men. Likes Dad more than Mom. Pop more than Tootsie. Granddad more than Grandma. He does give us womenfolk some love sometimes, though, so we don't get too bitter about being #2 in his book. :)  

He likes his big brother, too, and just about anything Dexter is doing or playing with. They're both pretty good (usually) about sharing, though. We count to 20, and then it's the other one's turn. Sometimes they lose interest before we get to 20, which is pretty cool.

Dislikes? Eh. Not much. Diaper changes are still big fights. And he doesn't like anything if he is overtired (and he often is just before bedtime.)


In short, he is a happy, healthy, developmentally normal 18 month old boy who gives his mom kisses just about any time she asks. So we're still keeping him. :)

Desmond is 17 Months Old!

 

Oh, Desmo, we love you. (That's "Des-moe," a nickname from Thanksgiving that has stuck.) I promise. I've just been having too much fun hanging out with you that I haven't gotten to chronicle your amazing 15- and 16-month milestones. (There are pictures, though!)

15 Months. Love this face!

16 Months. Yeah, he gives us this look a lot.

Teeth: Desmond officially has 12 teeth. Finally. Poor kid tends to have a rough couple of days when they first start to come in, but that's about it.

Weight: We've been to the doctor quite a bit lately, and he is right at 30 pounds. Some days 29.8, some days 30.4. I guess he has some heavy shoes? Big lunch? Who knows. 

Height: TALL. :)  OK, so we don't really know exactly how tall he is. But he is tall. He can reach just about everything and isn't shy about doing so.

Sleep: Mostly, Desmond is a champion sleeper.  He (usually) goes down with little fuss at about 8:30 and sleeps until 8:30 or so in the morning. We had a period there where he was waking up often with ear pain (see above about our frequent doctor visits. Boooo.), but he seems to be over that now and is back to his regular sleep patterns.  He also naps during the day, usually for about 2 hours (give or take). I guess that's sortof a lot for a 17 month old, but not too much.  Besides, it generally makes him a very happy boy, so it's all good.

Food: If I had to pick a favorite food for Desmond, it would be.....    broccoli.  Crazy, I know. But if you give that kid little (steamed) broccoli florets, he will go to town until you take them away. As eating habits go, we are going to ride this one for as long as we can.  He also still likes carrots. And bread. And he will sometimes deign to eat fruit or meat, but mostly he's all about the veggies and carbs.

Signs: As Desmond becomes more verbal (YAY!), we're pushing the signs less, and he is indeed signing less.  He is very consistent with "more" and "please," even unsolicited, but he's doing much better with actual words, which is very exciting.

Words: OK, I say he has a lot of words, but he really doesn't. He's just better about being verbal and pointing and communicating in other ways. He's showing a lot of promise here, though, and that's where we're focusing our efforts. He'll absolutely repeat anything you say, often with surprising clarity.  He has been saying "fish" ("ish") for a few months now. He also says "Dad" and "Daddy." And "Dexter" ("Deh Tuuh"). He also points to "Pop" ("Top") on the computer screen when we Skype. He usually correctly identifies "blue" ("boo") things. "Uh-oh!" is still very popular, too. "Mom" is coming, I just know it.

Tricks: You wouldn't believe it, but showing off his (adorable!) tummy is still one of his favorite things. He has a whole repertoire of animal sounds, including lion, tiger, and bear (all "roar"), dog, and elephant. He scratches his little tummy for "monkey," but we've only heard him make the noise once. Generally speaking, he's just much better at following commands like "Put that in the trash" and "Give that to Dad."

Books: Desmond still LOVES books. Nighttime favorites vary quite a bit, but Ten Friendly Fish is a common request. Sandra Boynton's Doggies is another favorite, as is Big Dog and Little Dog Go for a Walk. (Big Dog and Little Dog get to shake and shake and shake, shake and shake and shake, after their post-walk bath. It is FUN!)

Likes & Dislikes: Desmond LOVES going outside. In fact, you need to be very careful about using the word "outside," because he will be VERY disappointed if he hears it and can't actually go outside. He loves his big brother - chasing him and giggling with him and playing peek-a-boo and a million other things with him.  He also hates his big brother, mostly when there is a toy they both want. He likes his Dad. A LOT. :)  He likes to randomly come up to any exposed skin and give you raspberries. Heck, sometimes he will even lift up your shirt just so he can give you a raspberry. On most nights, he loves making BIG splashes in his bath. In fact, he loves it so much that we signed him up for swimming lessons, which he also loves.

As far as toys go, his favorites seem to be cars. He isn't much for puzzles or shape sorters. Noisy toys (like his noisy workbench thing and any "drop the ball in the hole" toys) are acceptable. Trains are a close second. But yeah. Cars. He's been "driving" them along the sofa and ottoman for a few weeks now, complete with sound effects.

Desmond is 14 Months Old!

14 months!  Somehow, he seems a lot older than that. Maybe because I've been saying "13 months" since he was really only about 12.5 months old.  ANYway, it's been a big month for Desmond - 2 new teeth, plus leaps of learning in communication and animal sounds.  I think he even had a big growth spurt, because he's suddenly too tall for a lot of his clothes. 

Let's do the rundown, shall we?

Teeth - we are up to EIGHT!  Nice and symmetrical now - 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom.  The 8th one is barely poking through, but it's there. 

Weight - ??? I keep meaning to weigh the kid at home, but then I forget in our 10 free minutes between dinner and bath. He isn't light.

