Bragging Rights

Here's the post where I list some of the awesome, smart things my son is doing lately.
-Talking! Well, close. He says a lot of things that Ian and I have no problem understanding, but others might be a bit confused. But I have a feeling he'll be talking for 'real' any day now...He signs and says "Pees!" (Please) and "Eee!" (Eat), says Hi, Dog, "Po" (hippo),  "Coh" (cold), "Hah" (hot), "Sat?" (What's that? - he says this all day long, pointing to everything.), "Beebee" (belly button), "Mom!" and a few others. He also continues to sign for 'more', 'all done/gone', and 'drink'. His recent favorite way to communicate is coming up to me, grabbing my fingers, and dragging me over to whatever he wants or needs help with.
-Animal sounds. He's getting pretty good, I am running out of animals that are easy to imitate. He can make these animal sounds: dog, cat, pig, cow, sheep, lion (RAWR!! - our favorite), duck, snake, alligator, dinosaur....probably a few more that I can't think of.
-Following directions. Besides when he's being a bit ornery, Oli is great at following directions! He is getting better at helping pick up his toys, put things in the garbage, and going and finding his cup, bowl, spoon, or whatever else escapes from the kitchen into the rest of the house.
-Body parts. Oliver can point out his (or your) eyes, nose, mouth, ears, belly button (watch out, he'll pull your shirt up to find it!), toes, fingers, head, and hair.
-Wrestling/boxing. Yeah, maybe not the best thing to teach; we are going to have to start setting some rules regarding the roughhousing soon, so he doesn't think he can attack just anyone. But he loves to put Ian's boxing gloves on and run around pretending to punch things (or he'll put shoes on his hands if he can't find gloves), he wrestles with Ian all the time (and sometimes with me, until he gets tired of me not falling over when he attempts a takedown), and loves to beat on the punching bag downstairs. He also got a blow-up lion for Christmas that he likes to practice on (have I posted those videos yet?).
-Eating with utensils. Yup, this big boy is now using a fork or spoon almost all the time. He has recently started eating cereal (froot loops are his favorite) just like a big boy (or like his cereal-loving dad!). Of course, he still ends up with food all over the place and for some reason he can't eat his yogurt without putting it in his hair.
-Generally being the coolest kid ever. I know, we are completely biased, but Ian and I just think Oliver is the most amazing kid. We had to make fun of ourselves last night; we went to see The Lion King at the Civic Center (AMAZING show!), and during the show we kept talking about how Oli would be 'rawr'ing with the lions, and asking "Sat?" over and over, pointing to everything on stage. Oliver is constantly cracking us up, and he had me laughing so hard I was crying the other day.
This boy brings so much joy to our lives. We can't wait to see what kind of amazing relationship he develops with his little brother or sister. (And all the things they do to amaze us!)

(Thanks to my friend Julia for the photo!)