So much news!

We had a day of firsts yesterday! Jake peed on the potty - ok, a long way from "Mother, I need to use the facilities, please" but baby steps! - skinned his knee (as you can see from the top picture), asked for a "bite" of my pork bau (of course), had his first cold matzoh ball, and climbed his first tree! We went to the UCD Arboretum and had a fun day, with the dog even, which is where the tree and the skinned knee came from - he would want me to mention that they were not at the same time, he climbed the tree perfectly well, thank you. The UCDA is an amazing place that I'm sure we will be back in as a family quite a lot!

Jake also had his 18 month check-up today. He weighs 27#8oz ( I swear to you he weighs more than that when I'm carrying him in a park on the far side of the creek trail...) and is 33" tall. He's in the 75% for height, weight, and head size. The doc was SUPER impressed with his 60 word count (said that the average is about 1/10th of that - such a clever boy) and even more impressed with Jake's 2 word sentences! Jake, as usual, wasn't impressed with ANYTHING that happened there and cried through much of the visit. He'd already had a rough night sleep (as, therefor, had I) and then a shot, and then Mommy had to drop him at school and LEAVE, which was just the final straw and he had a complete meltdown. This led to Mommy crying in the car for, probably, longer than Jake was crying in the room. Still, I want my cuddles tonight in the worst way! I hope he gets a good nap in today or I don't know how I'll make it through the night...

New pictures

The first is Jake in his new shorts and sandals (CHEESE!). The second is the day of the War of the Camelias with Grammy. Flowers rule (and make great ammo).

2 words at a time!

OK, I am possibly abnormallly excited about this, but Jake started putting 2 word sentances together this weekend. Mostly "more _____[fill in the blank - cheese, apple, cracker...] but last night he also waved night-night to Daddy and said "Bye-bye Daddy." So sweet. And what a huge linguistic mental leap - to get that if you put words together you can communicate a larger idea! Amazing to watch him grow and learn.

He has also started to "wink." If you wink at him he blinks back. Very obviously trying to copy you. It's darling and had us all in stitches Saturday at dinner. He's also a verbal mimic more and more. He was getting in to a drawer I didn't want him in Sunday and I said "hey, hey, hey" only to have it repeated back to me in the same inflection and everything. OMG, it starts. Must remember to be careful with my language and tone!

Still having some sleeping issues but last night/this morning seemed to be mostly because he was stuffy. A result of running around outside with Mommy all day yesterday I would imagine. Everything's blooming and we were outside a LOT. We went to the Railroad Museum (I really need to get a membership there) and hung out in Old Sac for 2 hours (and ate gravy fries - still a fave!). He has a doctor's appointment next Thursday so if it's still going on I will ask him about it.

I took a darling picture of the little man in his new shorts, Elroy Jetson T-shirt, and new leather sandals but haven't uploaded it yet. Will try to do that super soon. Cheers!

The Amazing Jake

Word count is well over 50 now (close to 55?) and adding more each day. He finally has a word for Grandma (Amah) so she's very excited. Also add "slide," "teacher," and a few others. He's climbing everything and getting pretty fast on his feet. We spend nearly every night after dinner outside (another new word) running around in the yard. He loves to help us weed as well as taking all the flowers apart. He and Dippy are both big fans of balls, which has caused some hurt feelings lately, but they are working it out amicably.

Jake has also, unfortunately, been having what I think are night terrors lately. He starts screaming in the middle of the night, doesn't appear to be cognizant of what's going on around him, and fights whomever comes to pick him up like a little bear. Then, as suddenly as it starts, it's over. From what I've read this isn't that uncommon and I should just leave him be because he isn't awake (despite all indications to the contrary) and my touching him will just extend the issue. Apparently, unlike a dream, he's in a deep, non-dreaming sleep and has no recollection of the incident at all. I, however, am destroyed and up for an hour after wondering if he's ok. So who is supposed to be experiencing the "terror?" My money's on me.

Speaking of sleep, we bought him a big-boy-bed last weekend. We have the mattress in his room (things are pretty tight with his crib still in there, let me tell you!) and the bed will be here in about a month (picture at left is not it but close). So far he has remained unimpressed with the bed. He doesn't like the fact that changes and getting dressed are no longer on a changing table (which had to go for logistical reasons) and is unwilling to sleep on it or even stay on it for any length of time. We'll see how setting him down for naps on it this weekend goes but the trip to Colorado may be a long one if he won't sleep in a non-crib device. Sigh. Because of the new bed, which is blue denim headboard and frame, we are taking entries for a new "theme" for his room. The bathroom is "safari" in sage and brown with a lion and a giraffe, but that doesn't really work with the denim. And the theme will have to go into the "play room" when the bird finally goes away eventually. Any ideas are welcome!

Word count

So I decided to do a count of all the words Jake now says since it seems like he learns a new word every day. So far, I'm up to 45! What an amazing guy! The new ones include words like "up" and "oval" but also, and this should be obvious from the picture, "bubbles." He knows body parts like eyes, nose, teeth, and hands. Foods like cheese and juice. He knows what a lot of animals say (moo, woof, meow, quack, roar!) and some animal names (turtle, llama: you know, the useful ones).

His favorite words are flower, apple, mine, and Daddy at the moment. Still no word for Grammy, but he appears to be trying. Oh, and Elmo, of course. Words we have to spell now because he knows what they are and LOVES them (thus, will instantly want it) include cheese, Elmo, cracker, and bubbles. That first one you have to be seriously careful with. Mommy's fallen in to that trap before. Not only do you need "some," you need at least 4 slices or watch out! I only had 3 in the car on the way to Grammy's and it wasn't enough so we stopped at Whole Foods (where they traditionally have samples out) and gave him some Wensleydale with cranberries. Um, not a hit. He wouldn't even take the cheddar after that (for a good 20 minutes). I guess it's an acquired taste. Oh well, more for us!

Another word - this one's a biggie!

Jake can now say his own name! Yay! I think it took so long to get this because 1) Jake isn't an easy thing to say, if you think about it and 2) we so often call him different things (Jake, Jacob, sweetie, baby, angel, squeaky, etc.) But last night he pointed at Daddy, then Mama, then pointed at himself and said "Jake." OK, more like JK, but still, it was clear and consistant. My clever man!

Watch out Jackson Pollock!

My little artiste! I decided to find some rainy day stuff to do because we wouldn't be able to get outside yesterday so I bought bubbles, one of those heavy duty balloons you blow up with the rubber band on it so you can punch it, and finger paints. The bubbles were a huge hit. I guess they play with bubbles at school because he already knew the word and the sign. In fact, after they'd been up for a while Steve was holding Jake and Jake was signing and pointing and saying what sounded like "apples" and we couldn't figure out for anything what he wanted. Turns out, once I started really watching, he was signing, saying, and pointing to the bubbles. Boy, I can't imagine how dense he must think I am! "Duh, Mom. BU-BEL-S. Do I need to spell it??"

He had a moderate amount of fun with the finger paints. It was amusing for about 20 minutes but he didn't understand why he couldn't then just get up and walk off without mommy scrubbing him down. Maybe we'll do the bath finger paints for a while before we go back to these. Any way, he didn't try to eat them, so that's a big boy for you!