Six months ago I wrote about the joy of babies at six months old. Six months is the beginning of more interactive behavior, but a key aspect is that the baby can't move. At 12 months mobility and curiosity simultaneously bring a ton of fun and many, many problems. Life is an adventure right now with #2, especially with moving into a new house that didn't have any baby-proofing when we first moved in.
Let's go back a little bit and cover that time between six and 12 months. Mobility is such a game changer. You start to think you've got a kid figured out and you're doing okay with a schedule and the overall parenting thing. Then they start rolling, and crawling, and climbing things. Our #2 army-crawled for a month or more, hilariously never using his legs. He got pretty fast at it too before finding a more proper form and discovering how to take off. He was interested in the stairs early and that hasn't changed a bit. At our old house he was constantly up on and dive-bombing off of our big dog bed, it's something like eight inches off the ground, and he could smack his head pretty good when near a hard surface. That was only the beginning.
Crawling is one thing, verticality is next level. A baby on hands and knees can't initially lift up their body to stand near a couch or whatever else is around their height. They are eventually strong enough and things change again. At this age little ones are sort of like cats. Oh that drink you set on the coffee table, that's going on the ground. What else can I throw that will make a fun sound? (Hey that rhymes.) It doesn't take long to learn how to 'furniture surf' and maneuver their way to the next item that catches their eye. Suddenly they can stand more quickly and easily and get into so many places that you didn't think were possible. With better control comes more efficient climbing and speed in every manner of getting around. Luckily our young one is pretty loud in his travels, usually slapping the ground with his hands or whatever toy he's carrying, plus he frequently uses his voice to chatter or squawk because that's fun too. And we need that help to know where he's going.
#2 for us is exhausting because he's such an explorer (at least more than #1 was) and is so fast in addition to being aware of the places he can't or doesn't normally get to go. It feels like I spend half the day chasing him up the stairs. There's been two occasions he escaped our attention and made it all the way up to entertain himself in the playroom, which admittedly didn't feel great. Prior to setting up the baby gate to the mudroom he went there almost as often, mostly eager to splash in the dogs water bowl. He still usually notices if he can go that way. Maybe there's a different door open, to the garage or to outside. He'll make a beeline for it to see where hasn't been before. We keep a pack-and-play on the main level which I refer to as 'baby jail' whenever I need to contain him for a bit. It used to live in front of the stairs but these days he's strong and determined enough to simply push it out of his way so that strategy doesn't work anymore. If we're hanging out on the second level there are many more places for him to get into trouble. When he makes it into a bathroom he loves to be near the toilet, banging on the lid or pulling tp off the roll (whatever), pulling the lever to flush or putting tp in his mouth (not ideal), and worse of all splashing in the water if he gets the chance (gah!). In our bedroom he wants to dig in my wife's nightstand and pull everything out. In our closet he pulls down any boxes of shoes or anything else he can reach. Putting away clothes with him around is a fool's errand as he pulls out as many articles as I put away. There's a clear trail anywhere he goes.
That's only part of it. He still never sleeps through the night and he's at the stage where at mealtime half his food gets thrown, and I mean thrown, on the ground. Sometimes he hits me with it. He's constantly pulling his socks off. Seriously, this is so annoying when we're out running errands. There are always messes in the play areas within moments of his arrival. I'm referring generally to books or toys on the shelves and totes with cars or Legos that he dumps on the ground before moving on to what's next. He's obsessed with pulling anything out of outlets, like the little night-lights we have. In the kitchen he'll pull out the mixing bowls with a crash or somehow manage to lift and drop pots and pans out of the drawers. I'm honestly impressed with his strength. Before I moved it to another location he repeatedly turned on our robot vacuum then tried to ride it around. One day at my parents he pulled down a potted plant and spilled soil all over. He always very quickly finds everything, things we want him to play with and more often what he shouldn't. It's a mobile disaster zone.
He's also scaring me more frequently with his climbing. One example is if certain items get too close together and resemble stairs. He's gone from the mantle up onto our coffee table. He's gone from the dog bed up onto the couch. He's tried to climb shelves and I swear one day he was eyeing a decorative ladder we use to hold blankets. Too often he turns around on the actual stairs, apparently very confident in his abilities. Most recently he wants to stand up in the baby seat of shopping carts, mostly at Target. The single strap their carts utilize isn't cutting it, it's barely an impediment to him at the moment. He tries to climb out of his highchair at home too, which used to be another place I could stash him temporarily. He requires a watchful eye, that's for sure.
Another difficult aspect of this age is the activities that the older child is enjoying. There's a lot of game playing, many of which have pieces too small for the baby to put in his mouth, and everything goes in his mouth. Then the older one wants to build things with Legos and Hot Wheels tracks, stuff like that. We have to keep his trains in a room with a door that closes or else it'd be trashed in seconds. He has to do puzzles up on the dinner table or they won't have a chance to be completed. Sometimes he just wants to line up a bunch of vehicles in a certain way and it always ends in anger when the baby inevitably rolls through. A lot of this is normal lessons about playing and sharing that comes with siblings or interaction with other kids, but it obviously results in frustration around here.
What I'm trying to say here is life is full. The days are tiring. Our three-and-a-half year-old wants to play and be entertained all day and the just over one year-old needs to be watched like a hawk. His activity I've been likening to a whirlwind, or better yet a tornado. It's yet to be seen if starting to walk will improve this situation or worsen it. Either way we're about to find out because he's finally trying. I'm happy #1 is about to start preschool again (all day Tu/Th) and we can start to actually establish some sort of cadence after the move and the holidays. I should then have a little time to myself, for the first time in a while, while the younger one naps. Hopefully you liked this one, it took me like two weeks to write because I kept thinking of more details and didn't want to leave anything out. Amusingly enough, I certainly still did.
Until next time.
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