talking, painting......and good night

i am 900 percent sure this little guy just said "nigh-nigh" to me as i was laying him into his crib just now. what a sweet moment. he is communicating and mimicking so much now, its amazing to sit back and listen. we go for a walk and he barks when he hears dogs barking, caws at ravens in the trees when they caw as we pass and tonight out of nowhere started cooing after hearing a morning dove on a nearby roof.  he absolutely understands the concept of the sign for "more" and uses it to ask for things now, mostly food. "hi", "bye-bye" and waving are all interrelated concepts and he greets most people and dogs we see when we're out and about with a grin.

 

he definitely knows reid as "da-da" and points, grins and waves when i show him pictures of his daddy. we clicked through our wedding album on the computer today and petey was absolutely mesmerized and his face lit up each time he saw his daddy. there was also recognition of grandma and grandpa nannen after spending a week with them so maybe during our visit at the end of the month he'll learn to put a name with those smiling faces too!  i'm going to have to work on my own name since we spend all day, every day together.

we played with some crayola paint this afternoon. i was going for a specific kind of project and of course my sweet son taught me that this is all about the doing and not at all about the outcome.  we had a grand time and learned how to smear paint on the page and then played with some new oily crayon-markers i got him today. you don't have to press as hard as real crayon to make a mark because they are oilier so i thought it'd be easier for him to understand and he seemed to enjoy it. still wants to eat them but did get some doodling on the page.  little activities like this are a great boost to the mid-afternoon-what-do-we-do-now crisis.  i need to scour the earth to find more age-appropriate activities for my little man to explore.