New skills

For all those who asked, Chase climbed IN the dog door for the first time the other afternoon. He crawls out because he really wants to be outside, and usually we scoop him up and bring him back inside. Or we go out with him, but use the screen door instead of the glass one, and he can open the screen door. But the other afternoon, I sat out with him for a while when it was too hot to leave the screen open. At some point, he must have had enough, because he climbed back in! He came straight back out again, then five or so minutes later, he climbed inside to stay. Such a smart and clever boy!

Speaking of smart and clever, he's getting faster on his feet, though not actually running yet. One interesting thing we've noticed is that his "talking" has really increased since he started to walk. He chatters and babbles all the time, but nowhere is he more loquacious than on the changing table! We have quite the conversation there a couple of times a day.



He has started trying to climb on furniture, but he's still too little to actually get on the couch or anything tall. He has taken an interest in pens and other writing implements; I guess we'll need to buy some crayons and BIG paper soon.

Best of all, for Mama anyway, is that he now nods his head "yes". He's been shaking his head "no" for a while, so now I can ask him YES/NO questions. What a world of communication this opens! "Chase, do you want a banana? No? How about blueberries? Yes? OK, here are blueberries." It is SO much nicer than the old grunt-and-point!