Bye...

After 3 months of no haircuts (since his birthday), we tried giving Basti's head a trim.  Tried because he cried till he was all tears and snot so we had to stop.  During that attempt we got the sides, but not the top.  I think it looks a little funny and he gets crazy bed heads, but oh well.

Appetite comes and goes, still.  I know I should be used to it by now...  but I keep hoping he will just eat and not spit it all out.  They say to pick your battles as a parent or it will be constant war against the incomprehensible will of a baby/toddler leading to insanity, so eating shouldn't be an issue but a fun play time.  Still it can get frustrating when you think you've finally found something somewhat healthy that he will eat but the next time it just goes flying in the air.  WHHHAAA...

Pooping.  Yikes.  He poops about every 3 days now, even though I try to give him some "special" water (with stool softener) every day.  But when he poops you know it cause it stinks up the whole room.  And the clean up is no laughing matter...  it sticks to his butt like clay, so after some attempts at wiping he gets an emergency bath super quick.  The other day with all the struggling and juggling, he ended up sitting on my leg with his dirty butt...  so my pants went straight to the wash and I had to bleach the bath tub.  Nice!

Now that we've reduced nursing by about 50%...  Mommy needs to stop eating so much.  Darn.  No more second breakfast or 11sies or second dinner.  Even though I still get hunger attacks so severe that I feel like barfing (yes I know, makes no sense).  Ugh.  But I need to watch it because I've gained some weight very quickly.

Party was a success...  Poppy reports that Basti took 4 unassisted steps while I was out getting balloons.  We had a full house with 15 adults, 6 dogs and Basti Baby.  For the all american party we had burgers, hot dogs, and apple pie.  A lot of apple pie.  I bought 2 apple pies.  Then a guest brought another store bought apple pie.  And then another guest brought a home made apple pie.  Apple pie overload.  At around 7pm, Basti politely started saying "bye" and waving to all our guests...  hee hee.  So everybody left.

Tonight is leave on our big adventure south.  !!!

Quickly...

Let's see...  Basti Wasti is 1 week shy of turning 16 months.  What?!?  Crazy how some days seem to go by so slowly (when he is cranky and whiny) but the overall is going by FAST!

Tia Hen and Tio Jav came to visit mid month.  We managed to adventure all the way to SF to the Academy of Sciences.  I think Basti enjoyed it...  lots of huge fish to point at, love the aquariums there.  We also rolled around eating our way through town.  Basti was quite a trooper through our adventures.  The biggest highlight of the week with Tia Hen was Basti took his first unassisted steps!  Woa!  We were in the kitchen when Basti took his first 2 steps, Hen and I screamed "Philipp!" (he was in the bedroom).  Poppy rushed out wondering if something bad had happened.  Oops.  Then Basti managed another 2 steps.  And that was it.  Another day Basti took 1 step on his own as I was trying to feed him some breakfast.  And well, that was it.  Now he's not a big fan of walking practice...  he shakes his head no when I have him stand up and he knows what's coming.  So I won't push him anymore.  He will walk again when he is ready.

I plan to some day write a post on my insights into the crazy world of breastfeeding.  Today is not the day.  So long story short: I've finally weaned Basti off pre-naptime nursing.  Tuesday was our first day going to nap "dry".  After just a minute or two of complaining, he quickly drifted off to sleepy world.  Wednesday was even better, no complaining.  But then Thursday came...  and it was all tears, snot and screaming.  Basti only took 1 nap and for only an hour.  And Friday was the same thing.  Which means Mommy was drained of all energy and Basti was quite cranky, not a good combo.

Thank goodness today he decided to go down for his first nap without a peep.  Yey!   So we're off to a good start to the day...  and we need our energy because today we're having a party to celebrate Poppy becoming a US citizen!

And Monday night we have a long drive to go visit Basti's cousins for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

15 Month Basti

Basti is 15 months old!  WOW!

In the last month he has accomplished a lot:

- Stand on his own for up to 10 seconds.

- Climb onto everything: ottoman, coffee table, couch, boxes, drawers.

- Climb up the play structures at the park...  and given time (with me spotting him, of course), he will go down the slide on his own.
- With some guidance at first, figured out how to put the wooden rounds on the peg of the stacking tower
- Starting to take an interest in sorting blocks.
- He has taken more interest in Baby Time at the local Library and hanging out with his buddy Samuel.

- Mealtime mess has reduced GREATLY.  Basti will point at what he wants and often lets me know when he's "all done" with hand signals.  If I could remember to do sign language with him...  

- He shakes his head "no" when he doesn't want whatever it is I'm offering him.

- Sometimes he says HI.  Often he says BYE and waves.  Pretty cute.  He also randomly says bye to big white buses or trucks.

- He likes to press the light switches on the wall (Poppy showed him that trick), and sometimes says BYE to the light after turning it off.

Stats from his 15 month check up:

- Weight: 21 lb 14 oz

- Length: 30.5 in

- Head: 48 cm