bath pictures: 16 months

I can't bring my Wii in the bath?!

Hey, not all the bath pictures can be winners. Granted Will had a rough day yesterday and was a total basketcase by the end of the night, but this picture is actually appropriate for the current stage in Will's attitude development. He's still very sweet most of the time, but he has discovered how to throw a powerful temper tantrum.

I guess the tantrums are all about Will asserting himself as a real person and depending less on mom and dad, or at least letting us know about it if we oppose his wishes. He knows how to use the tools available to him to get what he wants. He's also learning to test his limits - getting into places he knows he shouldn't and doing things we tell him not to do.

With his recent mastery of bipedalism, Will can go where he wants in the house, or even run away when he knows we're going to make him do something he doesn't want to, like put his coat on. If he knows where something is that he wants (like the Wiimotes - or as we refer to them - his "Wiis" (pronounced "wees")), he just goes and gets it/them. He's so happy when he can get things himself that it's very hard (for all of us) when we have to take things away - especially the Wiis. I've gotten pretty good at using distractions and slight-of-hand when we need to put them away for meals/naps/baths/whatever, but if he's on to me, it usually ends with having to pry them from his hands and a very angry and sad boy. Sometimes (like last night), after we've finally gotten him calmed down after putting the Wiis away, we'll put him down for a minute, and before we know it he will have already slid down the stairs on his tummy and gotten them back out of the drawer. Then we start over...

Will is also learning to use language to assert himself. He is starting to speak, use meaningful pointing/gesturing, and even using some sign language - he can fairly reliably sign "more" and "done" during meals. He also tried to send me a message via email.

On a related issue - Erin and I are trying to help Will assert himself and develop independence as he grows up. So this month we completed the weaning process and quit giving him the bottle. The name of the "b-o-double T" could not be spoken around Will without an accompanying meltdown if he didn't immediately get one - this was bad for several reasons, but most specifically, his changing diet required more solid food and needed to de-emphasize liquid nourishment, and it was becoming evident that he wanted the bottle for comfort and not nourishment.
So to replace the bottle, we have worked our way through several models of sippy- and straw-cups. We have a few that work now and I'll say he's doing pretty well. We just have to encourage him to drink a little more often to replace the 10 oz of liquid he was drinking in the mornings with each bottle.
So, appropriately, here are pictures of Will drinking his bathwater last night. He didn't like it much I guess.

One final note: the site hit counter currently reads 1519 visits to Will's Page since 12/11/07. That's almost 900 visits since last month's bath picture post. Thanks for checking in everyone!