No weaning, no cry

I know... Donovan is nearly 14 months old, and I have not updated for his 13 months yet.  Sue me.  It's been a busy month :-P.

We are working on weaning.  And, really, *we* aren't working on it... I am.  He is resisting.  I sold off my at-home hospital grade pump, and I stopped pumping at work.  We are through our freezer stash.  I only nurse him morning and night (and, when he was sick, a few other times).  I have traveled quite a bit over the past month.  Probably 10 days/nights away from him.  He is fine when I am gone.  Yet, when I return, nursing is the thing he wants most.

Tonight, I tried to hold him off.  He kept on pulling on my shirt, kept on asking for it.  Finally, at bed time, when I was trying to walk / rock him to sleep, he finally got me to agree.  He wouldn't settle.  He slapped my chest.  He tugged at my shirt.  I finally gave in.  But I didn't use the boppy - I didn't want it to be super comfortable.   Yet, there he went.  Nursed away.  And then went right to sleep.

I will give him a few more months.  Surely my supply has tanked - so he is not getting much food from me.  But he is not ready to give up the boob.  Yup, I am probably raising a future breast-man (just like his daddy, I suppose). 

Poor Donovan has had a run of bad luck.  He had a new tooth pop in around Valentine's day, which was a total beast.  Then he got a little cold.  Then I went away for a few days for work.  Then he wound up with a severe cough and was breathing so poorly that I took him to the ER - he was fine, just a minor upper respiratory infection, but since he was breathing badly I had to take him in.  Then we flew to DC, which was miserable for him, and he was super sick while we were there.  Then he started feeling better (and was a champ on the flight home), but the flight seemed to make him sick again and he wound up on antibiotics. 

But other than the illness, DC was a lot of fun.  Since Donovan wasn't feeling great, he only wanted mommy and daddy, but he eventually warmed up to Uncle Pat.  What he did love, however, were all the dogs.  It turns out that lots of people have dogs in DC, so whenever we were out he interacted with them.  There were a few times when he wasn't being held or in a stroller, and he took off running for dogs that he saw.  And when we were at the zoo, forget about it.  He was super into the animals.  He especially loved the tiger, which walked back and forth and was very beautiful and majestic.  Yeah, he's an animal lover.

In other news, Donovan still loves me more than he loves anybody else, and I think he loves me more than anybody else loves me.  When I go away for a few days, he is the happiest to see me when I get back.  His whole face lights up!  And he gives me big hugs and kisses when I ask for them.  It's pretty awesome.

But here is a funny thing he does - Donovan only wants me when I am busy.  We have a system.   Donovan is off doing his own thing - playing with a puzzle, putting blocks in a box, etc.  So I get up to do something (anything, really... wash dishes, cook, fold clothes, etc.).  And, as soon as he notices I am busy, he gets up and demands my attention.  He gets between me and what I am doing - pushing or pulling me if he has to.  So then I pick him up, we play and interact for a few minutes, and after a few minutes he pushes away from me and plays by himself again.  If I try to engage with him, he ignores me.  Then I start doing something, and it all starts over.  Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.

It's actually really cute.  And sweet.  Unless I'm actually trying to get something done.  Then it's annoying.

Donovan had a lot of new words now.  He can say duck, up, down, out and dog.  He also understands just about everything.  He can follow simple directions.  He just loves putting things into things and collecting like things.  For example, he loves to gather up the blocks and put the into their bag.  He loves to put the shapes into the shape sorter and then dump them back out and start over.  He also loves to go outside.  Outside is his favorite place - it doesn't matter where we are, if there is a door open to outside, he wants to walk through it.  In fact, sometimes he does walk through open doors, and he doesn't look back.  Then somebody has to chase him once he is halfway down the walkway.  It's pretty hillarious.

There is so much more to still tell, but then I won't have anything to write for his 14 month update.  So I better keep something :-P.