Life With Kaiden Lately.

About a month ago, I blogged that we decided to take Kaiden off the bottle. I'm proud to say that we have been bottle-free for the past 4 weeks and our attempt has so far been a success! It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. He would occasionally see a picture of himself holding a bottle and ask for it, but he has been consistently using a regular cup. We attempted the sippy just for convenience's sake (handing him something with a lid) but he just wasn't feeling it. His speech therapist said it's actually better that he went straight to the cup as sippies have the same effect on teeth that bottles do and they will become a transitional problem later on in his life. The biggest negative that has come of this is getting him to sleep. The bottle was his comfort item and so his sleep schedule has been so off lately. He used to go to bed at 7:30 pm and wake up at 8 am consistently but this past month he has been going to bed around 9-10 pm and waking up every day at 6 (with no naps.) This, in turn, has affected his mood and been the source for a lot of tantrums. I couldn't understand why he was acting so unusual but I realized that he still needs naps as much as he protests. It's also hard for Ethan and I because we want time together  but we can't stay up super late because we know he will be up and at it early in the morning. Since Ethan left, I decided that to go back to a strict schedule like how we did when he was a baby. It's only been a few days but it seems to be working. Though he is still up sometime between 6-7 am, I can at least get him to bed before 8 pm and he's napping again. Woohoo!As for other things...his speech is definitely improving. He's added several new words to his vocabulary and is starting to piece together two words at a time. It's slow progress but it's progress nonetheless! He has a lot of gibberish leave his lips but it sounds like he is really holding a conversation with me.I've been playing youtube videos of newborn babies for him. I'll ask him things like, "Where is the baby?" and he will point to my belly or if we are watching a video he will point to the screen...I'm just wondering if he's made the connection that the baby on the screen is like the baby in my belly.He definitely misses his daddy. We were at a store on base and he saw a tall guy in a uniform and said, "Daddy." When the guy walked closer he realized it wasn't him but it broke my heart. Ethan actually recorded videos on our computer for Kaiden to watch. They are interactive and Kaiden loves to watch them. I think he thinks they are really Skyping. We haven't gotten to talk to Ethan much because the wi-fi there is very spotty and he is just very busy but there are brief moments and I'm grateful for them.Hopefully, that fills you in on life with Kaiden. He will grab my face and give me a kiss out of the blue still, which makes me very happy. As much as he tires me, his constant pouring out of love and affection towards me is so sweet. It makes these days of missing Ethan a bit easier, knowing that I have my little buddy to keep me company...even if our conversations only ever amount to, "Don't do that." "Vroom, vroom." and "That's a BIG tree!"