18 month old Boston is ON THE MOVE!!

WARNING: I haven't blogged about Boston for 6 months so prepare for some serious Boston over load. But hey, no one said you have to read this... I have said and will say again, most of these posts are for me and Andrew (ok probably just me) and helping jot my memory as I get older. I don't' want to forget these days...

I was looking at my last post about Boston to see what I need to update and pretty much EVERYTHING has changed. Last time I posted he had no teeth, wasn't walking, etc. so I'll get to it! I seriously could not be more proud of little Boston!! He is such a joy and is learning things soo quickly! He may not be growing that quickly... still fits into some size 6-9 months pants...but he is so smart and makes Andrew and me laugh and smile everyday at the things he does. For instance, I'll just start with this morning. Andrew was packing his lunch for work, and I had just come down to say good bye to him and then make breakfast for Boston and me when we heard a crunching sound in the pantry. We turned on the light to see this... (notice his tippy toes.)

 Yeah, someone got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. lol We have a little pantry thief that REALLY wants cookies before breakfast. I love how he's up as high as he can reach on his little tippy toes. cute boy. You know it's actually a comforting thought knowing that if something happened to me while Andrew was at work at least Boston wouldn't starve to death as long as we keep Vanilla Wafers around. lol Or as we call them "Crackers", and Boston LOVES to try and say Cracker. He says "cwack" in the cutest voice. He also tries to say truck whenever we watch the garbage man come around. That's a pretty hard word and he gets really into it, puckers up his lips and everything to get a very dramatic "TRRRuCK" out. lol He says Ouch with the same lip pucker and really exaggerates the CH at the end, and HHHHawwww for hot and signs it at the same time. He also says car, Choo Choo (He LOVES trains, especially Thomas the train) Chich for Church, and Nana for banana..etc. Pretty much he will try and say anything that I ask him to, which we try and do frequently so that he learns new words. He can also say Pa pa pa for Grandpa, (he picks the parts of words that he wants to say)   It started when he hadn't talked to my Dad for a while cause he was away, My Dad called and I said "Boston! It's Grandpa!" And he started saying Pa Pa Pa! It was the cutest thing! Now he says Pa all the time! Whenever my Dad calls and his picture comes up he gets really excited and says it over and over. He also calls Grandpa Crandall Pa, which is so cute as he only comes to visit once a month or so!

He signs alllll the time!! It is soo fun! I am definitely FOR teaching your baby SL! It has such huge pay offs. I will do it with any future children as well. I wouldn't recommend starting until 7 or 8 months though personally, because I think it's a little pointless, and makes you want to give up cause you don't see any return signing, but about ten months it clicks and it's awesome! Maybe earlier for some babies. Now that he is a toddler and developing an opinion of his own and throws little fits here and there, I LOVE being able to say to him, SIGN to Mommy what you want. And he has told me numerous times, he wants food, or milk, or sleep. He'll sign sleep whenever he's tired and we just lay him down and he goes right to sleep. He also knows Hot, Diaper change, No touch, please, more, down, drink, Stop it, I love you, and Thank you. I LOVE the thank you one cause when he gets babysat or people tell him he's cute I tell him to tell them thank you and he signs it, and it's so cute! But it kind of looks like blowing kisses, so you can't teach that or it would be confusing. I have never taught Boston to blow kisses because there are already too many signs around the mouth and chin. (I should note he now knows how to blow kisses and does not confuse them with the other signs) It means so much to me that he we can sign I love you to him at night before bed and he'll do it in return! Or when he does something that's not nice I can tell him to say sorry and he will. Cause he couldn't say any of those things yet, but it doesn't mean he can't say them.
I want to put this story I posted on facebook about him signing, so I'll just copy it from there:
5/5/2013 Soo grateful for two things, especially last night... 1. having a video baby monitor (I don't know how people do it without these) 2. For teaching my baby sign language. He's constantly communicating with me! now for the story: after I put him to bed, even though he went right to sleep, I could see him tossing and turning and never settling into his sleep. Then about 1am he got more restless, and started signing "hot" in his sleep. He rarely cries, so I never would've known how he was doing had I not seen it... So I went in and checked on him, and sure enough he was burning up with a random high fever! So glad he was able to communicate with me, and that I was able to see it!!This was a miracle!!

