20 Months

Both these pictures predate Little Dude's most recent haircut; with his hair shorter he looks much older. He has also gotten taller and started "talking" more, so he seems much more grown up than he used to be just a month ago. He has acquired two more words: "ball" and "uh oh". We hear "uh oh" a lot now, but every time he says it I feel happy to know that he is communicating a bit more. He has started babbling and pretending to talk more too, plus he knows a lot of signs. I'm always amazed at what he'll pick up from his videos. He can do all kinds of animal signs (cat, dog, chicken, frog, fish, bird), signs for clothes (hat, socks, shoes, coat), signs for food (milk, juice, more), and a variety of others. Today we were reading a book about a star and he started making the sign and pointing at it. He still points and grunts a lot, especially because he is so observant. Little Dude keeps us on track with our routine and points out doors that aren't shut, trash that is on the floor, lights that are left on, toys that need to be put away, and any other sort of disorder that threatens the universe. This month he has also shown more signs of being social and reaching out to other people. He loves babies and points them out to me whenever he sees them. Unfortunately he still doesn't like nursery; yesterday we actually had tears when I had to leave. Next week I'm going to tell them to try reading to him, since that is a new favorite past time of his. He loves to sit on the couch and listen to books. In this picture he is hugging his two best friends (besides his sister), Sleepy Bear and Dino: