For weeks Gavin has been interested in walking down the stairs rather than climbing down backwards, but until yesterday he kept to climbing just on the steps near the bottom with the vertical rails to hold onto. Over the weekend, he wanted to come down by himself from the very top, so I showed him how to hold onto the handrail and walk down while also holding my hand.
This morning I was sitting at the table drinking coffee. Jason came downstairs, but Gavin was nowhere to be seen. About a minute later, Gavin's face - a beaming, very proud face - appeared at the bottom of the steps. He had walked down them all by himself (holding the railing of course)! He ran over to me, giggling the entire way, and threw himself into my arms, so very proud of his big boy accomplishment. And rightfully so!
Ever the mimic, Gavin is doing more and more of what we do. He wants to use our silverware/glasses/chairs/etc and eat our food and drink our drinks and so on. He watches us like a hawk and mimics our gestures and words and little noises. Yesterday out of the blue he started saying "ummmmm" when we ask him a question. "Gavin, what does a doggie say?" "Ummmm..." he would respond. It's inflected right and everything. We can't help laugh, it's such a big person noise to make.
Gavin used to shrug his shoulders and make a querulous noise when you asked him where something was. Last week I noticed that when I was looking for something, he started thrusting out his lower lip and looking around too. I never knew I did that. Funny, the things you learn about yourself, looking into the mirror of your child. So I took advantage of it because it was cute. What else is there to do? Now when you ask him where something is, he looks around and says "Hmmmmm...... hmmmmmmmm......" with his lower lip thrust out. Awww. How cute.
Overheard this evening on a walk:
Younger Boy (YB): A week is too five days long!
Older Boy (OB): No it's not. It's seven.
YB: Is too! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
OB: Saturday, Sunday...
YB: Nuh-uh! That's the weekEND.