One more

On Saturday, Grady turned 11 months old. He celebrated by going to Aunt Beth's surprise birthday party and getting his hands on some tortilla chips and chocolate cake. It was a good day for him. He's getting dangerously close to walking--his balance is improving and he tried to take a step alone last night. He fell flat on his face, but that's okay. Mike also noticed over the weekend that Grady's top front teeth are about to make an entrance, so stay tuned for that little development.

Evan has been having some issues the last two weeks or so, and it's causing some trouble in the family. Ev has suddenly become very attached to me--not in a bad way, but in that he wants me to put him to bed, he wants me to go out with him, he whines for me and wants hugs and kisses if we've been separated. This in itself wouldn't be a bad thing--it's cute, and it doesn't stop him from going to school or anything like that. But it has caused some trouble with Mike.

Along with the wanting me, Evan has started rejecting Mike. And he's been saying hurtful things, and telling Mike that he can't go places with him, and just generally being unbearable. Mike has handled it pretty well on his end--he's not buying into Evan's little rants, and will usually just leave him be when he gets like that. But it hurts me to watch, and I think Evan needs to learn he can't treat people that way. I keep telling Mike it's just a phase (which I'm sure it is), and they do still have some good times together through the day, but I guess I'd like to see this end sooner rather than later.

It's so funny too, because it just makes no sense. Like yesterday, he was adamant that Mike not come to Erie with us. Which was fine, Mike had planned to stay home anyway, but Evan still made a huge stink about Mike staying behind. But once we were in Erie, Evan couldn't stop talking about Mike. He kept wanting to call Daddy on the phone, or go home and play with Daddy. Then when we get home, Daddy tries to do stuff with Evan, and the rejection starts all over again.

I guess I'm not sure how to make it better. It's probably just one of those things we have to wait out, and before we know it the behavior will have disappeared. But until then, there's going to be struggles and a lot of hurt feelings. Sometimes these phases really do a number on us.