The Bottle Boy Who Wouldn't Walk...

Dear Jonah,

Well, my little man, I'm madly in love with you. You seriously are so incredibly kissable, funny, sweet, tender, smart, and all around wonderful! I love watching you play and explore your world. Your communication skills are amazing. You are saying so many words (notebook, blue, black, ark, up, down, ball, drink, all done, more, cookie, etc.) and doing a great job answering questions. We went to Noah's Ark the other day and that night i was rubbing your back and asked, "Do you remember what we did today?" You said, "ark" I said, "yes, we went to the ark, and what did we do there?" And you said, "up, up, up... down." (meaning you went up and down the slide! It was an amazing experience to have a conversation with my little man! I am so proud of you. You make an attempt to say any word. I was talking to havana the other day and I asked her, "can you say particular?" and you said, "particular." haha. You're a funny little man because you refuse to be left out of anything. Anything your big sister can say you will try to say. Anywhere she can go you will want to go. Anything she can do you are going to do or die attempting. ha.

We went to the fair the other night and you enjoyed keeping up with her on the rides and playing in "safety town." She climbs up stairs and goes down big slides... so do you. Most of the other mothers around are shocked that I let you go up and down on the playgroup equipment by yourself, but you figure it out very quickly. You can even get off of mommy and daddy's king sized bed with ease. You just attempt everything feet first and you don't seem to mind the times you tumble or fall. You can go up the stairs with ease and you can come down them too, but mommy gets a little nervous watching you do that.  She spins and sings and you sing and spin (while sitting on the ground). You want to play with what she is playing with and overall you two play together very well.  It seems that the only thing you won't do like Havana is 1. Drink from a sippy cup and 2. WALK.

You are almost 16 months old and your bottle seems to be your first love. You adore it. You shake with excitement as soon as you see it. When your bottle is on your tray it doesn't matter what dessert is on there - you only have eyes for the six ounces of the soy liquid that is in there. I'm pretty sure you dream about it at night. Our doctor said that having you off of your bottle by 18 months is a good goal, but I honestly don't know how we're going to do it. You won't drink milk from a sippy cup. You'll gladly drink water from the cup, but when it comes to your soy milk it has to be from the bottle. We've tried to offer you milk in a cup - several different types of cups - but all get rejected. The other day I gave you your milk in a straw sippy cup. You immediately try to throw it on the floor, but I said, "just take a sip of it." You take a sip... and then you look at me with this HORRIBLE expression that seemed to say, "how could you?!" And then with a loud grunt you throw the cup on the floor. I laughed and sighed... I'm not sure how this will play out, but I'll be shocked if you are off the bottle by 18 months... just saying. :)

You also are not walking. Here's the thing... YOU CAN! At the beginning of August when you had just turned 15 months old you took your first few steps. You were on one side of the couch and Havana had a toy on the other side and you quickly took three steps to get from one side of the couch to the other. I don't think you realized that you did it and it took me a second to realize it. Then I screamed out of excitement. You took three tiny steps, but I was sure that was the beginning of you taking off. I called your daddy at work to let him know the good news and I followed you around the rest of the evening with the video camera. Sadly, you didn't take another step. Then, 20 days later, I carried you up the stairs and I put you down. I had my hands around your ribs instead of holding your hands and helped you start walking. I softly let go and again you took about 3-4 steps before you reached the wall and began your normal routine of cruising the walls. I, again, screamed and ran to pick you up. I kept yelling, "You did it, Jonah! You walked!" You however seemed motivated very little by all the positive reinforcement. I kept trying to get you to take steps after that, but again, you wouldn't. As soon as I let go of you - you plop yourself on the ground and begin to crawl until you can find something you can "cruise" on. I don't know what it is going to take to get you to realize that you CAN WALK! You can do it. You seem content simply standing on your own two feet, but resorting to crawling and cruising as your modes of transportation. and I guess we are working on your time table and not mine! :) You're an awesome little boy and I'm madly in love with you!

Jonah can stand, but he won't walk.