Silent But Deadly

For all you mothers out there, or possibly even pet owners, or just the child or toddler experienced, you know what I mean when I say silent but deadly (and no, I am not referring to the passage of gas.) When your kid is playing about the house, lots of noise and the sounds of destruction are actually reassuring, albeit a bit stressful. It is when they go silent that you truly worry, perhaps even panic. The last few silences, I have found Brock doing a number of things, some things acceptable, some things not so acceptable. For example...

Acceptable: Pretending to blow out an unlit candle sitting on the dinner table while we are sitting there with him. Unacceptable: Taking out every single tissue in the Kleenex box and pretending to blow his nose.
Acceptable: [ABOVE] Sitting in his now favorite gold chair, which he will fight the dogs for possession to the bitter end, playing with a tape measure. (I know, probably not an acceptable toy, but after pinching his fingers a couple times, he seems to have the hang of it.)
Unacceptable: [BELOW] Standing in his favorite gold chair, and playing with the window blinds.
Acceptable: Collecting electronic items, such as unplugged computer and phone chargers, camera flashes, memory cards, old cell phones, empty lens boxes, etc. into a pile on the computer room floor. Unacceptable: Throwing my personal cell phone away in the trash. Nor standing on the swivel, computer chair to type on the Mac keyboard.

Brock, decidedly, grows in spurts and this 13th month of his life has proven to contain one of them. This has it's advantages, one being he tends to have a few 12-14 hour nights, as opposed to his usual 10. He then eats ravenously, thus helping me in my continued weight loss endeavor, by consuming most the food off of my plate. Another being, he wakes up one day and is infinitely more amusing. As you may have seen in a few of those examples I mentioned above. It astounds me EVERY time. I know I have said it before, but he literally wakes up a different baby. He now engages in imaginative play pretty frequently and seems to have a specific goal in mind while playing. Such as stacking blocks, or piling Little People, or filling the trunk of his tricycle. He also imitates much more frequently, as depicted by his habit of picking up a stethoscope and wandering about the house with it around his neck [ABOVE]. Wait, nevermind, who walks around the house with a stethoscope around their neck!? I sure don't! Again, guess he's a natural. But truly, he does mimic Matt and I quite frequently, which is adorable, hilarious and endearing all at the same time.

He knows how to turn on all the television sets with in his reach, he knows how to turn on and eject the Playstation, as well as the stereo at his grandparent O'Laughlin's house. He can climb onto just about any chair, or piece of furniture for that matter. Getting over the gates and his crib are only a short matter of time, I fear. Which brings me to a couple of the disadvantages to this growth spurt. For about 3 days, right around Christmas, all his 12-18 month clothing were finally fitting well! His pants were staying up, the shirts did not appear to be umbrella's any longer, and size 4 shoes were perfect, no more tripping on the slightly over-sized toe. And now, it looks as though he is wearing capris and 3/4 sleeves in zero degree weather! I have to shove his shoes on, to the point that he starts to whine. But all the 18-24 month clothing was designed for chubby babies, not 22.5 pound 32 inchers... Ahh! It is so hard to keep a growing child in style these days.

All in all, every phase gets better. I never think he can be cuter tomorrow, than he is today, but he always manages it somehow.