Shawna’s Whimsical Weblog

17 months old
For a few weeks now, we have been working with Marshall trying to get him to use utensils instead of his hands to eat. The Stages have gone as such:
Stage 1 Cry whenever mom tries to hand me a spoon. This lasted about a week.
Stage 2 Both mom and Marshall hold spoon and guide it to Marshall’s mouth. This lasted a few days.
Stage 3 (current stage) Mom loads food onto spoon. Marshall puts spoon with or without food into mouth. If the food falls off spoon, Marshall smiles and says “uh-oh”. Now it is quite likely that the food will fall off the spoon, because Marshall likes to eat all food like it were peanut butter. Basically he turns the spoon upside down to better scrape the food off the spoon with his tongue, even if the food is something non-scrape worthy like applesauce. Mom tries to encourage him to scoop his own food from the bowl, but that must be in Stage 4. Presently he will stick either end of the utensil into the bowl and make bangy stabby motions.

Uppa
One of Marshall’s favorite activities to do these days is to hang out on our bed. Holding onto the most awesomely crocheted blanket from Jeannine that lays over the bed, Marshall will say “uppa”. It’s quite understandable why Marshall would love the bed. There’s so much to do up there! There are tickle fights to be had, books to be read, balls to be thrown (and fetched by the nearest parent or Marshall acting as a ‘baby crane’), windows to stare out to see whom might be returning up the stairs, not to mention how fun it is to simply walk around on the bed. Dad, Mom and Marshall all enjoy spending adorable hour (the hour leading up to Marshall’s bedtime) on the bed.

Boo, bubble, bah
I’m glad that Marshall enjoys books. He commonly pulls out books that he knows contain the moon (boo), bubbles or balls (bah). He will then flip ahead to those pages to point out said object. I bring home board books from the library and he quickly works them into his memory catalog. It’s crazy to see what data is being stored away in his little baby brain.

My big fat-ass baby loves to eat
Those not familiar with this banjo riff by Stewie from Family Guy should watch this video first. Tim and I often sing this little ditty when Marshall is demanding “more”, “more”, “more” food. He does have a Buddha belly and I’m not sure if he can see his belly button anymore. I’m sure he’s just stocking up for his next growth spurt. I have yet to find a good way to measure his height, but I’d guess he’s around 27 lbs. Marshall’s books are also on the menu, because he is working on his 10th tooth (his upper right pre-molar). He’s fairly drooly and loves to cram hard objects into the back of his mouth. He had been working on his lower left pre-molar, but I think that one is completely in at the point. Now he just needs to work on getting a matching molar, so he can really start grinding down food!

Very excited that Grandma is reading a book (17 month birthday)

Meanwhile in the land of floor hockey, I had been captaining my White team, “Bone, Thugz and Hamonry”, in the longest recorded season in the history of the San Diego Floor Hockey League. Last week we were finally eliminated in the qrtr finals. I thought my team had what it took to make it to the championships, but the 3 weeks off just killed the team chemistry we had been building.

Not Pictured: Jason Smart

The Championships were slated to be played tomorrow, but it looks like rain will again delay the season ending further. I actually signed up to captain again for the upcoming season. The draft would also have taken place tomorrow, but many of the captains wanted to see some of the new faces before drafting. I picked 4 players I had never seen play before last season. In hindsight, I was really lucky in how well those new players turned out. If nothing else, I will make sure I draft 4 defenseman so I don’t have to play defense again this season.

Captain, my playgroup Captain
Over the past two months, I have been making a push to find a playgroup for Marshall. He’s of the age that he could start working on his socializing and I enjoy the adult interaction as well. In December, I started putting up flyers around the neighborhood in an attempt to form my own playgroup. I mostly placed them on the community mailboxes, but they didn’t stay up long (I think the HOAs tore them down). In December, I had just 3 responses. In January when I put up more flyers at the park, I received 2 more from working moms who couldn’t make the morning meet-up time. Jen Petrini and I met up with the original 3 at the beginning of January on a Tuesday morning, but those 3 moms have flaked out ever since. Just as I was ready to throw in the towel, I saw in the Parent Connection that a new playgroup was forming in Mira Mesa. They were going to meet on Monday mornings at 10 AM at the parks nearby. Last Monday would have been the first meeting, but it ended up being rained out. I decided instead to focus my efforts on meeting on Friday afternoons to allow for the other 2 moms to meet-up as well as have Mimy/Connor and Deb/Aidan join us. We had our first playdate last Friday. Again the other 2 moms didn’t show. I do have hope as one of the mom’s then e-mailed to apologize that she had been held up at work. Next week she has volunteered to host the playgroup at her house! The good news out of all of this is that Marshall and I visited with Jen and Luca every week in January. Marshall can identify Luca, and calls him “Gaka”. He even calls for Gaka sometimes when Luca is not around. I dare say that Marshall may have his first “friend”, even though most of their interaction has involved taking a ball or other play item away from each. They are pretty cute together.

This picture was taken just after they were having an “E.T.” moment (touching fingertips)

15 mo check-up
Marshall had his 15-mo check-up at the beginning of January. I hadn’t previously posted about it, because I wanted to get a better measurement of Marshall. That hasn’t happened. He’s hard to keep in one place long enough to figure out how tall he is. The doctor’s had claimed he was 32 1/4 inches. There is no way he is that long yet. He still fits well on his changing mat (which is only 32 in long). If I had to guess I would say he’s 31 1/4 in. Marshall weighed in at 24.x lbs. (50%). Marshall has his 8th tooth coming in, but Tim and I think he might be working on his molars. He has been very cranky these past 2 days.

What’s that you say?
Marshall’s vocabulary had been pretty much at a stand still these last 2 months. This past week we see 3 new words emerging. “Gaka” (see above), “Uppa” (Up) and yesterday he started saying “bubble”. This new set of words are his first multi-syllabic words that don’t involve a repetition of the same sound twice. “Up” is definitely useful, and will only become more useful as Marshall learns to use it with more frequency.

Hi ho Silver, away!
Marshall has an interesting interpretation of some of the things we say. If Marshall and I are playing outside of his room and it’s time to change his diaper I will say “Marshall, let’s change your diaper” and then lead the way into his room. Marshall will start to follow me and when we get to his room I will iterate the same phrase again. Marshall will then go over and sit on his rocking horse. Marshall doesn’t normally play with his rocking horse (it’s still a little big for him). I will then go pick him up from his horse and take him over to the changing table without a fuss. I know he knows the word horse, and I’m fairly certain he knows the word diaper. I’m not sure why he does it. I chalk it up to crazy babyheadedness. Speaking of crazy baby, Marshall discovered he could turn around and around in circles today (and ultimately get so dizzy he’d fall over). He did this with both Dada and Mama today on separate occasions. If he continues to work on this newfound discovery tomorrow, I will try and grab a video of it.