Thoughts about Semmes

Semmes was 17 months old on Tuesday, and he's great.  So I want to write a quick post about some of the cute/funny/weird things he's up to at this stage.

1.  He's a climber.  I swear he sees a chair and thinks, "Challenge accepted!"  And he's really good at it...until he tries to get down.  The other day, I came into the kitchen and found him sitting on the kitchen table eating goldfish out of a bag.  When he saw me, he immediately started stuffing goldfish into his mouth, chipmunk style, because he knew I was going to take them away.  I think he got five or six in there before I got to him.

Hamming it up at the zoo:

2. He's never met a stranger.  He says, "Hi!" and waves at everyone.  Last Sunday was the start of the education year at church, so it was packed.  I went and got him so he could take communion with us (he's eating the wafer now, obviously).  When we came into church, everyone was praying in unison, but he stuck his hand into the air and started waving and yelling, "HI!!!" as loudly as he could.  It caused a bit of a stir around us.  Thankfully, he's super cute.

3.  He loves books.  And loves to "read."  He'll just sit in his chair or on the floor and look at books.  Plus, he knows tons of words now, so you'll see him pointing at things in books and saying their names.  Or at least, his names for them.

Semmes and some friends at the zoo.  He calls all of his friends "Etta," I think because it's the easiest name to say.  Plus, she's the prettiest.

4.  He knows lots of animal names, just not how to say them.  Instead, most of the time, he just says the sound they make.  So if you say, "cow," he says, "moo."  He USED to say "oink" for a pig, but Brad taught him how to snort, so now that's what he does for pig.  It's gross/weird.

Sixteen months:

5.  He's learned to kiss.  Books, his friends, us, Cooper, he kisses it all.  And it's ridiculously cute.

6.  He sleeps with Elmo and Ribbit, a giant frog.  Every nap time and every night, he gets into my lap with Elmo and Ribbit and we read The Pout Pout Fish, then he sleeps.  He calls the pout pout fish "Blub," since this is what the fish says.  P.S. If you don't have that book, you should check it out.  It's super cute.

Semmes at 17 months: