My own Mr. Belvedere

I was feeling a bit upset and dejected today after spilling an entire bowl of rice on the floor... the sparkly-fresh, newly-cleaned floor near my refridgerator, when Caleb came toddling towards me (predictably) to investigate the mess. I quickly shooed him away to prevent him from trying to eat the mess, and I told him to go play whilst I grumpily began sweeping up the mess. He waddled off, I thought to go play, but returned a minute later and melted my heart.
He had gone to the closet and pulled out the girls' toy broom, then returned to the kitchen and proceeded to "help" me sweep up the mess. He took his little broom and started pushing it every which way in an attempt to do exactly what I was doing. My thirteen month old. He was then covered in smushy Mommy kisses for being the sweetest little boy ever.

Welcome to raising a man, Mommy.

We've been teaching Caleb to recognize and point to his different body parts... a skill his sisters had mastered by about this time, too. Both girls at this age could point to their tummy, toes, facial features, etc, without difficulty, much to our delight. Fast forward to Caleb, and I'm seeing the difference between how the male and female minds work. If you ask Caleb to point to his belly, he points to his pe-nis. His toes... he sticks his feet in the air and... grabs his pe-nis. His nose... you guessed it- pe-nis. Yep, he's definitely got the mind of a guy.

(p.s. the extra dash you see in the word of the day is to make it difficult for any old joe blow surfing the net and searching for blogs with dirty content to stumble onto my happy family blog, Mom, in case you were wondering).

We'll keep working on the body parts. At least he's getting closer to finding his toes.