Repeat

Our schedule is mostly on repeat.  Brendan thrives on his schedule and becomes very upset when we start books and he hasn't brushed his teeth yet, he sits there pretending to brush his teeth, as if saying "hello mom, you have to brush my teeth, duh!".  Our days are very similar, the differences involve which store or park we visit each day.  I get so excited when there is a play date on the calendar; I love play dates, especially ones that involve going to someone's house.  Brendan is incredibly shy and clingy at 19 months.  If we go somewhere or to someone's house he will spend about 45 minutes to 1 hour clinging to me and just wanting to sit in my lap.  Seeing the other kids playing doesn't draw him in, he just wants to sit and observe.  It's driving me nuts!  So I've been taking him to as many play dates as possible to get him used to it and hopefully he'll become less shy and clingy.  Out of all the kids we play with  at any given time (a group of about 18), no other child is like that!  I shouldn't compare, but it worries me that he's not trying to be mr. independent like the other kids, some of which are his age exactly or a few months younger.  Even when the play date is at our house, he won't leave my side...ugh.

B is trying to talk more and more and it's even more frustrating than before, I so want to be able to understand him and I'm sure he'd love for me to understand him too!  He has acquired more words and that is very exciting...boy oh boy, is he ever a little parrot!   "Peas" (please) is my new favorite.

B eats non-stop...seriously...he's constantly saying "more".  When he is full he does tell us, so I'm not worried about turning off his natural "stop eating" switch, but where does this kid put it!?  And he stays so skinny (at his 18 month check-up his weight was in the 5th percentile, while his height was in the 85th percentile)!  Once upon a time I had that kind of metabolism, then freshman year of college happened.  His absolute favorite is "za" (pizza), he will eat 3 pieces of a thick DiGiorno frozen pizza...that's how much I usually eat...yikes!  And he thoroughly enjoys his string cheese (heaven forbid I cut up pieces of a brick of mozzarella cheese, no, that won't do) and yogurt.  He'll go absolutely gaga over cupcakes and cookies, good golly.  The way he gets excited for a cupcake is the way I get excited when my coffee is done brewing, (and well, it's how I get excited for a cupcake too).  It's a good thing he'll eat the cheese and yogurt every day and doesn't get tired of it because he's back to not liking milk.  About one week ago I stopped giving him his 6 oz. bottle of milk when he first woke up, before breakfast.  I showed him that the bottles were gone and that he had a special Mickey milk straw cup (he was super excited about the Mickey aspect of it), I poured milk right into it with him there.  I handed him the cup, he took a couple of pulls of it, then made a face, shoved the cup back in my face, and said "sha".  I'm thinking that "sha" is his swear word.  So he watched his morning Mickey without any milk and was okay, he had no tantrums or anything...which is great.  I expected a major meltdown with no bottle.  He must be punishing us though, because now at his meals (when I used to give him milk) he won't drink the milk at all.  He might take one sip thinking it's his water and then throw it over the side and say "sha".  He would rather be incredibly thirsty than drink milk during his meals or any other time for that matter.  UGH.  I even tried chocolate milk one morning with his breakfast...the response?  "SHA!"  Yeah.  I don't get it.  The doctor had said that it was fine, just make sure he's getting his calcium elsewhere.  Fine.  But I really like the idea of him drinking milk!  All the other kids drink milk and enjoy it and ask for it!  He asks for his "dree" (drink, which equals water).  I keep offering the milk every few meals, so he understands it's not going away.  I sure hope he likes milk in the future.  I wish he could talk and tell me what's going on.

And B cannot get enough Mickey, planes in the sky, or balls, oh and trucks...loves trucks.  Yup, he's a little boy :)