12 months

I had almost forgotten how much I love this stage of transitioning from babyhood into wobbler/toddlerhood. Every day Eli is saying a new word or copying a new sign. It's so wonderful to see him start to understand a little of what I'm telling him and be able to express his needs better to us.

This past week my parents were here to celebrate Eli's birthday. We all stayed at The Great Wolf Lodge waterpark and had a great time. While we were there he really started trying to communicate with us. At one point Grampa was holding him and they were trying to find Jason and Xander in the sea of people. Eli leans over to my dad, grabs his face, turns his head and they points and says, "dada! dada!". He found Jason in all those people and pointed him out to my dad! I was pretty amazed, but yes, I'm biased :)

Then later in the week when we were back home Grampa, once again, was holding Eli. Eli is suddenly very into dancing and loves bouncing up and down and waving his hands to the music. He apparently really wanted to dance at that moment and leans right in front of Grampa's face and says, "Ga-pa, daaah (dance)!" It was pretty hilarious. 

Last night he was apparently finished with his dinner because he pushed the food off his tray, signed and said "all done" and then signed bath. This boy knows what he wants.

I just can't believe the ways he gets his point across to us. A few months ago I was worried he'd be a late talker because he wasn't much of a babbler! Boy was I wrong!

For my record, more than anything, I wanted to list the words he is saying: dada, hi, ball, bye, hat, all done, bear, dog, bird, cheese, cracker, shoe, nana, Xander, grampa, gaga, car, bus, choo choo, milk

Signs he's using: more, drink, eat, all done, bath, bird, ball, fish, cracker, please, thank you, car

Now walking, is another story.....

I've decided most kids are either talkers or walkers. Mine, most definitely, are talkers. Eli, like Xander at this stage, is still pretty wobbly and I don't see walking in his near future. I'm attributing it to that big Johns noggin :) You can't deny it. His head is 95% where his weight and height are now right around 50-60%. 

I'm anxious for him to walk though so hopefully in the next month he'll take those first steps and be a confident walker by summer time!