Chatterbox!

Jeez, Eddie is a freaking chatterbox these days! Not only does he move constantly, but there's a running commentary, too.

About two months ago he started saying small sentences (phrases, I guess).
"I want that."
"Get down!" (to the dogs, while pointing his finger at them...)

And about two weeks ago he started saying more complex sentences:
"I want some of that."
"What doing?"
"Where Daddy [Ruby, sister, Mama, brother]?"
"I hold it!" (Meaning "I want to hold that!")

It is sooooooooo nice being able to communicate with him--the fact that he can tell me what he wants or needs has been really nice for us adults around him. He can tell us when he wants to "see," "hold," "watch," or "eat" something in particular like crackers, milk, water, candy, apple, cheese, banana, bread, oatmeal, ball, choo-choo, chickens, shoes, socks, pants, shirt, book, stroller, etc. He tells us when he's "poopy" (if we haven't already smelled it...). I can also ask him to "show me" what he is talking about (or what hurt him) if I can't understand what he's saying. Most of his chattering is jibberish, but I can usually home in on one word that I recognize and then have a conversation from there.

My other favorite new phrases of his are:
"Bye, see you!"
"Thank you-welcome!"
"Ooooh, bee!" (He refers to all bugs as bees and he LOVES finding all the mosquito hawks flying around our house.)

And yes, there's definitely an exclamation point at the end of every. single. one. of his phrases. Life is VERY exciting at this age!

I can definitely see how tantrums would be very common if he weren't able to communicate so easily. So although my ears get tired, I'm ever so thankful that he's on track with his verbal communication skills. He never picked up on using baby signs himself, but he understood a lot when we used them (drinks, more, eat).