He plays hide and seek! Well, not exactly, but he plays his own version of it. He'll randomly just disappear - sometimes when I'm not looking and sometimes when I am - and he'll hide from me. He has a couple of favorite places to hide... behind my two couches in my living room, in his closet, on the side of his crib and on the side of his dresser. He'll run to his hiding place and then I'll call, "Hunter? Hunter?" and he'll usually giggle or pop his head out with a big smile on his face. Sometimes I pretend not to see him, so he'll come out and stand right in front of me like, "Duh mom, I'm right here!" It's a really cute game that I didn't even teach him!For the past couple of months, I have been really trying to get Hunter to gain some weight. At his 15 month appointment, I was told that he hadn't even hit 20 pounds yet and he was in the 2nd percentile for weight. The doctor made a pretty big deal about it, so I figured I better do all I could to fatten my little guy up. The only way I could really get him to eat well was to give him something to distract him while I shoveled the food in his mouth. It became a problem though because it got to the point where he wouldn't eat UNLESS he had a distraction - and he would even point to what he wanted to play with while I fed him. I weighed him 2 weeks ago and noticed that he had gained a significant amount of weight (he is 22 pounds now), so I figured that it may be time to get away from the bad habit I had knowingly created for him.
So, on the 18th, we decided to give him his own fork and let him feed himself. To my surprise, he knew exactly what he was doing! We had to help him stab the food but he did the rest! It was very cool to watch him feed himself like a big boy. We are still working on getting out of the habit of distractions while eating (and sometimes I break down and give him one) but he's getting better at feeding himself and can even stab his own food now!He brushes his own teeth! I put him in a little "Bumbo" chair I have on the bathroom counter and away he goes! He'll put the toothbrush in his mouth and swirl it around a little bit, then he'll dip the toothbrush in the running water and will brush again. This goes on for as long as 5 minutes and then he'll eventually hand me the toothbrush to tell me he's done. He brushes his teeth as well as any other almost 17 month old, so I try to help him out - even though most of the time he doesn't want me to. And it's so funny because I'll tell him, "Let's go brush our teeth" and he'll stroll into the bathroom and point to his toothbrush. Hopefully he enjoys brushing his teeth this much in the future - so I can avoid costly dental bills... :P
He helps around the house! On Feb. 15th, I let him use the broom and he did a pretty good job! It was very cute to see him trying to use that huge broom... He also likes to "help" me with the laundry. I put the word help in quotations because he basically just throws all of the clean clothes out of the laundry basket onto the floor. He probably thinks it's fun to fling the clothes around but I like to think that he's trying to help... :P
He has a love/hate relationship with bubbles. He LOVES bubbles when they're being blown at him but he HATES bubbles when he has to bathe with them. He just giggles and is all smiles when he sees bubbles but if they are coming from the water in the bathtub, the smile turns into a frown and he just cries. I thought he would love taking a bubble bath but when I tried it on Feb. 9th, he just sat in a froggy stance as far away from the bubbles as possible and just whined. I tried to even show him that they were fun and I put some on his leg and he did not like that one bit. He wouldn't calm down until all of the bubbles were washed down the drain. It was sad but funny enough to take a picture of his face... yeah, I know I'm mean but it gets the point across as to how much he hates bubble baths...
And last but not least, he loves his daddy. He's always loved his daddy - and why wouldn't he - but lately he LOVES his dad. When dad is around, mom doesn't really exist. I know it's because he sees me all day long, so he can't really miss me. But as soon as Josh gets home from work, he just wants to be with his dad. It's very cute. He even says "dad" when he hears the garage door open because he knows his dad is home. And he even told Josh "hi" the other day! Josh had just gotten home from work and came up the stairs and said, "Hi buddy, how are you?" and Hunter replied "Hi!" He's never said hi to anyone, so I thought that was pretty cool. He even says "dad" more than "mom" right now but I'm sure it will balance out in the future... :P
