Monkey See, Monkey Do

I am at home with a sick Walker again. Today it's Bronchiolitis. Viral, so no meds...but contagious. I am thankful for a day at home with him but wish he didn't have to feel bad. He's napping now.
In the doctor's office I realized just how much Walker learns from watching our actions. This was very eye opening. When we go out, we pack his formula in a formula dispenser, carry a bottle for mixing the formula and then a cup for pouring it into for drinking. We have a few cups with measurement marks on them and when we use those, we can skip the step of mixing in a bottle. Today, I grabbed one without the marks.
While in the office, Walker started unpacking his bag. Unpacking bags is one of his favorite things to do. (Ironic since our bags stay packed for weeks after a trip...). Well, he first pulled out the bottle and lid used for mixing and then pulled out the formula dispenser. He sat the bottle on the floor and turned the dispenser upside down, just like we do, and started banging it on the bottle. We do this too. Except, we open the lid so the formula falls into the bottle. In a minute, he realized nothing was happening, so he used his teeth and opened the lid. Then I took it from him and made him a cup of milk. I could see that leading to bad places...
That little act just amazed me. It's typically done "over his head" at the counter, etc so I never realized that he paid that close attention.

On the topic of formula, Walker is pretty much on whole milk now. He still gets a tad bit of formula mixed in usually 2-4 ounces but most of what he is drinking is whole milk. He sometimes has cups of only whole milk and sometimes only formula...this is when we are out and about and formula has just been easier. We are finishing up the can of formula we have and then he's completely off it. Just don't want to waste any. He's growing up so fast!

We have a nature sounds machine that runs while he sleeps. Because of where it has to sit, the cord is exposed to his little hands. So, everytime he gets out of the bed we unplug it and stick the cord up on top of his dresser and out of his reach. On very few occasions, we have forgotten to unplug it before we put him down and he always immediatly walks over to it and attempts to unplug it. He's done it a time or two, but usually we don't let him. We don't want him getting in the habit of thinking it's ok to mess with outlets. But that's just another example of how much he learns from watching us. Perhaps he will be a visual learner??

If we ask him the question "Walker are you one?" he will hold up one finger on occasion. More often than not, he does it but he still doesn't do it everytime. He doesn't respond at all to "how old are you?" I guess we taught him wrong. Oh well. :)

His birthday party is this coming Saturday. We are doing a very small party with only immediate family. Walker's grandparents (all 6 of them), his great grandparents (2 of them) and his aunts and uncles (all 8 of them) will be there. We're very excited and hope he's back to his normal self by then. We are having a Curious George party and can hardly wait to see him dig in his cake!