It Finally Happened

We all have been waiting for months--over a year, really--for this event to occur. I've seen babies who are five months old happily perform this act, but our grandson had until today utterly refused to do it. We adults have discussed the topic numerous times, shaking our heads in amazement that the wonder child would not do this activity on his own. We've tried now and again over the months to get him to do it, but NO! NO! NO! he refused to indulge us. He liked the status quo.

Then this afternoon the twins were screaming loudly since they wanted their bottles NOW. I put Bentley in the big recliner with one of his favorite blankets. I told him that I'd be back soon. Then I scooped up one of the twins to change a diaper. Bentley was not pleased to see me go off with a baby, but he knows that's how it works sometimes. After changing the baby's diaper, I went in the kitchen and got Bentley's bottle from his mom and took it over to him in the recliner and offered it to him. I was still holding a baby. Bentley took the bottle from me, popped it into his mouth, and held it himself. Yes--Bentley held his own bottle!!! He's never done that for longer than ten seconds before, but this afternoon he quite agreeably held his own bottle for the entire time it took to drink as much as he wanted.

Bentley has finally accepted that the level of care around his home has changed radically and isn't going to improve in the near future. He's a pragmatist--although it took him two months to cave in to the new regime.