His hair is no joke! He has now had 3 hair cuts, which feels like a lot to me, especially at $10 ea. but it gets soo long and actually has some curl (definitely gets that from me!) so I have to give him a sweet comb over most the time but when it's that long It just doesn't look the best, so we keep it cut nice and sharp looking. :) I'm going to get brave and start trying to cut it on my own I think.

I also get tempted to do things like this when it gets too long. lol

Boston's interests for the most part change as he gets older pretty consistently. He'll enjoy a toy for a week or two and lose interest for a while, etc. But there is one interest that has not changed or diminished in the LEAST for the last 6 MONTHS! Boston is OBSESSED with shoes!!!! My shoes, his shoes, strangers shoes, but most of all, Andrew's shoes... and I know it's cause he wants to be just like his Daddy, which will be some big shoes to fill, literally. In fact I think his love for shoes has only grown. Most mornings he won't eat breakfast until he is wearing a pair of shoes. Now that he can say "shoes" it's one of his favorite words, and when Andrew comes home from work, the first thing he says all excitedly is "Shoes! Shoes!!!" ha ha it's the cutest thing! But Andrew has said that he's going to start taking off his shoes before coming in the door, because Boston will only run up and give him a hug once he has acknowledged his shoes. Silly boy! More often than not while I am getting ready in the morning, I can hear Boston in our closet saying shoes, and he'll bring out a few pairs of Andrew's shoes and put them on, try and walk around or he'll just carry them into his room. I personally blame his obsession on the fact that Andrew bought these BRIGHT florescent orange Nikes. Those are definitely a fav. Although he has tried on my sparkly flip flops a few times as well.

He also loves to hide shoes...we couldn't find his sandals for a week, and finally Andrew found them near his tool box in the laudry room cupboard. He also hid one of his sandals at my parents that took them over 2 weeks to find. (maybe he hates sandals??) And the other morning I woke up to this text from Dallin after Boston had spent the previous day over there: "Tell Boston that he has a shoe-less Uncle. :P specifically a ONE shoe-less Uncle. Now I'm not making any accusations here, but I have yet to find ANYONE with such an interest in that specific clothing article. And I have looked everywhere ONE shoe could possibly be!" I replied: "I bet it was him Dallin, Sorry! He's a shoe thief! I asked him where he put your shoe and he growled at me...lol." Also while at Lagoon this summer, we were sitting on a bench waiting for everyone and a girl came and sat next to us and took off her sweaty sneakers to let her feet air out I guess... Boston went running over to her shoes pointing and telling her that those were her shoes, and he also wanted to touch them, so I quickly moved him away! ha ha I guess we'll see how long this fetish lasts, for now it brings a smile to my face every day. :)

A couple other BIG events: He started walking!!!! He took his first steps on 4/1/13! At just under 14 months old! He's been walking around furniture forever, and started crawling after his first Birthday, which delayed the walking for awhile. So since the beginning of April he's had the capability to walk, but didn't really take the initiative til a few weeks later, now he's walking everywhere, and I LOVE it! No more skinned up knees, and getting his hands all dirty, I don't have to carry him everywhere (which would be impossible with my watermelon belly now) and he can easily get to things or kids that he wants to play with. It has been so fun getting him with friends and cousins this summer, not to mention splash pads and parks! !It still cracks me up to see his little body maneuvering around the house, especially because to accompany his easy going personality as he walks he will often hold his hands behind his back, or swing them and clap as he goes around. So sweet. :)

He has also become quite the little helper around the house which we are loving! As Andrew will say, "We're raising assets around here." ;) He loves to help with vacuuming, mowing the lawn, sweeping, dishes (especially unloading them while we load them), fixing things with Dad, and laundry! 

Cutest little cleaning buddy! Too bad his vacuum doesn't actually suck anything up, cause he could vacuum all day! 

