16-month update

A few things about Jed at 16 months:

• Jed's vocabulary is expanding, slowly but surely.  He now says about 10 words and signs 30+.  I have absolutely LOVED teaching him sign language, and he clearly enjoys it as well.  It helps him communicate what he wants to me, and instead of shrieking until he gets what he wants, he can sign "please".  When he is playing with a toy, or standing on the edge of a step, or looking up at an object and he starts fervently signing "please", I know he wants help.  No need to start crying.  He can ASK for "milk", "banana", "water", "cheese", etc...instead of screaming and leaving me to guess what he wants.  He can sign "all done" when he wants to get down from the table, instead of resorting to throwing his food to tell me that he's finished eating.  All of this I anticipated, and is the reason I started doing sign language with him.  But what I didn't anticipate is the way he can communicate with me outside of things that he wants or needs.  When he sees a dog, live or in a picture, Jed will sign "dog".  When he hears a dog bark, even if he doesn't see the dog, he will do the same thing.  I then know that he not only recognizes the animal by sight, but also the sound it makes and associates the two together.  When he points to a picture in a book and signs "bus", and then points to a picture in another book and does the same sign, I know that he recognizes them both as buses, even though they look a little different from each other. When we are out about about and he starts excitedly signing "bird", or "flowers", or "helicopter", I know what he's paying attention to.  This gives me great insight into what he's picking up on from the things that I teach him, and what is interesting to him - of all the things he could have seen, that is what he noticed.   Plus, he gets SO excited that he recognizes things and can tell me about them, and I respond in kind.
• Jed loves all things with wheels.  If he sees any cars or trucks, he points excitedly and yells "car-car!"  He will say this over and over again until he is satisfied that we have sufficiently recognized the coolness of the vehicle he has seen.  He drives his cars and trucks around at home very enthusiastically, making "vrrrrr" sounds for the cars and clicking sounds for his trains.
• He loves to dance so, so much.  I will soon have a little video put together of a few clips of him dancing and then I will post it.  He shakes his booty, swings his arms, twists his torso, bounces up and down, and spins in a circle.  When I play a cd of music, he will dance at first, and eventually get distracted playing with a toy.  But he immediately stops whatever he is doing and is very concerned in between the songs because the music stopped - and isn't happy until the next song comes on.
• He went through a phase where he wasn't interested in books, and wouldn't sit still long enough to read them with us.  But he has recently become completely enthralled with them again, much to Scott's and my delight.  He spends a lot of time each day reading books, whether with us or on his own.  He often climbs onto his little chair near the bookshelf, pulls a book off the shelf, and proceeds to loudly "read" it to nobody in particular - with great fervor.  When he is finished, he pulls another book out and "reads" that one aloud.  He can do this for up to 45 minutes at a time.

One of Jed's favourite places to stop and rest during our
walks around the block. He is wet in this picture because
he stopped and played in someone's sprinkler on the way.

 

My landlady is clearing out the side yard, and Jed loves to hang out with Will the maintenance guy
because he always has the best tools.  Will loves Jed too.

 

Learning the value of hard labor

Sometimes I just can't stand the cuteness!

He may be cute but he's still trouble.