home for the holidays

We made it to Kirksville last night. It was the best road trip that we have ever had since we had Jamie. He is so much more interested in books and toys than the last time we took a trip that he was much easier to entertain. We took a huge stack of books, and I sat in the back and read him stories most of the day. I LOVE that he loves books so much! Between those, his toys, and extra snacks, he barely fussed the entire day. It made the day go by so fast! We are happy to be here and looking forward to seeing everyone and celebrating Christmas!

words

Jamie's vocabulary has recently exploded. To be completely honest, I don't know if anyone but me and usually Thomas would be able to understand most of his words (most of them are just the first syllable or an approximation thereof), but he is now saying or trying to say the following:

Momma
Dadda
no
banana
yuck
boo
boom
uh-oh
apple
rabbit
ball
more
moon
water
food
Elmo
bye-bye
dart
down
door
dirt
Popple
Max
popcorn
baby
bread
bed
fish
key
ho ho ho
beep
mad
sock
whoa
yay

. . .and maybe some more that I don't remember right now! I am more thankful than ever we've done signing with him because, for example, when he says "baba," he might be saying "bye-bye," "baby," "ball," "rabbit," or making a sheep noise, which could be confusing, but he usually does the sign at the same time. Some other words are much more clear, though. It has been so amazing watching (hearing?) him learn to talk in the past few months! At 15 months he was only saying 5 or 6 words!