Eighteen for Eighteen

James went to the doctor today for his Synagis shot, and weighed in at 18 lbs, 6 oz! He's only 18 lbs, 1 oz according to our home scale, but either way, he's over 18 pounds. Yay, James! (That's still a couple pounds below the growth charts, but it's progress.)

James did the sign for "eat" today, and we may have mentioned before that he's also doing "horse" and "bird." He also did some good walking today -- Mike had him walk from the middle of the room to the armchair, and Stanley got in the way.  James stopped, still standing up, turned slightly, and then continued to the chair without falling, so his balance seems to be getting better and better. 

He had fun playing keep-away with Mattie this morning. He had the cowboy, and Mattie decided he wanted it, but every time Mattie got close, James would turn and crawl the other direction, and laugh! Eventually Mattie did get the cowboy, but by then James didn't seem to mind.

James also had a great time turning on and off the television tonight. It's his great frustration that Mattie is tall enough to do this, and James isn't. But this evening one of his toys happened to be just in the right position for him to stand on and reach the button, and he turned it on and off over and over again. (I don't think Mattie completely appreciated this constant interruption of his Baby Signing Time, but turnabout is fair play, as Mattie was doing the same thing during Signing Time last night.)  Normally this is not behavior we encourage, but James was just so pleased that I let him go ahead.

Mattie said "cheese" today when babysitter N asked if he wanted some cheese for lunch, and he said "please" when Mike told him to. And when he was crawling backwards on the kitchen floor, it sure sounded like he was saying "back!"

Mattie is also continuing to be very helpful. He was in the kitchen while James was still in his high chair, and James dropped his bottle (well, threw it away on purpose). Mattie stopped what he was doing, walked over and picked up the bottle, and handed it up to James. He also shared his Cheerios with James. And then later, he was interested in my shoes, and I told him to pick up Mommy's shoes and put them in the closet, and he did!  What a good boy!