big steppy

Two weeks ago, my parents bore witness to a historic event known as The Twelve Steps, in which BB walked twelve whole steps. Previously, he had only managed one or two at a time.

By now, he has improved in steadiness and in confidence, and walking twelve or even twenty steps is not a big deal (except that it’s hard to go twenty whole steps without being distracted by a toy). His playpen door is flung wide open and he free roams the living room.

He changes so much with each visit. He’s slow on talking, but he’s starting to learn language. “Where’s corgi?” Mom asked him, referring to his favorite corgi plush, and he understood! He went to look for it! On another occasion she said “Go give that to Grandpa” and he did that too. While reading a book with him, she pointed at a picture of a fish and said “Fish.” BB did not look at the picture, but swiveled to look at the dining table, where his favorite snack of goldfish crackers is kept.

Talking-wise…it’s hard to tell. He said “ma” while looking/gesturing in his mom’s general direction, but we’re not sure if he meant it or not. (It is a rare syllable for him.) His mom said he may be learning it from daycare, which is super cute. He’s the youngest kid at his daycare. At the end of the day, when the doorbell rings, the older kids are like “mom!” and BB sometimes repeats it.

His favorite syllable this weekend was “kaa!” Everything was “kaa.” Twice, looking out on the balcony, he saw a car and excitedly said “kaa!” but that probably doesn’t mean anything. He also likes saying “Hiya!” When Dad and I returned from a Pokemon walk, BB was there to greet us at the stair gate with “Hiya!” (We were not cars.)

This kid has so many toys. You’ve never seen so many toys. He seems to have lost interest in some of his old favorites (the carrots, the wooden discs) in favor of newer ones. The “in” toys of the weekend:

• Stackable toy tugboats and stackable plastic takeout bowls. We love stacking things.
• Round fruits. As I write this, there’s a bashed lemon sitting in a couple of takeout bowls on the end table a couple feet away. Apparently, his parents bought a whole bag of lemons and have not gotten around to cooking with any of them, but BB is enjoying them greatly. Dad brought a big box of garden produce (apples, Asian pears, tomatoes) and BB has been playing with them all weekend. As soon as we arrived he made a beeline for the fruit box.
• Corgi plush. This one’s a surprise to me because he’s never shown any interest in plush toys previously. But now he has a whole plushie nook (an infant playpen stocked with soft toys only). Corgi’s his favorite because it is large, but not too large; he can carry it in two hands around the house. He does this thing where he throws it on the ground and then flops on it/buries his face in it.

He’s lost all interest in tossing toys out of the playpen (previously a favorite activity) because he can exit the playpen freely. He does sometimes toss toys down the stairs through the bars of the stair gate. Then he looks at you like “Are you gonna go get that?” Sometimes he taps suggestively at the gate latch in case you don’t get it.