My 14 month-old baby

Although technically, he's graduated to the "toddler" title, ever since he began walking at just over 13 months (Andrew walked at 12 1/2 months) he is still my perfect and precious little baby. At one year, he weighed in at 10.6kg and 79 cm, a tad bit fatter and shorter than Andrew at the exact same age (Andrew was 10.35kg and 80 cm). He continues to be so incredibly easy-going and totally proved himself as such on our recent two trips to Canada, in which he was a near angel on the airplanes and suffered from virtually no jet lag upon arrival aside from the first morning we were there when he woke up for breakfast at 5 am. After that, he continued on his normal sleep pattern as if we never changed time zones...fast asleep at 7 pm, awake just after 7 am and two 2-hour naps throughout the day...an utter miracle if you ask me. I remember fainting from fatigue after my trip to US/Canada with Andrew at 12 months. He is walking with more confidence every day, but when he is in a real hurry, he'll get down on all fours and scoot across it like a speeding bullet. As I sit here typing this, Ryan and Andrew have every toy known to man-kind all over the living room floor, but are playing quietly and nicely and every now and then, they both giggle together over something. Playing in the kitchen is a bit of a different story...I hate that our kitchen here is the galley type which means that I cannot see them playing in the living room when I am in the kitchen. Sometimes, I'll hear a scream coming from Ryan's mouth, one of those utter shrieks like he nearly killed himself, and when I tear madly into the living room to see what has happened, I discover that Andrew has the bulldozer that Ryan wants to play with, or something to that effect! But usually, Ryan likes to play wherever it is that I am, and of course Andrew doesn't want to be left alone, so along they follow me into the kitchen, where I spend a good bit of my time, since not only is it a kitchen, but it is also a laundry room too...a truly mad European concept if you ask me. Anyway, Ryan is obsessed with turning on the oven. Even though I bring countless toys into the kitchen with me, it is only the oven he wants to play with, or the pantry, whereby he pulls everything in reaching distance onto the floor. From there, he takes the stuff on the floor, carries them to the garbage can, and voila, they disappear. Robert just recently lost a shoe, it's nowhere to be found, and I've come to the realization that the shoe probably ended up in the garbage can and has long since been taken away. So now, I check through the garbage can before I tie up the bag and bring it down to the trash room....it's lovely doing this!!! I've prevented several items from being thrown out though, including the beloved new fridge farm from Grandma. At this age with Andrew, I remember we had the kitchen garbage can suspended up high with bungy cords but now that we have a dryer in the kitchen, there's no room to suspend the garbage can anymore.
As mentioned, Ryan goes down at 7pm religiously and wakes up after 7am, often has to be woken up since he needs to be fed his breakfast before we leave to take Andrew to school. He goes back to sleep around 9am, sleeps til 10:30 or 11, then back to sleep around 1:30/2 and often has to be woken up shortly before 4pm so that I can give him a snack before heading off to pick up Andrew. When I put him to sleep, all I have to do is turn out the lights and put the pacifier in his mouth...he instantly drops his head onto my shoulder, where we have a 30 second snuggle, then I gently place him in the crib and walk out and he's out like a light. This I find to be an utter miracle as well, especially after living through Andrew's naps, where he would ONLY go to sleep and stay asleep on me! I attribute this miracle partially to the Gina Ford techniques, in which I am a firm believer. The only downside about her methods is that Ryan is totally sleep trained to sleep in a quiet dark enviroment, so there's virtually no chance he will fall asleep in a car, on a plane or anywhere else we happen to be that is not a quiet and dark enviroment. And when he's tired and we're not in a place I can put him down, the result is disastrous. He is a VERY cranky tired baby, but then I suppose all children are very cranky when they are tired. There is one exception to his perfect disposition...he is an absolute nightmare to change! Change diapers, change clothes, put shoes on, etc. I do remember Andrew being a wiggly little monkey at one stage, but I find Ryan near impossible to change. As a result, his diaper gets changed when there is a poo in it and only when there is a poo in it! And often I put him in his next day's clothes after the evening bath, instead of pajamas, to avoid an additional change! He squirms, kicks, cries, rolls over, pulls up, puts his hands in his poo, etc. etc. etc. I have found ONE single thing that will distract him long enough to make a quick change happen...the telephone. And despite all the old cordless phones we have, he will only be distracted with the real thing. And he knows when I've locked the keypad and fusses, so usually I cave to make things easier for myself, and let him push the buttons when it's not locked (so it makes beeping noises), and I'll apologize in advance if any of you reading this get a phone call at a weird time in the day or night...it is probably Ryan getting through on a previously dialed number, or one stored in the keypad!!!
Andrew was also rather obsessed with the REAL phone and I remember there being a period of time whereby it was totally useless to even attempt a phone conversation during his waking hours. Back to the same deal with Ryan. When he sees the phone, he WANTS it, and wails unless he gets it, making it impossible for me to hear the person speaking on the other end!
Like Andrew, Ryan's first teeth appeared after he turned one. Ryan's teeth were brought on a little quicker, by a tumble he took face first into the floor, in which he cut his gums, forcing the teeth through. Andrew's first teeth were, like most babies, the bottom two. Ryan's are the top two. To this day, he still only has those top two teeth, though I suspect some more are coming in as we had two very unusual and fussy nights just recently, and since nothing else seemed to be wrong with him, I have deduced it down to some new teeth coming in.
At around the 12 month mark, nursing began to decrease in frequency and the length of time on each breast continued to shorten. He weaned himself entirely within three days of our arrival back in France, on this most recent trip. Again, this was very unlike Andrew, who nursed quite heavily, and often throughout the night, right up until the point at which I decided to wean him, which was not the easiest feat in the world.
Now that Ryan is up and about and can reach nearly all light switches, buttons, appliances, etc., I fully expect our electric bill to double. Every light switch gets turned on and off relentlessly, not to mention the washing machine, dishwasher, dryer and tv.
So that's my baby in a nutshell. He is busy, he is snuggly, and I'm absolutely head over heels in love with him.
Thank you Steph for inspiring me to get going on my blog again!