16 months!

In just a couple of days Will will be 16 months old! We are definitely in toddler territory now. He is endlessly curious and is in constant motion. He is also no stranger to a toddler tantrum or two. This morning we took Will back to the Childrens Museum to check out the other levels we didn't have time for during our first visit. Will had the museum all to himself for a little while! He got to explore and "fly" a little airplane, play in the sand, and play in the tot play area that he enjoyed last time. He certainly got tuckered out because he was not too cooperative when we tried to go out to lunch afterwards. He is now in the middle of what we think will be a very long nap!

We are making some progress on the talking. Not long after my last post Will suddenly started using real words other than "mama" and "dada." Will and I were reading an Elmo book and I was trying to get him to say "Elmo." Instead he pointed at Elmo and said "dog." Clear as day. I kept trying to get him to do it again but Will does not give command performances. Later that afternoon Will was looking out the window and I heard him yelling "dog, dog, dog, dog, dog." I went over to the window and the neighbor's cat was on our porch. Will is pretty good at identifying all of different representations of dogs (Zoe, pictures of dogs in books, dog stuffed animals) but he apparently also thinks that cats and Elmo are dogs too. Since that day he keeps calling the neighbor's cat "dog." And one afternoon Will was in his high chair eating and Zoe was right underneath (where she always is during meals). He leaned over, looking at Zoe, and yelled "DOG!" He definitely has that word down.

Will can also say "bye-bye" with great regularity. In fact, we've had to start spelling if we're about to go somewhere. If anyone says "bye-bye" Will runs to the front door and tries to open the door to get out. Then he gets upset if we don't leave the house immediately. He'll bang on the door and say "bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye." We have to be careful because sometimes he'll get in his car and pretend to be driving and we'll play along and say "bye bye, Will." He immediately jumps out of the car and runs to the front door.

Other words Will has used this week include "night night," "hi," "Elmo" and "baby." I think he learned "baby" because his new favorite book is called "Ten Little Babies." He loves it so much he'll bring it to us to read several times a day. He can't get enough of it. Then in the Commissary this week there was a crying baby. I kept talking to Will about the baby and Will started repeating "baby, baby, baby." You'll notice that none of the words we've been making an effort to work on have popped up yet. Classic Will- doing things on his own terms. He's still not a big talker but we're getting there.

Speaking of reading, we're pretty good about reading Will books every night before he goes to bed. Lately he's been very particular about the books we read. We used to be able to read anything but lately the only acceptable books have been "Ten Little Babies, "Baby Animal Families," "My Little Book of Wild Animals," "How Big is Baby," "Thomas the Train" and sometimes "Doggies." He also brings these books to us to read during the day. He has so many other books but these are the only ones he wants to hear nowadays.

He's starting to show an interest in trains. He has a couple of "Thomas the Train" toys and he likes playing with toy trains at the gym nursery. He's seen "Thomas the Train" on tv a couple of times and he was fascinated.

Will and I went to the pool a couple of times this past week. We think he may turn out to be a swimmer. He has no fear of the water and going under doesn't bother him at all. He often dives under in the baby pool, even though he can stand, and I have to pull him back up immediately. He doesn't seem to mind going under and he's learned how to hold his breath. Of all the times he went under this week he only came up sputtering once. In the big pool he refuses to stay in his float anymore. He wants me to pull him around like he's swimming. I've tried to get him to kick his legs but he doesn't do much of that. Sometimes he will lie back on his back while I'm holding him so that he is "floating." I'm happy that he's not scared of the water but we definitely have to stay on our toes when he's at the pool!

We'll probably take him to the pool again tomorrow. Also on the agenda for this weekend is a haircut for Will. On Monday Will's babysitter is coming and David and I are going to go to lunch and see a movie! We love our little guy but it sure is exciting to go out without him sometimes!

Happy Labor Day weekend!