Oliver update: 20 months

I think Oliver knows now how darn cute he is. Every now and then he'll put on this huge grin and then pretend he's being bashful if you look over at him. But it's clear he totally loves the attention!

As cute as he is, he's still a handful, which I suspect will remain so until he outgrows the toddler stage. Sigh... He's still very much in the here-and-now, meaning that no matter how much we try to prep him for the next step, (getting ready to go, getting in the car, etc.) he can throw a huge fit if he's not ready to stop what he's currently doing. His main methods of communication are whining, pointing or thrusting things at you. But whether toddlers are verbal or not, their communication remains very self-centered, as in they believe that just because they ask for something, they'll get it, and get it immediately.

Oliver is still fascinated with animals, but he just likes looking at them from a safe distance. Our neighbors brought over their very docile mutt and Oliver was excited to see the dog, but the best he could do was venture close enough to give the dog a quick pet on her back before darting away. Our neighbors have chickens, but when they picked one up to bring it over to him for a closer look, he made it clear he had been fine with the fence between our yards separating them. The animal he's least hesitant to pet is a cat, which I find ironic since both sides of Oliver's family are firmly dog-lovers.

We assume while Oliver remains curious about the world, there's still so much he doesn't know about, and well, sometimes random things scare him. We were outside playing in the front yard and he freaked out when I dragged the garden hose around to water the window boxes. And he didn't like the sight of dad dragging pieces of an exercise machine we were loading in the car to bring to a friend's garage sale. Then we were at the coop, where Oliver likes to push his own shopping cart. Checking out can be difficult, because it's rare Oliver is ready to leave when I am, but suddenly he abandoned his cart and ran towards me in the check-out line. Then I saw what had terrified Oliver into actually listening to me - an employee had been walking towards him with an aisle-wide mop. Perfectly timed!

Sippy cups are one of those modern-day conveniences that make me wonder how parents of previous generations survived without. Well, kids in the "olden days" probably just spilled a bunch, broke a few glasses and then mastered the cup long before modern-day babies do. I bought every sippy cup imaginable, starting with a fancy and expensive one by Born-Free, down to the Take 'n' Toss ones, four for $3 at Target. After enjoying the mess-free ease of sippy cups, I finally decided I'd have Oliver give it another try with the Doidy cup I'd bought for him months ago. It's a small plastic cup with handles, but a key design feature is the slanted mouth, which means Oliver can more easily see the contents and not have to tip the cup back as far to drink. Oliver does pretty well when I give him water, small quantities at a time, but because he sometimes likes to stick his fingers in the cup or dump its contents, I'm not ready to have him give up the sippy cup. But it's a start.

After a really cold spring, Oliver was finally able to wear shorts a short time ago for the first time since possibly September. Clothing doesn't seem to cause sensory issues with him, so I didn't think anything of putting shorts on him. He immediately knew something was different and tried pulling his pant legs down the rest of the way and started to freak out a little when he couldn't. He did calm down when I explained he was wearing shorts and the pant legs are supposed to only come down to his knees. It's funny where that line is for little kids of what makes it alright with the world and what doesn't.

Along with shorts weather came Oliver's first skinned knee! It's disconcerting how scraped up Oliver is now, but a friend pointed out that skinned knees are like a milestone for kids. Like any toddler, he likes to move and he's trying to run, but still lacks coordination, so hence an uptick in the number of spills he takes. A particularly bad fall required his first band-aid, which he was really intrigued by.

I also think he can now recognize himself in the mirror, which a friend had told occurs around 18 months. He's always loved looking at himself in the mirror, but the image looking back at him has just been a curiosity. When he was a baby, he would try to "catch" his reflection, but now he has recognition that if he moves his body, the image in the mirror follows suit, and he gets really excited. He'll crouch down and pop back up or just dance and jump around in front of the mirror and point at himself.

We're dealing with some sleep issues with Oliver. Nap time is rarely a problem, but maybe that is the problem, because this kid loves to nap. And then bedtime comes, and even though he looks and acts tired and willingly goes to bed at his normal time, he'll toss and turn for an hour, hour and a half. We're assuming it's not another ear infection since he hasn't had a cold and isn't exhibiting any other signs except sleeplessness. Our guess is that either he has a whole bunch of teeth coming in, (he still only has five, so they've gotta come in some time) he's napping too long in the afternoon or a combination. We've been experimenting with not letting him nap too long and then trying to put him to bed 15-30 minutes later in the evening. I'm hoping it works itself out - and soon.