Life with Nathan: 14 Months - In Love with Daniel Tiger

When Nathan turned one, we started introducing him to a few different shows like Curious George and Blues Clues (JM's favorites at this age). Surprisingly they didn't keep his attention at all and he would just go about his normal business. But then we hit the jackpot when I tried Daniel Tiger - within a couple of episodes he was hooked! And I could see why - even I really enjoy watching it. There's so much singing in the show and Nathan loves music, and I like that every episode has a good lesson and they build on each other. Whenever we need 30 minutes to sleep in or do some house chore, he happily stands in his crib and watches Daniel Tiger on my computer screen. I think by now we've seen every episode of 5 seasons at least 4 or 5 times.

Here's a video of him super happy during the theme song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kl78AMg3p8

Nathan is very picky about who he's willing to go to now. At a baby shower this past month, it took one of our friends a long time to get him to play with her. She was very persistent and kept drawing pictures for him until he warmed up to her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A317jH9bq48

Nathan only feeds people that he likes :) I love it when he wants to feed me Cheerios because he is sharing something that he values so much. Speaking of Nathan being picky, he really likes his babysitter who comes once a week. Recently when I try to take him from her when she has to go, he would shake his head no and grab onto her. I felt a little sad at first but then understood that he only gets to see her once a week and he sees me everyday. Sigh, the heartaches of being a mom, haha.

There was a period of 10 days when Nathan started sleeping better, waking only twice a night (I know, ONLY twice). The best was when he would wake up at midnight, then 6am and sleep until 7:30am. But then he went back to waking up every 3 hours. Argh.

He's much steadier standing now and can stand for a longer period of time. He can also get up and down pretty fast and wave his arms to music while standing. But he is refusing to take a step on his own. When we try to hold his hands and tell him to walk, he'll half-heartedly take a couple of steps and then sit back down and start crawling away. I guess he'll walk when he's ready!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R14T0AI6ceo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpuUexNz7G8

When we're in the car, I have to either sing or entertain Nathan almost the entire ride with peek a boo and other games. He really does not like being in the car seat. It was cute when one day he just started playing peek a boo with me during dinner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTpNL-J0lWI

He's been making more sounds and sometimes babbles in what sounds like full sentences but in his own language. He can make the "D" and "G" sounds really well. He'll say "Dah!" for daddy but he'll also say "Dah!" for other things. I think "Gah!" is for Cheerios or maybe just things he wants to eat. His morning routine when I bring him downstairs for breakfast is that he'll crawl to the pantry door, open it wide and nod / say "Gah!" meaning he wants Cheerios. Nathan is an amazing at nodding now. He'll pause when we ask him a question, then nod, so that it's almost as if he's thinking about it before saying yes. I don't know how much he really understands but he makes it look like he does! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYmOgPiqlcc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SggCgWNZVk

Nathan has been very intrigued by babies. For the most part he's been gentle with them which is great, but I still get a little nervous when he starts getting close to the little babies at church. Here's a cute exchange between him and a 5 month old at our recent play date. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LORxA4LSBmc

Oh yes, Nathan was SO brave when we went to get his blood drawn. The state requires babies to get tested for lead level and the doctor checks for anemia at the same time. I thought they'd just prick his finger, but when I saw the needle and realized they were drawing blood from his vein, I got super nervous. He sat on my lap and the nurse tried for several minutes to find the vein before putting in the needle. Nathan only whimpered a couple of times and tried to move but didn't cry at all! Seriously I think I was more traumatized than he was.