The 18 month mark

Unbelievable as it is to us, Rian is 18 months old today on 6 Jan '10. A quick recap of the last few weeks to record how Tuggy keeps us continuously amazed:

• Our Austin trip to the Dave home gave Rian loads of time to play with Aanya. I think Rian has picked up the nthu to talk from her, just like he seemed to have picked up the interest in eating from Shayona during our Florida trip.
• Rian started the New Year with a bang and lots of words: dirty, star, fish. He added to that till date: daddy, touch, ball. He had mastered Bappa, mumma, mum-mum long time back.
• On our 7th anniv yesterday Rian gave me the gift of calling me mumma :-) He had his vocabulary constantly growing and could say the word mumma for some time now but could not say the word to call me to get my attention. He would say it of I asked him to say it. Today though, 4-5 times he called out for me and looked for my response :-)
• Rian did the unthinkable today: he was able to climb out of his crib to a point where he can fall and hurt himself. Note that the crib is in it's lowest position and Rian did not use the bumper to get the extra height. Mummy and Daddy are wondering what to do now since we were thinking of moving his crib to his own room! Any suggestions?!
• When do these critters STTN???? Last night was better than most, slept in his crib from 9:30pm to 5am but refused to sleep from 5am to 7am :-( and that too in our bed. This is one of our roadblocks for moving Rian out to his own room. Lately Rian has taken to staying awake for an hr or so when he wakes up in the middle of the night. He loves playing with our fingers and unconsciously slapping dad and mom.
• Rian has started responding to the word 'smile'. When mumma says 'smile beta smile', Rian does this cute shy smile that is unbelievably sweet. I'll try to upload a few photos if I can find them. Many of our friends have told us that Rian's smile melts their hearts, and imagine this lava at your command for disposal :-)