Don't get too excited, Eli's still not walking. He is almost 17 months you know so that is way too much to ask. But January was a BIG month for Eli. First off, we took away his pacifier. Yep, you heard me right. I learned from my mistakes and rather than let him have it til he was 3, (like I did Addi, and suffer the consequences of the worst summer of my life) I had decided that I was going to take it away when he turned one. Well yeah, that didn't happen. There was a lot of traveling coming up and who wants to deal with paci transistion while traveling? Oh, you? Well, to each their own. So anyway, my new timeline was set to after Christmas. We finished our traveling it was the beginning of January and I really didn't want to take it away. Eli was not anywhere near as attached to it as Addi was, and it was so nice to just plug him. I knew I needed to but it was just so dang handy. One afternoon Eli got his hands on a ring pop, and he was crawling around the house with it in his mouth like his plug and I posted a picture on instagram asking if I could switch out this ring pop for his pacifier and call it good. Well that actually led people to believe that I had taken his pacifier away. A couple days later a friend called me and said, "How's Eli doing without his bink? We threw ours away this morning." I even watched a video of her son taking it out to the outside garbage, and throwing it in the trash can on trash day! Gulp. I had not actually taken away his pacifier. I confessed this and after talking with my friend thought I can do it! Don't get ahead of yourselves, there was not marching (or crawling) to the trash can to throw it away and watch the garbage man take it forever. I'm not man enough for that. I simply gathered them all up and put them in a kitchen cabinet, I was completely planning to wimp out. So there I am January 3rd binky's put away. I put Eli down for a nap. Sure he was a little bit like, hey what's going on? Somethings missing. But he couldn't quite figure out what. So he gave up whining and looking and fell asleep minutes later. Could this be? Is it possible that 15 1/2 months is the magic age to kick the binky and there will be no side effects? The answer is no, it can not be. The nap was a short one and bed time was a different story. He screamed for two hours. You see, I'm a genius and decided hey, since I'm taking the binky away, I might as well take the bottle away. He refused to drink his milk from a sippy cup causing me after one hour of screaming to just give in and give him a bottle so that I knew at least his belly was full. Then back to bed he went for his second hour of screaming. Where was Addi in all this? They share a room ya know. Well, she got to sleep in the guest room for a couple weeks until the dust settled. Every 15 minutes or so I wanted to give in. I would say to Jared, should I just go give it to him? And since he wasn't neccisarly behind this idea (he wanted me to just take it away during the day and let him have it at bedtime.) he would say, "whatever you want babe." And then I would argue with the voices in my head. I can not believe I did not give in that first night, but when I didn't I knew I could do it. Night two went better with just less than an hour of screaming....however he did wake up like every 3 hours that night. I would get up and give him a bottle and put him back down. Night three very similar to night two but a bit better. And there you have it folks pacifier gone. Now, there were other side effects from the stripping of the binky. My super chill, sweet, quiet boy kind of went away. He started getting angry, and throwing tantrums. (Quite comical to watch actually. He throws himself onto his stomach, gently rolls over as to not bump his head, and then kick and scream on his back.) He screamed a lot. He started hitting, and throwing things, and dumping things out everywhere, as fast as he can so he can do maximum damage before I get to him. Now, some may say that it is just coincidence that this happened at the same time that I took the pacifier and all boys hit this stage. Well, I think that Eli would still be my sweet quiet cuddly boy if I had not robbed him of his pacifier. I honestly can't tell if he has gotten better, or if I have just gotten used to his new normal. I kind of think I just got used to it. He is still sweet, but it's not quite the same.
Another big event for Eli (that technically happened at his 15 month check up in December) is he finally left the <5th% for weight! That's right he is now in the 10th%. I'll take it!
He also learned several new tricks, like how to climb up on tables, and how to push chairs over to other things he would like to climb up on. He learned how to climb up and down an entire flight of stairs. (That one he didn't actually have to learn I just saw him do it one day.) He learned how to push himself on Addi's little princess push bike, and he zooms around the house as fast as he can and the kid can turn on a dime. (video to come of this later) Who needs to walk when you can ride a bike?
And drum roll please.....just a little one....he took his first steps! On January 24, 2013 he took about 3 steps between me and Jared in Addi's room. It was actually the same spot that Addi took her first steps (at 18 months old....what is wrong with my kids?) When that day came I was sure he would be walking by the end of January, but nope. He takes several steps now but only when he feels like it, otherwise he'll walk pushing a stroller or shopping. I've even seen him stand up and walk from Addi's bed to toy kitchen, like 10 steps, but nope still not walking. Guess I'll give him a little more time.
