An Update

Paci rehab is officially over and separation anxiety has returned. Caleb is back to crying every time we leave the room and at least whimpering a little every time we put him down. He hasn't slept the past two days at Carrie's and I told her today that I was okay with some tough love...AKA - let him cry it out. That being said, we always stay close by and we always make sure he's okay, but he's NOT getting out of bed without a nap or at least a quiet rest. I think she was glad to hear that.

Our parent educator, Amy, came last night and was apparently pleased with Caleb's development. He is doing some things that she was surprised to see: putting toys inside of containers, playing reciprocal games, etc. She suggested that we continue what we're doing and not worry about him at all. She gave us some good ideas for making the battle of wills at mealtimes a little better.

On that note - Caleb LOVES to feed himself these days. He likes to eat graham crackers, cheerios, Gerber puffs, cheese crumbles, deli meat, and diced vegetables, especially green beans. He gets very frustrated when we try to feed him with a spoon and tries to grab it out of our hands at least twice per meal. We gently tell him, "nice hands" and then continue feeding him. If the grabbing continues, we just take the food away and walk away from him for a minute. We come back and try again after a minute or so. If the grabbing starts again, we say, "Uh-oh, all done." and take it away completely. He is not happy when that happens!

Tonight, after eating an entire jar of sweet potatoes, Caleb had some diced green beans on his highchair tray. Rudy and I were talking about the day's events and I turned my head for a minute. When I looked back at Caleb, he was rubbing green beans all over the side of his head above his right ear. There were green beans everywhere! I dumped them out of the hood of his shirt and then cleaned him and the highchair. He kept rubbing his head and shaking it like it hurt. I determined that this must be a sign of a headache or some other ailment, so I gave him some Tylenol. He seemed to be doing better a short while later and went to bed tonight with less than 10 minutes of crying.

On a happier note, Caleb has started saying "kak-kak" when he sees one of his stuffed animal ducks. He loves that thing!