Long Update

I haven't been very good at updating this blog lately and Hunter has been doing so many new things... so here's the scoop!

He dances! It started a little over a month ago when he started shaking his head "no." At first I thought he was mimicking me when I would shake my head "no" at him when he was doing something naughty. But then I realized that every time I sang a silly song to him, I would rock my head back and forth and that's what he was actually mimicking! Now he is a dancing pro and he's even developing some awesome new moves with the rest of his body! His favorite song to dance to is on Josh's phone - The Beegies "Stayin' Alive." LOL!

He's got his own opinion! Man oh man, these past few weeks, has he been expressing that opinion! It probably doesn't help that he has four molars growing in right now but he definitely is a stubborn little boy. But on the flip side, when he is being adorable, he's EXTRA adorable, so I guess I'll take the two extremes... :P

On Sunday, November 29th, Hunter quit the binky! Or should I say, the binky quit him... lol. Josh had put Hunter in his bed for his nap and bedtime that day and later that night told me, nonchalantly,"FYI, I didn't give Hunter his binky for his nap or for bedtime today." This surprised me that he had taken the initiative himself and had gotten rid of the binky - something that I was meaning to do but hadn't yet... I was very impressed and just said, "Okay." So, for the next few days, I followed suit... and Hunter didn't care one bit! Later that week, Josh asked me where Hunter's binky was. I was very confused by this question but played along saying that Hunter didn't use it anymore... He was taken a back and asked when Hunter had stopped using it. Now I was really confused and explained that he stopped using it when Josh took it away on Sunday! He was surprised and said that he didn't mean to take it away permanently; he just didn't give it to him because he didn't feel like it! So, ultimately, Hunter stopped using his binky because of a misunderstanding! LOL! I guess it's for the best though because Hunter really only used his binky whenever he slept or if it was a dire situation - like when he is screaming/crying (i.e. sacrament meeting)... that's when I really miss that "plug!"

He has quite a vocabulary! He is so smart - it just amazes me. Some words he says a lot and some he's only said once or twice. So, I wonder how many words he actually knows... I'm sure it's quite a bit. But some words that come to mind that he has said lately are: milk, cookie, broken, light, bath, cracker and I swear he has said "I did it" a few times!

Here's a cute story about the "broken" word... Josh was letting Hunter play with his phone about a week ago. The phone ended up dieing while Hunter was playing with it, so Josh turned it back on and handed it back to him. It lit up, made the T-Mobile start up sound and then died again. Hunter handed it back to Josh and Josh turned it back on again and handed it back to Hunter. It did the same thing and then died again. This sequence happened a few times - but one of the times when the phone died, Hunter said, "Broken?" It was so clear when he said it and it totally shocked me. I had one of those "mommy moments" when you have to choke back tears... You moms know what I'm talking about!!! ;) I would have let them go but I didn't want Josh to make fun of me... :P

He climbs down the stairs! I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Josh taught him how to climb the stairs (or at least I hope I did). Well, a month or so ago, Josh decided that he would teach him how to go down the stairs too! It didn't take Hunter very long to figure it out and now he is a pro. He knows to flip around and go down legs first and he just slides down on his little belly. It makes me very nervous but he's pretty good at it. We have a gate at the top of the stairs, so thankfully that keeps him from practicing his new skill 24/7. But I do let him do it almost every time we go downstairs. When he realizes I'm leaving the gate open for him to climb down, he giggles and gets really excited... it's really cute. Climbing down the stairs is probably one of his favorite past times now...

He growls! Josh has been growling at him probably since birth but lately, Hunter has been growling back! I'm not sure how long he has been doing this but it's really adorable. It's funny because it sounds more like a duck quack than a growl...

And last but certainly not least, he took his FIRST STEP last night!!! He was playing with his little toy that he walks behind while we were in the living room. (Side note - he has really gotten good at that toy and can even pivot it to wherever he wants to go). He was cruising between the living room and kitchen - just laughing and having a good ol' time. He stopped at the coffee table and "transferred" to it and then started walking around it. As soon as he was bored with the coffee table, he decided he wanted to walk behind his toy again, so he headed towards it. It was within arms reach from the coffee table but not for long! I moved it away slowly as he was reaching out for it, so he HAD to take a step in order to reach it... and he did! His first unassisted step! It was amazing - and he had no idea what he did! I honestly think that he has the ability to walk by himself but I think he is too busy developing other skills right now - as listed above... :P

I'll keep you posted on what's happening with the walking front! ;)