catch up

there has been so much that has happened since our last post!!! what a great holiday and time spent with family! there is no way to catch you up in just one post, so be prepared for a barrage of posting in the next few days...

the main subject for this post will be updating boden's word wall. it seems like he is really getting stoked up for words to come spilling out. he has done four new ones in just this last weekend. at last count he is up to 17 words (not counting the difference in mama to mommy and dada to daddy). the doctor said that he should have 10 words by his 18 month appointment next month, so i think he is well on his way :)

kitty. he said this the first time this past friday. we were reading a book together that had a bunch of animals in it and i was pointing to different ones and saying the name and sounds that each of them makes. it occurred to me to ask him if he could say kitty and so he did. i was very shocked. thought i should ask him to say specific words more often :). he said it several more times and then we were off to OH. when he saw charlie, the kitty at gramma and grandpa's house, he jumped down and started going after him saying kitty, kitty. he had a great time following the kitty around this past weekend.

bye. all of a sudden waving bye and saying bye have come together for the bode. at first we weren't sure if we had heard him right which turned into him going to the door and trying to pull it open saying bye to sensing that we are leaving and starting to wave vigorously and repeatedly saying bye and blowing kisses. :)

grandpa. we had wondered about it some for a little while here expecting him to come out and say exactly grandpa, but was confirmed after we got home to MI and had our first webcam conversation with gramma and grandpa on tuesday night. boden kept repeatedly pointing to grandpa on the computer screen saying pa pa pa. it is interesting the inflections in his voice that distinguishes "papa" from "grandpa." with "papa" he says it with the two pas closer together and punctuated, often with a lift on the second pa. with "grandpa" there is three or four pas with the first couple being a little garbled like maybe he is trying the grand part but doesn't quite know how to form it.

bear. a good teacher friend of mine had gotten boden a large stuffed bear when he was born. we call him mr. bear. the last few months boden has really fallen in love with this bear, hugging it, giving it kisses, laying on it, rolling around on the floor with it, etc. yesterday we went into the back room to say hi to mr. bear and boden goes to give him a big hug and says bear all long and drawn out so that you could hear each letter in the word. he said it several more times that morning and then later when daddy came home from work.