Another big thing is he is 100% weaned from breast milk onto almond milk and his sippy cup! I chose almond milk because it is a lot gentler on the digestive system than cow's milk, and it's more natural as it doesn't require the "processing," additives and preservatives that most cow's milk does. He has done great with it and so far has no allergies! I too only drink almond milk and love it.

As for the weaning, if you don't want to read about nursing then skip ahead a few paragraphs... I weaned Boston JUST before he turned 15 months! My goal was to nurse at least one FULL year because of all the health/emotional benefits I had read about; but after he turned one, he still seemed like such a baby to me, and I didn't feel like he was ready so I continued. Plus at that point he was only nursing afternoon and night, then just night time. And he wasn't dependent on it for sleep or anything so it wasn't a big deal to keep going for a few months; despite being pregnant, and very sick... A lot of people suggested I would have more energy and would feel better if I quit nursing, but my midwife didn't think it was really effecting me much at all, as he wasn't nursing that frequently, so I continued. The actual weaning happened the week there was a lot of things going on with my family that I needed to help with that kept me away from Boston at night time for a couple nights. He did great just reading and singing with Andrew and then going to bed so we just kept it going from there. I really think having a bed time routine as a family helped him wean very easily. I know a lot of people struggle with weaning especially at night. But from the very start with Boston, Andrew and I have always gone upstairs together to get him into his PJs, then we sing a song, sometimes read a book, say a family prayer, give kisses and hugs and then I would nurse him and then Andrew would lay him down. (This has become one of my favorite times in the day spent as a family!) So when I weaned him all of that was still there minus the nursing, and I really think it made it easier. Around a year old I swapped the morning nursing for a sippy cup with almond milk and we cuddle and watch a show on the bed together, then gradually eliminated the afternoon feeding and lastly the night. This helped my milk supply decrease gradually and was not painful at all.

Boston and I had THE BEST nursing experience together!! I will never for one second regret nursing as long as I did! It was one of the best things I feel I have done for him as a Mother. Yes there were definitely hard times... I got clogged milk ducts, that made me feel like I had the flu for days, and I would cry and cry to Andrew about the pain, while trying to nurse through it. Also yes I did feel "tied down" at times, but I am a stay at home mom and I felt it would be selfish of me to do otherwise when I was blessed with being fully capable of nursing, just so I could have more "flexibility." There were a few awkward times such as trying to nurse under a hot sheet, or in a public place where it wasn't the most comfortable thing. But I KNEW I was doing the right thing and I was DETERMINED to make it work and not let it bother me.  I loved the connection I felt I was building with Boston every time, and honestly it became one of my favorite times in the day because it forced me to relax and slow down, and just enjoy being a mother and snuggle my baby. Some of my favorite memories was holding hands during, which I started so that he wouldn't pull my hair (which he LOVED to do) then once I taught him how to touch my hair nice and not pull it out, that became one of his favorite things to do, just run his fingers through my hair. To this day he will still do that if he needs comfort, he'll reach up for my hair.... :) I loved and cherished that time with my boy, and I'm hoping things will go just as well with Max on the way!

Cuddle times with Mom:

lots of room to grow in these! 

 Random silly pics:

What's on the menu?!

His plastic butchers knife he liked to carry around for a while, kinda scared me. lol

Just chillin', drinkin' my milk, watchin' the game...with no pants on.

Rain Rain go Away so Boston can go out to play....

 

 The day he discovered his finger fits in his nose hole.... eeww

Play date with Marisa and her girls!

High rollin' at Walmart...keepin' it classy. 

Tryin to get a picture of his first two teeth, and captured his beautiful eyes in the process. 

He got his first two bottom teeth at 12-13 months old, then forever later got his top two middle teeth, and has a cute gapped tooth smile for now. lol then he got 3 of his molars, and is now getting a third middle tooth on the bottom. He is a slow teether, but I didn't mind it for awhile cause he was nursing...

  Bath Time! Which for Boston is "BU-BULL" time!! As much fun as he has in the bath, I know he will enjoy having a little brother in there with him so much more!!

