Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Great Leaps

Every now and then a child's development goes from a casual stroll to a leap. Currently, Whit is leaping.... small leaps, maybe more like hops but still developing at a faster pace than he has recently.

Tonight, when I said it was time for 'Night Night' he leaned over from where he was sitting to give Daddy a kiss (as he does every night but usually with my encouragment), he gently went upstairs without a fight and curled up with Mommy for a book, some rocking and off to bed nursing. Within about 10 minutes of heading upstairs he was asleep. Yesterday, when I said it was time for 'Night Night' he went upstairs and laid down in his bed without prompting. It's clear that he's beginning to understand more every day.

The same thing with his sign language and other daily tasks. Whit has (in my opinion) a fairly large vocabulary for a 14 1/2 month old who is far more concerned with physical develpment than language. He says consistently: Mommy, Daddy, tickle, cat, woof-woof, ball, ba-ball (baseball), hat and out (outside). There are several other words that he will repeat when prompted. What is somewhat more impressive to me is his ever growing sign language vocabulary. This is probably more impressive to me because it is not a typical development that is observed in children. We've been working on signs for nearly a year and he's picked up one every month or so until the last month. As with spoken words he's beginning to pick up signs much faster. In sign language Whit can say: All-done, more, nurse, please, bath and no. He also has several other signs that he makes that I haven't figured out yet.

Whit's also developing in other amazing ways. He loves to help unload the dishwasher, vacumn, sweep and take the wet clothes out of the dryer (yes, the dryer). He will climb (or attempt to climb) anything and thinks driving a car is all the rage. His current obsessions are putting hats on his own and other peoples heads and putting shoes on his feet. We took him out on Sunday to purchase new shoes for his ever growing (and very wide) feet. You would have thought he was at the playground. He loved picking out shoes and has asked to put his shoes on each evening since Sunday.

I'm so enjoying watching each new development happen that I've forgotten to pine for the days when I could rock Whit and not have to worry about him not fitting in the rocking chair. It's precious to see his growing relationship with Daddy and his ability to more easiliy recognize friends and family.

New photos to come soon!