Height - I'm sure we're all shocked to learn that Desmond is tall.  He is a tall boy.  And somehow, a good chunk of that is torso.  Snapping the 24m onesies is a struggle now.  (4 days ago, he was wearing the same onesie that Dexter is wearing in his 15m picture, and it was clearly the last time it was getting worn.)  Desmond does have quite a little tummy for the shirts to stretch over, though, so maybe that's a contributing factor.  But yeah, he's tall.

Sleep - I don't want to jinx myself. He's been doing SO WELL.  Like 12-13 hours/night well.  Getting big and getting teeth must be exhausting.

Food - Sliced carrots are probably his absolute favorite. (Tonight, he ate an entire can of sliced carrots by himself. Yeah.)  That would be pretty closely followed by any bread or bread-like item (waffles, breadsticks, bagels, and pancakes are all big), and broccoli.  He isn't a big fruit fan, but he'll sometimes eat some - usually sliced peaches or mandarin oranges. 

In other food news, Desmond's very last bottle was January 22.  He had been having bottles at bedtime only for a few weeks, but now that he's eating much better, we felt like he would be OK without the bedtime bottle.  And so far, he seems to be.  It was more habit than anything else, and he is a resilient guy.  I think his orthodontist will thank me (or hate me) later.

Signs - He *can* sign "more" and "eat," but he usually chooses to point and whine instead.  He's still little enough that it's still kindof cute.  He does sign "done" after dinner. But he still keeps eating until we take the food away.  He also knows and uses "bath."

Words - No huge progress here.  He has a lot of different sounds that he seems to think are very meaningful.  But mostly, it's "aaaTTH" or "aaaCK."  He says "ite" for light (we think).  I would almost swear he says "ish" for "fish," but I"m not 100% sure yet.  He started saying "uh-oh!" again in the last few days, which is nice, since he had quit doing that for a while.   So, if we're in the mood to be pretty generous, he has 4 or 5 words.

In any case, he finds a way to communicate.  He knows we understand it when he goes to the high chair and lifts his leg like he wants to get in.  (He also tries to do a pull-up on the thing. It's still quite a bit over his head. He's hilarious.)

Or when he walks over to the crib and looks up at you like, "Well? Are you going to put me in there or what?" 

Or when he goes to the refrigerator and looks at you like "Ahem! Milk, please!"

Or when he brings you his coat, or just gets it and stands by the door.

Did I mention he is a genius?

Tricks - Desmond impresses all who meet him with his mastery of animal sounds.  OK, not really, but he has some cuties:

• Elephant - raises one arm for the elephant's trunk, but he doesn't make an actual sound.
• Dog - "Woof!"
• Monkey - rubs his tummy up and down like a monkey scratching his sides. But he doesn't make any sounds. 
• Chicken - rubs his tummy up and down because that's as close as he gets to a chicken flapping its wings. Again, no sound.
• (We'll note here that his Monkey and Chicken impressions are the same as the sign for "bath."
• Cow - "oooooo"
• Duck - opens and closes his mouth but makes no noise. Not sure where that came from.
• Horse - "ayyyy" (which is supposed to be "neiiiigh," I believe.)
• Tiger/Bear/Lion - "arrrr," with hands in the air like bear claws
• Sheep - "aaaah" (not terribly consistent with this one yet)

He's also capable of way more than I feel like he should be.  He can climb in and out of the bathtub. (Not gracefully, mind you, but he can get out.)  He can open any unlocked door in the house.  He's trying to use a fork. Sometimes.  If you load it for him, he is all about eating with that fork.  And he'll let you help him spear some foods. But he usually just takes the one bite you prepare for him and then tosses the fork on the floor.

He's surprisingly good with the Sit-N-Spin, and he's about 50/50 on the shape sorter. (Dear shape sorter designers - it's probably better if the star doesn't actually fit through the circle hole. OK? Ok.)

Motor - HA! This kid is running!

Books - Books are probably Desmond's favorite thing ever.  He'll dig through the toy bin until he finds a book, then he'll bring it to you to read to him.  If you're sitting on the floor, he'll back up to you so he can sit in your lap while you read to him.  I don't know that he has a lot of favorites. We often read Ten Friendly Fish and Millie Moo. Mr. Brown Can Moo is also a regular in the rotation.  Hippos Go Berserk is another.  The last few nights, he's been asking to look at the book versions of Dumbo and Thumper. He just likes to turn the pages and look at the pictures. We're working on learning what an owl says.

Likes & Dislikes - Hmm.  Desmond went through a phase for a few weeks there where he didn't like bath.  As in, bath was about 30 seconds long (or however quickly we could do the most basic bathing), and he screamed the whole time.  I think we were just starting bath too late, though, and he was really just tired.  We started bath earlier this week (closer to 7:15), and it has gone better.  Diaper changes are no fun, either. 

I mentioned his love of books, which has his parents very excited.  He also loves playing chase and being outside, even though it is every bit of winter out there. (This weekend, the snow was up above his little knees. SO glad we got him some good snow pants!) He loves sledding down the hill in the back yard and gets very impatient if you wait very long at the top of the hill.  (And he does like to go fast, sitting on Mom's or Dad's lap on the sled.)  Sadly, he also likes TV, which is a sometimes necessity in this house. 

Again - likes carrots, broccoli, other vegetables; dislikes bananas, other fruits. Generally, he does like to eat. Big meals, lots of snacks.

Oh, and he likes Dexter. Somehow, he even seems to like Dexter mere moments after Dexter has, say, whacked him on the head with a toy airplane.  But they really are hilarious when they make googly eyes at each other across the dinner table.

With 12 more teeth to go, he still very much likes chewing on things.  Also fun? Playing chase!  He just giggles and giggles.  And peek-a-boo! (Where's Desmond?!  THERE HE IS!!!)