Phases

It's good thing that Henry is so stinkin' cute, because he's going through a couple phases right now that are driving me crazy! Max never really did the whole separation-anxiety thing, but Henry is experiencing it big time. If I am out of his line of sight for even a second, he wails like the world is ending. Even Scott can't console him. It's Mama or nothing. On the one hand, I could say that it is sweet how much he loves me, but on the other hand, a woman likes to be able to go to the bathroom or take the trash out without some kind of epic meltdown.

He has also decided that after months of ridiculous gorging on any food in sight, he will become fussy and picky. A week ago the kid couldn't get enough Cheerios. Now he won't touch them. Sweet potato bits? Forget it. Pear and blueberries? Not on your life! Basically, he wants to eat cereal or yogurt and that is it. I don't really know how to explain this sudden shift except with the old standby response -- he must be teething. I don't know if he is actually teething, and he has successfully produced 8 teeth in the past without any similar trauma, but I can't come up with anything else that might explain the shift.

As long as I'm in ranting mode here, I might as well touch on Max as well. Max has two new "lovely" behaviors -- slinking away behind the couch or in the other room to poop in his training pants and opening the gate across his bedroom door. There's not much to say about the poop that hasn't already been said in previous posts. Potty training is not going particularly well. As for the gate, I have to admit that I'm a little bit proud of his ingenuity. It's one of those foot-pedal gates and in order to get it open, Max has to jump up and down on the pedal repeatedly while simultaneously jamming the gate itself back and forth, back and forth until it clicks open. This is not an easy feat and actually takes quite a bit of mental acuity and physical coordination to achieve. What a brilliant child! What remains to be seen is whether or not Max will exploit his newfound skill to escape from his room in the middle of the night or during naptime. So far he has only opened the gate when it is legitimately time to get up. I know that all of my loyal readers will be on pins and needles to see how this plays out, and I promise to provide an update soon...