The First Brush-off

Connor is getting more independent every day.  He crawls less and walks more, goes into rooms and entertains himself, tries to stretch his boundaries and our patience.  It is amazing every day to watch him grow, and learn, and become his own little chunky person.

Today we were playing outside in the front yard.  After discovering that, no, he wasn't allowed to eat rocks, and no, that pipe was not for playing with, he decided to head down the driveway.  I think the act of walking downhill was super exciting for him.  Well, he stumbled, as he often does, and I picked him up, as I often do, he said something to the effect of "Hen Dah!" insisting on being put down.  My first brush-off.  The first time Connor said to me, "No, Mom, I can do this myself and I want to do this myself and not with your help." 

Well, honestly, he's probably done this before, but not with something as independence-giving as walking.  It astonishing to me that at just a year old, he can be so grown up.  He is so different from the tiny baby we brought home, but I still recognize things about him that I observed in the hospital.  My intuitions about his personality have been dead on.  He's sweet, calm, and really stubborn.  He's also very silly, which I didn't observe between bouts of nursing and sleeping!

Some other examples of his new independence and self awareness are:

• He chooses his own clothes.  I set out a few shirts and he picks the ones he wants, and then I set out some shorts that go with the shirt and he chooses the ones he wants.  I've done this several times, but it still astonishes me every time.

• He started signing!  So far he just does one discernible sign (all done) which I think he enjoys doing, since it's basically shaking his hands at me.  Sometimes he does it when he's annoyed at us too, which is funny to me.  I wish I could get him to sign "milk" to me, but he either signs "all done," smacks me on the chest, pulls at my shirt, or just yells.

• He has very decided opinions on what books we should be reading to him, even if he starts looking at another book.  Often he will ask for the same book three time in a row.  He definitely has rotating favorites.  Right now the book champion is "Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs".

•  He gives us things when we ask for them.  If he's really into the object, he will usually just hold it out to us and get mad when we take it away, but if he doesn't care, he'll drop it in our hands.

• He knows what a lot of phrases mean.  He knows what it means to "go outside," "go on a trip" (in the car), "come get (whoever)," and "where's Mama/Dada."