On Tuesday, I took Jonathan to a playgroup. He tottered about playing with toys more or less ignoring me. The lady next to me was holding a little baby, and she let me hold him.

Jonathan is learning to talk! He's been able to say Momma and Daddy for some time as well as sign for food, drink, please and cheese.

Today I took Jonathan to a play group at RAF Akrotiri for the first time in months. At first, he just sat with me and watched the other kids. After a while, he stood next to me. I eventually took him over to a house-like toy where he could spin some toy birdies and open and close a door. He ended up playing in that for quite some time - especially once a little girl with blond curls came over with a bag of Cheetos.

Jonathan likes circles. He will put circle shapes inside bigger circle shapes. Monday was the first time that funny little quirk was at all annoying though. We had French toast for breakfast. When I was putting food away. I couldn't find the lid to the nutella. Then I noticed that the lid to the peanut butter was slightly askew. I found the smaller lid amidst all the peanut butter, covered and gooey. Sometime when David and I weren't looking, he had opened the peanut butter jar, plopped it in and closed it up again. Funny.

Jonathan likes experimenting with all the different noises he can make. They range from imitating things he hears Mom and Dad say to just weird, random noises. Cheri got this great video of him playing on a local jungle gym.

Jonathan has discovered he is strong enough to open the fridge door. (Scary, I know!) He'll get in and explore the contents, move things around, take bottles out and walk around with them. However, whenever he is hungry and is able to get into the kitchen, he will pull out the cheese. He will toddle around the room shaking the bag of cheese in glee until he sees me. Then he eagerly hands me the bag and excitedly gives the sign for 'please.'

Cheri has done a really good job with teaching Jonathan to communicate through sign language. He has understood what the different signs mean for quite a while now. When we ask him if he is hungry and wants food, he'll get excited as his way of telling us yes.

Last week we had a little incident. Unthinkingly, I let Jonathan take my half-sized popsicle stick out of my hand and play with it. There he was being his adorable self sucking off the last remaining bit of ice cream from it when he began to tip. It was as if I was caught in a slow motion web that I knew would end badly. In half time, the tipping commenced and began to speed up. As I was trying to move at lightning speek, the web dissipated and Bam! Jonathan slammed into the floor, the tiny stick cutting into his cheek.

Two days ago, Jonathan actually left the safety of the coffee table and took two steps all on his own. Then yesterday, at Bob and Haley's flat, he took 5 steps. At work this morning, I got an IM from Cheri saying that he just took 11 steps. And by the time I got home, he could walk around as long as he wanted.

I knew he could walk once he got the confidence, but that was so quick! I don't know if I was quite ready to say goodbye to my crawling baby just yet. But ready or not, our little man is growing up.

It seems that Jonathan is just determined to grow up no matter how much Mommy and Daddy would like him to stay little. He has been able to walk for a couple of months now; he just lacks the courage. It's really funny to watch him stand all by himself when he is trying to reach something. But the moment he realizes what's happening, he'll either reach for something or go down to his bum. Here is a video of Jonathan playing with his new toy Grandma and Grandpa Tieken got for his first birthday: