Self Consciousness?!?

John had grand fun this evening playing in some Rubbermaid bins we bought. I wish I'd been able to catch a photo of him crawling inside of it.

Today Grandmom and Pop-pops stopped by and we ended up going out to dinner. John showed great enthusiasm for eating the garlic bread rolls and plain spaghetti (although most of what he tried to eat ended up on the floor). Back at home, John started squawking when he saw me making bowls of ice cream for Chris and me. I think he's now become too old for me to be able to eat junk food in front of him without his noticing, darn it! Rather than give him ice cream, I offered him strawberry yogurt. Amazingly, he sat in Daddy's lap and eagerly allowed himself to be spoon-fed an entire ounce of yogurt! This reminds me of an exchange I had with a friend. She said her seven-month-old wasn't eating that much, only an ounce or two of solids at a sitting. I laughed and said, "My 12-month-old has never eaten an ounce of solids at once in his life!"

John did something seemingly amazing tonight. He and I were upstairs when he began pointing to his chest. I've never seen him point at himself, so I didn't know what on earth he meant by it. All I could think of to say was, "Yes, you're Baby John. Baby." Then he repeated baby while pointing at his chest. I would tap his chest and say baby, then he'd tap his own chest and say baby. He did it about five times, then went about his business, then began doing it again, pointing at his chest and saying baby. I brought John downstairs and was repeating the story to Chris, with John sitting on Chris' lap. I said I could hardly imagine that John is old enough to have self consciousness that he is a baby, although he does have a book full of photos of babies and he knows that it is his "baby book." As I was telling the story, Chris said baby and John instantly pointed to his own chest. We couldn't believe it!