FFF: Enoch at 14-15 mos

still a stout little guy!

I can't believe that it has been so long since I've done an update on Enoch's growth and milestones!  Here are a few of the things that I remember about this sweet stage:

Stats- 29 pounds and some change (with clothes), 30 inches tall, size 24 mos in most clothes, size 5-6 in shoes.

Teeth- Enoch now has 12 teeth!!  (8 front and 4 molars, one on each quadrant)  He is such a big chewer with all of those teeth too and can practically chew up anything we give him these days - even steak meat!  My favorite thing about his teeth though is how all of them show when he smiles real big... melt this mama's heart all day long!

Movement- Enoch is walking!!  He still prefers to go from object to object and isn't quite confident enough to walk independently much more than 10-12 feet at a time, but he really loves it and is improving everyday.  I think the biggest help for this skill was Hugh's "policy" that Enoch would walk whenever possible throughout the day.  Even though it slowed me down in my goings, it has given Little Man some much needed practice.

The squirrel...

Skills- Probably one of the biggest developments in this category is Enoch's ability to identify objects.  Specifically, he's really getting good at pointing to animals when we ask him "Where's the _____?"  Granted, he's still hit and miss on this sometimes, so I know his comprehension isn't perfect, but it's so fun to read to him these days!  He really enjoys reading a book about Thumper from his Great Grandma Mary because it has lots of animals on each page and the animals repeat as you flip through the pages.  In that book, he's pretty good at pointing to these animals: bunny, duck, squirrel, bee, frog.  And last night he even started making a "zzz" sound for the bees when Hugh was reading with him.  He's also gotten real good at knowing what a few other words mean like: nurse, juice, snack, squirrel, dog, naptime, read, book, etc.  One other thing I'd like to remember about this phase is the now common point and grunt that Enoch does when he wants to know what something is.  His little grunts are pretty cute, especially when he really wants to know about something!

Obedience- Overall, this has been a somewhat challenging area for the past few months.  We've tried to be consistent in our commands and expectations as well as in our discipline, and Enoch has showed improvement.  However, with his improved mobility and comprehension has also come a stronger and stronger will.  {I'm definitely not claiming that he's super strong willed because I don't think that's the case, but I do think that as he grows more and more, we continue to see more of his sin nature and rebellious heart... but then again, that's the problem with all of us, so it's humbling to remember that I also have the same tendencies of rebellion and selfishness.}  Right now, I'd say that our two biggest daily "struggles" (if you want to call them that) are 1) instant, complete, and happy obedience; and 2) not throwing temper tantrums.  We handle the first with spankings when disobedience occurs and praise when instant, complete, and happy obedience occurs (this one keeps me on my toes and off the couch usually..).  We handle the temper tantrums by putting Enoch in our lap, controlling any flailing body parts, and asking him to "calm down."  Usually this takes 1-5 minutes (though I'm sure sometimes it's longer) and then we try to explain that just because he feels angry or unhappy doesn't mean that he should act angry by throwing a fit.  Typically, I know that the tantrum is over when he will happily and calmly obey a simple command or two (such as "clap your hands").  Then we usually let him return to the activity he was doing when the tantrum happened or re-direct him to something different.  {Usually, if more than one tantrum happens within a 10 minute period, it's probably close to naptime, and I'll take that as my cue that he just needs a break and some rest.}

Sleep- Speaking of naptime, Enoch is still taking 2 naps per day (generally).  I tried dropping the afternoon nap and moving the morning nap back when he was right at 15 mos, but that didn't go so well (he was just not as well rested and content during the day), so we switched back to two per day until he's more ready for that transition.  Bedtime is still around 6:30 (dinner at 5:30) but he usually plays in the crib for 30 min or so before falling asleep.  Sometimes we will let him stay up a little later if we have something going on, but we try to limit that to once or twice per week, max.  And Little Man is pretty faithful about waking up between 6 and 6:30 no matter what time he goes to bed.  :)

