The Tater Tot Update: New words, coloring and gymnastics

Finally we are getting somewhere with the words! Just this week Harrison has come up with quite a few new sounds that are turning into words. We have been working so hard on different sounds and letters, and finally it seems to be working.

He uses "no no" quite frequently, and sometimes you get a finger wag along with it too. It's all we can do not to laugh when he does that. It's funny if you are asking him if he wants something but not funny if you are asking him to do something he shouldn't be doing.

He also now says "beep beep" when he hears a horn or when you ask him what a horn says. And, he knows that his diaper is full of "pee pee". He will also ask you to "open" things sometimes and asks for "up" when he wants to be picked up by one of us. We are working on recognizing letters, and he knows and says"P" says when we draw it.

It isn't a whole vocabulary, but it sure is an improvement over where we have been. He is constantly babbling with lots of new sounds so that is a great sign.

Coloring is one of Harrison's favorite things these days. He loves to scribble all over the paper, and will ask you to draw all sorts of things. He still loves for you to draw him a bunny, but now it's also things like a kitty, rainbow, carrot, snake, ice cream cone, and balls. He also likes you to trace his hand and make a turkey out of it. He'll just put his hand on the paper and look at you and wait for you to trace it. So cute :-)

On Monday we went to gymnastics for the first time. There's a place that opens their gym to parents and kids three and under for an hour of free play on their equipment. Harrison had an awesome time! There is a trampoline that runs the length of one wall that kids can play on and run down one at a time. Some kids bounce, others dawdle and hop their way down. Not our boy. He takes off in a full sprint and runs as fast as he can the whole way down--it is SO him!

There's also a bounce house, bars to hang from, balance beams, etc. He had so much fun and got so worn out this week that he had to take a break during play time and just sit underneath a little play area. We are going back this week and can't wait!

Here he is running down the trampoline:

He flipped completely over this bar, landed on his back, and cracked up laughing!

He did a great job walking on this balance beam and barely had to use my hand to steady himself:

More full speed running down the trampoline:

In the bounce house, there's a rope wall they are supposed to climb up, and then they slide down this side. Not Harrison...he scampered up the slide and then climbed down the climbing wall. He is definitely a little monkey!