17 months old!

Little baby Graham turned 17 months old on May 23rd, and he rang in the big 1, 7, in style. 
We started off the morning with a trip to Toddler Times and he had a few firsts. 
He tried finger painting for the first time.  He got all decked out in his smock and sat patiently in his chair, but after dipping one finger in the (non-toxic and completely organic) paint and, of course, tasting it before doing any painting, he decided that finger painting was not for him:

He forgave me for subjecting him to the finger painting and went outside from some quality play time.  Graham loves pushing toys but he has not enjoyed riding on them until his 17 month birthday.  He fought off two other kids to get into a little plastic car:

had a grand time riding around:

but ultimately decided that it was more fun to go backwards:

No Toddler Times would be complete without story time at the end (always with the same book, “I went Walking”) and Graham was front and center for the fun:

When we got home, Graham got to stand against his tree so we could see how much he had grown.  He did a great job standing still for the measurement but was not as cooperative for the picture afterwards:

Since Mommy was so proud of her growing boy, she gave him a special treat.  Graham got to jump on the bed for the first time.  He had so much fun jumping up and down (while Mommy helped him by holding his hands) and then doing a free fall backwards to land on the soft bed. 

The day would have been perfect had it not ended with Graham’s worst night of his life!  We put Graham down for bed at his usual bedtime and he screamed uncontrollably the second his head hit the mattress.  If we held him, he was calm almost instantaneously and happily fell asleep in our arms, but the second we put him back in his crib, the screams would start again.  This went on for 3 hours before he finally fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion.  The good news is that it appears to be a blip on the radar and our happy boy is back.  He woke up the next day (after sleeping in an extra hour) happy and didn’t seem to have any recollection of the night he put us through and he has gone down for his naps and bedtime with no problem ever since.  I took him to the gym daycare the evening before his fateful sleep and he had some separation anxiety, so I’m thinking the nighttime may have been some extended separation anxiety.  We will see if it happens again after his next trip to the gym daycare. 

Other Cute Antics and Noteworthy Tidbits:

• Graham has started to imitate coughing, sneezing, and nose blowing.  Here is a video of Graham using his mouth to imitate the sound of blowing his nose (17 months old):

• Graham won’t willingly keep a hat on, but I caught him playing with a baseball cap.  He is so proud of himself for being able to put a hat on, as long as he can take it off whenever he wants (16 months, 19 days old):

• Graham’s new favorite sound to make is “honk!”  His “Little Blue Truck” book has a sweet friendly truck that goes “beep” so he said “beep” for a long time, but the book also has a big mean dump truck that says “honk” so now Graham says a loud, obnoxious “honk” instead of the sweet “beep, beep.”  He also says “boom” when he runs into a wall, “boo” when he is playing hide and go seek, “bonk” when he hits his head, and “boo boo” when he feels like he is really hurt.
• Graham has developed a serious sweet tooth.  He will usually eat his dinner without complaint, but as soon as Daddy brings out dessert, Graham refuses to finish any real food and will point at whatever the dessert is and say “cookie, cookie” while banging on his tray and saying “more, more, more.”  We have gotten to the point where we need to spell cookie, so he won’t be distracted from his dinner while we discuss dessert.  As a side note, we also need to spell hat because if Graham is wearing a hat and someone says “hat” he will notice it on his head and immediately take it off.
• Graham’s “more, more, more” is pretty cute, but so is his “no, no, no” (accompanied with a vigorous head shaking) which he uses when asked if we can brush his teeth or feed him a nice healthy, but maybe not so appetizing, food option.
• He also says “no” when things are not right in the world, like if he is touching something he knows he is not supposed to touch (like electrical cords).  Most recently, he has gone up to the cabinet locks and if he finds them unlocked, instead of looting the cabinets, he says “no, no, no” and tries to re-lock the baby proofing locks himself :)