Is too much, let me sum up*

• I am currently exiled to the bedroom because the first two times I tried to put the baby to bed this evening ended in such failure. This is try number two for Em and we have been trying for a collective 3 hours. I have decided to blame bedtime tonight on having arrived on a red eye from California yesterday morning and my kid believing it is 7pm right now and not 10pm.

• Except for the above, I would say that bedtime and naps have been going really quite well, except for the whole Traffic Game problem, which means I can never ever say that.
  
  
• X finally got around to learning to walk at 14.5 months, after 7 months of cruising. He apparently just didn't see any point in walking when he could get around just fine. Now at 17 months, he walks well, is trying to figure out running, climbs big people stairs only holding on to the railing with one hand, plays basketball (okay, so all he really does is throw a ball in a toddler basketball hoop, but he does it 20 to 30 times in a row and applauds himself after each shot), and is a big fan of downward facing dog.
  
  
• He has acquired an obsession with balls (a.k.a. ballp. We have no idea why he has decided there is a p on the end. He is perfectly capable of saying ball without a p, he just chooses not to do so.) He has five or six different types of balls in the living room at any given moment and loves throwing them to us again and again. He also enjoys throwing them past the baby gate toward the kitchen and then begging us to retrieve them for him.
  
  
• Which leads us to the next point, he has learned to say please. He has also discovered that smiling and tilting his head to the side while doing so gets an even better response. His first multi-word phrase was "ball please get". Now we are working on thank you once we get the ball for him.
  
  
• My mother (Nana) taught him another important word/concept when we were visiting last month. I love her dearly but she will never be on time to anything in her entire life. After twenty minutes of us telling him that we would go to the museum as soon as Nana was ready, he proceeded to stand at her front door in his coat and boots, holding on to the knob, yelling "GO GO GO!" A new word for X, a familiar experience for his Mama.
  
  
• He loves books. We are so happy. Our family of bookworms welcomes a new member. He brings books to us when he wants us to read to him. He also will pick up a book, sit down with it and turn the pages while talking to himself quietly (he's "reading" it to himself, just like his mommies). Last month, he fell asleep "reading" to himself for the first time. Cutest thing ever:

• He is also obsessed with ducks, or "qacks" as he is wont to call them. He loves all images of ducks and all books about ducks. He is also willing to accept substitutions as long as they are close.
  
  
• ....I return after my third and finally (!) successful attempt to put X to sleep. To sum up tonight's bedtime, five moms (Kate, Em, Kate, Em, Kate), four hours=sleeping child and bone tired moms. There is much else to say to sum up the last four months, but for now, this will have to suffice because it is 11pm and we haven't had dinner yet.
  

*title borrowed from The Princess Bride, by way of the awesome ladies at Two Hot Mamas