Toddler town, we have arrived.

The naptime transition has gone surprisingly well. Josiah now goes down for a nap awake, doesn't cry, and then wakes up an hour and a half later. I have actually gotten a little bit of my life back, although I often sleep away about half of his morning nap. It is really a nice thing we have going here. Sometimes I wonder if we had been persistent if we could have made this transition sooner (probably), but then I console myself with the memories of the times we did try and he just cried for over an hour. I don't suppose it really matters, since I don't regret it anyway.

Everything has really taken a turn in the last month or so as Josiah has definitely declared himself as a toddler, not a baby. I went around the house and gathered all of the definitively "baby" items and packed them away in a tub for the future. This freed up a good amount of space. I recently noticed a few things I forgot, of course. I knew that we were turning the "toddler" corner, but we went to lunch last week with good friends, one of which is a 6 month old baby, and as I sat him down beside her I realized how he was not a baby at all. Last night a different set of friends came over with their newborn and he walked up to the carrier, declared, "TA TA!" (translation: baby---I don't know why) and started to rock the carrier. Now, he almost made the kid a bobble head by thinking more violent rocking=better ride, but he was quite entertained by trying to take care of the baby. Babies don't take care of babies...toddlers take care of babies. A ridiculous statement, but it gets the point across.

Yesterday he started to say a new word: shoes. He loves talking about shoes, because usually shoes apply to "going." Josiah usually hopes "going" entails the outdoors. I never realized how many places we "go" (the bathroom, to change a diaper, to get something, to eat, etc) until every time I use the word he perks up and says, "go?!" in an incredibly eager manner. He can hardly contain himself when you prepare to open the door to outside. I am the cruel mother that won't spend all day outside if the weather isn't nice. I almost feel bad about it. Almost. I will probably be a much better mother come April or May.

We are going to the pediatrician for his 15 month check-up this afternoon, so I will be sure to post his new vital statistics soon.