Tiago... a long update

Tiago is at a really fun age.  I can tell his brain is starting to make connections and he interacts with his surroundings more like a normal person.  (Gone are the 'baby' days of senseless crying and staring into space.)

His sleep schedule might be the best yet... although it was painful getting here.  The jetlag he had after returning from Utah was BAD.  Every night he woke up around 11 pm and wanted to play for a few hours.  After a week of that I'd had enough, and laid in bed listening to him cry trying to think of anything to make it stop.  Two nights in a row he cried for over an hour, but eventually fell back asleep, and now he's been sleeping from 7:30 pm until 8:30 am, plus a solid 2-hr nap just after lunch.  I'm afraid that just by writing that, it will all come to an end.  I love the predictability of his napping.  When he took 2 naps a day I never knew if he'd actually fall asleep, or how long he'd stay asleep.

One of his common sleep positions.  He slept in a pack&play while at my parents' house.  

Moving on to other skills- he's learned to play picaboo.  He'll either put a blanket over his head, or just put his hands in front of his face, and laughs when he pulls them away.  If he's feeling particularly lazy, he'll just close his eyes really tight then open them and laugh.

   

When we were in Utah, Hyrum and I were in the bedroom folding clothes and Tiago was outside playing.  Pretty soon we heard him outside, and he just kept knocking until we finally opened.  I thought it was funny that he knew we were in there, and he knew how to get himself invited in.

He still loves to dance.  Certain songs get more of a response than others; I think he likes techno and synthesizers.

He holds my cell phone up to his ear and walks around the house.  He babbles all day long, but still doesn't talk.  I joke that it sounds like he's speaking Chinese, very loud Chinese.  If someone else calls on the phone, like Hyrum, he loves to make himself heard, then throws a fit when I hang up.  He's been known to grab the phone and throw it.  Then go get it and throw it again.  (In between he looks at me to make sure I'm watching.)  He reminds me so much of me...

Even though he's content playing by himself, he loves the attention of having people around.  He was in heaven in Utah, with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins around to watch him almost 24/7.  He periodically would look up and see everyone watching him and just smile and go back to his toys.  As soon as Matt walked in the door after work, he lit up.  (Maybe because Matt would chase him up and down the stairs endlessly... and feed him chocolate.)  He also spent most of Thanksgiving dinner playing behind Andrew's chair, handing him toys and poking him.  It was fun to see him start recognizing people.  Now it's back to boring Germany where it's only me around to entertain him.

Also in Utah he learned to walk.  He took a few steps before we left, but it was the middle of November before he started actually walking places, then deciding he was done with crawling.  My parents have a really long hallway that was good for practicing.  Only a few times did he fall and smack his head on the wall.  While he was learning, we went to eat at a restaurant with a long ramp where you wait for a table.  It was hilarious to watch him walk up and down the incline; walking turned to running, then he'd realize he couldn't maintain the speed and turned into a wall. Or he'd start going up, but end up circling back unintentionally because he didn't have enough strength to keep going forward.

His favorite foods are mandarin oranges, pears, and yogurt.  Meat and vegetables are harder to get him to eat.  (He spits out sweet potatoes.)

It's nearly impossible to keep his socks on.

He likes to hand things to other people.  When we're feeding him, he instead tries to put the food into our mouths.  On the airplane from Utah he'd walk up and down the aisle picking up papers and handing them to me.  He even picks clothes out of the laundry basket then finds me to hand them over.

As for the boring stuff, he's still in the 20th or 30th percentile on size.  There's a chance he's still wearing some of his 6-9 month clothes, but it's probably time to box those up.  He weighs about 22-23 lbs and has 4 teeth, with two more coming in on top.  (It was pretty miserable just getting those 4.  But it certainly helps him eat better.) His hair is getting pretty long in the back; some might even use the word 'mullet'.  It kind of curls on the ends, and gets really tangled when he's in his car seat.  Conditioner has become his friend.