Toddler-hood

I guess Mr. P has officially become a toddler. Craziness. It's hard to believe he turned 14 months old just a few days ago. The biggest and most exciting update is that he's really starting to learn how to walk! He's been flirting with the idea for a while now, but when we were on vacation visiting family a couple of weeks ago, he actually took his first few steps. It was really awesome that so many family members could be there to see it. Since then, he's getting better and better. He's quite good now walking while holding onto just one hand, instead of two. And last week he hit his all time best of ten steps completely on his own. Walking towards HH seems to be a good motivator. Well, that or ice cream.

Along the lines of motor skill development, he has totally mastered climbing up the stairs. We have gates at the bottom of our stairs, so originally he wasn't getting much exposure to the stairs. But one day, when a gate was left open, we saw Mr. P heading for the stairs and decided to just wait and see what happened. Well, to our surprise, he started climbing up the stairs like it was no big deal! I'm wondering if maybe he got some practice in at daycare (I keep forgetting to ask). Going down the stairs is another story. However, just last week, something clicked and he realized he needs to go backwards down the stairs. With a few more days of practice, I'm sure he'll be mastering that skill too!

Also, just tonight, we realized that Mr. P cut not one, but TWO molars!!! And we didn't even know it! I'd noticed that he seemed to be drooling excessively again, and I mentioned to HH that I thought he was probably teething. But the last time I checked, there was nothing. And now, there's two! No wonder he hasn't been sleeping that great... poor kid just needed some Tylenol!

On a not so great note, Mr. P's separation anxiety has seemed to finally kick in. It probably started at about 13 months or so. And silly me, I thought we might just skip right over that... Now he seems much more sensitive when HH or I are out of eyesight, and if we leave him with family so we can have a night out, he commonly won't take his bedtime-bottle. Seems as though he's becoming quite particular in his old age.

More and more of his personality is coming out every day, including his growing desire for independence. The little previews of temper tantrums are the best. Gotta love the 8-second silent cry. He truly is becoming a toddler... what are we to do?