Little Victor Update | Speed demon

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Victor has been walking since April. Every day he gets more confident in his stride, and the motions get less jerky. Unfortunately the confidence is leading him to move at speeds he’s not quite ready for.

Which means my son is getting his first bruises. Mostly on his knees, but also on his elbows. He loves climbing stairs, which is also something he’s trying to do faster. Earlier tonight he tried to climb the single stair outside the kitchen door. It was raining a little, and his foot slipped. His little body absorbed most of the fall, but his chin hit the door step.

He has new tones in his crying. He pretty much hit them all tonight.

He’s also fed up with being carried. He never used to cry when I picked him up. In fact, picking him up was always part of the strategy to calm him down. But not now. At best we can pick him up for a ten count, then he remembers he loves to walk, so he’ll try to squirm out of my arms and start to cry.

Not a heavy cry, like he’s in pain, but his “enough of this crap” stutter cry.

I’m not sure I like this stage of a baby’s development.

Victor and I spend a lot of time together during the day. Generally we play and talk to each other in the morning here in my apartment, then in the afternoon we go for a long walk. He’s still okay with being pushed around in his stroller, thank Christ.

Three times a week, in the afternoon, we end up in Vankleek Hill’s park, next to the Community Centre. We get there around 2pm, so we usually have the park to ourselves. Victor loves the flowers, and having the freedom to run around.

With the two or three extreme heat waves we’ve had I’ve introduced him to the “SplashPad”. It’s like a waterpark the size of… I guess the infield of a baseball diamond. Only round. And with colourful toy-shaped sprinklers.

Whoever decided to put one in Vankleek Hill should have their name taught in schools.

Victor loves it. He even seems to really enjoy how cold the water can be. He’ll walk up to a fountain, through the spray, then turn around and run away. But he always goes back in.

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Something I am worried about is losing the PlayPen. Victor is nineteen months old, so he’ll outgrow the PlayPen in roughly three or four months. What I’m worried about is, I don’t think I can make my apartment toddler-friendly.

For the moment I’ll let Victor walk around my apartment, but I’ll be walking right behind him. Even so he’ll dart towards one of my three bookcases with the intention of grabbing photos or books. Which would be great if I knew he’d read them, or that he wouldn’t try to climb up the shelves.

I guess it’s just going to take some work. But I think most of that work will be spent emptying my apartment of bookcases.

Victor is eating pretty much everything a normal sized human would eat. Except peanut butter and anything with a hot sauce. He can feed himself with a fork now. Which freaks me out, but Diane thinks it’s normal. He can even dip his french fries in ketchup… but then he’ll usually dip his whole hand in the ketchup, which he’ll eventually smear all over his face.

Which is what he did this past Saturday when we took my grandfather (aka: Big Victor) out to lunch for his eighty-eighth birthday. We took him to his favourite local restaurant, Jos Patate, a chip stand in Grenville, Quebec, for hot dogs and ice cream.

Big and Little Victor always have a great time together. This time Little Victor showed his great-grandfather his latest skill, holding and eating his own ice cream cone.

By the end of the meal Little Victor’s face was covered in ketchup and chocolate-vanilla ice cream, but Big Victor had no problem kissing both cheeks.

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Photos Of Victor’s Week(s):

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