Swimming, Standing and Pointing

Peyton has been spending a ton of time in the pool lately. We have a small pool that is only for the people in our group of houses. There are only 42 houses in that group and most of the people who live in them are in their 50’s and 60’s with no kids. As a result the pool is almost always totally empty. Also it’s heated so even if the air temperature drops into the low 70’s or 60’s the water temperature is still in the 80’s.

We mostly ignored the pool during the first few years that we lived here, but in the past two months or so we’ve had Peyton in the pool about twice a week on average. He loves splashing and kicking and if you lift him up all the way out of the water and quickly splash him back in he giggles every time.

The other Moms in Jen’s Moms group have been bringing their kids over every other week or so and the pool has been a big hit. All of the kids seem to love the water and the parents have started accumulating an ever expanding set of pool toys. It’s really cute to see 5 or 6 babies splashing around in the water.

In other news Peyton has started regularly pulling himself up to a standing position. Of course he is still a little wobly and can’t yet stand without support. In fact a few days ago he pulled himself up to grab a big ball on the couch, picked up the ball with 2 hands and then started to turn around to show it to Jen. Luckily she grabbed him before he toppled like a freshly cut tree.

Mentally Peyton is making great strides. It seems like everyday he’s learning a new word. If you say “Peyton, where is the….” and then ask him about a word he knows he’ll look for it and point right to it. I’d guess that right now he knows about 25 words including but not limited to: ball (which can be split into big ball, little ball, purple ball and orange ball), Daddy, Mama, foot, eye, nose, mouth, cat, frog, giraffe, elephant, monkey, train, truck, car and block.

Today Jen asked him “Peyton, where is your hand?” Since he didn’t know the word hand he looked around in a full circle hoping to find something that he thought of as hand. When he couldn’t find anything he gave up and looked at Jen. At that point she touched his hand and said “hand, hand, hand.” I’m guessing by tomorrow he’ll be able to show you his hand if you were to ask him where it is.

Also these days if Peyton wants something he’ll point at it. When we’re out an about it can be a real point fest, but it’s nice when we’re at home not to have to guess what he wants. Of course now that he’s mobile if he wants something he usually just crawls right over to it.

In addition to pointing, Peyton has also started clapping. His clapping is always accompanied by a big smile and is ususally an expression of delight. When he’s eating something that he thinks is super tasty he’ll clap between bites. It’s really adorable.