I was going to get this post typed up last night, but the little guy woke in the early evening and decided that he wanted to sleep on Mommy’s lap. This hasn’t happened in a long time, so I’m not sure what that’s about, but I can tell you that he doesn’t really fit my lap any more. Even with the assistance of the boppy pillow, his head drooped down near my knees with one leg flopped over the chair arm.
How big is this 20 month old? Well, I placed him onto our new scale and it looked like 29 pounds (before he realized that he could jump up and down and make the numbers go back and forth), and I got a quick measurement of 2′ 10″ on the “you are this tall” chart. His chunkiness has stretched out quite a bit, but he’s a solid kid and heavier than he looks. Strong, too.
The big man in his new outfit sewn by Nana Lindy.
While Remy hasn’t been the quickest to talk very much, he’s progressing really well now. He’s at the stage where he learns new words every day. Well, I don’t know if he’s really just “learning” them, he’s just deciding to “say” them now that he recognizes that this talking thing is something he can use to communicate. For example, just yesterday, he decided to say “dish” over and over while we unloaded the dishwasher (he loves helping with that). My favorite part of this process is his increased willingness to say “Mom” as soon as he sees me after some absence. I love that.
Over the past month, he’s had a real fascination with the alphabet. Any toy that has the alphabet on it, sings the alphabet or says the alphabet is getting a lot of play. Also, if I (poorly) sing the alphabet song, he watches and listens with an intent look on his face. He seems as focused on pre-reading skills as he was on learning to walk those many months ago. So far, he’s able to identify and even say several letters upon view. Lately, O especially is much fun to say and it appears everywhere.
For a child who doesn’t yet have any regular play mates, he does seem to play well with others. Gary does take him to playgrounds and other child-friendly locations most every day and sometimes twice a day with the weather nice. Large crowds give Remy pause, but he’ll join right in to smaller groups of children, even when they are a bit older. Actually, especially when they’re a bit older. He likes to follow the big kids around to discover what new (usually physical) skill he should learn next.
Although impatient when things don’t go his way, he’s not aggressive with others and can hold his own when someone tries to take a toy from him. He doesn’t cry or protest, he just hangs on with a vice grip that wins out almost every time. As a parent who must sometimes remove items from said vice grip, I can vouch for the security of any object held fast thusly.
On the topic of interacting with other children, our little guy has always been a bit of a ladies man. Even when an infant, he would make sweet gummy grins and eye contact with women and girls in grocery stores and other public locations. Most women respond well to that, which rewards the behavior, although there have been occasions where a pre-k aged little girl will complain that “that little boy is watching me.”
A few days ago, he got a chance to interact with Stella, the petite 1 year old who lives on our street. Remy strides up to her stroller, pulls his shirt up to show his bare stomach and points at his belly button as if to show off his physique. Then, he demonstrates his speedy downhill running prowess (he is fast), turning to make sure Stella is watching, and returns to gently take her hand in his. Yes, he really did. Where did he learn this behavior? We’re going to have to keep an eye on this one as he grows older!
So Remy’s doing great. A big issue that’s giving me lots of think about is when to wean him from breastfeeding. I know a lot of babies just lose interest, making it a simple process. This is not the case in our household. Early mornings & evenings are times when Remy expects some quality Mom time, and this tends to include nursing. Also, if he knows I’m around when nap time rolls around, he doesn’t go down easily if he doesn’t get to nurse to sleep.
At this point, I have mixed feelings about continuing to breastfeed. Obviously, I want to do the right thing for Remy and it is a special time between mother and child. I can tell you that he would not take kindly to stopping nursing at this time and there would be many mostly sleepless nights. On the other hand, I’d selfishly love to have him weaned by my A races later this season, which would be when he’s a little over 2 years old but the question of when to cut him off is a big question. After this weekend, I have a 2 month break before my next race, so I’d originally hoped to be able to wean during this period, but seeing Remy’s continued attachment to the process, I don’t know about that. In the end, I’m just going to have to use my instincts on this.
So with this, I leave you with a video of Remy picking out a dress for the (boy) doll:
I particularly like how he grabs the doll by the hair all nurturing like and stuff. The diaper patting at the end is his sign for diaper and instructions for Mom to also put a diaper on the doll in addition to the dress.
Sounds like Remy is doing great! He and Zach would make such good friends. I can’t believe you are still breastfeeding. That is impressive. I have no advice on the weening because with Zach it just happened naturally and gradually and because he was younger he did’t have the communication skills yet to really throw a tanrum about it. Good luck!
My 2nd is one month older than Remy and I’m still breastfeeding too. I breastfed my 1st for 27 months, and raced a bit during that time. When she was about 22 months I had an “A” race that I stayed away overnight for. We were both fine from a nursing standpoint. I didn’t feel “full” even after almost 24 hours apart and she handled it just fine too.
She’d had some practice not getting her “munch” in the morning b/c I would go to masters practice before work and not nurse her then.
My point is I don’t think you have to wean before your A race. But if you are getting to the point where you feel done with breastfeeding then slowly weaning sounds good.