14 months

Ben is past the 14 month mark now. He still isn't walking, although he has taken a few steps. He took his first step at Charity's house two weekends ago. He spends a lot of time practicing going from squatting to standing - which usually involves a lot of clapping for himself when he finishes - but isn't interested in walking as a mode of transportation. I guess he's more concerned with developing his fine motor skills - he can use the roller ball on the mouse!

In the past week he has suddenly started communicating a lot more. He's been waving bye-bye for months, and has now started shaking his head when he doesn't want something. He has also picked up the sign for more and will sign it without being prompted. When he wants something he points to what he wants and says, "ga." We're not sure what word that is supposed to be, if any. He also uses ga and points when he wants to go somewhere, so he might be saying go... which in Korean happens to be "ga." I don't think we can claim he's speaking Korean though.

If you greet Benjamin in Korean and bow he will bow back. We assume he learned this at daycare. I was curious, however, so we performed an experiment and it turns out he'll also bow if you say, "smell my stinky feet" and bow at the same time. So, it's not really the words he's responding to. On the other hand, if Ben's in the bathtub I can say, "bye-bye water" and he'll try to pull the plug out.

He's obviously understanding more and trying to communicate with us. I guess it doesn't matter whether he's saying a real word in English or Korean, what matters is that we understand what he's (trying) to say.

I expect it won't be long before Colin and I will both be fluent in Benjamese.