So for those of you who don’t know we are right in the middle of International Babywearing Week. I am a HUGE fan of babywearing. It is so comforting and snugly for both mother and baby. Sweet Pea probably spent the first six months of his life (at least until he learned to crawl) cozied up to me or Elmo. Whether he was just lying on our chests, next to us in bed, or all wrapped in a sling.

In honor of this week Adventures in Babywearing is hosting a contest to win a new sling from Nonny and Boo. Just pop over to her site to learn more about the contest and about babywearing!!

I tried four different slings and wraps before I found this moby wrap. For me, it was the most comfortable. I was sad that I didn’t find it sooner. And I just spent ten minutes trying to find a picture of me and Sweet Pea using it, but I couldn’t find one!! But I did find one with daddy and Sweet Pea using the baby bjorn. There is something a little more manly about a baby bjorn and Daddy always used that one.

Ok. So we are past the tooth debacle and definitely feeling much better about it. I think Elmo and I took it a little harder than Sweet Pea did. Thanks so much to everyone who shared their own stories with me. It was good to hear stories of people going through the same thing. Stuff like that always makes your own situation much easier.

So now I am going to move on to something a little more cute. Sweet Pea has never really been one to eat things or put things in his mouth. That is probably because he has either had nursing or his pacifier to satisfy his needs. To this day he is incredibly addicted to his pacifier, so I have never really had to worry about him eating random things. Until a few days ago….

I don’t know what changed or flip flopped in his head, but now he must eat everything! Here are some examples:

1. I had just bought groceries and loaded everything into the car. I am half way home and decide to take a peek at little Sweet Pea in the backseat. And what is he doing? Munching on a hamburger bun!! He had taken the package out of the grocery bag, opened it up, and was eating the bun. I can’t even tell you how he managed to do that.

2. Sweet Pea sits and plays on the bathroom floor while I am taking a shower. I peer around the shower curtain every now and then to see how he is doing. The other morning, I noticed he was be particularly quiet so I took a peek and he was eating the toothpaste! How he managed to get hold of it I have no idea, but he was certainly enjoying it!

3. Our bedroom is off limits to Sweet Pea. So when he does get to enter on rare occasions he is very excited. It’s almost like entering new territory for him. Because he is not allowed in there we don’t worry as much if we leave food or drinks in there. One night Elmo popped some popcorn and left it on the floor. I accidentally left the door to our room open the next morning and when I went looking for Sweet Pea he was sitting on the bedroom floor chomping away on some popcorn. Now we are very strict about what he eats and popcorn has never made the list before so he was extremely happy with himself since he was in the forbidden bedroom and eating something totally new.

It is a big change for us to have to just now start watching out for this. You would think that he would have gone through this stage a little younger or not at all. Oh well…it just makes life a little more interesting.

Sweet Pea has a little chair and table that he sits at to eat, read, play, or do whatever strikes his fancy. He has used that table and chair everyday for the past month or so. He has even fallen out of the chair before. Never has it been bad. He always picks himself right up and moves on.

Today he was sitting in his little chair eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch at his little table and boom…he falls out of the chair. We didn’t think to much of it at first. He was crying a little and we walked over to help him up. Then we noticed a lot of blood around his mouth. Needless to say we freaked out. We scooped him up and rushed to the kitchen. It was really scary. We had no idea what was happening or where the blood was coming from, therefore we didn’t know how to make it stop.

And then, something caught Daddy’s eye. He picked it up and lo and behold it was a tooth! Ahhh!!

Somehow Sweet Pea’s right front tooth had popped out in his fall. This helped in knowing where to put pressure with a wash cloth and we were able to get the bleeding stopped. We decided to take him to the minor emergency room to have a doctor check him over to make sure nothing else was in his mouth and to make sure the tooth had come out all the way. By the time we made in there Sweet Pea had calmed down and was actually in a cheery mood. The doctor okayed him, but suggested we take him to a pediatric dentist this week. There is nothing they can do about the tooth. It was a clean break. It is almost like the tooth just slid right out of his gums. Sweet Pea will just have no tooth there until he grows in his adult teeth.

I have to say I have been going between wanting to cry and being relieved since this happened. It’s amazing how something that we do every single day turned into a visit to the doctor. I guess that just shows that we really have no control on what is going to happen. We have to lay our complete trust in the Lord. I am so glad that losing a tooth was the worst thing that happened in his fall.

But on the other hand I still can’t believe that this happened. I keep asking myself stupid things like why did I let him sit there instead of the highchair or even the floor? Why wasn’t I sitting next to him? Why didn’t I make myself and sandwich and eat with him? I have no idea!! I know I can’t play the what if game but the thoughts just keep entering my head. My baby’s smile will never be the same and that makes me cry. I can’t even put into words how sad that makes me. He had the cutest little gap tooth grin and now it is gone.

