Eighteen months of Scott

I tried to do a photo shoot with Scott when he turned 1.5--not so easy, I learned. Below are the best shots I got, and I'm not particularly fond of any of them. I may just cave and take him to JC Penney's again.

As you can see, Scott loves balls (bah). Some of his other favorite things (and his word for them):

• rocks (waks)
• Nursery (hooray!--that's what Bran and I say, anyway :)
• Sadie (day-dee), our 12-year-old neighbor who sometimes watches him while I teach voice lessons
• Backyardigans (he constantly brings me the remote, then goes and sits on the couch)
• books (boo)
• Curious George (jeeooo)
• jungle blankie
• birds (buhw)
• nursing (may-mee) My goal was to breastfeed until at least 18 months. We're there and Scott shows no signs of wanting to stop in the least, so we'll keep going. I've been gently weaning for a long time, and we'll probably take awhile longer to be completely done. It's working great for us.
• sweeping with brooms with Mom (bwoom) When he gets out the brooms IT IS SWEEPING TIME. No matter what else I'm doing, I have to stop and sweep with him or he has a meltdown. He's quite insistent about his broom time. At least the floors stay clean. :)
• more food (mow) He says this like a Black kid from Chicago. It's so funny.
• brushing teeth (tee! tee!) with Spiderman (mya-man) toothbrush and paste. I don't know how he knows it's Spiderman. He's never seen the show or anything.
• coloring pictures
• pictures of Mom (mama), Dad (dada), and Scott (dot)
• other kids and babies (baby)
• shoes (doos!)
• lions, tigers, and bears (waaaaaaw [roaring noise])
• snacks and meals (mmmmms)
• bibs (bibby)
• opening the fridge and removing anything he can get his hands on (no no no!). He says that anytime he's doing something he knows is wrong. Saves us the trouble, I guess :)
• climbing in the computer swivel chair and spinning (wheee! wheee! wheee!)
• Grandma (nay-nay) and Grandpa (bampa) Johnson's house

We sure wish we could see the Barrus family more often, but he loves visiting you guys! I know he'll have a great time this weekend. Wish I could be there, too!

We love you, Scott. We love to watch you grow and become your own person. Thanks for joining our family!

The Nursery Saga

We seem to have unwittingly stumbled upon the perfect easing of Scott into Nursery. 4 weeks before he turned 18 months, I had to sub in Primary as the chorister and Brandon was teaching the 14-year-olds, so Scott went to Nursery while I led the music. We'd been going in prior to that for about the last 15 minutes (after the old people in Gospel Doctrine had glared at us enough and Scott had his fill of getting drinks and roaming the halls in my arms), and Scott really enjoyed it. He loved the toys and didn't seem to miss me at all while I subbed in Primary; I came in and did a little singing time with the Nursery, then went to Primary again. Scott was great.

The next week, 3 weeks until Scott's big day, I was asked to sub in Nursery for two Sundays. So, for the past two weeks I've been in Nursery with Scott. I've gone in and out on little errands, and he's fussed for a minute but I always come right back. Last Sunday, Brandon brought him in, and Scott kept backing up into Brandon's leg and trying to cling to him. The Laurels watched the nursery while all the primary leaders went to the combined fifth-Sunday lesson, so Scott was only with me for half of Nursery last week; he was nervous about me leaving, but seemed to do OK while I was gone.

Does this always happen? Nursery is Heaven to Scott, but the closer he gets to 18 months, the more wary he is of being left there. The great contradiction. *sigh*

So, we'll see how he does this Sunday when I drop him off and leave him. Anyone have any tips for reducing the trauma of being dropped off at Nursery? There's one little girl in there who just cries for her mom for the first hour, then has a snack and cries off and on for the next hour every time she sees the door or remembers that her mom isn't there. Poor thing! I don't want Scott to have to go through that.

Our resident fireman

Scott's absolute favorite toy (thanks, Uncle Steven!) and the firehat he got from the INL picnic.

Gotta protectyour head.

This is the way all the cool firemen ride.

Oops.

Fireman Scott, reporting for duty!