The Emerging Will

Alexander's will and personality continue to emerge. He's gotten to the point where he's getting good at making his will known. He will reach for a toy when he wants it. When he wants to play in his johnny jumpup, he will look at it and make bouncing motions. He gets all excited when you walk by his stroller if he wants to go for a walk. It's great because when you figure out what he wants and give it to him, he gets a great big grin on his face and laughs and is so happy!

The downside is that he is now that much more capable of being frustrated when things don't go the way he wants. He knows how routines work, and expects them to be followed. The night before last we messed up his bedtime routine - he went to play with Daddy before bed as normal, and the lights got turned off, but then I took him to change his diaper and gave him back to Daddy instead of sitting down to nurse him. He was NOT HAPPY with this change in routine, and boy did he let us know! When I came to take him for his before bed nursing he settled down for some voracious nursing, but you could tell he was still miffed. "Geesh - it goes change diaper, play with Daddy, then lights out and nurse with Mommy. Don't you guys know anything!"

He has also been very chatty this past week. While I was sitting on the couch talking with Grandmom about their day together and nursing Alexander, he stopped in the middle of nursing, looked up and made eye contact, and babbled at me for about 10 seconds before going back to nursing. I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to tell me, but he obviously had something to add to the conversation!

He also is ever more fascinated with new textures and toys. Last night we had spaghetti for dinner, so I put a pile of cold noodles on his plate for him to play with - he was having a great time digging his fingers into them and squishing them around. He seemed to like the odd, slightly sticky texture. Today he picked out a new toy from the "big box of toys that you haven't grown into yet" and was fascinated with figuring it out all morning.