Just Jett: Sixteen Months

Happy Birthday, Jett! This past Friday you turned 16 months old.

At sixteen months Jett is an expert at pointing, grunting, and whining to get what he wants. If you are trying to figure out what he wants and you guess wrong, he will shake his head no and screw up his face into a look of disdain that can only mean you've insulted him, yet again, with your stupidity. What this tells me is that I have to start looking up more signs. For instance, if we learned a sign for "Rice Krispies", and "Nilla Wafer" and "graham cracker" and "not that apple mama the other one duh" mealtimes would be a lot easier.

Napping has been a challenge these last few weeks. In other words, he's barely napped. He's exhausted when I get home from work and will happily nap in my arms then, if I will let him. Sometimes I do, which is probably part of the problem. It's a constant question of how much he needs to sleep that day, versus how much we need to teach him that 5:30pm is not the time for a nap.

Jett is expressing himself all over the place these days, and except for the crying and whining and throwing his head back and hitting me in the face while I carry him, it's really sweet. He's a charmer when it comes to doling out the kisses, and if he's in the right mood he'll give you a kiss shortly after meeting you for the first time. When he doesn't feel like kissing, he might still lean his forehead towards your lips so you can kiss him. He's usually willing to negotiate. He's also started to lay his head on my shoulder if I ask him to, and he could snuggle with me on the couch for minutes at a time (which is longer than it sounds like). He plays with my hair and rests his cheek against mine. I love it.

The most significant event for all of us this month is saying good-bye to seeing Grammy every day. And when I say "seeing Grammy every day" I mean depending on her every minute of those days. Thirteen months ago she promised us 12 months of loving, free, childcare for Jett. These thirteen months may have been the best thirteen months of Jett's life - and that still leaves room for hundreds of terrific months ahead. I know that for the last thirteen months, Jett has laughed every day, thanks to Grammy. And that is a fabulous feeling for a mom - to know that your baby is lovingly cared for, and happy, when you are not there. Soon Grammy will be working for someone who will actually pay her at the end of the day - pay her in something other than smiles and dirty diapers I mean. We were really lucky to have her help and love and company for so long. Thanks, Grammy!

This brings us to Jett's next adventure, which he started two weeks ago: the nanny-share. There are a few different ways to share a nanny. What it means to us is that one nanny watches two kids at the same time. One kid is Jett, and the other is a little boy, about Jett's age, who lives about a mile from us. This little boy has been with his nanny since he was three months old. The other family who was in the nanny-share relationship is moving, so the little boy's family was looking for a new family to share their nanny with, and with the help of a Chicago parenting website, we found each other. The boys are at our house two days a week and the other family's house two days a week (and I still don't work on Fridays). It's working out pretty well so far. Jett was fantastic the first week. Every evening he was his regular happy self, and he was even starting to take a nap for his new nanny. And then...

he got his first ear infection. Which of course we ignored for the first few days because we thought his fever and rash was a result of his latest vaccine. It was our nanny, actually, who encouraged us to bring him in to the doctor to have his ears looked at. Poor kiddo. It's been a rough few days, but hopefully we've turned a corner this weekend.

To sum it up, I'd say month sixteen has been a learning experience. As in, we've learned (kind of) how to identify an ear infection. We've learned that it is futile to guess what Jett wants to eat, you might as well open the refrigerator door and let him pick it out himself. And we've learned that if Jett wants to walk around the house carrying a bowl of dry cereal, Cheerios are a lot neater that Rice Krispies. Rice Krispies crumbs stick on everything.