Parenting with a capital P

Check out his big boy haircut! It makes me sad, still. I miss his long hair.

I think we're starting to get to the point where we're having to do actual PARENTING. It's really weird to think about it that way. Most of the stuff we've had to do so far as parents has been just keeping this baby alive and making sure he's getting enough food and sleep. That's not to say it hasn't been stressful at times, or that we haven't worried that we're doing things wrong--is he getting enough fluids? Is he constipated? Is he sick? All of those things run through my mind on a regular basis. But now, on top of all of those physical concerns, it's becoming clear that Dane is getting to the point where he understands things and is really learning things. So we're having to start thinking about discipline (okay, not seriously, but kind of) and teaching and all sorts of real Parenting things, where what you say and do matters more than just if they get enough food.

I mean, look at this boy:

He's playing a JOKE here! He's biting on the spoon and holding it in his mouth and laughing about it because he knows he's being silly. How does he know how to do these things? Every time he does something new I am always amazed and wonder when and how he figured it out. I love that he's learning how to be silly though. When he's really happy (usually in the evening after dinner when Tommy and I are both home and playing with him) he'll sit down and turn his head back and forth really fast with this big grin on his face and then he'll stop and wait for us to laugh at him. 

He's also starting to be naughty. I'm watching another baby who's around the same age as him one and a half days a week, and he absolutely does NOT like having her around. He gets so possessive and upset whenever he knows she's here because I hold her too. How dare she encroach on his space? Last week, I was holding both of them on my lap reading them a book, and he looks up at me, and then reaches over and grabs her arm and squeezes it with his little talons, obviously trying to hurt her arm. I kept pulling his arm off and saying "No," but he kept reaching over and doing it over and over again! I mean, how naughty is that? I kept wanting to laugh, but I'm pretty sure that's not the best response if you want him to stop doing something.

He also bites me ALL the time. He sometimes will bite Tommy, but he never bites anyone else, and he bites me several times a day. It's this total mommy-love-affection thing, where he goes into kiss me and ends up biting my shoulder or cheek or leg, but it obviously hurts and I try to tell him every time that it's not okay. He can be super, super whiny when I'm doing anything other than sitting on the floor playing with him--it's definitely gotten worse since I started watching our other friend.

But anyways, he definitely has ideas and opinions of his own now. We are all trying to navigate him growing up like this. He is definitely our baby still, but I've been looking at pictures from when he was first born the last few days while working on our photobook for 2012 and I cannot believe he was ever so small.

My only real question is, how has it happened so fast?