21 Baby!

Caleb turned 21 months on Sunday. I can't believe how big he's gotten. Because I have so many photos on my computer, the numbers have started repeating. When posting pictures to the blog, I type in the image number I want, and several pull up. It's so fun for me to look at the same photo number of Caleb as a baby and compare it to the image I'm trying to post. He's such a little boy now!

He says tons of words, and repeats us all the time. Sometimes, he'll be doing his own thing and I think he's not paying any attention to us at all when he'll suddenly repeat something we just said. He uses two word sentences most of the time, but garbles four and five word sentences (it's just that only two of the words are understandable). He'll use phrases that are longer, but since those words always go together, I often think they're more like long syllable words rather than multiple word sentences. His favorite words to say are definitely "mommy" and "daddy" which he'll repeat over and over again until he gets our attention.

I think his biggest accomplishment of late is that he's started feeding himself the sacrament water. Not the bread, just the water. I think the reason he only does the water is because Mommy is quick on the uptake when it comes to the bread, but slow enough on the water that Caleb has a chance to snag one for himself.

He loves the computer and whenever he sees one he asks for one of two things: either Elmo or Agnes. Sometimes both. If we say no to one, he'll usually ask for the other. It's funny to me that he loves Agnes so much when this summer he was rather afraid of her. But now, whenever we ask him the name of any little girl, typically he'll first respond with Agnes. Lately, since Laura and I have been eager to show off our Christmas crafts to someone, we've been talking to Agnes on Skype a lot, so now Caleb's positive that that's what computers are for.

Most of Caleb's loves have been previously noted on this blog (i.e. cooking, climbing, jumping, throwing balls). One other thing he loves is to dish out the food at dinnertime. Usually, he'll serve himself and Mommy (if he gets a hold of the serving spoon, which isn't always the case). Daddy then has to beg Caleb for food. Caleb's often very particular about who gets to do things. Which means that when he's in one of his moods, only Mommy is allowed to touch the serving spoon, or feed Caleb a bite of food. Often times, Brandon will try to give Caleb a bite and Caleb will refuse it, then Brandon will hand me the same bite of food and I'll give it to Caleb who willingly eats it.

He's a pretty picky eater. Not necessarily about what we're eating, but more whether he's in the mood to eat or not. Sometimes when he refuses food, I remind him that it's really a food he loves. Sometimes he'll believe me and try a bite, but most of the time, if he doesn't feel like eating, nothing I can do will convince him to eat (not even force feeding him). While he can feed himself, he prefers that I do it for him. Whenever we sit down at the table, he'll push his bowl over toward me so that I can feed him his food. He hates eating alone and won't sit at the table for lunch unless I'm sitting right next to him.

He was sick this past week, so he slept a ton. Now, when Brandon goes into his room to get him after a nap or in the morning, Caleb sits up in bed and says "Hi Daddy." It's very cute. He sleeps eleven to twelve hours at night and typically takes a three hour nap during the day (when he's not sick -- when he is sick, he sleeps even more). We're night owls around here, and Caleb is no exception. None of us wake up before nine. Caleb's bedtime is somewhere between 9:30 and 10 pm.

Most of the time, he's a total ham for the camera. He loves his mommy and daddy, his nana and grandpa, and Agnes. Those are the people he asks for all the time (sorry to everyone else, but we're bad at teaching our kid who people are when he doesn't see them often). He's getting better at playing with others and rarely throws tantrums anymore. He voluntarily says please and thank you, which means he gets his way more often than he ought to.

He's just an angel and we love him dearly. He's the kind of kid that makes you never want to have another, because how could anyone else ever compare? Not to mention, he's so stinkin' cute!