Communication is Key

I don't know when it happened, but James has realized a few things.

First and foremost we know that he knows names.  If I say that "Gamma and Gampa" are here, he tears out of his room, down the hallway, and arrives in the living room with a huge grin for his great grandparents.  He also has proven that if you tell him to give kisses to someone, and use the pre-approved name for that person, he will look around until he spots them and then deliver kisses on the cheek.

To go along with that, he has discovered the art of being a ham.  If he does anything that is followed by praise and hands clapping you can be guaranteed that he will continue to do that for the next 20 minutes.  That includes kissing on the cheek.

Apparently it is all a game to him.

Now we get to add in that he has learned how to indicate he wants something: he raises his hand, palm out towards the item, and stares at you.

This is used for everything from a drink of water to his Honey Nut Cheerios, to even my iPhone or the pad of paper I am using for a grocery list.  It's something he started doing at the beginning of November, while with my sister in CA.  Something clicked when he would indicate the fan over the living room and she would turn it on.  Now it's pretty much the go to for him.

Well, that and hitting what he wants.  Like the couch.

Someone likes to have the couch to himself, going from one end to the other, bouncing on cushions.  Whoever is in charge of keeping him from landing on his head will normally sit on the floor in front of the couch, tickling and giggling with him until he is tired.

Normally we're tired before him.  That last activity can go on for 45 minutes.

Finally comes my favorite new thing for my little 18 month old:

He now attempts to mimic what we do.

The little guy was doing his version of monkey noises, but we can officially chalk up growling when he is asked what a monster says, as well as growling like a tiger when the tiger comes up on his app on my iPhone.  And yes, they are different growls.

But it's not just noises.

There's nodding and shaking the head, waving his arms around like his daddy does when they are playing chase, and then the stomping of the feet.

I even think I heard him humming something that his toy cookie jar had been playing early.

His personality is showing more and more.  He still prefers to be left with his toys to figure them out, stack them, spin them.  Though I have to admit the one frustration we've had that forced us to hide a couple of toys.

James realized that the pictures on the puzzles he had matched the pieces he carried and played with.  I don't know where it clicked, daddy says that he did work with him on them, but it happened.  The problem is that you can tell he knows where they go, but he can't get the animal shapes in all the time.  He is still learning to adjust them to fit, and when it doesn't happen he will get mad.

You wouldn't like him when he's mad.

So, for the sake of all our sanity, the boards are up on a shelf.  He still has all the pieces, and the boards come down so we can work the puzzles together.  When he gets tired of it, they go back up and life is good.

I'll let you know about climbing next time.  That has started. 

We are so not prepared for this.