why can't we be friends?

My baby changed.  On Monday.  He learned how to say no.  He has been shaking his head for months when he didn't want something, but that whole action has a comical aspect as your head wobbles back and forth and one becomes slightly dizzy, so it wasn't personality altering.  But the actual word?  Quite transformative as it turns out.  Ask him almost any question and he says, "Nah" in a growly, clipped way with a little scowl on his face, his shoulders bunching up combatively.  He is a pleasant little fellow for the most part, so when that word passes his lips his whole demeanor changes into someone quite different.  Of course, we all think it's adorable when his mouth stays in a little "O" for emphasis, but we are trying to not let him know that we think it's cute.  He needs no encouragement for it is no, no, no day and night.  Even when he wakes up his first word is no when I go to fetch him, but then he realizes that that isn't what he really wants and reaches out for me to get him.


I suspect that this new independent streak stems from my attempts at weaning him.  It was getting so that I couldn't walk past a chair, much less sit down, without him starting to grab me suggestively.  Church was becoming a farce because we couldn't possibly sit there for that long without wanting to nurse and any other food or drink offering was often thrown a couple of rows away.  At home, he would routinely bring me a boppy and a magazine in an encouraging and hopeful kind of way.  I didn't want to stop breastfeeding completely, but he would never just sit on my lap in a more non-committal way.  So a couple of weeks ago I was determined to nurse him once in the morning, once after his nap, and once before bed.  He was mad at first, but adjusted really well and now doesn't even ask except at the appropriate times.  He calls it nuh, nuh which sounds eerily similar to that other word he has lately mastered.


He is also accomplishing positive goals like blinking really fast, barking, lubba-dubbing with his tongue, pointing to Christmas lights, and wearing cowboy boots.

By the way, "feels like -18˚" isn't going over very well in my unheated room here.