The days have turned into weeks and the weeks into months, and I'm finally getting around to another post. Much has happened since Rowan's 9 month entry.
Rowan has continued to grow, crawled around getting into everything, and started walking right after his 1st birthday. By that point, he was literally into EVERYTHING. Unlike Sydney as a baby who wouldn't leave the room without us, Rowan was content to wander off and get into every drawer or cabinet he could find. He had no fear of anything and less common sense. He didn't respond at all to "No!". We were chasing him everywhere and relocating him every few minutes. At that point, we had to break down and do something we had never needed to do before - Baby Proof the house. It's kind of funny because with Sydney we would just say "No" and that was it. She didn't continue getting into things. At that point, we just assumed that other people who had to baby-proof their houses were parents who weren't laying down the law. We were CLEARLY mistaken. It all suddenly made sense why you needed to put locks on every cabinet, throw up baby gates, etc.
At Rowan’s 1 year doctor visit, he was in the 99th percentile on head circumference, 97th percentile on weight, and 78th percentile on height. Everyone says he is built like a linebacker - broad, heavy, and strong. Many people often comment that he clearly never misses a meal which really gets on Meghan’s nerves. Yes we have a fat baby, but it’s not because he sits around eating potato chips all day. His initial size came from nursing.
As with Sydney, Rowan’s spitting up tapered off around 9 months or so. It just stopped one day much to our delight.
Today, Rowan will eat just about any food we give him and usually wants more.
At 16 months, he weighed in at 27lbs and had a huge appetite. Nursing tapered off and became a brief comfort thing. For breakfast he usually has a banana or a cup of yogurt. Occasionally he has both or some dry cereal or a granola bar. For dinner he shares whatever Meghan and I are eating. One Saturday a couple months back, he ate a cup of mandarin oranges, a banana, and an entire grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. He also LOVEs corn on the cob. Around the 4th of July we discovered this. You have to hold the corn for him but he will move right along it taking bites and if you aren’t careful, he’d bite your fingers in the process.
As another amusing eating fact, Rowan now eats with a fork or tries to. A few months back, Mary started forking some food and handing him the fork and he insisted on continuing that. He has mixed success but can actually fork bites and get them into his mouth. He was having success at this by 15 months and this is his preferred way to eat a cut up hot dog.
As of 17 months Rowan was done with sippy cups at school. We still use them at home to avoid wardrobe changes.
Rowan's development has been interesting. He has developed physically much more quickly than we expected. He's strong and in some ways more coordinated than he should be. Before he hit 15 months, he could climb up the ladder to Sydney's top bunk. Now he can even climb back down. He crawls up and down the stairs at home. He climbs up the stairs at the playground and goes down the big slides. He’s climbed a short chain ladder at the park. More recently, Rowan also discovered he could climb up a folding chair in the basement, slide down the back of the couch, walk around, and do it again. At the same time, he frequently trips over uneven places on the floor between rooms, changes in surfaces outside, and occasionally his own 2 feet.
Mentally, Rowan is also developing very quickly. He understands a LOT of what we say to him although we initially didn’t recognize it because he wasn’t listening to “No!”, wasn’t talking, and was ignoring us when we asked him to do things. Later, we noticed when singing -- “if you’re happy and you know it” that he would clap. If you sang “The wheels on the bus”, he would attempt to make hand gestures and baby-babble something that was similar in meter to “all through the town”. He seems very in tune to music. If for instance, we watch Thomas and Friends, he’s glued to the set for the singing and not terribly interested in the story itself. If asked what a Lion says, he roars. We’re still working on what a monkey says. Occasionally he’ll tell you that a duck says “Kack” “Kack”. He also notices everything outside, points, and jabbers.
Talking is not really progressing and we think he’s holding out on us.
A couple months ago, Rowan was trying very hard to talk and was clearly frustrated that his mouth wasn’t doing what he wanted it to do. He could make a subset of sounds “Ma”, “Da”, “Deet”, “Doo”, “Cah”, and “Bah”. He also clearly said “No!” and “Uh Oh!”. He had and still has no name for himself or Sydney. The Boppy is “Bop-uh”. Car is “Cah”. Thank you was “Deet Doo” which he also used for “Here you go” when handing you something.
Today we’ve got “No”, “Uh Oh”, “Cah”, and “Mama” (which means Mama and I want more). Occasionally we get a phrase like “I did it” or “I’m done” but these are few and far between.
Rowan also wants to be a little helper. He throws away his own dirty diapers and tissues. He’ll also go get things if you ask him to. He’s always bringing me my shoes when I don’t ask.
If Rowan is trying to do something and struggling, and you ask him if he needs help, he’ll usually bring you whatever he’s playing with.
At 16 months, Rowan was adept at opening doors with lever style knobs and closing/latching baby gates.
Around 3 months ago while Meghan was getting ready in the bathroom and I was out of town, Rowan walked into the bathroom and handed Meghan something. It was the child proof caps for the electrical outlets in the living room. He’s since demonstrated the ability to easily remove them on several occasions. There’s a total product fail. A 14 month old shouldn’t be able to do that.
A couple months ago, Rowan went to Sydney’s data care “Bright Horizons” for a week when he’s school, “Rubber Ducky” was closed. That quickly turned into a nightmare for all of us. On the Friday of that week, Rowan woke up with a cold. We dropped him off anyway thinking it was just another cold. Then around mid-afternoon, Meghan got a call saying that Rowan wasn’t feeling well, his breathing seemed labored, and she should probably take him to the doctor. In the 30 minutes that it took Meghan to get there, things went from bad to worse. Meghan walked into the classroom. The teacher was holding Rowan who was discolored, only partially responsive, struggling to breathe. They called 911, paramedics came, an ambulance took Rowan to one hospital and then he was transferred to another. Rowan spent 2 nights in the pediatric ICU. In the end, he was diagnosed with reactive airway disease which one could think of as asthma for toddlers. It’s not uncommon and doesn’t mean he’ll have asthma as an adult. It does however mean that we have a rescue inhaler to use.
While in the hospital, several of the nurses were very taken with Rowan. He was treated very well and got a lot of attention. As usual, he was sporting a bruise on the middle of his forehead and early on, one of the nurses asked us about it. I commented that it was hard to tell where the bruise came from because he’s always running around and bumping into things head first. I don’t know whether that answer was believed at first or not, but the same guy later commented to some of the others that if they watch him for a few minutes, it will be clear where the bruise came from.
Another story from the same event had to do with the paramedics giving Rowan an IV. They strapped his arm to a “board” of some sort and stuck the needle in his arm. He didn’t even flinch. Then after the drugs hit his system he snapped out of it and managed to flex his arm bending the board in half. One of the paramedics told Meghan that he shouldn’t be able to do that. There’s a lot of things our little guy shouldn’t be big enough or strong enough or smart enough to do. No one has bothered to tell him that though.
At 17 months, Rowan is still growing. He has also gotten a lot more snuggly and clingy. He would be content to spend half of his time sitting in someone’s lap playing something. He’s also started developing an attachment to his ank (tag blanket). He wears 24 month shirts and 18 month pants. He eats just about everything and has been known to have 3 helpings of various snacks and foods at school. He doesn’t really talk but loves music and books. He follows basic instructions. He likes toddler puzzles and enjoys playing with Sydney’s kitchen set. The toy vacuum cleaner is probably his favorite toy. Rowan also loves the swing and spends much of his time swinging. Overall, he’s a very sweet and happy little guy.