Walking, talking, and other fun stuff

Enzo's been cruising for what seems like forever, walking around the furniture, holding onto both of Mom or Dad's hands, or his favorite - pushing around his train.  But he absolutely refused to take a single step without holding onto something with both hands.  If you tried to let go of his hands, he would sit right down on the floor and start to crawl.  Well, last Saturday (January 15 for record keeping sake) after we got Enzo ready for bed, James and I sat on his bedroom floor like we frequently do and tried to get Enzo to walk between us.  Imagine our surprise when he actually did it!  We were so excited, we started cheering and yelling like two kids who got told they were going to Disneyland.  I think Enzo was so thrilled at our attention, he wanted to make Mommy and Daddy happy again - so he did it another 10 times or so.  His only problem was, he was too excited - and his head tried to move faster than his feet, so he'd end up taking a dive into our laps after a few steps.  He has quickly progressed, and today took 20 or so steps halfway across Grandma LeFevre's large living room - to get the chocolate waiting on the other side, of course.  He even walked a few feet without a reward waiting for him.

A few days ago I got out the video camera to record him walking.  When I downloaded what I had onto my computer, I found several other videos that I had forgotten about, so I put together this video collage to show Enzo's progress.  (I have plans to add a few more segments to it, but who know's if that'll ever happen, so I might as well post what I've got.)

In addition to walking, Enzo's growing in other ways as well.  He is quite a talker.  He can now say 10 words consistently: ball, bath, book, kitty, bubbles, bottle, baloon, hi, moo, and dog.  While his parents may be the only people who recognize some of those words for what they are, he definitely uses them consistently.  His word for dog is actually just the sound a dog makes when it pants "heh-huh-heh-huh", but he says it all the time - when we drive into the driveway and he hears the dogs barking across the street (or wants to hear them), when he sees a dog in a book, when anyone says the word dog, or if you ask him what a dog says.  He even said it in the store once, and we immediately started to tell him, as we so frequently do, that there weren't any doggies around - but I looked, and there was a dog, hanging from the ceiling above the dog food isle. Also, when he does something he's proud of, he says something that sounds a heck of a lot like "I did it!" (although we're not so sure that's really what he's saying.)  He imitates the things we say very frequently, so we often hear him trying to say other things as well.

Besides walking and talking, he can also fold his arms - when you ask him to, when someone says "prayer," when a song's over, or sometimes just for the heck of it.  He can blow kisses and wave hi and bye-bye.  He can say "more" in sign language and has occasionally signed baby, milk, and help.  He loves his kitty stuffed animal (here he is, giving it kisses)...

and can identify it when you ask him where his kitty is.  When I put his kitty, doggy, bear, Tigger, and cow stuffed animals in a row, he can tell me which one is which, even if I mix them up.

His favorite thing to do is play Foosball.  I've finally broken him (somewhat) of the habit of whining at me incessantly, pulling me towards the basement saying "baw (ball), baw, baw, baw." He now knows that Foosball is a Daddy game, and he loves it when Daddy comes home so he can go downstairs and play ball.

When Mom and Dad get tired of being downstairs (or if they aren't looking, and Enzo's tired of being downstairs), he likes to climb the stairs all by himself.

Enzo is also a chocolaholic, and is smart enough to know where to find it - and whine to see if he can get someone to give him some.

Fortunately, he also loves getting cleaned up.  He loves his bath so much, all you have to do is say the word, or turn the water on, and he'll stop what he's doing (which is often whining), immediately smile, start kicking his legs, and say "bah (bath), bah, bah." As soon as we get his clothes off, he's off and crawling, naked little butt and all, into the bathroom.

Sometimes he can be a little stinker though, and will take his cups of water and drop them out of the bath tub.

 Here's Daddy telling him not to do it anymore.  See how well he's listening?  (He's a good actor, too.)

When he's done with his bath, and lots of other times as well, he loves to brush his teeth.

One time he wanted his toothbrush, so I gave it to him and left the bathroom.  He continued to whine at me, pointing at the bathroom, until I took him back in there to figure out what he wanted.  He pointed to the basket on the back of the toilet - where I found the toothpaste.  I had forgotten to put it on his toothbrush, and he wasn't going to stop until he got it.

Another one of his loves is his blankie.  He gets so excited for it and cuddles with it like I've never seen.  He falls right down and rubs his face in it: 

We came home from church and I set him down, and he went straight to his blankie - and stayed like this for at least 5 minutes, until I was able to put him in bed for his nap.

You probably couldn't tell, but we sure do love our little stinker!