15 months

Can you believe that the babe is 15 months old? Me either. He is such a little toddler now. He walks everywhere. Every so often he will crawl around on the floor, but usually he is walking or more like running. He is so busy and into everything. He still isn't really talking, of course he makes lots of noise, just not many distinguishable words. He sounds like he is speaking in chinese or something. He says mama and dada and a few other things that you can understand, but most of the time it is some other language. He get so frustrated with us when he keeps telling us something and we just don't get it. He points and grunts ALOT! We go through the pantry trying to figure out what he wants, when we finally figure it out he gets so excited. He also knows the difference in the yes and no head shake. He is such a bog boy, where has my baby gone? He also has stopped watching the Wiggles as much. He prefers to watch Baby Einstein and Baby Mozart videos and Madagascar. We have tried so many other movies that we thought he might like and he will not watch them. Occasionally he will watch Shark Tale, but he prefers Madagascar. If you haven't seen it, watch it, it is a really cute movie. Before the nasty comments start or the hate emails I know already I am a horrible mother for letting my child watch TV at all, but hey I can't entertain him all the time.

For the past few weeks he has had some sleep issues. I thought we were over those when he finally started sleeping through the night, but I guess not. He has had separation anxiety REALLY bad the past few weeks and at night when I put him in the bed and leave the room he just screams his head off. So I would go back in and pick him up and sit in the rocking chair with him for hours sometimes before he would fall asleep. He was tired, but he is also very strong willed and he would not let himself go to sleep. I don't mind rocking him to sleep, but for 2 hours it was a bit much! I could not get anything done or get any rest myself. Then after I would put him in the bed he would wake up at the least little noise, like my knee popping! I started putting him in our bed and laying down with him to get him to sleep and then moving him to his bed, but even that would take hours some nights. So on Monday I decided I had enough. It was time to be the parent take some control. Crying it out worked before to get him sleeping through the night I prayed that it would work again. So Monday night he got his bath, brushed his teeth, we read some bedtime stories, said our prayers and then I tucked him in his bed, said goodnight, turned out the light and left the room. He screamed for about 2 minutes then he got quiet for a few minutes, then he screamed a little more, never more than 2 minutes. After about 10 minutes he was asleep and he did not wake up until 5, then we went and got him and put him in our bed. I don't mind sleeping with him for an hour or so in the mornings, but I don't want him to sleep with us every night and I can see that was where we were headed. Anyway last night was night 2 and he did just as well. Hopefully by the end of the week he won't cry at all when I leave him in the bed. I hate to hear him cry, it just breaks my heart. I feel like a new woman this week, having slept more for the past 2 nights than I have in weeks. WOOHOO for sleep!