To celebrate his seventeenth month, Michael slept through the night for the first time in his life.

It’s quite a momentous occasion. Jake and I woke around 5 am, checking our nanny camera in shock as we realized we’d gotten eight hours of sleep for the first time in over a year. I feel like a completely different person…it’s amazing what sleep does to a body and soul!

Now, pray this is a habit that Michael will continue!

Michael’s vocabulary keeps growing in leaps and bounds. It would be impossible to list all the words he knows now. He picks up new ones every day. His current favorites, oft repeated, are “bagel”, “book”, “tractor”, “truck”, and “hot”.

His current fascination is machinery. Trucks and tractors are his top two favorites, with cars, planes, boats, and trains following. He especially loves riding on the tractor/lawn mower with Grandpa. He often runs down to their house yelling “GRAMPA! VROOM VROOM!” and making a beeline for the garage. If Grandpa isn’t there, he’ll still climb all over the mower without him, rocking the steering wheel and bouncing on the seat.

He loves books and reading. He loves lift-the-flap books the most right now. We recently visited my favorite local used bookstore and he was delighted by their selection of board books. We plan to go back regularly: he seems to have inherited his parents’ love of books.

We switched him from a floor bed to a real bed frame and rearranged his room to make it a little more toddler friendly. He loves it, and we do too. Having two separate play places in our house has helped him play with his toys more.

He’s becoming even more active and energetic (which I didn’t know was possible). He’s constantly moving, running, jumping, climbing, and falling (intentionally or by accident). He wants to be moving at all times. He dances to music, tumbles on the couch, and sings along to songs. Whenever he falls or hurts himself, he says “BOOM” in the saddest voice you’ve ever heard until we give him a hug and/or kiss the boo-boo.

He’s obsessed with cherries — as I pitted them for canning, he kept sticking his hand in the bowl and eating them. Grapes are a close second. If he could live solely on fruit and bread, I think he would be happy.

He loves playing in water — his water table and wading pool have been life savers as the temperature rises. He has a tendency to try and climb in the water table and sit in it, or dip his juice pop in it.

He loves giving kisses, and always goes in with puckered fish lips, exclaiming MWAH! He does this with us, with grandma and grandpa, and with icons or pictures of Jesus.

He has a slight cold right now which makes him uncomfortable and snuffly. It’s unfortunate that it corresponds with my hand injury: both of us are not operating at 100% and wrangling a toddler with limited dominant hand mobility is a struggle, to say the least.

So I’ve dusted off screen time again, after a month of no TV. We’ve been snuggling and watching Brambly Hedge together during the mornings or late afternoons, once he’s tired of reading or playing outside. Even though I would prefer no tv, I still cherish these gentle moments and cuddles.

Happy seventeen months, sweet boy.