17 Months and Backyard Playtime

Walker is 17 months old!

Sadly, I don't feel like I have much to report this month - at least nothing really new. Maybe it's the heat! Anyway...here are a few funny tidbits about Mr. Walker and then, to follow, some pictures of our evening spent playing outside. It's so hot that I'm grateful for our evening playtimes...our only chance to be outside without melting!

First, a quick summary of Walker at 17 months old.

Activities:

• jabbering - literally moving his mouth up and down and making all these different sounds and expressions
• giving me this blank, "deer-in-headlights" look when I take pictures of him (unless someone is behind me making him laugh!)
• trying to talk ("Uh-oh" is a new word that he's trying to say...I think this might be his first "official" word. We'll wait and see if he can use it unprompted and independently!)
• flushing toilets - public ones, too :)
• unrolling toilet paper
• pointing out the moon
• hating diaper changes
• not loving swim lessons
• loving Dora
• "blowing the house down" when we act out The Three Little Pigs
• hating the feeling of having grass stuck to his wet feet (serious meltdowns)
• splaying his toes and arching his foot when you try to put shoes on his tiny feet...making the task quite difficult
• getting teeth - he has 12 at the moment...the final one, #12, is poking through as I type and is causing him to drool like a faucet
• rearranging my refrigerator...putting cold drinks in various interesting spots, putting condiments on different shelves...
• stealing his sister's chair
• pushing the buttons (repeatedly) on the front panel of the TV
• likes running his finger up and down over his lips and he likes doing it to others, too :)
• obsessing over balls - footballs, baseballs, tennis balls, soccer balls...you name it
• opening books and reading, pointing out things on the pages, turing the pages - he does a lot of this independently, not necessarily needing us in the room with him
• making a funny guttural noise when I say that something is "yucky" (Lainey did the same thing.)
• walking on his tippy toes
• holding up his hands in a "Where is it?" pose when reading his peek-a-boo books
• eating markers and crayons and Play-Doh
• looks at us, points at something, then looks back at us and says, "attss" or "ettss" (Obviously, he's trying to say something very important.)
• carrying his blankie around with one arm through one armhole

Notice the grass in the fuel tank.

Awhile back, I told Lainey that cars needed "gas" to move. I think she interpreted that as "grass" and ever since, grass has been stuffed into the fuel tanks on the Little Tikes cars.

Walker loves dragging things behind him...vacuum, toy train, butterfly net with a soccer ball inside it...

This is Walker's new trick. He loves getting on his tummy and swinging back and forth, back and forth. Just like the big kids do. Except he falls on his face every once in a while. :)

Hi, Cuteness! Happy 17 months!!

And now...onto some brother/sister shots from our evening in the backyard. Ben kept throwing a ball up into the air and it was up to Lainey to catch it. This next series of pictures shows the various expressions Lainey exhibited while anticipating her dad's next move...

And, inside we go. Time to cool off!