Caleb at 17 months

 I won't go on about how dashing this lad is, because you can see that this little man is beyond handsome.  The best part is that his cuteness doesn't stop at his big blue eyes, dimples, or 2T suit.  This kid is all-around adorable!

Caleb is very good at feeding himself.  He even drinks the milk out of his cereal bowl without making a big mess.  Of course, he is still very capable of making a mess if he wants to.  He has been known to tip his milk sippy cup upside down and then splash in the puddles it makes.  He also doesn't hesitate to throw down meals he isn't interested in.  The ability is there, we just need to work on discipline a little, I guess.

I would still categorize Caleb as ambidextrous, but if I had to choose between left- and right-handed, it would be left-handed.  He almost always eats with the utensil in his left hand.  He still eats crayons and pencil erasers, so he hasn't done much drawing.  He throws a ball well, but I don't remember which arm he uses.  I'll make a point to notice.

Caleb's vocabulary is growing quickly; nearly all animals say "moo" according to him.  He knows foods, body parts, toys, names, and whatever he needs to say to get what he wants.

Caleb is pretty good at sharing and taking turns with toys.  He does not like to share a book-reading though.  He likes his books read to him individually and is sure to crowd out anyone who encroaches on his story.

Caleb likes to dance and has some pretty unique moves.  Sometimes he'll bend his knees (almost squatting) and put both of his arms out straight back behind him and walk around like that.  I'll have to get a picture.

Caleb (and more often than not Eliza) still ends up in our bed early every morning (sometime between 2 and 6am) and finishes the night with us.  We had him weaned of this bad habit right before we went on vacation, but the trip ruined him (and her) and we haven't fixed the problem yet (but really need to).

Speaking of weaning, I almost forgot to mention that I weaned Caleb (from Momma's milk) just after he turned 16 months (right before our trip out west).  He was harder to wean than Eliza.  Once I stopped nursing Eliza, she pretty much forgot about it, but not Caleb.  Caleb had a much harder time giving it up.

I mentioned in the last post about our December trip that Caleb has a bottomless stomach.  This kid routinely eats three (granted small) bowls of cereal in the morning, where Eliza (who weighs 10 pounds more than him) will eat 1 or 2.  He almost always out-eats her.

Caleb is still a monkey, making the kitchen chairs the bane of my existence.  He can (and does) access anything and everything in the kitchen by pushing the chairs near the surface he wants to mount and then helps himself.  And he is fast.  Some days when after taking him off the kitchen table for the gajillionth time, I just put the chairs in the garage (though it's annoying to have to drag them back in every time we eat.

Our normally healthy little guy had a few noteworthy issues this month.  I mentioned in Derrick's Wedding post that Caleb had a poorly-timed bout of the puke-your-guts-out-for-twelve-hours bug while we were traveling.  Not fun for anyone.  Then, I took both kids into the doctor because they had been coughing the whole way home from New Mexico and then Eliza complained of an earache (that was the kicker that made me actually schedule the appointments).  Come to find out that Caleb had a little pneumonia in one of his left lung and a double ear infection (Eliza just had one ear infection).  More fun times.  The antibiotics cleared everything up and the kids have been well since.

That's probably enough details.  Kudos to you who are still reading (though I won't blame you if you went straight for the pics).  Here's what you really came for:

 Caleb got his own set of tools for Christmas, but here he's got the real deal.  It looks like he naturally knows what to do.

Eliza has taken a huge interest in babies lately since a lot of her friends are becoming big brothers and sisters.  It must be rubbing off on Caleb.  Because this little guy can take care of a baby like nobody's business.  It's pretty much the sweetest thing you've ever seen. Maybe it's just the age.  Caleb is the age that Eliza was when he was born.  She got a real baby to take care of.  For now Caleb will have to stick to dolls.

He carries around babies and asks for help in swaddling them up in their blankets.  He is going to make the best daddy one of these days.

 We don't put him in bed like this.  Amidst the giggle and tears that are bedtime, it often rains more than just cats and dogs.  And it always happens to be on Caleb.  On these stormy nights we have to de-clutter his bed before we hit the hay ourselves.

Attending Eliza's living room picnic.