Walking and talking

Oh boy!

Cooper's walking blossomed really fast on our most recent trip to NY. In the airport on the way there, he was going 5-7 feet at a time between benches and suitcases. By the time we left NY (and after watching cousin J.S., who is almost two years old, for almost a week) he was walking across the kitchen, living room, etc. He can also pick up toys, stand back upright, and keep walking.

He's still nervous and falls down a lot, but it is amazing to watch him.

Oddly, he's mostly stopped saying Doggie. Instead, he's started just saying "Dah!" for the dog. I don't know why. He's also saying Da-da and Ma-ma more often, and he responds fairly well to prompting. Maybe 50% of the time if you say, "Cooper, can you say 'Da-da'?" he'll pause, think, and then say it. He's less responsive for saying Mama, but he says it fairly often when walking towards me, so I think he understands the meaning of the word.

The biggest new thing is that he is doing a point-like gesture. He doesn't actually make a pointing shape with his hand, but he very obviously points with his whole arm towards things that he is interested in. I know this sounds like "reaching" for something, but trust me, he's reached for things for months now. This is different- it is far more like pointing. It is fun to try to figure out what he is pointing at. A sunny window, a beer bottle, the dog, the chickens, blocks, my hat... lots of stuff deserves pointing.

Also fun is his new skill of playing "Where's Cooper?" under various items of clothing, laundry, etc. He has always loved to play peekaboo, but now he has mastered doing it on his own power. On the changing table especially, he likes to pull things over his head, giggle, and then suddenly pull them off. He's all proud of this and gets extremely excited if you play along. "Where's Cooper? THERE he is!" I think I've said it a thousand times today.