Maybe he'll be an astronaut.

I hope not an astronaut... maybe a physicist? Or maybe he'll be a biologist like his mama, since he's pretty good at memorizing things. :)

I should probably note here that this video is of Hank. And he's only 19 months.

Playing with my new lens.

I am currently taking an online photography course (called Photosanity, in case you're interested) from which I'm learning quite a bit. It's geared toward parents, so it's not overwhelmingly time-intensive and Alethea (the teacher/owner/do-it-all point person) is really good about teaching you things to help capture moments on camera in the best possible way. That means worrying more about catching the  moment and having fun instead of stressing about the technicality of your shot. PERFECT for an amateur like me.

Anyway. So I've been taking TONS and TONS of photos with a new lens I got (50mm f/1.4) and while I'm still learning about it, I'm catching some good shots here and there. These are my favorites from the last week:

Again, I'm still learning, which means I'll hopefully get better as time goes on!

Mimicry

Johnny has always been indifferent to what it is I'm doing. Unless what I'm doing is ignoring him. Then he's all over me. Well, recently I've caught him doing things that I do on a nearly daily basis. Like this:

Yeah, he's trying to use the can opener on that can of cream of mushroom soup (which actually has a tab to peel off the top, but I wasn't going to point that out). It took me awhile to figure out what he was trying to do. After he got a hold of the opener, he kept pointing to the pantry door asking me to open it. When I did he got out a can and then attempted to put the opener and can together saying, "Turn. Turn! TURN!!!" Hilarious.

Here is another of his recent antics in the kitchen:

Luckily he can't open the oven... yet. But once he is able to, at least he knows how to put on oven mitts.

Smarts

Anyone who spends time with Johnny is surprised by how many words he knows. And now he has a new party trick! He knows colors!!! (Most of the time, that is.)

Okay, Blogger isn't letting me embed this video for whatever reason, so here's a link to view: http://youtu.be/BHK7dto6vUI

Look what I can do!

Just when I thought I had Johnny's horizontal movement handled, he started working on his vertical movement. At first, it wasn't such a big deal since he would climb things like the couch or an ottoman. You know, nice soft things that were mostly surrounded by carpet. Then he discovered how much fun playing with light switches is... and that he can reach them by climbing onto the toilet.

Not dangerous at all.

Using a spoon

I've been working on getting Johnny to use eating utensils... well, actually, only the fork. He's done pretty well with the fork, but the spoon scares me because it can be such a perfect catapult. I'm not a fan of wet messes, thus I have put off introducing the spoon. Selfish? Definitely. Do I care? Not particularly.

Anyway, I have been working with him on the spoon for a few days and this is what we have achieved:


Pretty sure you're not supposed to put the spoon in your mouth upside-down, but hey, we're still working on it.

Listening skillz

Johnny's listening and comprehension have increased about 20-fold from this time last month. Last month he could follow the occasional command (like "bring the book over here"), which I thought was mind boggling. Whoa! A child that can understand what I'm saying?! Awesome!
Now, he can follow complex directions and I'm pretty sure he understands everything that comes out of my mouth. Today he picked up my sunglasses and I said, "Those are sunglasses and they go over your eyes. Can you put them over your eyes? Open them and put them on like Mommy." Lo and behold, he did it. Having never done it before, he just listened to what I said and then followed my directions. We're working on putting things away and he's developed a desire to put all of his stuffed animals away, but it definitely does not apply to the things he pulls out of the kitchen drawers and leaves on the floor. If I'm adamant about him putting away a spatula, he will pull open the correct drawer, put the spatula in it and then pull something else out. So I guess he's still listening to directions, he's just being a little smart ass.

Normally I put up some kind of video or picture, but this is a little hard to document... okay, actually, we keep the camera downstairs and whenever I think to videotape Johnny following my directions, we are upstairs and I decide it's not worth it. It's a hassle to get my pregnant butt up and down the stairs these days so I just avoid it when possible. [Insert know-it-all reader comment here, like, "Just wait until you have TWO babies! Then see how easy it is to go up and down stairs."]

Eating skillz

Eating skillz... Johnny haz them.

FML

And again...

NBR: My newest hobby

 I took a cookie decorating class a month ago and have been practicing my decorating skills all month so that I could make a cookie bouquet for some friends of ours who hosted a pumpkin carving party (more on that tomorrow). So this is what I made:

Not bad, huh?

Making messes

One of Johnny's new favorite things to do is open any cabinet or drawer and pull everything out of it. Endless hours of fun! My favorite thus far: Johnny managed to find a wrapped tampon in my bathroom cabinet while I was brushing my teeth. When I looked down at him, he had a little string sticking out of his mouth... ew!!! Everything else is fairly innocuous though, like the stuff he finds in the kitchen.

What?

A big mess means a happy Johnny.

Click, click

For now this is really cute, but I can foresee it getting really obnoxious if done too much...