A Whole New Ballgame.

Before I get into all things Makili, I need to let you know that he shat on the rug this morning. Just to start the day off right. It wasn't too big of a deal. It did lift right off, but still, there was a pile of poop on my rug this morning after his bath in the 15 seconds that I went in the other room to get him a diaper.

We went to the doctor's yesterday for his 1 year appointment (albeit closer to 13 months). 30 inches tall and 22 pounds (that's three inches and 3.5 pounds since our last visit!). Such a big kiddo. Handled the vaccine like a champ. The taking of blood from his arm to check for lead and iron, was a whole other ballgame. Not fun. Me and two nurses restrained him, while the first nurse missed the vein. Finally they did it right, but poor Makili sobbed all morning, so upset that I had allowed that to happen. Poor guy. Healthy happy little kiddo though.

Makili has really been communicating well lately. Though he doesn't say a whole lot, he now understands so much. He will point to mama's nose, eyes, ears, and teeth. He will go find his ball, car, book, block, shovel. He loves to point out the fan, dogs, cats, birdies, water
(and I think horse and cow). He can "sit down," and "lay down." He also knows all done, all gone, nite-nite, outside and inside. He has officially started signing too. After months of "more," he finally got the concept. He is so proud of himself when he uses the sign and gets what he wants (which thus far is always food). He also signs "all done."

Food is still Makili's favorite thing, though climbing is coming on strong as number 2. Makili likes pretty much whatever we have - tofu, waffles, peas and lettuce from the garden, cereal, watermelon, berries, crackers, dried mangoes (a real fav!), etc. He doesn't really like yellow squash too much which is a shame since we are going to be up to our eye-balls in it. He has definitely figured out the concept that we eat food from the garden. I have to really watch him because he knows you can eat lettuce. Sometimes he will feed me lettuce and then eat himself, other times he just plucks a leaf and stuffs it in his mouth. I have to make sure the leaves are actually lettuce. He knows peas go in his mouth. Yesterday we picked our second tomato. Makili wanted it and I handed it to him so he could check it out. I was surprised when he put it in his mouth since he has never had a whole tomato before and when he has had tomatoes he hasn't really cared for them. I wouldn't let him eat it because it wasn't ripe and he was not happy at all with that agreement. I ended up sharing the first tomato (which was ripe) with him, though once I had broken through the skin and he really tasted the tomato he wasn't too interested. Yesterday we got carrots from our farm CSA, and Makili loved those. He walked all around the barn chasing a dog, intermittently chewing on his carrot with a huge smile on his face. SO damn cute.

Because he is big now, we let him sit in the next size up car seat. He seems to like it. Especially today having me turn around and talk to him made him VERY happy in the car. Anything that makes kids happy in the car is worth something.

Makili is still a pretty good sleeper. He goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and typically sleeps till 5:30, at which point he nurses and 50% of the time goes back to bed with me. It sure feels like a treat to sleep till 6:30 or 7:00! Napping isn't really so great. I've been trying to cut out the morning nap lately because otherwise I end up fighting him for both naps, which is very annoying and if I can get him to hold out, usually that means he'll go down easily between 12:00 and 1:00 and sleep for about 2 hours. But you really can't count on anything with naps.

Makili has a great sense of humor. He loves to tickle me, which means sticking his finger in my belly button. He also has several games he likes to play. He likes it when you hold his hands and throw his arms above his head while saying "cobbler, cobbler, cobbler" (yes I invented this game as I was waiting for the first cobbler of the season). In any case, he will come over and grab my hands and show me what he wants me to do until I play along, and then he laughs and laughs.

Motor skills are Makili's thing. In the three short weeks he's been walking, he has gotten pretty darn good. Now he has moved onto climbing. He's been a climber for a while, but now that is all he wants to do. He pulls every book out of the book basket, so that he can climb in and out, in and out, in and out. He tries to climb onto the furniture, but thankfully he's still too short. He has learned to put the rings onto the stick as seen above. He loves to pull everything out of every cabinet. He loves to feed himself with the spoon, if that's what you can call it.

Apparently tantrums aren't learned behaviors. Raph's family has always joked about how Raph would throw himself on the floor when he was a kid and didn't get what he wanted. Makili does the exact same thing. He of course looks up to make sure I'm watching in the middle of his tantrum before continuing on. He performs these acts when something is taken away or when he is told no. Yesterday for example he had a tantrum when I told him he couldn't play with the outlet at Tim's house. Such a mean mom.
He's also been into puddles lately. Today he wore shoes for the first time. He didn't care for them much and pulled them off whenever possible.