17 months!

Owen's doing a happy dance to celebrate. He does this move whenever the mood strikes (usually without a partner), and it cracks me up every time, especially if he's checking out his reflection in the appliances!

In developmental news, we've been working on his vocabulary, but it's slow going. I swear I've been doing some of the basic signs (drink, all-done, more, etc.) at nearly every meal for the last 8 months, and I still just get a blank look! However, he has started using some words fairly consistently, like:

• "Dada" (been saying this one for months, but no "momma" we think b/c of the below),
• "mum-mum" = food (usually when he's already eating, so it's not very helpful),
• "hi",
• "ooh ooh ooh" = dog (kind of like barking, but has started to do this for many different animals).

And less consistently:

"uh-oh", "oh wow", the sign for ball, "owen", "choo choo", and some others I'm forgetting.

He also follows simple instructions like "bring me a book", "where is your ball?", "come here", etc. And he smacks his lips when I ask him if he's hungry. I keep waiting for the flood gates to open and words to just start spilling out one of these days. But obviously, it takes a lot more to say the word than it does to comprehend it. Patience and persistence!