The Harvey Family: March {2015}

This month Brett:

stands on his own for a long time, but mostly with a toy in his hands. He'll pull up on something and then use both his hands to hold onto a toy and almost forget that he's standing. He can stand there for a while but it normally is cut short because he wants to sit down and go do something else.
started blowing bubbles with his food. This one is not fun. He'll just wait for a spoonful of food to go into his mouth and then blow it everywhere. When I tell him "no bubbles" he thinks it's funny and just laughs more. Sometimes he decides to listen and then he'll start it up again once he's tired of eating even though I've been trying to teach him sign language for "all done". He hates a cold, wet washcloth so I've also tried just putting it over his mouth when he starts blowing bubbles to try and stop it.
loves teething on metal things. If he has the option between real teething toys and metal, he seems to want to go for the metal non-toys. It started with the clip on his paci holder but then we started noticing the pattern.
has been taking 2 naps a day. The schedule is to have him nap at 10am and 2pm so we've been trying to stick to that as much as possible. Most days the morning nap is short, around 30 minutes or so. Then the afternoon one can be anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours (part in his crib and part in the big bed with me since I know he needs more sleep). Right now we've been putting him down at night around 7:30pm and with all the wakeups he ends up waking up for the day between 6-6:30am if I can't convince him to sleep longer.
can finally fall asleep in the car. If he is tired enough and hasn't had a nap he's able to relax enough to fall asleep now as long as we're not at too many stop lights. It's great that he's finally made it to this point! Having him just scream bloody murder until we got home and rocked him to sleep was so stressful.
learned how to drink water from a sippy cup. Blake would always have his cup and Brett wanted it so badly so we let him have one with water and he's doing great getting water out of it! It took him about a week to master it and he'll even tip it waaaaay back to get the last little bit out of the bottom.
climbs over Blake while I try to lotion him. Blake lies down on his back on the floor when I lotion up his arms and legs a couple times each day and since Brett has to be with us a lot of the time, he has decided that Blake looks like a fun jungle gym and crawls right over his face and neck a lot of the time. Luckily Blake is a good sport and just laughs hysterically.
still really likes peekaboo. If we can't get him to smile, that will normally do the trick.
likes opening and closing doors. He has discovered the kitchen cabinets and the weakness in the baby-proofing and is so excited to get in there and play with the pots and pans. He also enjoys opening and closing the big doors between rooms. He doesn't close them all the way, just pushes them back and forth.
loves going on stroller rides around the neighborhood. If he gets cabin fever inside he loves to go out and stroll around the neighborhood. He'd probably stay out there for an hour as long as it wasn't too hot and he wasn't too hungry. If he's tired he'll just pass out and take a nap. This is wonderful since he used to only want to be carried in the carrier and he's just much to heavy for that now at ~20 lb.
started becoming interested in books. We have our new night time routine now that he goes to sleep in his crib and we started reading a story before bed as part of that routine. He was starting to get interested in it last month when he was helping me turn the pages. But now, he'll pick up books around the house and flip through them on his own which is super cute. There are a ton of a books in Blake's room and he likes the touch and feel books and the other board books. We try and keep the soft page books away from him since he's still a little rough with them. There is one book on the bookshelf in Blake's room that he always pulls down for some reason. It's one of those big recordable books and it has a red spine that I guess catches his attention.
nursed exclusively and didn't have any bottles. I pumped for the last time on 2/20 (I know because I froze the milk, haha) and it has been really nice to not have to deal with cleaning those pump parts all the time. On the other hand it means I'm pretty much glued to Brett, but he's eating more and more food and drinking water now so he can go 3-4 hours without nursing now. He nurses about 6 times a day now and we're getting closer to making it only once during the night. He's been at 2x a night for a couple weeks now.
started walking with the push walker. We have tried to interest him in it a few times in the past and he never seemed confident enough to try and use it. Now he will hold on and push it as far as he can until he runs into a wall or piece of furniture. He hasn't quite figured out that he can change where it's headed, he just waits for me to do it for him.
said his second word, mama. I've been trying for months to get him to say mama or dada and all of a sudden it just clicked and he says it over and over, all the time. Since it's the only real word he says, he thinks he can use it in place of all words and gets annoyed when I don't respond the way he wants me to. He also started saying his version of "yes", but it sound yes without the e. He also started saying baba closer to the end of the month.
imitates us talking on the phone. He'll hold either the house phone or the tv remote up on top of his shoulder and act like he's talking on the phone. He doesn't hold it up to his face so it took me a bit to figure out what he was doing.
gives me wide open mouth kisses. I'm not sure where he learned this exactly but he really does look like a vampire as he opens his mouth open really wide then leans in slowly. He seems to aim for my lips which I'm not a huge fan of and most of the time see it coming so I can at least turn him my cheek. He's thinks it's hilarious and will just laugh and laugh after getting my cheek all wet. He especially loves to play this game if I lie down on my back on the floor, giving him full access to give me kisses all over.
plays independently sometimes which is super nice. The play room is right across from the kitchen and there have been quite a few times where he has played in there for 15 minutes while I cook or eat.
took his first steps one day before he turned 10 months! He started on the love seat and took a step toward one of his music tables, then turned toward me at a 90 degree angle and took another step before collapsing on the floor. Later that night he was standing at the music table and I held a toy in front of him and he took a few more steps toward it before falling to the floor.
will play catch with me and a ball. He'll throw or roll the ball to me and I'll roll it back to him. He doesn't do it perfectly but he has almost worked out how to shake his hands and let go of it at just the right time to get it to roll toward me.
throws toys off his high chair and laughs. While he's eating, we normally have to give him toys for his hands or he just fusses the entire time. Recently, he's decided that it is funny to throw them on the floor. At first I think he just wanted to see what sound they would make, but now that we make faces at him (and Blake laughs) when he tosses them down, he thinks it's funny and will do it almost immediately as soon as we put them up on the tray.
loves playing with doorstops. He discovered the doorstop in the bathroom and started batting at it and once he realized it made a fun noise he's been searching behind all the doors for them. He ended up breaking off the door stop in the master bedroom because I wanted to show Chris how much he enjoyed playing with it. I said, "Brett, dooooiiiinnnnng" and he smiled and went over to the door stop and swatted at it really hard and it came off in his hand.
got another 2 teeth. His top front teeth finally came through (the left one then the right one) so hopefully he won't look like a vampire for too much longer. It looks like he'll have his front 8 teeth before too long so we're in the thick of teething for sure.

This month Blake:

has gotten even more crafty with his stall tactics before bed at night. He throws out everything possible that has ever been part of his night time routine: I need some water, I need some Vaseline on my lips, I want my blanket off my feet, I want it back on my feet, etc.
tests limits with everything. When we tell him not to do something he feels obligated to continue doing it until he gets timeout. He will even go and ask someone else if he doesn't get the answer he wants from the first person he asks.
went through a growth spurt and all his pants have become high waters. His legs must've grown at least 2 inches over the past month or 2 and I've had to let out the hem in a bunch of the pants I altered last summer (so glad I didn't cut off the extra fabric). We measured him on the new growth chart and he measured up at 37" even though he seems taller.
doesn't want to eat breakfast. He is so stubborn every morning when it comes to eating. He doesn't want anything other than a banana or fruit pouch most mornings. Lately we've been able to at least get him to eat some toast with maple syrup, but he won't even eat bacon or eggs like he used to. Dinner has a similar battle most days as well. Luckily lunch is the easiest to deal with since he gets to eat his beloved Sunbutter and Jelly sandwich.
is a TV addict. When he's bored he automatically asks to watch a TV show. He also doesn't want to sit at the table and eat without watching a show either.
loves to look at the construction equipment on the side of the road.
still says hilarious things. Sometimes I wonder if he's trying to be funny or if it just happens by accident still. Me: Where's Brett? (Brett crawling away.) Blake: Ehhh, I don't speak baby.
says "Now we're talking."
knows a lot of road names. We started with our address and the street that we live on, then we worked out way out, one road at a time. He knows Deer Run South, Deer Run North, Ridge Blvd, and we're working on Lake St. George Dr. He even recognizes the roads when we're taking a walk in the stroller.
has started doing much better with potty training as long as we stick with it and stay consistent. We didn't have any luck with just training underpants, as he seems to wet those (and whatever pants he's wearing) within 30 minutes. The pullup diapers have been much more successful. He treats those like underpants in that he'll do a pretty good job keeping them dry unless he's out of the house or sitting at the kitchen table eating and watching tv. Once we ran out of pullups and put him in regular diapers for a few days and he went back to being very lazy and requesting "regular diapers" so he didn't have to stop what he was doing to go into the bathroom to use the potty. After getting more pullups he's gotten back into the routine and does well most of the time. We end up in the bathroom at least once every 30 minutes it seems so hopefully he gets the hang of pulling his pullup and pants back up on his own soon! Once he can do the whole process alone it'll be so much easier. He's even requested to go on the big potty a few times and has done great. We might have to get a stool so he doesn't end up dropping the little potty insert in the big potty while dumping it out.
has been super sweet with Brett. We're trying to get him to talk to Brett (even though he won't talk back) instead of making the noises that Brett makes, so he can learn some new words hopefully. While in the car on the way to school one day Brett was getting a little fussy and Blake said, "ol Brett, can you tell me what's making you so fussy? Is the sun in your eyes again?"
started being super goofy. He'll say things that are pretty funny and he'll laugh hysterically and say "that was REALLY funny!"
loves reading Bearnstein Bear books. Mimi kept all Chris books from when he was little and it's really cool that Blake gets to use them now!

Pics:

Chris's grandmom was able to come visit for Blake's birthday (made the trip all the way from Chattanooga thanks to her amazing neighbors!) so we had to take the opportunity to take another picture of 4 generations. I just love the look on Blake's face.

Brett kept grabbing at Blake's sippy cup so we got him one of his own to start using. After a couple weeks he's gotten much better at it and can get water out of it quite well.

Watching his brother out on the patio.

The growth chart all hung up in Blake's room. I made another one that starts a little below 1 foot... I felt like something was missing. It didn't bother me when I saw a few of them on Pintrest that started just below 2 feet. I figured I wouldn't need to mark any measurements that low but forgot about aesthetics. Now I need to figure out how to make it stick to the wall so it won't take the paint off later.

Trying to climb into Blake's new chair.

He has started playing independently for a few minutes at a time, and it is so nice!

This spatula is a favorite around this house. It always seems to cheer Brett up when he can't calm down.

Blake showing me how he threaded the balloon string through all kinds of toys. I think he just had it through the digger at this point, but he ended up with a whole handful of things being dragged behind him.