Graham's 20 Month Update

 At 20 months, Graham is certainly closer to being a two year old than a baby. As I watched this sixth month old baby boy try to sit on a ride on toy with his Mother's help at a recent playdate, it dawned on me, that is how I envision Graham. While he often seeks my help and reassurance, he is becoming his own self. With that, we are starting to have some growing pains. Mother's Day weekend we decided to gently start the process of night weaning. This means I no longer nurse Graham to sleep at bedtime. Spencer puts him down and cuddles with him until he falls asleep.  If Graham wakes up between bedtime and midnight, Spencer helps him back to sleep. Our best night was a few nights ago, Graham slept 4.5 hours all by himself and without nursing. Friday and Saturday nights (when Spencer doesn't have to work the next day) Spencer tends to Graham the whole night, sending him to me anytime after 5am to nurse. There has been very little crying (seriously no more than 5 minutes), and very little protest. I am combining this with free access to the boob during the day, so that he  (hopefully) feels assured he can have Mama's milk whenever he needs it, just not at night anymore. This has led to quite a bit of comfort nursing during the day. His language continues to just blossom, and he is starting to express more concepts rather than just parroting words. He pointed to our floor-mat in the garage that has dog foot prints on it and unprompted said "oval" about one of the shapes that indeed looks like an oval. Out of the blue he pointed to Gwen's purple sock, and said, "purple." At the park we were looking at a rock with a plaque on it since Gwen wanted to know what it said, and he started pointing at various letters and number saying, "Two. Two. Two." He doesn't know his ABCs and 123s, but he knows those symbols mean something. If you ask him a question, he will say. "Ummmm..." like he is considering the answer. I wish I had taught him more sign language though, since he wants to communicate more than what he is able to, and that is starting to lead to some frustration and tears. I thought he might be interested in starting to use the potty, but I was mistaken. I let him wear underwear around the house the other morning and he became hysterical when I tried to change him out of his wet undies into dry undies. He clenched to his wet underwear and didn't want me to take them away. He was also confused or upset about having peed on the floor. We did this twice before I decided to break the cycle and put him in the bath. I thought I could potty train him like I did Gwen, but he is a different animal. He is very sensitive about himself and not wanting to make a mess. And I now know he is not physiologically ready since he piddled on the floor a handful of times in an hour. One of Graham's favorite things to do is forage in the garden where there is a plethora of fava beans and snow peas. This is often what he has for his afternoon snack and I love the idea of our kids foraging in the backyard, some of my fondest memories as a child are eating warm tomatoes off the vine, munching on green beans, and stealing strawberries.