Sweetness and Vanity

A sweet story from the weekend: 

Tonight I told Tate it was "nite-nite" time. He wiggled out of my lap and started walking toward his room. He stopped halfway down the hall and turned around. I rolled my eyes and turned around also, thinking he was going to give me trouble about going to sleep. 

Instead he walked straight to Rob, who was on the computer, and reached up. Rob picked him up and Tate gave him a hug around the neck. I was still thinking this was Tate trying to get out of going to sleep. But no. After giving Rob a hug, he immediately wiggled to be put back down, turned around, waved "bye bye" to Rob and walked  himself straight back to his crib. I kissed him goodnight, put him in the crib, and he went straight to sleep. 

He had just wanted to tell his Dad goodnight. It was the sweetest thing, and the first time Tate has consciously done something like that. He's growing up. 

And a not-so-sweet story from the weekend: 

At Nancy Beth's house on Saturday, Tate decided to do some redecorating. He was intent on removing all knick knacks off the shelves in her living room and carefully placing them in other locations or handing them to me. He then came to the last item: a picture of himself. He stopped in his tracks, looked at it, lovingly patted it, and then placed it right back where it was, now the only item left on the shelf. His redecorating complete, he clapped for himself and walked into the kitchen to join the rest of us. He's so vain...he probably thinks this blog is about him. 

Tate is very lucky

When Rob and I were dating, we took our pictures in a photo booth, and it morphed our images to show what our offspring might look like. I came across that picture today.

World, meet our love child:


It was excellent birth control for a while. Tate is very lucky he didn't end up looking like the computer predicted. We should probably quit while we are ahead.

Happy Valentine's Day

Tate wants to give you all a kiss. 

Tate's Love Notes

Some recent comments from Tate's daily reports at daycare: 

"He had a wonderful day today and did like to get into trouble. He did have a fascination with his friend's hair today and wanted to pull on it if it was sticking up. So, I put a little clip in his hair for a bit in the morning so it would stick up so he would play with his own hair instead of his friends." 

"He learned how to play on the sensory table today with water and had lots of fun with it. So much fun that he wanted to climb on the table and sit in the water with his clothes on." 

"He might start doing Tarzan noises at home." 

15 Months

At Tate's 15-month appointment last week, his stats were:

Height: 32 inches (50%)
Weight: 24 lbs 3 oz (50%)
Head: 19 inches (90%)

He still has the big head. Luckily he has a new boy cousin on his way which should help keep his head from getting too much bigger....he won't be the only game in town anymore!

Other milestones:

• He runs. And runs. And runs.
  
• Says da-da, duck, uh oh, thank you and "uh uhn uh uhn" (which is the sound you make when you are wagging a finger at him and telling him to stop doing something. He now just mimics it back. I have such authority with him.)
  
• Still no "mama." I am starting to take it personally.
  
• He can sign for "more" and "finished"
  
• Loves balloons, pull toys and other babies
  
• He also is learning to use a spoon:

It's a work in progress. (Click on the picture to enlarge it at your own risk. It's not a pretty sight.)