Bear's Business

The sleep has gotten better, but Bear is still not back to sleeping through the night. I can't even count how many times I've had to tell myself this over the last year, but I need to get it in my head--BEAR WILL PROBABLY NEVER BE A GREAT SLEEPER! He's 13 months old now and it just seems like if he were going to miraculously change, he would have done so by now. The way the sleeping is going right now is livable, I suppose. Bear gets tired at 8:00 pm (almost on the dot) every night now. This is a welcome change, because this gives me an opportunity to get some awake time away from him. Previously, he was going to sleep as late as 10 pm and I was just worn out by that point, so the only time I wasn't with him was when I was sleeping at night or when he was napping (a very short hour and a half). Anyhow, it takes about a half hour to get him to sleep (also a welcome change), during which I read him a book (3 times only!) and then pat his back until he falls asleep. Sometimes he cries, sometimes not, but he's getting much better about accepting the fact that he IS GOING TO BED IN HIS CRIB. He generally wakes up about 3am and is unfortunately awake for 30 to 45 minutes. I have started getting used to this, I guess, because I sometimes wake up before he even cries out. The problem is that I can't always go back to sleep after rocking, patting, soothing, etc. for that long of a time. Hopefully I'll get used to this as well.

He's recognizing more words and it seems like he learns something new every day! The only phrase I can think of that I didn't mention in my last post is "lie down", which is what I say when he tries to get up at bedtime. He responds by doing just that, so I'm assuming he knows what I mean. He's also been answering us when we ask him questions, with either "yeah" or "no". I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what he's saying, but at least he recognizes that that's how people answer questions!

He's begun dancing (so cute!) to his toys that play music. He cracks me up trying to entertain us--he'll dance for a few seconds and then look back at us and wait for us to clap before he starts back up again. He does the same thing when he plays his little piano. He has (just now!) started playing peek-a-boo, too. I have read that kids would enjoy this game from a very early age, but he always just looked at me like I was nuts when I tried to play with him. Now though, he understands to hold the blanket in front of himself and to take it away when we ask, "Where's Barrett?". He laughs a lot, so I'm assuming he likes the game now!