Carson, 16 months

While I continue to sift through hundreds of photos in an effort to finish the next installment of my 2010 recap, here's a "brief" update on our toddler.

Boy on a mission

The first thing everyone notices about this child is how verbal he is. He is using well over 100 words now; I've been trying to keep a list, which has 105 words on it today, but I honestly can't keep up anymore and I'm sure quite a few are missing from it. I will refrain from posting that list here :^). He also can produce a number of animal sounds. "What does the bear say?" "Rah!" Mouse-"Eek!" Chicken- "cuk cuk" Dog-"Uff, uff." Cow-"MMMM". His cat, horse, and goose are a little more traditional. The default sound seems to be "eek" though, so birds, alligators, rabbits and turtles all squeak when he meets them in books. He continues to adore being read to. Some current favorites are The Runaway Bunny ("bunnay"), Machines at Work ("sheens"), and The Little Fur Family, which he carried around constantly in its little fur jacket for nearly a week after we bought it ("soft!").

"Boat", "Bridge"

Two of his favorite words to use all day (other than "please", which has replaced the "more" sign to signify "I want that" and therefore is indispensable at all times) are "close" (any door or drawer that is open) and "away", as he considers it his special task to put things where he thinks they should go (which does not always correspond to their proper resting places). When he's outdoors he's less concerned about tidying up and instead obsesses over collecting small items; for a couple of weeks (before the snow returned) we heard "cone", "wock", and "weaf" constantly through his outdoor rambles as he worked hard to fit as many of these in his fists as possible. We have spruce, doug-fir, and pine cones in abundance and these were early favorites ("cone-cone"), but he soon found that he could carry more acorns at once. I think he does have a separate word for acorn (something like "cane-cown") but it is pretty close to pine cone. One day in the back yard he hit the jackpot: dozens of hawthorn berries scattered under the tree. When he had to go back inside Dad suggested that he leave his fistful on the platform under the kerosene tank. In the next several days, of his own accord, he continued to add to this stash.

"Swee" (for this pre-counter, three means
several, or maybe even "wow, that's a lot")

"Bewwy"

"...Bewwy..."

"Bewwy!"

"Away!"

Some other notable advancements lately: He has started using "whoa!" as an exclamation whenever there is an exciting event, a loud noise, a near fall, or anything that impresses him--basically just as we must be using it. We find this very comical. And a benefit of his having a cold for several weeks of the past month is that sometime in there he learned to blow his nose. He can now do this on command when we are wiping his nose, but it really cracked Bubba up last week when Carson picked up a tissue, blew his nose by himself, and then walked over and tossed it in the wastebasket.

"fire"

"wood"

"hot!"

doing a little climbing along the Sacramento
(there's that Redding sun again)

His indulgent father lets him ride
on the vacuum like this too!

So apparently I only take pictures when Carson is wearing a brown sweatshirt. We must need a change of season!