Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Here are some accomplishments and milestones from the birthday boy:

• He can walk!! He walks 5-6 feet on his own regularly, and often makes longer walks. The longest we have seen yet was about 15 feet. He can catch his balance by making funny little side steps, and he can turn partway around without holding on to anything.
  
• He has a "vocabulary" of 10 signs and one word, if you count "mam-mam-mam!" He has 6 signs that he initiates using: more, bath, all done, up, naked, and ouch (he made up the last two for himself). He will also use the sign for potty when we do it, or take him to the potty. He recognizes the signs for nurse and sleep/bedtime. Finally, he does one sign that we haven't figured out yet. It is a modification of "more" and my current best guess is that it means "Daddy."
• He understands lots of words- I don't have a specific count, but we are starting to have to spell some things out if we don't want him to know we are discussing giving him a bath or feeding him.
• He loves being outside. He pitches a little fit whenever we are done outside and are going back in, or if I won't let him go out when he thinks he should be able to ("28 degrees?? Snow?? Who cares! Let me out in my bare feet now!")
• He is beginning to climb down our outside steps. This is an operation that is full of faith! He steps off the step just like a big person, and hopefully someone is holding his hand to keep him from falling headlong. Just for the sake of perspective you should know that these steps are about midway up his thigh when standing on a lower one. He has absolutely no interest whatsoever in going up steps. This makes for an interesting dilemma once he reaches the bottom!
• He goes to sleep on his own- sometimes- when he feels like it...
  
• He LOVES to eat- the first sign he mastered was "more," and he uses it any time he wants food, which is any time we eat and various times in between. It has really sunk in that sometimes we eat different things than he does and he wants whatever we are having. His favorite foods are bananas and avocados. He stuffs them in his mouth so fast I can hardly keep up with cutting bite-size pieces.

It has been a wonderful first year!