Walking, and signing, and speaking, oh my!

Eon has been taking steps for months, now, and I kept waiting for him to just "take off" walking. It's funny to me that it hasn't happened that way at all. Gradually, he has just taken more and more steps until, now, he walks more than he crawls. He's still unstable and falls a lot, but he's very determined and always just stands back up and keeps plugging along. Very cute! It still surprises me when I catch sight of him out of the corner of my eye and he's walking by. He'll be 20-months-old tomorrow, so it's a bit earlier than I expected, too.

I've mentioned before his tendency to use signs and words for awhile and then just kind of lose them. It drives me crazy. I've been encouraged by other parents that they will come back and we're finally seeing that it's true. He hasn't used the sign for "daddy" for the longest time. Sunday, he and I stayed home from church as he'd been vomiting in the middle of the night (fun, fun). He was sitting on my bed with me watching videos on the laptop, when he reached over and patted me to get my attention. Then, he signed, "Daddy", and looked to Shawn's side of the bed. I responded, "Daddy's at church." He then waved "bye-bye" and went back to watching his video. I was thrilled! That was the first abstract communication that we've had...something beyond his wants and needs.

He's starting to do that more and more. The other day, his 3yo brother, Zak, was yelling at him for wrecking up his train track. Eon scrunched up his face and signed, "Stop!" Cracked me up! The one that really made me laugh was when I was hollering up the stairs for Ben. Eon walked over the the baby gate, stretched his arm up the stairs, and started signing "Ben" real emphatically, like he was yelling for him, too! LOL!

He uses some words or word approximations, too. My favorite new one is "up". He used to just whisper the "p" sound for that. Now, he loudly says, "glup-a-glup-a-glup-a" when he wants up. I don't know if that's what he thinks we sound like, but I think it's too cute.

Signing success!

Eon has been adding some signs. Since his initial "all done" sign after a meal, he has added "daddy", "mommy", a variation of "Michaela", and waves "hi" and "bye-bye". I admit to wondering if his signing was truly intentional or if his thumb just happened to be near his face at the time. The other day, Shawn walked into the room and said, "Hi, Eon!" He was rewarded with a huge grin, a wave, and the sign for "daddy"! No doubt that it was intentional. I was talking to our service coordinator about it and said, "He can sign 'mommy', too." As if on cue, Eon grinned really big and put his thumb to his chin.

I think that's pretty impressive for only ten-months-old!