Development-wise, James is now using words in combination with yelps to get across a point. He has a vocabulary of 25 words which all sound a little like "mah," "bah," and "pah." You really have to analyze the context to decipher the meaning of his babbles. When in doubt, we rely on his nods. One VERY slow nod up and down for yes and a bobble-head shake back and forth combined with an "uh-uh" for no. It's far from an exact science. We wish the famed 18-month language explosion would just go ahead and explode already so we can figure out what's on this boy's mind.
As for Ava, she's become quite the character. To give this character positive labels, we might say that she is "opinionated," "assertive," "curious," and "dramatic." This has left us "at our wit's end" and "struggling to adhere to our positive parenting techniques." Y'all be nice to Ava. She'll be your boss some day.
And here's the month in pictures:
