immitation.. the most sincere form of flattery

I say this about every age, but man is 16 months my favorite age so far! He's so interactive, his personality is blossoming, he's funny, snugly, opinionated, smart, fearless, and most definitely cute. He has really been showing off the smart side lately. I started signing to Carter a way long time ago. Then at some point I just stopped. I'm not sure why I just did. I hadn't signed to him for many months. At dinner time one day Carter was telling us he was done with dinner by shoving all his food off the table and onto the floor. I had this brilliant idea to teach him the sign for "all done". It's a similar motion to pushing all your food to the side so I figured why not. For the past month or so I've been signing "all done" to him at the end of meals... so about 2 times a day since he eats breakfast on the go. I sign and say all done and then he gets to get right out of his booster seat and leave the table. The other week we were eating lunch and I asked Carter if he was all done and did the sign. He looked at me a signed all done! Obviously I was super excited and he knew it. He had this huge proud smile on his face and signed it again! Since then he signs all done at the end of most meals.



Since Carter started to sign all done I figured I'd keep going and add another sign so I started signing "more" to him. The sign for more is like putting your hand in a semi flatted 0 shape then bringing your hands together, palms facing inward, and touching the tips of your fingers.... if that makes since. You can google it and come up with a video really easily. Tonight at dinner I was asking Carter if he wanted more lasagna and he signed more! Again, I was super excited and he had the same huge proud grin on his face. It's so cute and funny to watch him. He knows what he's doing is awesome and he totally loves how excited I get. It's totally amazing to watch him learn and show off what he's learning. Amazing!



Here's a video of him signing "more" and "all done"

Carter's learning is also really showing in his vocabulary. He is definitely imitating what we say more and more. The other night we were reading a book about baby Elmo and Carter said "baa...bies". He also is imitating in actions a lot as well. For example I was dusting and he wanted to give it a try too. Then he starting saying "dust" also. Honestly it is so amazing to be home with him and watch him learn these things and do and say new things for the first time. Here he is dusting and saying "dust"

The imitating also extends to what we're wearing. Right now he really likes sun glasses. I had my sun glasses on top of my head and Carter took them off and put them on himself. Normally he will rip them right off again but this time he thought it was so cool to wear them! He had this big goofy grin on his face and he couldn't stop laughing!

I love this picture for 2 reasons, obviously Carter, but also look at Joe's expression. That's Joe's "omg I love this kid" expression. The expression is all in his mouth.

on my wish list is a camera with higher ISO capabilities