Our Baby Is Now a Toddler

On Friday Wesley turned fifteen months and I was reflecting, as he clutched my one finger and walked with me from the car to the doctor's office, that he can't really be called a baby anymore. He's a full blown toddler with a toddler personality and none of the baby helplessness.

First off, he's fully mobile. You are now unable to prevent him from getting anywhere in this house. During the day, this is my biggest problem. I turn my back, Wes is in the pantry. I go downstairs for laundry, he's gotten into the cabinet under the sink and is attempting to eat soap. I help Finn in his room, Ninja Wessie has pulled two dozen books from the bookshelf.

The funny thing is, he's doing this only with crawling. He's a super speedster on hands and knees and has mastered the art better than his brothers ever cared to. Not that he couldn't walk if he wanted to, but for some reason he's decided against walking. He has taken 2 steps in a row, but only very recently and is clearly no where near ready to walk on his own.  He's surprisingly cautious, not wanting to take the chance to fall if he stood on his own. He's the complete opposite of Finian at this age. Where Finn was always eager to please but threw himself at tasks with absolute disregard for how they might damage him, Wes is devious but very careful in his actions. When we named him the Ninja, we had no idea how accurate it was.

Wes is developing a sense of humor now. He's quite pleased with his ability to raspberry his tongue and is always playing funny faces games with his brothers. He's got quite the range of laughs now, from giant smile to tiny titter to big laughs to shrieking delight. Anything will set him off; he thought it was hilarious when I spun him around in a circle to make him dizzy.

In addition to the half dozen or so words he clearly says (his favorite being "Mama!" anytime I offend him), he's always babbling on about something. Luckily, Finian has apparently learned to speak Wessie and is constantly translating for him. "Wessie says he wants water!" or "Wessie wants his toy!" are frequent transcripts I am given.

Still, he's probably the snuggliest child you'll ever meet. Wesley loves people so much that... wait, let me rephrase. As Wesley spends everyday in testosterone fueled cage matches with bloodthirsty brothers, Wesley craves female attention above anything else. He'll take it from anyone, too. He'll often just crawl into some lady's lap without warning and settle in. The adorable way he'll suck his thumb while he does it makes him completely irresistible. The fact that he's learned how to hug and kiss makes him that much more likely to be adopted by the next random woman he meets.

Not that it's always cute snuggly baby time with Wes, though. He's learned that he's got a lot of decibels to compete against between his brothers. He can scream with the best of them at the slightest offense (the offense usually is "Food and drink are not coming fast enough!"). As the baby of the family, he's well aware he'll get whatever he wants.

As Wes is our last baby, I feel we took our time to enjoy the adorableness of babyhood with him and never tried to rush him into growing up. But now that that babytime has closed, we truly look forward to getting to know him better and know we'll enjoy toddler Wes as much as our little baby Wessie.