Washing hands and other neat tricks

Carter started to sign "wash hands" to me a few days ago (I think Michelle taught him that one), and I realized I hadn't ever really let him wash his hands at the sink. I've always washed them with a washcloth or wipe. So I put a stepstool at the bathroom sink, and we started working on the handwashing process. He LOVES it! He will stand there for half an hour and wash his hands, over and over. I actually have to pick him up and carry him out of the bathroom, usually while he's crying and kicking his legs. Here's a video of the handwashing:



He's trying to say "wash", "soap", "off", and "on" there. He can also say "towel" and "water". At night when his bath is done, he will open the drain and say, "Bye bye, water". Sometimes he'll sign "water", but it's hard to tell it from "hot", as he does them both in a similar way.

He's started blowing and giving kisses, though it's easier to get him to kiss a toy than to kiss one of us. He loves dogs and giraffes all of a sudden, and goes around looking for them in books and on his toys. He signs "dog" too, but I don't know the sign for giraffe, heh. He has made up a sign for elephant, but can't come anywhere near saying it. He also says "bunny" and signs it, but it looks just like his sign for airplane, so you really have to hear the word and see the sign to get what he's saying.

Actually, that's one of the cool things about the signing these days. A lot of his words are still a bit off from what they will eventually be, but when he signs them at the same time, you completely understand him. I hadn't expected that, but it's quite a bonus!

Here's a cute video from this morning. We were playing in the downstairs bedroom, and he opened a drawer and started playing with the contents in his own unique way:



After a little bit of that, I gave him a little change purse so he could put the coins in that instead. He had fun doing that for a while.



In other news, we're all sick. We've been going to lots of playgroup-type things in the last few weeks, and it's a wonder Carter didn't get sick earlier. He finally picked something up, and now we all have it, boo. It's also exacerbated by the fact that he hasn't been nursing as much lately since I'm away from him all day, and so he's not getting those infusions of antibodies from milk.

I have a week and a half of class left before the summer session is over, and I'm really looking forward to having a few whole days a week with Carter again! I miss having lots of time with just the two of us. :-(