"John!"

John just said his own name for the first time!

We have a china hutch in the dining room and there is no real way to lock the cabinets, so I'm simply forced to work on teaching John that he may not play in the hutch. Every so often, he opens a particular cabinet, takes out one of my great-grandmother's cut glass plates, and brings it to me, as he just did a few minutes ago. I said, "Those are not for you to play with. Show me how you put it back." We walked in there, he opened the cabinet, he put back the plate, and shut the door. I got down on his level and reminded him that he is not allowed to play in the china hutch, adding "Those plates are not for John!"

He then pointed to his own chest, said, "John!" and then pointed to the china hutch and said, "no!"

So exciting! For months he's been having me play the game in which he points to my chest and I say, "Mama," then he points to his chest and I say, "John," and if Daddy is around, he points to him and I say, "Daddy." John will point to each of us in turn dozens of times in a row, but he would never say his own name. Until now!