1. He is just starting to "walk." I mean, he would walk with other people sometimes a little in the past, but he was never very interested in it for long because he crawls very quickly, and if I tried it he wanted me to hold him. Today, however, he took a bunch of steps while I was holding his hands. Also, he has been experimenting with the "walker" toy Grandma and Grandpa got him as his early birthday present.
2. He's always been pretty musical. He played the drums on Grandma and Grandpa's Wii Guitar Hero; he plays on his little toy xylophone; and he plays the keyboard. The latest dimension to that is that he loves to dance. I will turn on the keyboard's pre-programmed songs and twirl him and dance with him and he breaks out into a big grin. That was even at the beginning of the month when Grandma and Grandpa were here. But now he will push the Lion "walker's" nose (which plays a tune) and he will dance to that by shaking his hands around. (See the video at the end)
3. He loves to "knock, knock." We're friends with our next-door neighbors and when we're playing out on the porch, he'll crawl over to their door and knock lightly on it. Besides that, he knocks on walls and anything solid.
4. He loves to climb and crawl. When I was sixteen, a friend of mine gave me a "toddler chair" as a joke. It's a camping chair for a little kid. I kept it all this time, and Caleb loves to climb up on it and even to try to stand on it (which I discourage HEAVILY). We keep a plastic bin with blankets in it by the couch and he loves to climb on that. We have an Ikea chair in his bedroom that he will climb and wiggle up onto. When he gets up, he turns and claps, so he must know that it's an accomplishment.
5. He is speaking a little. He says, "mama," "daddy," and "ba," although it's not always exactly appropriate. It seems like it used to be more accurate, but he then generalized them in a funny way. Lots of women get called "mama," and Patrick even gets called "mama" a lot. Also, it seems that any item he wants is a "ba." It used to be exclusively for balls, but now it's books, our cell phones, pictures on the walls that he wants to touch, and the light switch (which he loves to flip). It's less clear, but he also says, "all done," "uh oh," "oh no," and "no no." He is signing quite a bit: "more," "eat," "all done," and "milk."
6. He is also showing signs that he's listening. I was cleaning up his books and reshelving them the other day and I thought it would be great if he could start helping as his night time routine, so I said, "Caleb, can you hand me that book," and I would point to a specific book, and he would hand it to me! He did this repeatedly. (Tonight, he only wanted to play with them and get them out so it didn't work, but, hey, at least he's beginning to get it.)
7. He loves to explore and is learning more coordination. I gave him an empty and cleaned yogurt container to play with and he loved it. I put some toy blocks in it and he just sat and was entertained by that for about 10 minutes or more. Also, a few weeks ago, he started trying to build towers. He'd already been interested in knocking them over, but being interested in building himself was a new development.
8. He waves at people all the time. I think he is trying to figure out how it works socially, and he doesn't do it on command in the "right" situations. So when we say to wave good-bye, he won't usually do it, but he'll wave when we go outside or after Dad leaves. He seems to be experimenting with it. But he waves at our bishop every time he sees him up close the whole time he sees him.
9. He is trying to figure out how to go down stairs. It scares him a little (which is very healthy), so he is pretty timid about it, but he's made some efforts. I am happy that he has a sense of preservation, so I am content to wait and let him take some time to figure this out.
10. He has started to use tools. I didn't give him a spoon much until recently; I would just feed him to minimize the mess. However, during the last couple weeks he feeds himself oatmeal and things like that, and he does a good job and is very proud of himself. I also introduced him to crayons. He is very interested in them, but he does like to eat them after a second of trying to color, so our coloring sessions never last really long. Also he copies our behavior with the cell phone. He holds it up to his ear as though he is talking to someone. And he is so interested when his grandparents on either side call and talk to him, calling him by name. He doesn't say or do much, but he sits still and listens.
So those are a few of his latest developments. To think that just about a year ago, we were waiting for our little fetus and then he was born and he didn't do much, and now he does a million things and is so interactive. We can't wait to see what the next year holds for our now toddler kiddo.
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