My kid is definitely MY kid.

I haven't posted lately because there hasn't been a whole lot to say. I have some pictures to post from Liam's party but I haven't gotten around to sizing them for this blog.

BUT.

He's definitely a walker now. He definitely loves me, I can see it in his smile and feel it when he hugs me. He's getting better at repeating sounds from parts of words. He can find my belly button and point to my nose and mouth when asked and he's in the mood to comply. He wears shoes now without screaming. He dances when he hears music.

Last night I was reading I Love You Through and Through to him and when I said, "I love your fingers and your toes," he bent over and pointed to his toes. He was so proud of himself and tapped my arm to make sure I'd seen him, like he'd been saving it up.

He is really into the book we bought him for his birthday, I Love Animals, and frequently points to it or brings it over to me so we can sit together and look at the animals. He'll listen as I read the animal rhymes and make animal sounds (what sound does a giraffe make?). He likes the dogs and bears in it.

The other night he was playing quietly on the floor and then came over to me, pointing at the book. I said, "Do you want to read your animal book?" And my little genius pointed at the book again and said "book!" He has continued to say it and point at other books.

So... "book" is his first official word.

(For the record, he has repeated words and word fragments back to us and my parents. He whispered "piggies" once when my mum was playing with their feet, and he repeated Gabe once, saying "bop" when they were playing and being funny. He loves his new bouncy balls he got for his birthday and will point at them and say, "BA! BA-BA!" which is close but not quite right.)

"Book" is the first word he has said correctly while identifying the object and I could not be more tickled by this. I, Nora Christiane McCourtney-Wolf, may have created a son who doesn't really like swimming and looks only like his dad, but his first word was BOOK and that's enough of me to have rubbed off.