Lil guy is 17 months old now, and his newfound curiosity is really fun -- he loves to explore the house, see how things are done, and touch objects for me to name. He's memorized a ton of things around the house -- I can just say the word, and he will go and touch the (usually) correct thing.
Also, he learned to climb a few days ago
What especially helped was having him learn to get up steps first. Once we worked a few days on that, he suddenly started pulling himself up on stuff. Our couch is kinda big, so maybe that was part of the problem, too -- we don't really have a lot of more typically climbable furniture, so getting a movable toddler step stool and putting it next to the couch was all he needed.
Now, in the next month, if I could just get the little dude to point (he does ALL the other usual hand gestures like clapping/waving/high fives, and can touch his head/ears/nose on demand, so I think it's just around the corner) and scribble (a specialist thought chalk or markers would help instead of crayons because they're larger, but he just throws them all--maybe he just hates art? lol), he'll be all set for typical abilities of an 18 month old.
Lastly, he's developed this REALLY cute habit of running up to hug me every time I sing anything. He's obsessed with all music and melody, even from my boring monotone voice, and so we keep Super Silly Songs on in the background for much of the day.