I can’t even tell you why this makes me so upset. I know it is just a tooth. But I feel like a part of him is gone. I know that is not even true. Even after getting back from the doctor he was the same Sweet Pea. Running around and laughing. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be better. Sweet Pea doesn’t seem to care at all that the tooth is gone. I need to just take my direction from him. Whatever he is feeling about it I need to feel, and he obviously doesn’t care. The only change we saw in him tonight was that he would take his tounge and rub it in the spot where the tooth used to be…almost like it felt really cool. Here are some pics of him from this evening after the doctor visit:

I know he is still the same old Sweet Pea. I part of me just needed to grieve a little. Thanks for listening.

In August I wrote about Sweet Pea’s first haircut. Now that he is getting bigger and his hair is growing a lot faster we are going to have to start using the clippers to cut his hair instead of using scissors to just trim his hair. Tonight we had our first experience using the clippers to cut his hair. Sweet Pea went back and forth from being ok to crying several times. Hopefully the more times we do this the more he will get used to it.

Now it’s all over and he looks so cute with all his hair cut off!! This event is just another reminder that Sweet Pea is no longer a baby. He is quickly turing into a little boy!

I am so glad that we own our own clippers and we don’t have to waste money having to pay for haircuts. Daddy does a great job!

This year for Halloween Sweet Pea was a pumpkin. He was so cute! Instead of taking him trick-or-treating, we decided to take him to the nursing home that we volunteer at to show the residents his costume. They all loved it! While we were there I decided that this is something we will do every year. The residents of the nursing home get much more out of seeing the little ones in costume than anyone else.

Today was a hard day. We had to say goodbye to Daddy for the week. He started his new job last week and then came to visit us for the weekend. Sweet Pea and I are still at the old place packing and seeing to last minute move details. But this time next week we will be moved into out new apartment and all together again!

To give Daddy a proper send off we all went to Starbucks to enjoy a drink together. Sweet Pea got a special treat of Organic Vanilla Milk, which is something he has never had before. He gulped it down! Here are Daddy and Sweet Pea enjoying each other and their drinks:

Here is one of Sweet Pea enjoying his milk. It was definitely a treat for him. He is not used to having anything so sweet! I tasted it and it tasted exactly like vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Here Sweet Pea is being a good citizen. It was so awesome. He finished with his drink, saw the trash can, and threw it away. I didn’t even have to tell him to do it! How funny is that?! I have taught him well.

We will miss you Daddy and can’t wait to see you next weekend!!!!

Today Sweet Pea is sixteen months old. Is that really possible?

At this point he can walk, run, jump, dance, and climb. He loves anything that has to do with animals. He can make the sounds for the cow, dog, snake, bird, mouse, lion, tiger, and he makes an awesome fish face.

His favorite food is still oatmeal. I think it might always be. That boy could eat oatmeal breakfast, lunch, and dinner and would be content. This evening he went to the spot in the kitchen where we keep the oatmeal and asked for some. He knows the sign for “more” and has started to use it without prompting. We are working on please.

He knows lots of his body parts. Mainly his eyes, nose, mouth, head, hair, toes, and belly. He knows where his belly button is, but gets upset when we ask him about it because his belly is so chubby he can’t see it! So he always ends up pointing to ours.

Reading is a favorite. We could spend an entire evening taking each book off the shelf and reading it four times. He loves to snuggle in our laps and turn the pages.

He loves to help me sweep. I have two brooms so that when I pull mine out I can give one to him and he can help me. Although more often than not he just messes up my pile.

He still has a pacifier. I am not sure how or when we are going to try to break him of this. I don’t really mind him having it. It helps a lot with comforting and when he is upset in the car.

He loves to cuddle and hug. Throughout the day he is constantly stopping what he is doing to give me hug. Then he will jump down and go back to whatever he was doing. My heart melts a little every time he does this.

He has become quite the daredevil. He loves to climb. I have caught him more than once standing on the rocking horse. Not sure how to get through his head that this is a bad idea. He knows I don’t like him doing it because he does it when I am not looking and then when I catch him he grins and jumps down.

We have a twin bed in his room and at bedtime we lay down with him and cuddle until he drifts off. Some people may frown on this, but my baby will only be small once and I want to savor his body snuggled next to mine as long as possible.

A month or so ago I wrote about how Sweet Pea started climbing up on to the couch by himself. Well today was the day he ventured to the kitchen table chairs. The hubby and I were in the kitchen when we heard the grunts and squeaks of our offspring and we ran to see what he was up to. And lo and behold he was trying his hardest to get up into the kitchen chair. And this is no small feat if you have seen our chairs. They are the extra tall ones. We stood there and cheered him on until he made it! Here he is enjoying his accomplishment. The days ahead should be interesting because I really don’t want him falling from those chairs. Hopefully I will be able to keep tabs on him.

Sweet Pea loves to play the guitar! If he sees anything that resembles a guitar he picks it up and pretends to strum. Doesn’t he look like a natural?

Sweet Pea is finally big enough to climb onto his rocking horse all by himself! He gets on and rocks and then puts his feet onto the floor and scoots around the room. He also stops occasionally to pet the mane. How cute is that?!

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