 Just a hat, socks and a diaper, I'm ready to go Mom!! Boston would be fine in this attire every day, all day. 

A cute rocking horse I found at a garage sale for $4! 

 Daddy will go to great lengths to make Boston laugh... including laying on the floor to play peek-a-boo. :)

Boston did get one bad cold at the beginning of summer, and as with all of his colds so far, the congestion got to his lungs and he got a bad cough. This one got pretty scary over night though, and he started coughing really hard one morning after Andrew had left for work, his lips started going blue so I immediately took him to his doctor, but I was scared to take him in the car alone in case he started coughing and needed help. So I called my sweet neighbor Heidi Robb who is also the Relief Society president, and started to cry and asked her if she could come with me right now to the doc. She of course dropped everything with no hesitation and came! She was my angel that day! She patiently waited through an hour and a half appointment, and even came in to help with the chest X-ray they needed to take on Boston. Something I couldn't do being pregnant. It was kind of a scary X-ray machine, and he was crying really hard and had a fever of 103, so I was soo glad she was there! It was hard to stand outside the room and not be able to help.

 These McDonald fruit smoothies are about the only thing he'll consistently guzzle down when he's sick.

And once again he had to be on breathing treatments, but not for very long. I also attacked the cold with lots of herbs, diffused essential oils, and he got a good Fathers blessing. He was better in no time and went almost the rest of the summer with NO sickness!!! YAY!! 

Then I got sick... and he had to take care of me. I also needed help from lots of people, I had a horrible sinus infection, and would rather go through labor again than battle one of those! When I went to the doctor one afternoon my Grandpa Hawkins met us there to watch Boston in the waiting room. He was so cute with him! And I was so glad to have him there.

He loves to visit the neighboring doggies at both his grandparents' houses!

 He has discovered the video monitor and will walk right up to it when he wakes up. ha ha it makes me laugh. He also calls it "Mom" because I can talk to him through it and tell him to lay back down or whatever. I'd love to know what he's thinking...like maybe I'm somehow inside there watching him. ha ha

I went in to get him from his nap and he was holding the sound monitor to his ear like a phone as if he was waiting to hear from someone, or tell someone he was up! :)

This Giraffe from Gma Dolores is his first "lovey buddy!" He sleeps with it every night. 

You cannot head out to water anything in the yard without Boston ending up soaked! He LOVES the hose, and will walk right through it and put his head under it! 

 Someone was VERY happy after a 4 hour nap!! :) I love going in to get him when he wakes up! 

I heard him from the kitchen saying "keys keys!!" And I found him like this... I said, "Boston the car keys are by the back door." Then I realized he wanted the tiny mail key we keep in there, and we always let him hold it and help us get the mail. ha ha He's so smart. 

I brought this home for baby Max on the way... and Boston made himself right at home. It didn't matter that he was way too big. I think we may have a problem in the future.

This is his "baby" Gma Dolores brought back from Guatemala. He's so cute with it, even gives it kisses, and we're teaching him to be gentle with it in hopes it will prepare him for his baby brother on the way! 

This boy could do puzzles ALL day! He loves to sit in his toy room and put them together. I went up to him one day after cleaning the kitchen and said "Boston I'm going upstairs now, let's go buddy." And he just looked up and waved good bye to me. 

 And this is officially the longest post ever, but it's hard to put six months worth of Boston into one post!! He is continually the love and joy of our lives and makes us happy and gives us something to smile about every day! But I won't say there hasn't been hard days... especially as he's gotten older. The picture above is him in one of his moods. He didn't want to come inside and was throwing a fit so I just let him sit there in the yard for awhile. Sometimes I just don't have the energy to fight him, and luckily I don't have to that often. But we have definitely discovered time out, and it works like a charm! We'll put him in his crib or in the corner of the kitchen for a minute or less, and then ask him if he's happy, and talk to him about what he did and have him sign "sorry." And he'll stop crying and try and smile a little so that he can come out. He really is such a good boy the majority of the time and I know I have to be patient with him just like he has to be patient with me. I'm grateful we have each other and all that he is helping me learn about myself and the areas I can improve! We love him so much!