All about the boy

I'm no longer doing a formal monthly update on Gideon.  I think covering the first year of his life by month was fun and exciting and I love looking back, but I don't want to hold myself to doing EVERY single month.  This is a lifestyle blog and Gideon is a huge part of my life, so I do need to pop in here every once in a while and solely focus on the toddler I have living in my home.  So here we are with a fourteen month old and this is what life is like with him now.

He is a walking machine and gets steadier on his feet everyday.  I can especially tell when he is "running" to get away from me when he needs his diaper changed. If we are out in public he does not want to be carried. If I do need to carry him, you know in parking lots and such, he pushes and turns every which way trying to escape.  This blows my mind because when we are at home, all he wants is for me to hold him.  Juxtaposition, much?  While out walking, he decides where he wants to go.  I try to direct him and he is not having it.  Apparently, the middle of the parking lot is a favorite spot.

Gideon loves everything music.  He adores when we sing to him and claps his hands and "hums" along.  At church, he gravitates to our main worship room because he can hear the music. He walks up to the stage and stands there looking at the drums and guitars.  He dances in the car when we turn music on and loves when he finds toys or books that sing.  Taylor and I were talking about this fascination the other day and decided we are going to need to get him into some type of music/instrument lesson early on.  I hope he sticks with it unlike I ever did. I know he will be great at whatever he chooses someday.

My kid loves to eat.  It astonishes me how much he can manage to pack in and then not even an hour later he is signing "please" and asking for more.  I have had some difficulty being creative with his meals because of his dairy issues and because I don't want to spend hours making his meals. He eats everything we give him though.  Hot dogs, PB&J, spaghetti and chicken nuggets are some of his favorite and we fill in the food pyramid on those with green beans, oranges, bananas, raisins, sweet potato puree and squeeze pouch fruit and veggies.  His favorite right now is bananas.  "Baba" as he calls them.  Taylor made the mistake of taking him grocery shopping and stopping at the bananas first.  He said it was an almost all out tantrum and he continued to say "baba" the entire grocery trip.

This boy is fun and energetic and is beginning to tap into his independent and defiant side. It is difficult somedays because he knows what he wants but he isn't quite yet to the age where I can reason with him, so in the end I just tell him "no" and he throws a little fit.  Despite that, he is so sweet and often just puts his arms around my neck and squeezes me with a hug.  This age is definitely fun because he is learning so quickly and amazes us daily with what he remembers, the things he can associate together, the words he says, and the actions he does.  Fourteen months, I like you.