Meltdowns

I hate thinking that this blog will be a forum for airing out every little mis-step that Kole makes or grinding an ax each time he starts wearing on his parents’ nerves. But then, it should also be a little more realistic of the parenting experience than to just sing his praises for every little accomplishment. That being said ... our little bundle of joy, our precious gift from God, is beginning to show the first signs of all-out toddler melt-downs. If something isn’t going his way, and especially if something is taken from him, there’s now about a 1-in-5 chance that result will be an ear-piercing scream and the most horrified face you’ve ever seen. Yesterday he got to playing with cups - like the souvenir cups you get at sports venue, I have tons of them - and he’s running around with one or two putting things in them. Really a couple of those are assigned to the bath tub for baths, and some others I actually still use. Well, he was playing with one that is still in current kitchen use. All I wanted to do was to trade out one of those cups with one of his bath tub cups. I grabbed his and offered another, doing so with a pleasant demeanor in the spirit of sharing. The cup was no more a quarter-inch out of his hand before he clinched both fists, face turned beat red, and began a snarling cry. Within 10 seconds his eyes were welled with tears. There was something sadly pathetic about it, and oddly amusing. Such instant hysteria. He wanted no part of the cup I was offering him. Kathy and I agreed upon the first tantrum we saw a few days earlier that maybe we introduce the prospect of having things taken and not given back - in preparation for things that will surely come with other kids. Stick with it, don’t hand him the object right back just to shut him up. He needs to learn - sometimes you don’t get everything you want. It’s a tough lesson so far. But it’s just so sporadic and random. Most times you can take something and he doesn’t care. But, we are now definitely seeing more tears from what can best be described as emotional trauma, not so much anything physical.

Day at the Fort Worth Zoo

Kole today made his first visit to the zoo, the Fort Wroth Zoo. He went with his buddies Sarah and Noah, both born within two days of himself. Kathy reports that Kole was not overly fascinated with anything - do in part to the fact that most animals were distant, and in a lazy haze, with all kinds of foliage and other waterfalls and natural features that were more suitable to Kole's eye. Finally there was one animal that finally did take Kole's fancy - a stalking jaguar, who paced side to side in his little habitat. The midget got a kick out of that, and some fish in the aquarium, but not much else. There is a little animal-petting park in the zoo, and Kole attempted to become friendly with a cow, then quickly lost interest. PHOTOS: Ellie and Noah, Kathy and Kole, Beverly and Sarah; Kole and Noah entertaining themselves in a play area with alligators - notice Kole's sippy cup. Kathy said if she tried to take it away so he could more easily manipulate toys and other zoo things he would immediately freak.

Haircut Before and After

Kole got a haircut today at 2:00. Pictured are what he looked like this morning after he woke up with fresh bed-head ... and just before going to bed, horsing around in his new little play tent.

15 Months

Here at 15-months, Kole's emotional development is coming right along - it's basically everything but the clear English language that describes it. In a few recent trends ...
*He loves any and all music. He has favorite commercial jingles, on top of his standing all-time favorite ABC song. Many times he will just hear singing and begin to babble-sing (see 'Kole sing along' video) along with it. His favorite DVD is a sing-along nursery rhyme DVD.
*He's become a big clapper. Even if there is audience clapping on a TV sitcom, he'll hear the applause and begin clapping along.
*Am I buried deep enough in this post? Okay, I can't make this a stand-alone headline post. But, we've finally assigned a First Word where he has shown some consistency in using the word towards the word's description. The word is "Da Da", and Ma Ma is a tad bitter. I will sneak this note into the 'Milestones' column on the left with as little fanfare as possible. Yesterday there were three occassions where I walked into the room and he saw me and said "Da Da". I feel too bad for Ma Ma to rejoice too loudly.
*He's already had two haircuts and is overdue for a third.
*He immediately identifies with a dog, either a picture in a book or on TV, and mocks a dog's pant. We read a book, he comes across a picture of a dog, he smiles and opens his mouth and does a heavy-breathing pant. This started right after he spent back-to-back weekends with his Grammy and Grandpa Gedy (with their golden retriever and two Australian shepards, and with PaPa and Gram (with heavy-breathing boxer Spud). Cracks us up every time.
*He could eat Chef Boyardee Ravioli at every meal sitting. Still, his favorite thing in the world is milk. If he sees us pouring it into his sippy-cup he'll sometimes throw a fit and cry because he wants it NOW.
*His most annoying thing, still, is biting.
*He now gently pets Maggie, and most times Maggie will sit still and nervously allow him to pet her for a bit.
*Though he doesn't have a wide verbal vocabulary, he knows words. He knows "milk", if you say "Want to read a story?" he'll run around and find a book, he knows his name when it's called and he knows "NO!" He's figuring some things out.

Mama's smooch

In a round-the-clock attempt to turn our strapping young boy into a dependent, "cuddle bunny" mama's boy - Kathy finally got the boy to give her a smooch. It's open-mouth and messy, but now when Mama extends her neck and puckers her kisser, she finally gets what she wants, and normally follows it with a happy chant of "He loves me! He loves his Mama!" Then again, he is fairly elusive with his emotions. Most times if you put out your arms and ask for a hug, he'll stare at you for a second, turn and make a drunken stumble towards a toy and toss it aside. So, maybe it is somewhat of a milestone that here shy of 15-months that he not only needs affection, but openly seeks it.

Future Big 12 Athlete?

Our friends at the Big 12 Conference office gave Kole some generous gifts after birth - many of them he needed to grow into. One of them was this T2 t-shirt that finally fits. A future Big 12 athlete? We'll see. Only if he wants to. He'll have all the support in the world if that's the path he chooses, but mom and dad weren't exactly all-star athletes so he's gotta overcome some unathletic DNA and want it pretty bad.

Barstool jockey

He is not in Timeout, he is not stuck, he is not involuntarily lodged in this chair. This has become a place of preference. We recently brought back out our kitchen counter barstools, which we really took away when he began pulling himself up and crawling. Well (sniff, sniff) he's getting to be a bigger boy now and our only real concern with him and the barstools is him trying to climb on top of them - but that hasn't been a problem yet. He sees them as more of a convenient table-top where he can put items on the seat, right at his height. And ... yes, somehow crawl his way into the little iron ring at the bottom then sit there contently playing with one of his favorite toys. Aunt Eva gave him this little firetruck thing with a hammer for his birthday, and it all has sound effects and plays songs - he loves the thing.