Since about 9 months, Oliver has been able to turn the handle on the back door. However, recently we have gotten into something a little more troubling: climbing. This is something that I have seen other parents deal with, but we haven’t had to deal with ourselves. Evie was never even the slightest bit interested in climbing things. But here’s Oliver, barely able to walk yet, and he’s climbing all over everything.

The other day, he climbed up on the open dishwasher and took a bread knife out of the silverware drawer. He’s scaled the stool in the bathroom and turned on the sink at least 5 times. He’s also gone headfirst into the tub a few times, trying to climb over the edge.

How is he old enough for this? How can he climb before he can really walk? Clearly, this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

He has been learning some new words lately. His previous words were “Nala”, “more”, “book”, “tickle”, “mama”, and “ball”. For ball in particular, he gets it pretty easily from pictures or even from the cover of a book about balls that doesn’t even have a picture of a ball on it. So he definitely understands the concept.

His new words are “uh-oh”, “cheese”, and “Ella”. The last refers to his favorite book of the moment, Ella Elephant, which he is constantly requesting. He’s also put together a couple of two word sentences, such as “more book” and “book mama”. (In other words, his obsession with books has not ended)

He pretty much babbles all the time, so sometimes it sounds like he says things. Sometimes it is hard to tell if he really learned a word, or if he’s just repeating the sounds back. And then sometimes there are a few words that he’s said a couple of times, but I’m not sure if he completely gets, such as “up” (to be picked up), “Elmo”, and “shoes”.

As far as physical things, he finally got his 6th tooth, after it teased us for weeks. He still has very little hair, except in the very back, at the nape of his neck. He’s shaking his head no, though he doesn’t understand why yet. He signs “more”, “book”, “milk”, “train”, and “night-night”.

He gives kisses and also blows kisses. His favorite game is to play chase around the bed at night. He washes Evie’s back in the bath. He pretends to put ointment on himself, putting his finger to the tip and then rubbing it on his chest. (I’m sad that he has to get so much ointment on himself that he has started mimicking it!) When you pick him up, he often lays his head on your shoulder to cuddle.

That’s Oliver! Our cuddly, climbing, talkative boy!