All grown up

Ok ok...so he's not ALL grown up but he's on his way. The last time I blogged Bryce had just started to sit up and crawl. Now last week I went to get him up from a nap and he was STANDING up in his crib holding onto the side railing. At first glance I was shocked and then the very second after a shrill of fear ran thru my body as i thought "what if he fell over the railing!!!" Rest assured the railing came up to his chest so that wouldn't have happened but none the less I was not willing to take a chance. He now sleeps in his crib with the rail pulled up. The next day I walked in and HE WAS STANDING UP AGAIN (yes, when the rail was UP)!! That night he began to pull himself up onto our couch, our coffee table, his sisters, anything he could.
Today Bryce crossed over another mile stone. HE SAID HIS FIRST WORDS!!!
Every time I change his diaper or am playing with him on the floor or feeding him his food I try to teach him to say "mama". Over the weekend he began to say what sounded like "gaga" and "baba" but nothing was really definate. This morning as I was sitting on the floor letting him pull himself up on me and walk around while holding onto my hair I was talking with him and he just started babbling. So I took advantage and thought, if he won't say "mama" maybe I can get him to say "dada"...AND HE DID!!!
I was SOOOOO excited I text Ben and told him "Bryce just said his first words!" Ben called me right away and I put him on speaker and he heard our son say his first words "DADA"!!! At first Ben didn't know if was Bryce, he just thought it was me but then he heard it again and said "was that Bryce?" Ben was just as excited as I was (probably more proud than excited since his son's first word was DADA)!
I am just blown away as I watch this little 16lb BABY learning and growing in leaps and bounds. Life truly is a miracle and I am HONORED to get to be home and witness it first hand in all 3 of our children. It just amazes me how much babies learn in just the first year of life!
Bryce is also eating real food. I've been buying fruits and veggies and making my own baby food (it's not only cheaper but I have more variety to choose from this way). I did buy organic baby biscuits for him to suck on to help him learn to bring food to his mouth and now I got organic rice puff snacks that are very small. He's still learning how to get them in his mouth but this morning he did MUCH better than he did yesterday. He's very determined!
I have also began to teach him sign language. I'm starting out with "eat" and "more" and the girls are BIG helps in this area. They like to teach him sign also as they give him his little rice puffs. He can't do the signs yet but I can tell he is relating the sign "eat" to eating because he gets all excited and anxious when I ask him in sign if he wants to "eat".
There's just SOO much!! I'm going to try to download pictures of what I can while the girls are down napping right now. Bryce is happily playing in his walker so hopefully I can get them on the blog this afternoon.