Davie Days

Oh Davie. So much to say and yet so little time. Davie has a vigor for life that literally has me exhausted just watching. The boy is full of it, like a cup that just can't quite hold enough water. He can be the HAPPIEST baby on the planet when he wants. And when he's bad, it's BAD. That right there is what I would consider our biggest hurdle right now. How do you communicate ANYTHING to someone who just does not understand. Feel free to email me your secret.

About a week or so ago Davie decided he LOVES cars. It's always "car, car, beep, beep" and he is always walking around collecting the 3 or 4 cars he owns. Even the ladies at his school noticed his new interest. And he is sure to tell me "car, car" before we get into our car when I pick him up from school or he will say "beep, beep" as I hit the key fob to unlock the doors (the car beeps). He still isn't the world's best talker because he is as stubborn as they come and other then repeating simple words to him I have stopped trying so hard to get him to try and copy me. He will talk when he darn well feels like it and not a MOMENT sooner. Thus is Davie.

He still only has 6 fully cut teeth. Four top ones and two bottoms. We recently pulled the plug on his binky cold turkey and other then the fact that now he whines a lot more when he is grumpy, he hasn't done half bad. About 4 or so weeks ago he decided that binky was a must. He literally decided it was all he wanted all the time and started asking for it once a minute 24/7. I was quite surprised because since he turned about 6 months old I have done my best to limit binky time to nap and bed only, with the occassional car breakdown as a must for my sanity. 

Then about 2 weeks ago I decided I had had enough. The kid was a mess, always whining and asking for his binky ALL the time! And he no longer kept the binky leash on so he was constantly dropping it, getting it dirty and losing it, which was so annoying! Even his aunt noticed he was out of control. It was so nice to have someone else confirm to me that I was not in fact dreaming up this baby binky addict, the boy was a mess. So half way through a random Thursday when I decided I had had all I could take. I gathered up all the binkys put them in a baggy and hid them under my bedside table. Bedtime was horrible. He probably screamed for 45 minutes. And I mean screamed, this was not crying.

The next day he asked for it a couple of times but he asked for it less than he had in the days previous. Surprisingly nap went smoothly and other then taking longer than usual to settle down he was fine. I miss being able to pop a binky in his mouth when he gets fussy because we are definitely in the "I cry about EVERYTHING because I understand nothing and only want what I want" phase. He is better off without it and so are his teeth. But I do miss that blessed silence.

Davie is full of mischief and definitely won't be taking anything the world throws at him laying down but goodness me-oh-my I'd love to get through to him better. For example, the other morning he literally woke up screaming. For no apparent reason. I tried my best to get him to calm down before I had to just leave him screaming while I showered. He is at the stage now that when he starts screaming it literally makes my blood boil. It's so scary! It's like something in me snaps and I HATE feeling that way. I do my best to just ignore his bad behavior but he has made it clear that he can endure longer than I can. That was this last Tuesday and it was a day I was so grateful that he was going to daycare, which makes me feel awful to admit. It was good to have some separation after a morning like that. Tuesdays I have an art class that I came SOOO close to dropping but after the first day I was glad I kept and after this week I was thankful. Sitting there painting in general silence after a baby morning melt down sure did calm my nerves.

All I can say is, WhEw! I don't want him to grow up but a little bit of reason/ understanding sure does seem like it would go a long way right now. I find myself calling my poor mother and mother-in-law often to get some form of reassurance that I am doing ok when I don't let him get away with randomly waking up screaming or whatever the bad behavior is. But I can't stress enough to you how often I seriously wonder the logistics of these power struggles. Those of you who have been through this age I'm sure you know what I mean. How do you reason with a 1 and a half year old!? I just wish he could TELL me what he wants sometimes!

On a happier note I have said before he is a Daddy's boy and he has missed David so much the last 4 weeks. I feel bad because every evening, without fail, when Mike and Lauren come home Davie will get all excited and say "daddy! Daddy! daddy!" only to find his aunt and uncle standing in the doorway. Poor Mike and Lauren! At least Davie typically transitions from his look of "ahhh you aren't daddy" to his happy chorus of "My (that's how he says Mike), My, La-la, La-la"

Davie now says Mama and Mommy quite often, he decided that he was FINALLY going to add that to his vocabulary about a month and a half ago and I am so glad he did. He is really good at words that start with the letter B, like Baba (banana), bah (for bath), buh (bubble), bebe ba (baby bear for his gummy bear vitamins) and bo for boat. Other favorites are to say pi-pi pi-pi over and over every time I bring him in the bathroom with me so I can go potty without him destroying something, trass for trash and shoes which he can say pretty clearly. We love him so much and are so glad he is part of our family, no matter how monstrous he can be at times, he is our little monster and I assure you nothing can change that ;)