14 Months

Here are some things my 14 month old is doing these days:
Warning: This might turn out to be long!

1. EATING!!!!! Every day I am shocked at the things he is trying! This is all on his own. None of it has to do with his Eating Specialist. Tuesday night he had the same thing Levi and I had for dinner. This was the first time ever! Grilled chicken, rolls, green beans, and broccoli and cheese. He didn't gag once! I actually can't even remember the last time he threw up as a result of eating. It's amazing! He also has been eating cubed fruit, and toddler turkey and chicken sticks, minus the skin. They look like Vienna sausages and smell horrible, but he likes them!!! Today he also ate Rice-A-Roni. He was eating it by the hand fulls and before today even once grain of rice would make him gag. This is giving me enormous hope that his GI will find nothing wrong!
2. HELPING! I now cannot do dishes with him awake if someone is not at the house to entertain him. He will hand you the silverware piece by piece, then goes to the bigger things. It is a race to get to the breakables before he does, which is just about impossible because most things are! He also likes to refold laundry and bring you hangers. Levi has started letting him help carry large things like laundry baskets by holding the other end. It is too cute! If we would let him, he would throw away the diaper after every diaper change. He also brings Levi his clothes, belt and shoes he lays out while getting dressed for work. He has also gotten very into bringing me every tiny speck of whatever it is he finds on the floor. It beats him putting it in his mouth!
3. CLIMBING! Couches, ottomans, chairs, stairs, large toys... ANYTHING tall enough to fall off of and get hurt is worth climbing.
4. TEETH! He now has 6 teeth. 4 on top and 2 on bottom. I just can't believe how fast they are coming in since he turned 1.
5. All GONE! You can hear him say this multiple times a day. When he is finished eating, when you come to the last of something, when his dirty diaper is being folded up to throw away... He also will say it in question form which is just simply adorable the way it comes out!
   
6. WOW WOW! That is his new word thanks to the cartoon WowWow Wubzy. He doesn't watch the cartoon very often but I let him listen to the theme song on the computer, which brings me to #7.
7. THEME SONGS! Since he was just a few months old his favorite TV Theme Song has been the theme from Malcolm in the Middle. He will stop in his tracks and tun to the TV to listen to several themes. His favorite TV show that isn't a cartoon is Jon and Kate plus 8.
8. ON AND OFF! Half of his day is spent filling something up then dumping it out only to fill it up again. We went through a few different bottles before we found one we liked and I had the old bottles in zip lock bags under the counter. A couple of weeks ago he found them and plays with them several times a day, putting them in the bags and taking them back out. I also washed out a juice bottle and he takes the lid on and off 100 times a day. This is alot easier than the stage where he wanted to empty his diaper bag out but wouldn't fill it up himself.
   
9. WEIGHT. At his last weigh in he was 19.4 pounds, so he had gained 2 ounces in a short period of time. For him, that is fantastic! Just a little more to go and he can be forward facing in the car! His next check up is on October 25, which makes me worried that I won't be able to be there for his shots. :( I'm sure they will weigh him on the 7th though.
10. FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS. If you tell him to get a book and come sit down, he will do just that! When you say "look" and point at something, he will go get it. If we put a blanket or pillow on the floor and tell him to Go Night Night, he will run over and plop down on it. I need to get that on video.
    
11. BEING SILLY. When Gavin looks in the mirror he always sticks out his tongue. He likes to give "zerberts" He has a woody wood pecker laugh that cracks us up. He also has this laugh that makes him sound like an evil scientist. He will pat his lips to try and do the Indian Call. Levi calls it that because I am part Blackfoot Indian. He will dance to most any music and cracks up when somebody joins him.
    
12. PITY! This is something he has gotten quite good at. If he is being rough with me when Levi is in the room, he will slap my arm then look at Levi for approval, completely ignoring me telling him no. When Levi tells him to be gentle, his bottom lip pokes out, a little fake cry comes and he can even muster up teary eyes. This is nothing compared to what he does when I tell him to be nice to his NaNa! He can get HER to apologize for his actions!! I have never seen such a stunned face as when I asked my mom to tell him to be gentle for me the other day. I couldn't help but laugh. He just stood in the middle of us not knowing who to pout to! Even though NaNa got onto him in the softest voice known to man, you would have thought she growled right in his face!