Reed has been off his bottle for about two weeks now. I had over-analyzed and worried about the transition away from the bottle, but it turns out that I completely over estimated Reed's love for it. He had me fooled. I thought he was so completely attached to it that he would never be able to go one without one. For about a week before his first birthday we started putting whole milk in his cups at meal times, but the mornings and nights ... and naps.... he was still getting bottles. Mike and I relied heavily on the bottle to put him back to sleep if he woke in the night. It was the sure fast way- and perhaps because we relied on it, we thought he relied on it. A couple of nights after his first birthday I felt like he had drank plenty of milk before bed and we just put him down. He fell asleep without a peep and slept just fine. There were two nights right at the beginning that I warmed milk in his sippy cup and rocked him in his dark bedroom. Even that didn't really seem necessary. Now I have washed and sterilized all the bottles to be stored until his little brother arrives. So, way to go Reed. Once again he has made me look like a complete rookie!
Reed has spoken his first word! It's only natural that it goes with his new "thing." Reed has always loved his dad's hat. If Mike's wearing a cap, Reed is pulling on it and trying to eat it. One day we realized that he was getting more frustrated than usual so Mike just took his hat off and put it on Reed. It was like this wave of relief washed over him, "Finally! Geez! what took you guys so long to figure out what I wanted?!" And from that moment on he was only happy if he had dad's hat on. Its much too big of course, so it falls off a lot and doesn't stay on right in the car so I dug through Reed's closet and found a couple of caps that I'd bought for him. Bingo! He has an Old Navy hat that fits him perfectly right now. Come to find out, it didn't need to be dad's hat but it needed to be like dad's hat. Reed's word is HAT. He takes it off and says "hat", tries with all his might to place it back onto his head, but to no avail.
We really thought bike was going to be his first word- because he really loves them so much. But I think I misinterpreted his infatuation. I am pretty sure it's specifically the wheels that he loves. When he points to things we try to give him the correct word so there's a lot of "Truck", "Car", "Bike" and so on. All things with wheels. Somewhere along the way I think he decided that wheel is "Truck" because now everything with wheels is "truck". Another rookie parenting mistake. The other thing I'm sure I've thoroughly confused him on is water. He thinks water is "Hot". This whole thing started in the bathtub when he kept turning the hot water faucet on. Mom kept repeating "Hot"... now all water is "Hot". Excellent. Nonetheless, Mike and I are ecstatic that Reed is trying to communicate with us. We were slightly concerned because at his 1 year appointment his pediatrician said that Reed should have at least one word by now. There weren't any sounds that Reed would use consistently for a specific object. We started to worry that we were doing something wrong or not working with him enough. I mean, sure, we could say that quite a few times he said a word or two for this thing or that thing, but- to me, he has to be using the same sound consistently for the object or it's not a "word". It's just a coincidence.
We are both very satisfied now!
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