14 Months Old

1. We are continuing to train Gideon to be helpful. He is responsible for closing the doors in our apt. He also puts his trash in the trashcan and his spoon in the dishwasher. Then he closes the dishwasher. Also, when I say, "I need to pee," he walks me to the bathroom door and helps me open it.

2. If he gets something out to play with, or something he shouldn't play with, we can say "Put it back where you got it" and he will. He puts cushions back on chairs, books back on shelves, shoes back in their place, coasters back on tables... Even if it's been a few hours, he knows where he got the items.

3. Some new words he's learned this month...
-Bible
-Jesus
-yes
-stuck
-baby
-shoes
-cracker
-Moo
(oh, and he talks in his sleep too... when I was up late finishing HP7, I even heard him say "all done" in his sleep... it was hilarious!)

4. If I talk about someone who isn't here, he will look for their picture and point to them. Once I asked him if he wanted to call Papa Dan. He thought about it, and then got his little photo album and flipped it to Papa's picture. And yesterday, after Claudia and Ryan left from their visit, Gideon was looking everywhere for them. And finally got out the album and pointed to their faces.

5. He is getting good at matching things. I first noticed it with footballs. If he gets one, he finds another one and plays with 2. He will also match our shoes. And he even gets specific enough to match all the different sets of flip-flops we have without a problem. But when he was playing with his blocks earlier this week with Claudia, she asked him to match colors. And he did!!!

6. If he wants to leave the apt., or senses that we are headed that direction, he will bring us our shoes and his diaper bag. He even put Claudia's shoes on her. (He knows who the shoes belong to.)

7. His favorite food (hands down) are tomatoes.

8. He is getting really good at giving kisses. And (unless we're out in public) he will come and give me a kiss almost every time I ask for one.

9. Have I mentioned his "Fake Smile"? :) It is SO funny and cute. And he knows he's being entertaining when he does it. When I post about Claudia and Ryan's trip I'll post a pic of the "Fake Smile".

10. He gives back rubs. Yes, you heard me right. He will come up and "pat, pat" your back. And then he hugs you. (I encourage this behavior a lot.) :)

11. He is getting better and better about stacking blocks. He still prefers putting them back in the bag, or sharing them, but he likes taking turns building towers now too.

12. At Grandma Debby's house, she has a radio that is on his level. He has figured out how to turn it on and change the radio dial until he finds a song suitable for dancing.

13. He HAS to move to the beat of whatever song he hears... even if he just moves his mouth to the beat.

14. When we go to JR's softball games, Gideon desperately wants to be the bat-boy. He carries to bats around until we tell him to put them back where he found them. Then he leans them back up against the fence in the dug-out. He just wants to be part of the team.