A few weeks before his birthday he began to walk, which was a surprise since none of our other kids learned until 14-15 months. He started out wobbly, but has pretty quickly learned to walk up/down small steps, walk on inclines, and run.
And perhaps the cutest thing babies (toddlers? Is he a toddler now that he walks?) do at this stage is clap for themselves. Enzo claps when he closes the dishwasher or a door, he claps when he does the sign language for "all done" (to get out of his high chair), and he claps when he knocks over block towers.
When we first got to Utah he was extremely hesitant around other people, mostly just wanting to be held by mom 24/7. After about a week (after the party had thinned out...) he warmed up to others, and by the end of the trip, he'd regularly walk into my dad's office during the day to be held by him. Or reach to be held by grandparents while I was already holding him.
And HALLELUJAH. He started sleeping longer in the morning. I was nervous for the time change in Utah, because 5:30 becomes 4:30, but after about a week he was sleeping until about 6:30 MT!!!! :) I don't know if shifting his whole schedule allowed him to sleep through a natural 'early' wake-up... but I'm thrilled. We kept him on the later schedule when we got back to Texas, having him sleep from 8:30 pm to 7:30 am, which has been amazing. Unfortunately, the last few days he's been sick and started waking up super early again. A few times he's cried it out and fallen back asleep, and a few times we've just given up and let our heads shake sadly and tiredly.
He loves playing in the backyard. He waits by the door (ie: pounds on the door) and shakes the wood blinds until we open the door. It makes me grateful for a fenced in backyard, where he can play fairly independently. Siena is also great about going out and entertaining him. The red Fisher Price Cozy Coupe car is his favorite to sit in, or be pushed in. He also enjoys just throwing dirt around from the flower beds. (Can they be called flower beds if there are no flowers? Bush beds?)
Enzo is nothing if not opinionated. If he wants something, he lets you know. And if you ignore him, he'll persist until he gets what he wants. It still kills me when we put food on his tray he doesn't like, and instead of picking it up to try, he holds his hand over the edge, dropping it on the floor while looking us directly in the eyes. I did consider it a small win the other day when he was dropping his bread on the floor. I put nutella on it, and handed it back. He tried to drop it on the floor again, until I shoved a piece in his mouth for him to taste. And, of course, he then ate the whole thing and wanted more. Sneaky mom.
His favorite room in the house is either Tiago's room (where he can't usually go because there are thousands of Legos everywhere) or the bathroom, where he can try to stick his hand in the toilet (they're now always closed) or try to pull off all the toilet paper from the roll. He likes playing with the Little People castle because it plays music.
He naps twice a day, regularly at 10:30 and 3:30. That's nice. He's probably my only baby I've ever rocked before bedtime and naps religiously. By the time Tiago was over a year, he definitely didn't even have a rocking chair in his room. (I'm pretty sure it was like, "take your bottle, kid" as I threw him in his crib...) And by the time the girls were 6-months old and could hold their own bottles, they were on their own, because... there were two of them. Even if I rocked one while they ate a bottle, the other one would be on their own anyway... so why bother? haha. All that to say, lucky Enzo. He gets a bottle, rocking chair, dark room, noise machine, sleep sack, and my undivided attention for about 7 minutes.
Weaning him from a bottle is on my long-term 'to-do list' but certainly not this week. (For that matter, teeth-brushing is also on that list... It's amazing how much more confidence I have telling the pediatrician that I'm not brushing my 4th child's teeth yet... And yes, I know I should, and eventually we'll do it. With my first I think I lied about things like that so I didn't get a guilt-inducing speech from the doctor.) I'm counting my blessings that Enzo drinks milk cold. Ever since switching him to formula we gave it to him room-temperature, and he didn't complain to get cows milk right from the fridge. So no microwaving bottles for 30 seconds like we did for YEARS with my other kids. We finally broke that habit when we moved to Texas! (Ages 3 and 4!)
Back to Enzo... he's great. Every one in the family loves him. We are a little sad he's not a 'baby' anymore, but he's just getting so much more fun. My kids recently said, "We love having a baby! And a baby that can do so many things!" When I'm in Enzo's room rocking him to sleep like a king, my older kids regularly come in to give him a kiss on the head. Mila likes to come in and sing him lullabies. He doesn't suffer for attention and has us captivated by his beautiful dark eyes. (And six big teeth!)
More information about his birthday celebration later.
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