Walking, Talking and Monsters

B has really started to walk, although he still prefers the easier mode of movement: crawling. When he is standing and needs to get somewhere, he "forgets" to crawl and will walk to the next place. B is actually pretty sturdy but, like his older brother, excessively cautious and when he realizes he's walking he'll plop to the ground and crawl. Sadly, I have been less than diligent about capturing these "first steps" on camera and I fear B will be running before his new skill is stored for perpetuity.

B has begun "talking" up a storm. He chatters nonsensical sentences all the time and imitates words that I say to him. B points to an a toy. I say, "That's a truck. Truck." B says, "Tru," with a proud smile on his face. I say, "Book," as B points at one. B says, "Bu." I guess it's the kind of cuteness only a mother gets excited about.


M is deathly afraid of his room at night, these days. He cries hysterically at bedtime and wakes in the middle of the night crying about monsters in his closet or "scary" spaceships on the ceiling which are created by the shadows from his nightlight. I have tried explaining that there are no monsters or spaceships...to which I get dubious looks as if he is saying, "What you talking about, mommy?" I have tried using a "monster catcher" and pretended to catch them, on the advice of a friend. M just smiled and gave me, what can only be described as an amused look. I am at a loss and worried about his intense fears. I've been doing a great deal of research on the web regarding this and have found that this is normal and tends to peak around 3 years of age. Unfortunately, it can last up to a year...hopefully, we will all survive this. I'm still trying to figure out where he learned about monsters...I am furious with whomever he learned this from and would gladly go back in time to erase this encounter. Lacking this ability, I pray for the monsters' early demise.