Our Cod-Man

Our little man Cody is affectionately known as Cod-Man. Chris and I always said we weren't going to do nicknames but he lives up to his. Next week he will be reaching the 20 month mark and although he is not even 2 yet, he acts so much older than he is. He has been very challenging but mostly because he is so fiercely independent and just wants to do things like his big brother and sister. There are so many things that are hard but are also the same things that make us laugh.

He has a really funny personality as he totally knows what makes us laugh, what he's getting away with (or tries to get away with), and what is the complete opposite of what we want him to do.

What makes things very challenging right now is that he has to do things how he wants to, when he wants to, and completely independently. If you try to intervene, help, or change how he wants something he has a meltdown and purposely (usually) throws himself on the floor. We have learned to tune it out (as best as we can) because it's usually short lived. He decides when it's over and then carries on as if nothing every happened. Last week seemed to be a particularly rough week but now he's back to the funny and silly guy we love.

We have definitely learned to pick our battles with him. In the picture above, he was insistent on having a pickle for breakfast and I thought "who cares!" and so he had a pickle for breakfast. I wasn't up for a meltdown over a silly pickle.

A lot of what we have learned about Cody recently is that most of his meltdowns are due to the fact he wants to do everything Colin and Kailey are doing in the exact same way they are doing it. There a few moms that do drop off the same time I do and laugh most mornings as Cody struggles to walk in because he has his heavy backpack on his back (he insists!). Today he was starting to have a meltdown in the cart at Walmart trying to climb out of the front seat until I realized he simply wanted to be in the back with Colin and Kailey. Once I figured this out and put him there, he was completely and utterly happy.

He's got the best facial expressions and my most favorite one is the hamming it up cheese face.

He is completely unique and his own person and has learned so much because of Colin and Kailey.  Because of this, it sometimes feels like we are first time parents with him. He is doing things far earlier than the other two ever did. He has so much to say and seems to understand a lot of things. He is a little sponge soaking things up faster than we can keep up with.

A perfect example of HAVING to do EXACTLY what Colin and Kailey were doing.

We panicked recently because he figured out how to climb out of the crib onto the dresser. We temporarily turned the crib around but it was 4 nights of terrible meltdowns and taking 2 hours+ to go to sleep. I couldn't take it anymore so I turned the crib back and he hasn't tried again. We planned on making it a toddler bed once the summer came, but we just aren't ready for that yet.

We love him so much and are so thankful for all that he brings to our family (even when he makes things incredibly challenging). He has been the perfect bookend to our family and we just love him to pieces.