Ian turned 15 months old this weekend, and is most definitely a toddler. The mornings of our days this weekend demonstrate the ups (learning all kinds of new things) and downs (frustration and tantrums) of being a toddler and being the parent of one.
Yesterday morning, before 10 am Ian had:
- Learned how to eat cheese with a fork (Doug taught him this after watching Ian trying to spear cheese cubes with his baby spoon, which was ineffective).
- Delighted in bouncing back and forth in the stroller in the ride down the street to the YMCA.
- In the last session of his first swim class, started kicking on his own while Doug held him (Doug reinforces this by moving him around the pool when he's kicking and stopping when he's not. Next he plans to bring his big flippers so he and Ian can really fly through the water.)
- Started "jumping" (more like walking off the side) into the pool to Daddy on request.
It was a very fun morning seeing him learn new things so quickly!
This morning, before 8 am, Ian had:
- Responded to my question "Can I change your diaper?", with "No!". There were several other "No!"s this morning.
- Thrown two major tantrums -- his first all out, lying on the floor, pounding fists, kicking feet, screaming tantrums. The first happened when I took Greg's cell phone away from him (just as he was delighted to figure out how to make a call). The second when Doug walked out of the room to go to the bathroom (Ian seems to think it's reasonable to expect me, Doug, and Greg to be in the room with him at all times). Our current approach is to just ignore his tantrums and hope he will learn that they don't get him what he wants (in dog training we call this "extinguishing" a behavior -- does it work for humans?)
- Had several more minor tantrums -- smashing his melon on the table, flailing his head into me to protest a diaper change, etc.
Fortunately he also had some fun times this morning doing a puzzle (he definitely gets the idea now that the pieces should go into the spaces, and he can do it if they're lined up for him, but can't yet rotate them to fit), walking the dogs while riding in the stroller and holding the leash (typically he rides on my back, but he was very interested in riding in the stroller today), and eating half a melon happily while melon juice dripped at a constant pace out of his mouth.
Clearly the next few months will be fun and challenging for all of us as Ian becomes his own person with a will of his own!
2 comments:
Ian's tantrums must come from Doug because you were a perfect child. Actually, the only tantrum I remember was at Shove Park when you didn't want to get into your car seat because you were having too much fun playing. But no doubt there were others that I don't remember.
Dad
I agree with John I do believe they came from doug lol
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