Seventeen months

The baby is now a toddler, I'm amazed to report. He has just started walking, he took his first string of independent steps on Mother's Day. I feel like he's been on the verge of walking for almost 4 months now—walking with his little wooden cart, walking while holding on to one of my fingers, walking around the sofa, etc. But not until a couple days ago has he been able to talk the length of the apartment by himself without falling down. When he does fall, which happens a lot, he gets right back up. He also walks with his arms up above his head, which is sort of hilarious, but it makes it easier for him to catch himself when he falls. 

He is the biggest kid in his daycare class, since most of his peers have been walking for a while now. I'm happy for him to move up, since I think he will enjoy playing with the bigger kids, but I'm also sad that my baby is now no longer quite such a baby! 

He is also a big talker now. He spends most of his time pointing to things and saying, "What's that?" again and again and again. It's like he's constantly downloading information. He asks the most questions about two specifics things: 1) the dog and 2) his penis. Every time he sees the dog he says, "What's that?" and same goes for his private parts. I'm guessing that these two things will remain sources of fascination for him for a long time. 

He is also obsessed with cars, and says "car" every time we see one, which is often. He is also obsessed with trucks but doesn't know the difference, so those are cars too. He says hello and mama and go and no and uh oh, all of which he loves to repeat ad infinitum. He has just started with "b" words: ball, bowl, banana. He's just started to refer to himself now, too: "Jono."