Toddy: Where did my baby go?

So, I'm at that stage in motherhood where I am slowly watching my baby become a toddler - at moments, it's sad and then, as I watch Luke's individuality and personality grow more and more, I love this baby-odler stage!!! :)

The first sign of my baby becoming a toddler is this weaning process that we are going through - Luke and I are doing well so far. I am no longer nursing during the day at all - I cut out my after work nursing session and I have also cut out the before work nursing session in the morning. I still nurse before bedtime and then around 4:0o or 5:00am. Luke seems to wake up during that part of the morning often and nursing him gets him back to sleep quickly. I know that the bedtime and early morning feedings will be the hardest to break away from so I'm considering keeping these in place until I get out of work for the summer. This will leave Luke nursing until he's around 18 to 19 months...surely, this is not uncommon. Maybe, just maybe, he will lose interest before then. Until then, I'm very proud of our accomplishments with dropping the day time nursing sessions so easily.

Luke has also (in the last week) dropped one nap - he is now only taking one nap a day instead of two. He usually wakes up around 6:30am, goes back to sleep between 11 and 12, and then sleeps 2 to 3 hours. It's like a long mid-day nap that moves later and later into the day each day. This causes him to be a little more whiny and sleepy when I get home from work and during dinner, but he gets better adn better at handling this each night. He is now going to bed between 7:30 and 8:00pm. I hate the earlier bedtime but I know it's what is best for him. I just make sure I rush home everday so I can be here to play with him by 4:15.

Luke is doing great with drinking milk! He drinks milk with his breakfast, lunch, and dinner and with his morning and afternoon snack. Sometimes, he "asks" for it in between. I'm so relieved that he likes milk! I think this is helping with the weaning and the napping!

Luke continues to be in this phase of taking objects from one place to another place - he carries his blocks, rings, farm animals, all over the house and places them in various containers. He also continues to love to ride in/on things - his Thomas train, his red car, and now, a pampers box.

His newset activity is "hiding" inside small spaces. He climbs into the laundry basket and when he has a chance, he goes to the corner of my closet and "hides" while he plays with my bag of Christmas cards. You will see these pictures below...

Luke is getting better at his physical skills and the things he can do also - he can now put his small basketballs in his basketball goal, can switch the light switch on and off, and, most impressive to me...the other day, he picked up a book to look at the pictures and it was upside down, so he flipped it the right way before flipping the pictures...I was most impressed...way to go, Luke, I think you already have the beginnings of "book and print awareness".

My favorite part of this baby/toddler stage is how lovable Luke is getting...he will now give his little horse and Paula the singing puppy a hug at random times. At night, when I'm rocking him or lying beside of him while he falls asleep, he will rub my cheek or put his cheek against my face or up against my forehead. After his naps, when he gets sleepy, and other random times, he will lay his head on my shoulder and give me a hug...an actual sqeeze hug...he will also put his face up against mine when I ask for a kiss. I'm so excited to see that he loves to give this attention.

So...nap time is almost over...I've gotta go...everyone do the snow dance and take a look at the pictures below...

The first two pics were taken on New Year's Eve at the Hoover...isn't he cute??