Joshua surprised me yesterday with a new skill. Not only can he walk beautifully now, he can also climb quite well. I had been cooking for a few minutes and went to his room to see how he was playing, only to find him seated comfortably in the rocking chair! Apparently, he uses the nursing stool for a little boost and the back rails as a handhold to climb in. If you hand him a book, he'll sit there for a few minutes- just like he does when Mike or I sit him on a lap to read a book!
His favorite game right now is putting things into containers. He loves stacking cups and filling envelopes. His Weebles now live in the mesh pocket that hangs from the side of his pack-n-play, the letters from his phonics game are often found in visitors purses or my work bag, and putting the rubber blocks into the toybox is now great fun. Also, the trash cans are off limits to prevent throwing away toys or, worse yet, taking trash out to play with it.
The surprise toy of the season is a Santa's Workshop lunchpail with little figurines of a tree, Santa, an elf, Rudolph, a gingerbread man fence, and a present. He plays with those a whole lot, either by himself or bringing them to Mike or me to play. he loves it when we sing a Christmas song about the figurine he brings. We hadn't expected him to be interested in characters yet, but he spotted the set at Kohls on Black Friday and was clear that he wanted it. He's played with the set every day since.
Joshua loves reading together as much as ever. The first thing he does in the morning is grab a book or two and hand them to me to read to him. When he plays by himself, he sits a flip through books when he isn't playing with nesting cups. He gets excited and points to his name on the wall whenever I change his diaper. Joshua also loves making music. He "sings" with some songs, like the Music Machine CD, and loves to tickle the ivories when Mike or I play piano. He also plays his toy piano, jiggles my chicken shake, or rattles some jingle bells throughout the day.
