Gluten Free with Julie B: Toddler Life

It's now safe to say that our little baby has grown into a full blown toddler. I absolutely love Josh at this age. Every day I feel like he is doing something new and soaking in the things we are trying to teach him. He is simply awesome and makes us want to have more just like him...but not quite yet :)

The past couple of months have been a bit of a learning curve for me as I am juggling some different jobs and keeping a 14 month old entertained but we're making it through! I feel like we have a good schedule down and have at least one day a week where I try not to plan much so Josh and I can just spend time together. I know I'm going to miss these days with him so I'm doing my best to set aside undistracted time each week to just enjoy my boy!

Josh's favorite things these days seem to change day to day. There's still some tried and true favorites though. He loves playing with his wooden puzzles and trains, anything with wheels and his "ball pit" that we keep in the living room. He's not a huge movie or TV guy but LOVES Baby Einstein. He laughs and giggles when he hears the music at the beginning because he knows it's coming on. Speaking of music he also loves dancing and grooving. He bends his knees and bounces and shakes his head around like Stevie Wonder. It's hilarious. He loves eating and has tried lots of new foods the past couple of months, although he still has his faves. He loves peas, broccoli, cheese, any type of fruit, black beans, chicken and ground beef. He also loves bagels with cream cheese in the mornings...mmm!

Josh is making lots of sounds and noises (he's a loud one...I have no idea where he gets that from!) He's not saying a ton of understandable words yet (so far we have dada, mama, mimi, cracker, book, doggie, go, uh-oh and he's been saying something that sounds like "here you go") but he's babbling in his own language which is hilarious. We are working on saying "gobble gobble" for Thanksgiving and he loves learning animal sounds. So far he knows dog, kitty, lion (our favorite), monkey, fish, duck. He also understands a TON and follows simple commands like "go get the Brown Bear book," "show me your smile" and "give that to mama." He's also learned to smile on command. It's amazing how much he understands!

We're in the midst of some separation anxiety...and it breaks my heart. Once a week he goes to the kids play area while I coach cheerleading and as soon as we walk in the door he knows I'm about to leave him and starts sobbing and clinging to me. It's the worst. It's only for an hour though and he's usually fine after 5 minutes. He does the same thing if we try to put him in his class at church...which is why I'm so glad he usually ends up staying with my Mom during the service. Never any tears with Mimi! We've also given up our Wubba pacifier (just the part he sucks on) because he bit the top part off! I cut off the broken part so he just carries the little stuffed frog around. I was prepared for a few hard nap times and nights without it since he always has it to go to sleep but so far he's done great and doesn't have any trouble sleeping without it! Yay!

Josh is walking everywhere and will be running soon I think :) Now that the weather is cooling down I'm excited to spend more time outside with him. He always loves when we go swing and play at the park so I'm sure we will be doing lots of that this fall. We also can't wait to go to the pumpkin patch next week and trick or treating soon!

Here's some pics (and a video) from our fun-filled, toddler chasing life!