One delightful piece of evidence that little EC is understanding both (1) concepts and (2) our words for those concepts is that she’s begun to respond to verbal commands, and not just simple ones. In just the last two days, she’s listened to and followed these:

• “We need to change your diaper. Lie down.” And down she went.
• “Go find your remote. It’s in your pot in the kitchen.” And off she went, from the living room, into the kitchen, to the little corner where we keep her pot, where her toy TV remote was waiting for her.
• “It’s bath time!” She walked to the stairs, climbed them, went straight to the bathroom, and tried (unsuccessfully) to climb into the bathtub.
• “It’s bedtime.” She walked to the stairs, climbed them, and toddled to the bedroom, where she tried (unsuccessfully) to climb into the crib.

I didn’t follow her around repeating these commands. I just said them once, while I had her eye contact.

Fully aware that she will soon discover that she can refuse commands too, I plan to enjoy this while I can.

Sometimes I think I understand what she’s thinking, and other times I’m completely baffled. I had put some Cheerios in her pot (yes, the same one that hosted the remote earlier in the day) and expected her to eat them. Instead, she decided they had to be transferred to the tablespoon that she had bummed off me earlier. Instead of bringing the tablespoon to the pot, she took the Cheerios—one by one—from the pot to where the tablespoon lay on the floor, on the other side of the kitchen. No explanation for that.

Her walking is quite good now, though falling is still a normal part of the routine.