Cam is officially toddling, as of this week. He has been inching toward it and has been CAPABLE of walking for a few weeks now, but it is only this week, the past two days really, when he's actually chosen walking over crawling on a regular basis. And let me ask you, is there anything cuter than a newly-minted walker? First of all, the uncoordinated drunken stagger is cute in and of itself. The look on his face, however, is something to behold. He is SO excited and PLEASED with himself. It's like the glow of a kid the first time they ice skate without holding on or ride a bike on their own times, like, A BILLION! He also occasional shrieks with glee as he staggers toward one of us. It. Is. Adorable.
He also found his words about a month ago. I was feeling a tad pessimistic as he hadn't even shown any signs of moving in that direction. He didn't mimic sounds, he didn't use any of the signs we'd taught him (although the clearly knew what they meant), and he didn't show that he knew what the words WE said meant. I was beginning to get concerned, to be perfectly honest, because you'd think a few of those things would have emerged by 13 months. All of a sudden one day, BAM! I think he gained one or two new words a day for several weeks. Book, dog, kitty, bath, more, ball, bird, car, truck, rock, monkey- they were coming fast a furious. The diction isn't stellar, everything is one syllable and you can forget about ending consonants, (Book is "booh" and kitty is "kee") but they are most definitely words, they are most definitely getting used, and it is most definitely adorable.
One of his favorite words is "Dah," his word for Daddy. He doesn't have a word for Mommy, only Daddy. And he loves his Dah. Dah has taken on near-celebrity status around here. His face lights up and he shouts "DAH!" whenever Jeff gets home or enters a room. When he sees a pic of Jeff, he points and shouts "DAH!" This notably occurred one time when Cam and I stopped by to visit Grandma at her office. Jeff's mom has a wall which prominently features pictures of her boys. She was standing there holding Cam and all of a sudden, he saw Jeff's picture on the wall. His face lit up, he pointed emphatically, declared "DAH! DAH!" and giggled with glee. GIGGLED!!! We were sitting at my parents house this week looking at a Shutterfly book I made them for Christmas of pics from his first year and it turned into a "Where's Waldo" with Daddy. "DAH! DAH!"
And seriously, I don't blame him. Jeff adores Cameron and it shows. He is never hesitant to stop and play, he does bath time every night, takes night duty and rock-to-sleep duty when it's needed without a grumble and is totally competent in caring for Cam in my absence. Like, I can pretty much just take off and Daddy knows where everything is, knows what to do, and even LOOKS FORWARD to "man time" when it's just Cam and Daddy. How blessed are we?
Another fun thing that has developed lately is Cam's love of basketball. He loves, loves, LOVES to play with his toddler hoop, his first steps were taken in an effort to get the ball into the hoop. We took him to the court in our new neighborhood the other evening so that he could see Daddy shoot hoops with a REAL basketball to make the connection between what he does at home and the "real world." Well, Cam was IN LOVE and Jeff never did get a chance to shoot around because Cam wanted to be right in the middle of it. I had planned on my role being to take him over to the play structure once he got bored of basketball with Daddy, but he never got bored so I just followed them around with the camera. Here are some pics.
OK, off to make my grocery list! Hugs and LURVE!!!
Tori
