Skyler will be one year old in a very short period of time. One year ago today, I was walking around with a beautifully giant belly and while I don't miss the feeling of a baby on my cervix, the last moments of a pregnancy are like no other time in life. The month before a baby is born are also a combination of agonizing slow days followed by moments of hurried panic. I don't miss that either.
But now Sky is with us at 11 months old. He moves like a little kid more then an infant. He speaks, plays, laughs, shrieks from sun up to sun down. From the moment of his emergence a short time ago, his moods, feelings and thoughts have been clearly written on his body. But now, he shows a strong INTENT TO COMMUNICATE!
When he becomes furious, he throws his head onto the floor (sometimes banging it in the process, thus bringing on more fury) in a temper. If I calmly ignore him and move into another room, he will get up and follow. Then he repeats the tragic movement until I pick him up. Poor kid! Life is so unfair!
A few days ago after he and North woke up from an afternoon nap, North sat at the little snack/art table eating food. Sky crawled into the kitchen, looked at North and decided it was time for him to eat also. He looked at me, pointed at the bananas on the counter and loudly demanded his food. What can I say? What would you do? He was so happy as he ate his well-deserved food.
Later that same day, North and I were digging on a slope. Sky couldn't get himself up the steep incline to join us, so rather then fuss he just crawled off. I looked up a few moments later and saw him heading towards the open door of the chicken yard.
"He won't go in there," I thought to myself.
Wrong.
I had to fling myself off the hill and chase him down as he rapidly (his Mama was coming to stop him, after all!) moved through mounds of chicken poop.
"Where are you going?," I asked him.
He gestured to the large, white bucket we use for geese water with strong movements of his hands and loud words.
I think we have another strong personality on our hands.
As an infant, Sky would sit on Reed's or my lap as we read stories with North. But as Sky grew older his ability to move dictated that he move away from the book-reading and toward the toy-exploration. I felt confident that no matter where he was in the room, on some level, he was absorbing the behaviors of book-sharing and would soon be interested in sitting on a lap again.
Just recently, I have become encouraged to see him turning the pages of a book as he sits on the floor. And although he is usually in the middle of a pile of books he has pulled off the shelf, the curiosity he shows towards the ideas on the page is definitely growing.
Today, as he and I were waiting at North's swim lessons, I brought two books for us to look at. We looked at the pictures and I talked about the ideas for almost 10 minutes before we moved onto the next thing. He will be a book lover yet.
Yep, those are two bottom molars showing. He has two more on the top bringing the grand total of teeth to 12.
12!
Yesterday as I was cleaning out the wood stove, North and Skyler were playing at my feet. North was pushing his toy onto Sky's hands in a way that I thought was hurtful. So I talked to him about it.
Me: " There must be a way to play your game that is respectful to Brother."
North: I don't want to be spec-ful, I want to be dangerous."
Me: "Why dangerous?"
North: (in a very simple way) "Dangerous is fun, Mommy."
Later, he and Reed came inside. Reed asked North to repeat his idea to me.
North: "Daddy will run the weed-eater and I will have the chain saw."
EEEK!
One more picture, just because I can't resist. If it wasn't swim suit season, I would be worried about his mental health....Do you think he would get up early to go to a sale?!