This week, Caleb has taken great strides in becoming more like a little boy and less like a baby. I have no idea what has spurred this sudden growth, but it's been so much fun to see.

1. Caleb no longer throws his cup on the floor in between drinking. He will either place it nicely on the table or hand it directly to me. It's SO NICE not to reach down under the table constantly to pick up his cup during meals!

2. For the past 3-4 days, Caleb has not had a pacifier at all during the day, with the exception of when he is sleeping. So far he has not made much complaint at all about this change, though he gets very excited if he catches a glimpse of one of them. Hopefully the rest of this weaning process goes just as smoothly and he does not switch his oral fixation to sucking on thumbs/fingers instead.

3. Instead of sticking every random piece of paper, wrapper, string, etc... that he finds on the floor into his mouth, Caleb seeks me out and hands it to me. And today he even took the paper to the trash can, opened it, and threw it inside! Hooray!

4. Caleb has begun INSISTING that he eat with a fork at dinner every night. He literally gets angry if he does not have a fork like the rest of us and has been doing a WONDERFUL job of feeding himself. Using a fork also makes him so happy and he laughs after just about every bite. It's really too cute. He's still not wonderful at getting food on the fork, however, so he often hands me the fork between each bite so I can help him and then he takes it and puts it in his mouth. What a big boy!

5. Whenever I ask him to say "please," he smiles and gives me a kiss. I don't know how he learned this, but I figure it's a suitable alternative since he hasn't actually figured out how to SAY please.

Wow. It's been a busy week!

Labels: Caleb, Milestones