Children's Discovery Museum today for Kyle's first birthday (a week early since he gets in for free until he's 1). Kids napped on the last 10 mins of the drive which means neither is terribly interested in napping. Eric is resting or playing quietly in his room, Kyle is fussing.

Eric is sounding out more words, getting more comfortable putting the sounds together.  Has also turned into a little hypocondriac, insisting that he has a headache so he needs tylenol when Greg gets a headache, that he's teething too so he needs advil, his finger hurts so he needs a bandaid, etc. At least he's given up the "my tummy hurts -- I'm going to throw up" phase he was in the weeks following the stomach flu. I've told him that he's not allowed to ask for medicine if what he really wants is something sweet, and that saying he's sick/hurting when he's not just so he can get medicine is lying. We'll be working on this for awhile, I think.

We're also working on a few skills with Eric -- drinking from an open cup, getting dressed and undressed by himself, and spitting (ala spitting out toothpaste). Washing himself, eating without a bib, and anticipating voiding will be next with the goal of potty training this summer.

Kyle is little by little getting more confident on his feet. He still toddles with arms splayed out and is working on the forward/backward balance, but each day he gets a little closer to abandoning crawling altogether. With his first birthday coming up, we're working on abandoning the bottle for sippy and straw cups, switching from formula to whole milk (he's at half-milk-half-formula right now), and no longer eating at night (and therefore no longer waking at night). The real obstacle is not his resistance, it's our willingness to be consistent when we're so tired we want to do anything to keep him quiet.