October 22nd, 2010 by Busy Mommy

Nolan turned 1 today.  This morning as I was driving Nolan over to “Grandma’s” house, it was 10:30 and I kept glancing back at the little guy in the carseat who I was busy pushing out at this same time 1 year ago.  He was born at 12 noon on the dot. Does this mean perhaps he will be punctual later in life?

To think how helpless he was just a year ago and then looking at him now is  just mind-boggling.  I don’t recall actively trying to teach him a whole lot and yet he has just learned how to do things, for the most part, on his own at his own pace.  Everytime I tried to intervene and “help” him learn to do something on my time table all it did was create a frustrated unhappy baby- so I’ve relinquished control and am now content to let him learn at his own pace- I see that babies have an innate drive inside them to learn and copy and grow, so I really don’t have to do too much but be myself and play with him and do my everyday things- he catches on as life goes by.  I’m not sure if all babies are like this, but this is Nolan’s style.

His current vocabulary consists of saying “what’s that?” which comes out from his mouth as “wus sat?”, while pointing his finger at a myriad of different things.  Half the time I don’t know how to answer.

He points to a thinga-ma-jigy in a magazine, “wus sah?”

…..”um, that’s a bowl sort of….or maybe a vase, or uhhh a flask….”

“wus sah?”

“that’s a uh computer screen….uh computer monitor”

Or his favorite of late is to jab his finger into Ben’s belly button.  “wus sah???”

Nolan has this funny way of wrinkling up his face, especially his nose, when he feels like complaining.  It’s quite funny- if you look closely it’s kind of just like one nostril that he wrinkles up higher than the other one.  That takes coordination!

He is still crawling madly around.  He COULD walk if he really wanted to.  He’s just not too motivated yet.  He has been walking a little with the aid of one of our hands, or his little mickey mouse airplane mobile.

I don’t know if you recall a few months ago when Nolan was just learning how to open drawers and get into their contents….I mentioned wanting to let him explore…well, he’s done enough exploring.  He knows plenty well how to open drawers and take everything out, enough that I plan on adding those child safety tabs that prevents kids from opening them.  I’m just getting pretty worn out from picking up SO MUCH STUFF ALL OVER THE FLOOR EVERY SINGLE DAY.   As we speak, the floor of Nolan’s room is almost completely covered with all the books he diligently removed from the bookshelf yesterday.   Nolan is ready to actually play games and look at educational toys now, so he doesn’t need to pull all my baking utensils out of the middle kitchen drawer and scatter them all over anymore.

Did I also mention anytime I open the fridge, he makes a beeline for it, trying to get in that secret little world.  I have to be really quick if I want to close the door again before he gets there.

He has started to display little “mini tantrums.”  Ie. I take something away from him that he shouldn’t be touching and he immediately cries/protests and either arches his back or slumps his body on the ground.  It only lasts seconds though and he’s moved on.

Foodwise, he just loves my turkey chili, and he’s been loving the whole-grain pancakes I’ve been making in the morning (see post on millet pancakes).  He does not like squash.  Everytime I put some in his mouth he spits it out.  He also doesn’t like the skin of things- like the skin of apples and such.  Ben taught him to make a little sound of smacking his lips together when he’s hungry or when he wants to eat something we’re eating.  He like tomatoes but he’s allergic to them right now.  That doesn’t stop him from scouting them out in the garden and eating them- especially green ones.  He hasn’t learned the concept of ripeness yet.  He has gotten the concept that most globe-shaped items are things to eat though, because in the garden the other day when he was crawling around he kept trying to pull off and eat round things.  First it was a pomegranate, then a passion fruit.  All unripe of course.

I just remembered this post was supposed to be reflecting on being a mom.  As tiring as it can be, and as much as I sometimes get tired of having so much of the mental space in my brain taken up by caring for a little person 24/7, it’s also very rewarding.  I love to cuddle with my son and I love to see him acquire new abilities.  I love that I know how to make him smile, that I know how to make him giggle and laugh.  I love when he lays his head on my shoulder.  I love how when I take him in the shower he just lays against me all sedated as the hot water taps across his back.  One time he even fell asleep like that!  I feel proud when I can make and feed him good food- he hasn’t had a jar of baby food yet!