Videos!

I finally got a couple of videos where Beo isn't just screaming for the camera! In this first one, he says "no" and nods and then identifies a couple of body parts.

 

In this one, he's playing on my computer. It's a little hard to tell, but the first thing he says is "I see!" Then "Hey!" After that he goes into the "alphabet," which for him is just vowels. We are not really sure how he just picked up A, E, I, O, and U!

 

So Beo is officially a little boy now! The other day he realized he could climb out of his crib quite easily, so I took off the front of his crib and put on the toddler bed rail instead. The first night, he got up six different times. He spread his books all over the rocking chair, then all over his bed. He turned out his night light a couple of times and got scared. He fell out of bed. He stayed up playing until he passed out on the futon.

The second night, he got up twice, and one of those was a fall. In the morning I opened the door to find him sleeping in the rocking chair.

Third night, he slept all the way through and when he got up at 7:20 I changed his diaper and told him it wasn't quite time to get up yet. I put some books in bed with him and he stayed in there quietly until I came and got him at 8.

We are quite surprised by how well he's handling this newfound freedom. Since he can also open doors, I really thought he'd be out and running all over the house in the middle of the night. I also thought we'd have a huge issue with nap times, but he's gone down without protest for every single one. Of course, that might just be because he's so tired from playing at night!

We've been continuing to do his Baby Dinos class at the martial arts studio. I was hoping after he started "getting it" he'd be more inclined to participate... but it seems Beo is just not much of a participator. We go to class, and I spend the entire half hour running after him and pinning him down so we can do the activities. Sometimes he'll just lay there, other times he'll get into it a little, and mostly he just writhes around and tries to run away. Nobody who saw him would think he was getting anything at all out of it.

BUT... then we come home... and suddenly he starts doing all the moves. He won't do it if I try to coach him, of course. No, I'll be doing dishes or laundry and suddenly he goes by doing the "bear walk." Or he's laying on the floor and suddenly he starts "shrimping." Or he falls down and does the "sea turtle." So in spite of all evidence to the contrary, he is totally paying attention in class and absorbing everything. Go figure!

He does almost the same thing at any group activity. I take him to toddler story time at the library and he'll either sit on my lap and refuse to do any of the activities, or walk up to the front of the room and stand right in front of the librarian, staring all all the kids doing hand motions as if to say, "What is WRONG with you weirdos?"

The exception is when any physical item is involved. At Baby Dinos, it's when they get down the giant exercise balls or the punching shields, suddenly he's RIGHT THERE. At story time, it's felt stars and shaky eggs. He looooves getting something he can play with, and he's also fine when it's time for them to go away - he loves to go up in front and put them where they belong.

As always, getting to know and understand his unique little personality is both fun and challenging! He's definitely marching to the beat of his own drum. Is anyone surprised?