This has been a month of firsts. We'll start with daycare. He graduated from the baby room to the young toddler room (12-23 months). It's much larger with more kids, more toys, more art, a slide!, and a big table where they eat meals. They use spoons and forks and different types of cups based on ability. Moriarty is still a big fan of using his hands, even for things like yogurt, but he's learning to use a spoon. He loves playing with the kids but sometimes kid rumbles happen and he was blocking the slide last week and a kid bit him. He has quite a mark (in the pics) but it didn't break the skin. No rabies this time. He's still not walking yet but he's quite confident standing unassisted and hopefully watching the other kids will inspire him and give him confidence. Now that's he such a big boy we've also started having him help us clean up his toys and do laundry.
He's added some awesome new words to his vocabulary. We regularly eat [ba] nanas for breakfast and now all things that are kinda shaped and colored like bananas (including sweet potatoes) are "nanas". He's also started saying "book" several times a day and was really into books this week. He's become more engaged in the stories. We read more together and he's been reading them alone. I'm also convinced he said "monkey" at the zoo when we saw the orangutans, and "Poof" the name of his rocking dragon. Those are dodgier and he hasn't repeated them yet.
The weather finally turned and spring has arrived in Seattle. We went to the awesome playground near our house for the first time a couple weeks ago. He had used kiddie slides at school or the covered area of a local mall, but this was the first time on a big (little) kid slide. Also the first time in a swing. He loved the swing. I took a video of him giggling while I pushed him. He spent a fair amount of time that first visit sitting on the park bench watching people. He talked to lots of kids and adults and blew people kisses, like he does. We tried out the sand box but he wasn't a fan.
Now that we're taking him to more outside activities, and he's so good at standing and cruising, it was time to get shoes. If you weren't aware, baby shoes are ridiculously cute. Baby feet are really small! We wanted to make sure he got properly sized because that's critical to learning to walk well. The first 4 stores we went to (3 children's stores and one shoe store) didn't actually size baby feet. They just sold crappy shoes that were cute but not focused on healthy feet. I was not OK with this. We ended up at Nordstrom and had a great experience. They were really nice. They found a few pairs that were good for him and we picked one. They give babies pictures to commemorate the event and a stuffed "Nordie" doll.
We went for his 12 month check-up and vaccines only to discover he had Hand, Food, and Mouth...and was cutting 4 teeth at the same time. SHEESH. This kid takes after me and never does half measures. This week he managed to get bilateral ear infections and is oozing from all his orifices. Pip and I have tried to split up the week but we're both missing tons of work. One upside is he's super snuggly right now and just lays his head on my chest like when he was tiny. The doc also said that his eczema will be better if we start daily baths and lotioning. He'd had a few baths before but since we don't have a proper bath tub we mostly shower him. We got a big plastic tub and are doing regular baths now and he loves it. He splashes and giggles and is just a happy baby. I've decided to keep him.