Dancing, Stomping, and Spinning Around: Jaxon at 14 months

Jaxon is now 14 months old. My "baby" has gone from barely walking at his first birthday to running all over the place now. He dances. He stomps his feet. He jumps on the bed. He spins himself around in circles until he's dizzy. He goes up and down stairs while holding the rail, just like a big kid would!


He's learned to take his diaper off, even when it's a diaper with snaps. He thinks it's hilarious. This is a picture I took of him in the middle of removing his diaper.

He has made up two signs of his own. He sucks on his big toe to indicate when he wants to nurse...I'm not sure what that says about the taste of my milk. The other is this little pinching thing he does with his thumb and forefinger. We thought it meant "bite" because he would do it when he wanted something to eat. But now he's doing it at other times, like when I say "Tell Daddy goodnight" or "Say bye-bye to Daddy." So now I'm not sure what it means.


He has a few new words. He's trying to say "Alex" which comes out "Ayah" and he also tries to say Emily which sounds like Emma, though he has sometimes just yells "Ayah" at both of them. He says "pup-pup" and "Kota" for the puppy, whose name is Dakota. He is VERY loud with everything he says. He likes to make a big impression. But he's so happy. He's really a very sweet boy who gives lots of kisses and smiles a lot. At church Sunday, he greeted everyone who came in with a huge "Hiya!" 


He's feeding himself with a fork or spoon at almost every meal, and he is actually pretty good with the fork. He's still pretty extremely messy with a spoon.

He is still a great eater, though I do not just let him eat his favorite foods anymore. Since I'm trying to boost his iron levels, I really need for every bite to count. I've been giving him a lot of eggs and spinach. They are not his favorite, but he will eat them about 75% of the time. He loves strawberries and grape tomatoes. He also enjoys cheese, pizza, and pasta. But by far, his favorite food right now are raisins. He loves raisins and often goes into the pantry to get his own box. I've never seen a kid who likes raisins as much as Jaxon does. 


He can now open doors. In the past, our best form of Jaxon-proofing the house has been to keep doors closed. We are lucky in that the doorknob to the girls room does not twist as easily as our other doorknobs, so he hasn't mastered that one out yet. Once he does, we'll have to invest in some doorknob covers because the girls room is a toddler death trap, filled with Barbie shoes and other tiny toys.


I feel like he skipped a step somewhere. He went from crawling to running, from being fed baby food to eating with a fork, all in a matter of two months. His "learning to walk" phase lasted about a week, and then he started trying to run. Where was that transition period where he's learning to use a fork but still letting me feed him with a spoon?  We completely skipped that! At this point, I'm trying to hang on to the few remaining remnants of babyhood. I love this baby boy and I'm not ready for him to grow up so quickly!