"Please"

For those of you who aren't aware, baby signs are all the rage these days. I haven't done much in terms of teaching Lance any signs but since he learned to say "more" a couple months ago, he has become increasingly demanding in his tone... So, every time he chants "mo, Mo, MOR! MOR! MORE!", I calmly, say, "more, please," and recently added the chest rub for emphasis on the please.
Imagine my surprise when, out of the blue, Lance picked it up! He performs his own creative version of "please" now when he wants something (almost always food) and this morning we caught it on video...

Please from Melissa Harmeling on Vimeo.

A Trip to the Kohala Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we made our way to Kohala to the only pumpkin patch on the whole island!! We were super excited to get to trek through a real pumpkin field, and actually score some of these hot commodities (pumpkins can be scarce in ol' Hilo). It reminded me of the old days at Webb Ranch!

We didn't make it out there until the last day of pumpkins, but we managed to find three winners!

and we got some great shots from the day. It was gorgeous up there!
please note, that this was an especially "big" hair day for Lance... he had swim lessons in the morning and his hair is always very exciting after he swims. I thought about pulling it back, but it was just too fun to let it go wild.

(you can see the top of Haleakala on Maui in the background)

He's a Climber!

Like I mentioned in my last post, Lance has mastered climbing the ladder. Scary for Mommy, and pure joy for Lance and Daddy...
Here's a quick video:

Lance vs. Ladder from Melissa Harmeling on Vimeo.

Lance's Latest

The past many weeks have been full of a personality explosion for Lance. It's hard for me to put this into words or describe it exactly, but watching him change has been so much fun.
In the past few days, Lance showed me that his little memory goes back months!!! On Sunday, we parked our car at the beach in a spot that we had parked at several weeks ago. The last time we parked there, Lance and I spotted a cat in the bushes and (since he LOVES all animals) we watched it for awhile, and Lance meowed away to the little guy. When we got out of the car on Sunday, Lance immediately noticed the bushes and started saying "cat! cat!" and did his best to call the cat from weeks ago with some meows. I couldn't believe it! Again today, Lance and I walked over to our neighbor's house (who also have a cat...) and as we got close to their house, he pointed his little finger at the house and started the meow!!! It has been about two months since we have been there! For some reason, this killed me!
Other than an apparent obsession with cats, Lance continues to work on his animal names and sounds and has started clapping and pointing like a mad man. He applauds for himself whenever he does something he likes and sticks his little pointer finger in the air on a regular basis to point my attention at something.
He loves scooting around the house on his Radio Flyer, learned how to climb to the top of daddy's ladder all by himself, and............................
took his first 9 unassisted steps in a row today!
They were not documented and I'm not sure if he'll repeat the big move again tomorrow. But, after almost EIGHT months of crawling, it looks like Lance might walk in the near future!
Finally, Lance and the dogs are becoming closer and closer. He loves to feed them water from the hose and will call them to come and get a drink. He calls Koko "NaaNaa" and says it in the same exact tone we use when we call her. Adorable! Stef is still making sure Moses knows who's boss and Lance seems to be enjoying it quite a bit!
All in all, these past weeks have been amazing, and I'm sure there's even more good to come!