Toddler-hood

On Saturday, we had a major clean-up day. You know, the kind where the washer is spinning, the mirrors all get clean, and dust bunnies quiver in fear? That kind. I'm not 100% sure Shepard was keen on joining in to help CLEAN, but he surely did enjoy the dry swiffer. (try not to get distracted by these super-cute monkey jammers)

 He played with the thing for at least an hour. I finally had to trick him onto the diaper-changing table and leave it in the hallway for Daddy to fetch while the attention was diverted. He tried to swiffer pretty much everything in the house.

Of course, we'd love for him to learn to be helpful! Hopefully, he will model so many of the wonderful things his Daddy does around the house. Like swiffering!
In addition to this fine turn of events, he has been learning lots of new words and sounds. Seemingly something new almost every day. This week, we got "night-night," the RAWR of the lion, "fish," and MEE-MO (his way of saying Nemo when we show him our clownfish), and "cracker." He also does a terribly cute thing whenever he finds a phone or something like a phone. He holds it up to his ear and makes a funny sound like "hemmmmmmm." Not sure who he's emulating there.
This morning, as we left for the day, I pulled out the big golf umbrella to shield us from the rain. You would have thought I have given him his very own traveling circus tent. His little eyes lit up and he smiled and looked at me with that great curious stare, as if to say, "Mommy! What just happened!? Don't ever let it end."