Obsession

We're entering an age with Shae where he is able to recognize and communicate certain likes and dislikes. At this point most of what he can communicate about likes and dislikes deal with food being shoveled into his mouth or thrown on the floor or just not touched at (ie. potatoes and bacon...what the?) 

However, there are three things that the boy has become obsessed with: His brown monkey blanket, headbands and reading.

For awhile now he has had this brown blanket in his crib with him when he sleeps. I'm not so sure when the obsession/attachment began, probably somewhere in the middle of the night months ago, who knows. As it's been colder and snowier as of late we've used the blanket more in the car (perhaps THIS is where the obsession began?) Just a few weeks ago we began to see him hold on to the blanket more when we came back in the house from the car. He would grab it and then go play with his toys, or the best is when he would grab it and then wrestle around the floor with it--hysterical. Then there was the holding-on-to-it-for-dear-life when I would pick him up from his nap and then the never-let-go-of-it-while-i-learn-to-walk-and-slip-or-trip-on-it. Then there was the yelling tantrum when I decided we should leave the blankie in the crib after wake ups. And even though we've decided to leave the blankie in the crib unless he's going to bed, I can't lie, it's ADORABLE to see him with it. How he gets SO excited to see it and clutches to it and puts it up to his face. I really love it. Like, really. And I think I get just as excited as he does when he sees it because I love seeing his reaction to it.

In the heat of the wrestling match. Looks like he's winning this one.

This is may or may not be what happens when we put the blankie back in the crib...

 Next: Headbands! I don't even wear headbands that often, like he's maybe seen me wear them five times but he clearly knows that it goes on the head which we never taught him because let's be honest, would Darin really let me show  our son how to wear a headband? No way. 

He gets a hold of this black headband often (pretty sure it just hangs out in his toy box at this point) and it kills me when I walk into the room and see this:

Or look up from doing the dishes to this:

Or turn to see the little rascal walking towards me like this:

At church on Sunday we had a friends daughter sitting with us and her headband had fallen to the floor. Next thing I know I look down and Shae has the purple headband sitting atop his head like it's the normal way to wear a headband. Cracks me up every time. I don't think that Darin approves of this obsession as much as the other two...

And finally: Reading. This one is probably both mine and Darin's favorite current obsession. He LOVES his books. He will sit and look through them for longer than anything else can hold his attention. He's finally able to get his little fingers around the big, hard pages and will sit and flip from page to page, front to back, back to front. The best is when he "reads" out loud to himself. 

We're also loving this because he will grab a book, make his way over to us, plop himself into our laps and wait for us to read to him, it kind of melts our hearts. 

Two obsessions captured in this one. How's that for stealthy.