22 months

this is our boy. this is alden at 22 months--always moving, always (always) talking, always adorable.

it's been so long since my last post over here! alden and i have been busy, as usual.
lately our days look something like this:
5:00am  alden wakes up and nurses. on a good morning, he'll got back to sleep after a few minutes. on a not-so-good morning, he will kick, hit and yell at us until somebody gets up with him.

6:00 the alarm goes off. ian gets out of bed, alden follows him, regardless of whether or not he had gone back to sleep. alone time with papa is just that important. mama goes back to sleep for about an hour while the boys make and eat breakfast, read some books and have a diaper change

7:00 time to wake up mama. sometimes she is grouchy and needs a few minutes alone, before papa brings her some coffee and oatmeal. papa is so rad. then papa goes to work and mama and alden read books while mama eats and sometimes alden has another breakfast.

8-9:00 reading/playing/cleaning up breakfast

9-10:30 sewing work. this doesn't always happen. and the sewing certainly never lasts an hour and a half, but this is the schedule. usually alden will occupy himself with a jar of buttons, a tub of zippers or sit quietly with a pin and a scrap of fabric, but on occasion there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth and sewing work doesn't happen at all.

10:30 snack/lunch time. alden will no longer sit in a high chair, but he is definitely eating a lot more these days, which is wonderful. some favorites are lentil soup, miso soup, macaroni and cheese (though not the nice kind *i* make him, he prefers annie's) and peas, sometimes kale, sometimes avocado and lately he's back on a garlicy omelet kick. but no cheese. whatever you do, do not feed this child cheese. he will ask to have cheese removed from a quesadilla! and will accuse you of hiding cheese in almost every new dish he is served. we are constantly reassuring him, "it's not cheese."

11:00-12:30 or 1:00 nap time! glorious nap time.

and then, the afternoons are spent whining, wailing, crying, demanding. usually there is another big snack or second lunch, but often he is too cranky to eat until dinner. we usually try to get out of the apartment in the afternoon, to distract him from tearing my hair out for me. we'll have a play date with a buddy, go to the park or library or greenmarket.

5:00 dinner time! i eat a small, leisurely meal with als (he takes his time at dinner and will often have seconds or another course or two) and then bath time, jammies, story, milkies, sleep. ahhh.
on a good night he's asleep between 6 and 7:00. he'll wake up once or twice and if ian is home, he goes in to settle alden back down. then alden will nurse one more time if he stirs when i come to bed and, on a good night, not wake up again until morning.

having a real routine for our days has dramatically improved his sleep and i think, his mood in general. and mine! though i suspect much of alden's improved mood is due to his amazing ability to communicate with us verbally. he can almost always articulate what he wants or needs or feels. even if he doesn't have the exact words, he has codes he's developed. when he's scared, for instance, he says, "nothing come out of crack in ceiling?" which is from the book bedtime for frances. amazing. i love this little boy so much.