Like This

The boys' former babysitter N was here today, and in honor of the occasion, Matthew said some more new words. He said, "drawer" when he was opening the dresser drawer. Even more impressive, he was playing with his pumpkin toy (pictured below in "eighteen for eighteen"), and when she asked him how it worked, he said, "Like this" and pressed the button! Later, he was pushing one of the strollers, and she asked, "Is that your stroller or James's stroller?" and Matthew said, "James's stroller." (He may have been just imitating on that one, but he was right!)

In other adventures, Mattie locked us out of the bathroom the other day -- fortunately not while he was in it. He's tall enough now to push the lock in, and we pulled the door shut without realizing he had done that. Mike had to pick the lock. Yikes!

The boys' current babysitter (also with the initial N) is an accomplished pianist (in addition to being fabulous with the boys), and she sometimes plays for them. I noticed this morning that when Matthew "plays" the piano, he moves his fingers like someone who knows what they're doing -- he seems to be imitating her technique! (Although not, alas, with the same results.)

Jamesie is taking more and more steps in a row, and just this evening he started letting go of furniture to stand on his own for a few seconds at a time. Go James!

James's new word is "whoa whoa", the helicopter sound effect. And I think he said "uh oh" when he dropped his bottle. He's doing the sign for "ball", although it's a harder one (you put your hands facing each other and curve the fingers in, and bounce your fingers like you're holding a ball between your hands), so his ends up looking a bit more like clapping (but I know it's ball because he turns to the page in his book with the basketball on it and then does the sign).