17 Months! Woot woot!

Today is Vessel's 17 month birthday. So here's a little update on the Shipster. These days he's all about climbing, climbing, climbing. He loves to climb onto the kitchen chairs and then onto the table to sit there and play. Unfortunately, he forgets how to get down though. He loves to climb onto the couch and look out window. He loves to move his footstool or the chairs above the lightswitches so he can turn them on and off. He loves to climb onto the bed and onto the toilet seat so he can play in the bathroom sink. He loves to climb onto the endtables and he LOVES to climb up the stairs by himself. Mr. monkey is what we like to call him. Some of Vessel's new words include brush (as in toothbrush,) bath (he says "bash,") Go, bird, pants, and the word "more." I'm trying to teach him the word "please" when he wants something, but so far no luck. And although he can't say it, he knows the word "circle" and if I ask him to go in circles he'll giggle and spin around and around. He likes to "talk" when he's playing with his toys, and make sound effects. It was really weird to me to hear him make the sounds of a car when he was rolling it along the floor. (you know, like "vroom vroom.") I don't remember teaching him that, but maybe I said it unknowingly and he picked up on it once. He likes to feed himself with a spoon and fork. He doesn't like the sippy cup though. He is still very attached to his bottle. I want to get him off the bottle and start drinking out of a cup, but he hates the cup. If I ever give him one he just dumps the contents out all over the tray. Any suggestions on how to transition from a bottle to a cup? Anyone, anyone? Hmmm, what else? Oh, he can take off his own clothes now. Well, I have to help him pull his arms out of the shirt holes and then he'll pull the shirt off over his head. And he can take off his pants and knows that when he does, it means it's time for a bath. He likes to dig in the sand and get all dirty, which then leads to the bath. He starting cutting more teeth last week. Last Wednesday he woke up screaming in the middle of the night (about 3 a.m.) with snot and drool running down his face. I thought he must've had a nightmare or something. He had a hard time going back to sleep that night and then the next day he was so miserable and fussy and just wasn't his happy, active self. I thought, "Oh great, he's getting sick." But then I noticed he kept putting his fingers in his mouth and he was drooling rather excessively. So I looked in there and saw 2 white blisters on his gums. So he's getting his "vampire" teeth. (that's what we used to call them as kids.) The first few days are the worst, but then he seems to go right back to being his sweet self. He loves books more than ever. He loves the mechanics and the inner workings of things. He loves to take things apart and reassemble them. He's been learning a lot more about cause and effect. Like the lightswitches are a good example. "If I flip this switch the light goes on," "If I pull this lever the water in this big bowl goes down the hole," etc., etc. He's also starting to get more jealous. I tended my friend's little girl for a couple of hours last Tuesday, and Vessel was so upset when I tried to sit her on my lap and read a book. He'd try to push her out of the way and sit on my lap instead. Every book I tried to read he'd grab it out of my hands. If I held her, he wanted to be held too. He wanted to eat everything she ate and when I started giving her a bottle that's when crap really hit the fan. He gave me this look like, "How DARE you give another baby a bottle!?! That's MY bottle!" Ah, he's very possessive of his parents and their attention towards him I guess. He enjoys going to feed the birds at the park now. And he's really become quite the independent little guy, always leading the way when were at the park or someplace else. Next month he gets to go to nursery and then maybe Mike and I will be able to get something from church finally! He really is a joyful kid to have around though. I mean, as hard as it is to keep up with him and make sure he's not killing himself by falling off the table or chasing him around the church on Sundays or waking up at some unfathomable time of night, I really, truly do love being a mom. It's one of the greatest things I've been able to experience during my life. When Vessie throws his arms out and gives me a big, slobbery kiss it makes all the difficulties of parenting seem totally worth it. :)