A LOT has changed for Ezra in the last month! Two big changes are that he has stopped nursing and has begun phasing out his daily nap!
The nursing happened a lot quicker than I'd expected (I thought it would take longer to completely be done)...and though he occasionally asks for his "milkies," he was genuinely excited about the change from "wake-up-milkies" to "wake-up-eats." I know that a lot of people in our life have expressed their thoughts on our extended nursing, but I made the choice to let Ezra nurse as long as I did because I know it was what was best for him. Sometimes it got to be a little irritating, frustrating, etc, but I always knew that he wouldn't nurse forever. He and I really enjoyed our time together. And though I'm happy he's done, I'm also a little nostalgic for our special time and sad that it's finally over. I'm also extremely proud that we maintained that long and I wouldn't have had it any other way :)
As for the nap-drop...at first I wasn't so happy that he started skipping it. It was the time during the day that I could catch up on housework that I simply couldn't do with him around or get started on dinner...whatever. That said, he had been having some seriously restless sleep a few times a week...so when he started going napless, his nighttime sleep got WAY better. He almost stays in one spot at night! We still have naps a couple times a week - his pattern is usually 3 days w/o a nap, 2 days w/ a nap. We're both starting to get used to it and, though it is easier to have that mid-day break to get stuff done, the way-more-restful sleep for everyone at night definitely wins out :)
Other news for Ezra this month? He continues to add more and more words to his vocabulary, he's doing way better with potty-training (we finally got back into it again), he climbs up things at the playground that, I swear, he shouldn't be able to climb, and he has really been loving helping me cook lately.
Here's the succession of photos. Notice that not a single one is frame-worthy. This child simply refuses to 1. Look at the camera, 2. Smile, and 3. Pose with his chalkboard. He actually just started saying, "No, Mommy, NO, NO, NO!" when he saw the chalkboard.
FUN.