Some new friends from China

Eating & Sickness- The past two months have been a roller coaster as far as sickness goes.  A second ear infection (the first was in late 2012) caused us to go through 3 antibiotics (the 1st wasn't effective, he was allergic to the 2nd, and the 3rd hopefully worked... he just finished it).  When the ear infection was bothering him, Enoch's side effects were high fever, loss of appetite, and crabbiness.  Thankfully we are still nursing, so he got some nutrition through that, but he became an incredibly picky eater during phases of the ear infection saga.  When this happened, we resorted back to simple staples like bananas, bread, juice water, and some good old string cheese.  (We limited his whole milk consumption because we've heard it can make mucus infections worse.)  This worked for the most part, and we tried to supplement some raw veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocados when he was up for it.  Now we are pretty much back to normal, which looks like this (per day): 3 meals, 2 cups milk, 2 cups juice water, 2-4 nursings, 1-2 snacks.  At this point, Little Guy is what we jokingly call a "recreational nurser" meaning that he still likes to nurse, but if you distract him when it's "time" to nurse, he will usually forget about nursing easily... especially if there's juice water + a snack involved... or a car ride.  :)

One hard thing that is still slightly residual from the picky eating phase of sickness is refusing food.  We tried to be gracious while he was sick and not feeling too well about him saying "no" to food we were offering him, but now we have had to work through his rather stubborn refusal of food.  {For us, this looks like him eating a few bites of tomato and then deciding that he'd rather skip the rest of it and only eat the sandwich that's on his plate... so it's not so much that he doesn't like the tomato but rather that he sees something that looks better... we haven't ever really had to address this with new foods, and we would probably handle that differently.}  The way we've addressed this (and I'm definitely not proposing that this is the only or best way for all kids!!) is to firmly tell him "no, this bite of tomato is next."  If he still refuses, we set the bite down on the table (out of his reach) and continue eating our meal until he says "more" again.  Then we offer the tomato again.  If he eats it, we tell him "good job" and move on with the meal like normal (usually his refusal won't happen again now that we've worked on this awhile, but at the beginning of training it would happen multiple times per meal). If he refuses again, we just repeat the above steps.  Sometimes this makes dinner take over an hour, but he has learned that Mommy and Daddy are serious about this, so I think it's worth the extra time to address the issue.

One of my fav pics of my boys

Funnies- A while back, we taught Enoch how to recognize who "dada" was... or so we thought.  Hugh would say {over and over again} "Who am I?" and then respond "Daddy."  Well Enoch caught on real quick and started answering "Dada" without Hugh helping him.  Cute, right?  Well, apparently Little Man learned this question from sheer memory rather than comprehension because after ingraining "dada" as his response, he will now answer "dada" no matter who asks him "Who am I?"  We didn't realize this until it was too late though (because I wasn't really practicing this question with him and he wasn't great at saying "mama" at the time)...  So now, when I ask Enoch "Who am I?" his steadfast and sure answer is "dada."  haha!  I realize that at some point he'll gain some comprehension about what the question actually means, and we're working with him on that, but for now it's quite hilarious!

Along the same lines, right now Enoch's words are quite limited (dada, mama, baby), but he really only says "mama" or "baby" when he's asked to repeat the word or just jabbering.. Anytime I ask him a question he pretty much responds "dada," so I sometimes ask him leading questions just to hear him sweetly respond "dada."  Here's how some of our conversations go:
me: "Buddy, who's going to come home today and eat dinner with us?"
Enoch: "dada."
me: "And who's going to play with you after dinner?"
Enoch: "dada."
me: "And who's just the sweetest guy in all the world?"
Enoch: "dada."
me: "And who does Mommy love so, so much?"
Enoch: "dada."

{and this goes on and on until I run out of questions.}

Here's a cute video of Enoch saying a few words..  "gagaga" is his newest sound, so I'm pretty sure that "grandma" or "grandpa" will be coming soon in some form or fashion.  :)