Little person

So, sometime in the past month or so Thomas has really become a person to me. I mean, we've always felt like we've known him and his personality, but he's really just turned into a little man lately. It's probably just because it seems like he's interacting with me instead of just living in his own little world. Here are some of the new things he's started doing:

Saying night-night while laying his head down.
Helping around the house - with unloading the dishwasher, wiping spills, loading the dryer, watering the plants etc.
Climbing, climbing, climbing! He's been safely getting down from our bed on his own for at least several months now, but he's just now interested in getting up. It's really cute.
Understanding and responding to TONS of what we say, like: go get your shoe, go get your other shoe, take this to mama, daddy, gigi, etc, hold my hand, go to the bedroom, bring me that, eat it, don't eat it, stop, gentle, time for bed, go to the bedroom, lay down, sit down, stand up, where's your ball?, close that, open that, take a bath, and the kicker, pee pee goes in the potty! (Plus probably 100 more I can't think of right now).
Plus it seems like his vocabulary is exploding!

Our biggest development lately is his immense interest in the potty. He will pull at his diaper when he needs to go or right after he goes. He's been doing the sign for potty for a while, but lately he also wants to sit on the potty. The other day he did the sign and grabbed his diaper and walked into the bathroom. Then we heard him poop. WHAT?? And he did actually pee in the potty yesterday. I've read about "readiness" signs and he has all of them except for being dry for 3 hours. So, we're just going to explore the potty for now and see where it leads. I'm just taking his cue.

He's showing that he wants certain things lately and it's really fun. The other day he requested his hat when I said "let's go for a walk." And usually when he's getting drowsy at night I'll ask him "is it time for bed?" and he'll shake his head no (with his eyes half closed). But tonight he was nursing, looking drowsy and I asked him if it was time for bed and he signed "more" (which I think still means "I want"). At first I thought he didn't understand what I meant (yeah right!) but I took him in the bedroom and he calmly laid there while I changed him and then wouldn't you know it - nursed to sleep in 3 minutes flat!

I've been meaning to post all his words and signs for months but haven't gotten around to it until now. Here's the list:

Clearly intelligible: mama, papa (for his grampa nick), tractor, vacuum, hot, cat, uh-oh, this, water, hat, up, bug, night-night, ice.

Less so: truck, helicoptor, daddy, bubbles, ball, book, bite, apricots, pasta, puppy, bird.

Signs: fan, more, nurse, help, dog, outside, no, eat, water, book, light, phone, down, all finished, airplane, potty