many advances in speech. yesterday he started saying "okeh" in response to "OK." he also likes to roar at the
eric carle brown bear postcard that hangs above his changing pad — quiet roars that sound more like throat-clearing but will doubtless get louder and more acute. speaking of loudness, he screams just to hear himself do it, so we try not to react, but it's cute. i'm convinced that he says "it's dark" when we point out the window at night. no progress yet on "ball"/"balloon" disambiguation. he calls for me when he doesn't know where i am and wants to find me. he also (nonverbally) asks for help with matryoshka dolls when he's having trouble separating tops from bottoms — just hands them to me and expects them to be handed back in two pieces.
he likes to draw on paper! who knew. all kinds of doodles.
all of our work on descending/dismounting backwards has paid off because he climbs and unclimbs stairs with enthusiasm and an appropriate amount of caution. it's a sight to see him peer down a flight of stairs and then determinedly turn himself around to descend feet first. the same extends to playground equipment, although he may be developing some hubris that will unavoidably lead to some tumbles from too-high platforms.
finally, photos. we had a lovely
thanksgiving in great barrington, massachusetts with
joey and
alana and many friends. alana took several family photos that are (1) fantastic and (2) embarrassingly some of the first we have. they're on my flickr feed.
