Oliver update: 21 months

Oliver enjoyed an extra surge of "Look how much he's grown!" since we visited family we hadn't seen since the new year, a time when he was still doing his three-limbed scoot and couldn't toddle more than a few steps. Six months later we visited my grandmother at her retirement community, whose grounds are larger than the campuses of some small colleges, and she couldn't believe how easily and quickly Oliver marched everywhere. His toddle is gone as far as she can tell.

After holding out at just five teeth for awhile, Oliver has sprouted a few more. Since his idea of "brushing" his teeth is sucking on his toothbrush, I try to "help" him with a quick brush at the end (which he hates!) and that's when I noticed three new teeth had broken the gum line, including a molar.

Along with teeth, Oliver is growing a lot more hair. He still has super fine baby hair and hasn't needed a hair cut yet, but it's getting long enough that eventually I'll be tempted to snip around the ears. Because of his two cowlicks, he now has a clump of hair that sticks up straight on the top of his head. He inherited this pattern of hair from his Uncle Scott, whose cowlicks presented a challenge to many hair stylists throughout his youth. Oliver's hair, while still very straight, is growing long enough in the back that on humid days, he develops a curl or two. The curls in the piece of hair sticking up in back just add to his overall cuteness.

Oliver's language development, while not at a level where I'll set aside my worry that there's some preventable or fixable factor affecting his speech, (like mild hearing loss due to undetected ear infections) has made some small strides. He knows how to say the words "hi," "buh bye" and "bus," or least something that sounds like bus, and most recently, "ball". We stayed in the same room while visiting family, and every morning I'd roll over to find Oliver awake and standing up in his pack 'n' play and repeating, "Hi, hi" in a soft, cute little kid voice. Well, cute, except that it was usually 6:00 a.m.

My brother is convinced he can say "book," Chris says he said "boat" repeatedly at the cabin, and I've thought I've heard him say other simple words like "more," but honestly I find it difficult to tell. He babbles constantly, (which is a good side for language development) but unless he were to say a word clear as day, it's easy (for me at least) for all the babble to sound alike and difficult to differentiate when he's saying an actual word. Ball has been the exception - he'll point at a ball and say the word clearly.

My grandmother, on the other hand, thinks he can say a lot. We spent a few days with her and she started to "translate" everything Oliver said. "Kirsten, I don't know how that wasn't clear. Oliver just asked you to open the door for him because he wants to go outside and see the birds." I should have started calling her the baby whisperer.

Yes, I'm sure he wanted to go outside, because that's where he loves to be. I broke down and bought him a matching rain jacket and pants and rubber boots, because it was clear he wanted to go out no matter what the weather. The only problem is that he's still at the age where I have to be outside with him and I'm not sure how much longer my rain jacket will zip over my growing stomach.

So we try to get out once a day so Oliver can get fresh air and exercise, even if it's drizzling and he just runs up and down the sidewalk. As much as he loves to move, if he sees the stroller, he wants to get in and go for a ride. This is a change from a few months ago when he first started walking with any skill and I couldn't count on him to willingly get in the stroller when I wanted to go for a walk.

After two to three months of Oliver struggling to go to sleep at his usual 6:30 p.m. bedtime, we're finding that the combination of putting him to bed a half an hour later and limiting his nap to three hours has helped. (The nap has kind of been self-regulating itself, though, since most days he sleeps less than three hours and every few days it appears like he's suddenly sleep-deprived and I'll let him nap as long as he wants.) Or it's possible that he just sorted it all out himself.

Ever since Oliver dropped down to one nap, I've been trying to push his lunch back to a normal hour because his lunch time suddendly became 10:30 a.m., with a nap starting an hour later. But in the last month, he started consistently being able to eat at 11:00 a.m. Even more recently he's been able to go some days closer to 11:30 a.m. with a noon nap time. Even dinner we've been able to do a crazy late time of 5:15 p.m. instead of 5:00 p.m.

Another bedtime transition we're working on his moving Oliver out of the crib. I've been the one who's been adamant about making the transition before the new baby arrives, but it was Chris who suggested the bold step of not bringing a pack 'n' play to the cabin and instead putting the mattress on the floor. When Oliver didn't sleep for most of the car ride up to the cabin (we purposefully left around his bedtime assuming he'd sleep in the car) and then cried hysterically once we arrived, I thought we'd set ourselves up for a complete disaster. He wailed while I got him ready for bed and read him a story, and continued to do so after I laid him down on the mattress with everything he usually has in his crib - his pacifier, giraffe, stuffed bear, blanket and sippy cup. He cried hard for a few minutes, but before Chris and I had a chance to brainstorm any other options, it went quiet. Chris checked on him and he was indeed fast asleep!

I was up early the next morning and was eating my breakfast with my back to his bedroom door when I heard a slow pitter-patter behind me. I turned around and a happy and reasonably well-rested looking Oliver had emerged from his bedroom clutching his stuffed animals. His first night in a real bed ended up being a success.

We don't have a twin mattress for Oliver yet, so back at home, he's been in the crib again. But now we have the confidence to make the plunge and switch to a bed. We'll start with just the mattress on the floor, like we did at the cabin, before buying a bed frame and guard rail, because once during every nap and again during the night, Oliver did roll onto the floor. It was enough to startle him and make him cry, but when I went to rescue him, sometimes he'd be sitting right next to the mattress crying - with his eyes closed. As soon as he was placed back in bed, it was back to sleep.

Oliver's favorite activities at this stage in his life are trucks, (or any vehicles for that matter) balls and books. He still points out anything that moves and emerges from the toy table at garage sales clutching a truck or a train of some sort. Chris took him out on the boat at the cabin and they cruised slowly around the perimeter of the lake so Oliver could look at all the boats.

While Oliver gets especially excited about any book with pictures of vehicles, he likes books in general. If you're visiting my house, expect Oliver to want you to read him a book. He even went up to some other mom at a bookstore last week, handed her a book, then stepped back and patiently waited for her to read to him. I was surprised given how weary he is around people he doesn't know.

He's getting more into the picture books now, which I admit isn't as fun for me, because he likes to point to each picture and wants you to tell him what it is, and that gets more repetitive than reading the same story over and over again. (He'll also do this in his crib or at the dinner table and day after day I find myself repeating, "That's your bear." "That's the tray." "That's your sippy cup.") You'd think that if a book was just a bunch of pictures, he wouldn't mind looking at it by himself, but he'd still prefer if someone read it to him. But he also has his favorite stories and can sit through longer books. At the library or a bookstore I'll pull out a bunch of books I think he'd be interested in and then see what he goes for.

Oliver has always liked playing with balls, but sometimes he reminds me of a dog the way he likes to play "fetch." While home visiting family, he befriended two kids down the street, five and eight years old. They alternated between letting Oliver throw a tennis ball and they'd chase it and bring it back to him, or letting him chase the ball. At the cabin, Oliver shrieked with glee as he tried to throw a beach ball as high as he could in the air and the momentum caused him to twirl around and crash to the ground. He's starting to kick balls too, but his strategy at the moment is to run at the ball and inadvertently kick the ball in the process.

He has his calm and sweet moments though. Our neighbor's two-and-a-half-year-old blew Oliver a kiss and he both surprised me and melted my heart when he blew one back.