the Gideon Report

Our little boy…

He seems more and more like a kid everyday instead of a baby. Here’s the much anticipated up-date…

Personality:

Gideon has a sweet disposition. He is gentle and careful with other children and pets. He appropriately pets his Grandma’s cat, Boss. Well, first he points to his nose and then he pets him behind the ear. When Gideon is playing with one of his friends, he lightly pats their shoulder or head.

He doesn’t meet a stranger. Shopping with the boy takes twice as long as normal due to all the people Gideon engages in interactions. His smile is infectious.

He LOVES to rough-house and play chase… but he likes to be caught up in the “smush and smooch”. Gideon, when he’s not being all rough and tumble, frequently lays his head down on his daddy’s shoulder or climbs up into my lap for a cuddle break. (Neither of us mind this one bit.)

This boys LOVES his daddy. No one can make Gideon laugh like JR. Prat-falls… hilarious! Playing catch… super fun. Prayer time… big smiles. And when JR comes home from work, Gideon drops whatever he is doing and makes a b-line for the door.

Gideon’s ability to focus seems beyond his months. He concentrates on a task until it is completed to his satisfaction, be it gathering all the remotes in the house in one spot, walking in circles for 45 min. trying to get a sip of JR’s drink, or taking all his books off his shelf. He is one focused, determined little guy.

Play-time:

Gideon has created 2 games: Bonk and Blink. The Bonk game consists of him making eye-contact with someone and leaning forward with his forehead toward the other person. They are to return the gesture until the foreheads are "bonking". He plays this game a lot with us... but it's a game that is starting to sweep our congregation. The second game, Blink, also starts out with eye-contact. He will then scrunch up his face in a definite blink and expect you to imitate. This could go on for up to 10 Blinks per person. ;)

As I mentioned above, we spend a good amount of time playing chase and wrestling. Gideon’s thing this month has been lids. He is obsessed with lids. He takes them off… he puts them on…you get the picture.

We read a lot during the day as well. Gideon currently has 3 books that when they are finished, he grunts until I read it again: (in order of importance) 1. The Going to Bed Book, 2. Moo, Baa, La La La!, 3. I Can Clap. OH, and I forgot… today we found a book that had been missing for a while… it was his favorite last month: The Bathtime Book. Gideon will show up at my elbow with a book, bounce up and down (indicating that he wants up), crawl into my lap, and giggle and point to things in the books. Every time I “meow” he laughs. And he’s started to try to imitate me. (moo and meow being his favorites to attempt)

You will rarely find this kid without a baseball in his hand. (ok, a baseball, book, remote, or empty Pringles can) He loves to walk everywhere in the house finding things along the way. And he likes to make a stop in his laps around the kitchen to visit the air-return grate.

He’s starting to get the concept of playing catch. (JR’s getting excited.) And he claps or dances whenever we say the word. (or if he hears music) He also likes to play peek-a-boo with the curtains.

He will also randomly start singing and dancing when he’s playing by himself. He’s very entertaining.

Discipline:

Gideon knows what the word "no" is. And most of the time, when we use it, we get an immediate reaction. He stops what he's doing and moves on. However, there ARE times when he pushes it. But a swift swat reminds him what the word means, he cries and runs into our arms, and then he's fine. But him minding (esp. now that he's walking everywhere) is a BIG deal to us. We are so blessed to have a son who listens to us. Hopefully that will continue to be the case.

Communication:

He WAS signing “more” for a while… but not really lately. He made up his own sign for bottle. Since we shake it to mix the formula up, he shakes his hand (and his bum a little too) when he is thirsty. As I mentioned before, he lets us know when he wants to be up/held.

Gideon “talks” all the time. But he has yet to really connect what he’s saying to what he wants. He does say “da da” and “ma ma”, but not ONLY about us. I guess the sounds he makes are: ah, ba, da, du, eh, fff, guh, la, ma, nuh, ooo, sss, tuh (Claudia, is this good?) He combines all the sounds he makes into a myriad of strings with different pitches and volumes. Again, highly entertaining.

Teething:

In addition to his 2 bottom teeth that he is extremely proud of... Gideon is cutting 4 top teeth. The left side is coming in a little faster than the right side... (and as a side-note, we think he may be left-handed too).

Eating:

He eats just about anything. He’s not a picky kid, for the most part. I did give him Spaghetti-O’s once and he didn’t get as excited about them as JR did.

I’m still being pretty careful to help him set life-long good eating trends. So while Gideon has at least one serving of fruits, veggies, and meat (supplemented with Cheerios) every day, JR and I will stick to meat and breads, thank you. J Gideon LOVES meat. He inhaled the broccoli I’ve fixed him. Lima beans are big in our house right now. And when I fix him a vegetable medley with corn, carrots, and peas… he picks out the carrots and peas, and leaves the corn. But then, when I put the corn on a fork, he eats it right up.

Since his mouth is so big, we are able to use are regular spoons. No baby spoons for our son. And he's becoming a pro with his sippy cup.

Sleeping:

I have nothing to complain about, and for those of you mom’s out there whose children don’t sleep like Gideon… don’t hate me. Gideon goes to bed between 8 and 8:30 at night. And most mornings he wakes up around 9. Although at the beginning of this week, he slept until 9:30 for 3 days in a row.

And he takes about 2-3 hrs. worth of nap during the day on top of that! (Just like his parents, this boy loves to sleep.

Well, I can’t think of anything else…

Doesn’t Gideon sound perfect? He IS a great kid. I love getting to know him more and more every day.

God has blessed our family so greatly by giving us such a wonderful, sweet, adventurous boy.

Speaking of the boy… he is waking up from his 2 hour nap. (the 2^nd nap of the day)

Ciao!

Daisha