Lake Day

We spent an afternoon on Granna and Granddaddy's boat, along with some new friends. The boys had a blast swimming, rafting, sitting on the front of the boat, and being brave jumping off the top of the boat!

Captain Hook

Jack stuck a straw in his mouth at dinner tonight and declared he was Captain Hook.  It sorta blows my mind that he understood what he must look like - visualizing the straw as a mustache.
And while you're thinking how cute this kid is, keep in mind this came after a moment of very loud protest when Mommy wouldn't let him have her phone!

21 Months

At 21 months, Jack:

• is a complete blabber-mouth!  This kid says more sentences, expresses his wishes, repeats the most complicated words, and bosses people around like no other!  I love it!
• is more coordinated at this age than his brothers were.
• loves a good wrestling match with his brothers.  If he sees either of them sitting on the floor (usually minding their own quiet business), he will undoubtedly flop on top of them, hoping they'll take the hint.  How could they not?  They've got a human between them and whatever it was they were doing!  Luckily, they love any and all attention Jack will give them.
• loves to be tickled!  His way of letting you know is either telling you "tickle Mommy/Daddy/etc" but really means Mommy/Daddy/etc tickle Jack.  The other way you will know is he will turn around backwards and back up to you with a big grin on his face, and lay back on you.
• thinks he's older than he is.  Not just a few years older, say 6, like his brothers...he thinks he's 23 and should be able to drive a car, tell people what to do, and have his own iPhone.  
• will confiscate you iPhone before you can blink, swipe to unlock, find the yellow flower icon, and will flip through the photos for as long as you let him.  He LOVES looking at pictures of his family more than any baby/kid app that exists!  He even knows that the little triangle will start a video.  All I'm sayin' is thank GOD for iPhone photo albums!  It has kept our little loud mouth quiet in situations when he really needs to be!
• is completely content if you let him play in the car, trying out his brothers' big car seats, trying to buckle things, climbing in and out of his own car seat, and his favorite - pretending to drive or be the passenger.  Today, as he was pretending to drive (I was standing outside the open driver's door) he told me "Mommy, get in car!"  The boy was ready to go!
• knows what he wants and will tell you in no uncertain terms!  He has become quite bossy lately - luckily it is still pretty darn adorable!  Some of his commands lately:
• he loves to buckle his chest clip on the carseat.  He isn't very good at it and only gets it about 10% of the time.  So we stand there and give him a few tries to get it right before we help him.  He picked up on this, and now he tells us to "get in car" before he will buckle it.  He doesn't want ANY supervision at all!  And until you leave (pretend to get in the car), he won't even try.  
• Will do this to anyone, but yesterday he very firmly tapped the ground and said "Daddy sit down."  Once Daddy sat, he then said "Daddy lay down."  Once Daddy laid down, he said "tickle Daddy" (which means Daddy tickle me).  
• really, really enjoyed his first "real" trip to Disney World.  He was only 3 months old when he went the first time, so this time he was out of his mind excited about EVERYTHING!  He was a little nervous on certain rides because it was dark or had weird noises, but still made it through by nuzzling into my shoulder.  His favorite rides were Tomorrowland Speedway, Teacups, Dumbo, and the Royal Carousel.  He also went bananas over the electric parade (who wouldn't)!
• is super attached to his "nigh-night," which is the name for these certain blankies he snuggles.  

This kid, Napoleon

People ask me all the time how Jack is compared to twins.  Here is my answer:

Owen and Mason were, and still are, pretty mellow kids.  They've never been classified as mischiveous, rambunctious, or dare devils.  Yes, they have their moments, but on the whole it's just not who they are.  

Then there's this other kid of mine.  He is a rascal in every single sense of the word!  He's the climb up the ladder before he could walk, empty the cabinets, run faster in the opposite direction, color on the walls kind of kid.  And we LOVE that about him.  Every family needs one, right?  And at not even 20 months, he already has enough language skills that he can form sentences from his own thoughts (not just repeating adults), and somehow boss you around until he gets what he wants.  I've also heard him griping at other people; Owen was being slow to buckle up after getting in the car from school.  Jack noticed and began saying 'Owen, go!' trying to get Owen to focus on what he should be doing.  These traits have earned him the nickname 'Napoleon,' as in Bonaparte, the tiny general.  Haha!

So today, I witnessed a 'Jack in a nutshell' moment, which was the inspiration of this post...

He found Owen and Mason's markers and asked to color.  I plopped him in his high chair and handed him just one marker and a handful of crayons.  I then gave him some paper (enough to scatter over the entire tray) and explained to him to color on the paper, and even demonstrated (again) what he was to do.  He was safely entertaining himself, so I resumed what I had been doing.  A few minutes later, I hear him repeating to himself 'Jack, paper. Jack, paper' as he's scribbling his marker ALL over the high chair tray!  Yep, that's my kid.   

18 Months

Talk about sneaking up on me!  I'm not really sure how we got to 18 months so quickly!  I am continually amazed each day that my sweet, cuddly, smily, bottomless-pit baby is now a crazy, silly, adorably energetic toddler!  And let me tell you, he's a trip!  I pass this milestone with a bit of nostalgia because Jack is our last little guy, so I'm trying hard to remember his adorable little well...everything.  The way he flashes that six-toothed grin that melts your heart, the way he says 'mommy' in his sweet voice, the way he gets excited about something and takes off running with that precious toddler gait.  

At 18 months, Jack:

• weighs 24 1/2 pounds. 
• is a bundle of energy and then some!  He is pretty much always on the move or climbing something. 
• has been gnawing his fingers due to finally cutting some new teeth!  He got the six he has 7.5 months ago!  Now he's getting two top molars and at least his lower left lateral incisor.
• sleeps from 7:30 pm to about 8 am, and still likes his morning naps about 2 hours after he wakes up.  These usually last about an hour or a little more.  Afternoon naps are harder to come by, as they fall right around the time the big kids get out of school.  He has to be extremely tired to fall asleep in the car (O and M would sleep nearly every time we went anywhere).  And the poor kid is too light of sleeper so if he does doze off in the car, he's sure to wake as soon as O and M get in the car after school.  
• made it through a pretty rough 4 days of a nasty virus (lots of coughing, sore throat, 103+ fever, and congestion) with NO ear infection!  Thank you tubes!  No doubt we would have had one in the past with all the gunk he had going on.
• has special blankies with special powers that induce sleepiness and cuddling.
• is particular about his night time routine.  First things first, he likes Mommy to be the one to tuck him in.  I think this stems from me nursing him until he was one.  Now that he doesn't nurse or take a bottle before bed, we sometimes just rock for a little bit in the same rocking chair we used to use.  He lets me know if he's in a rocking mood though, because he will either clutch his blankies and point/dive towards his crib, or he will rest his head on my shoulder, point to the rocking chair, and say "chair."  This means he wants to sit and rock for a bit.  When I put two and two together that this is what he was meaning, my heart melted into a little puddle, and now I don't dare skip the "chair" if it is requested.  Cherish these times, right!!  
• can run, and loves to use his skill to lure you into a game of chase.  He starts this game by running away from you while squealing, giggling, and checking over his shoulder to make sure you're coming after him. 
• loves to start this game of chase in our living room, run down the length of our house, round the corner into the hallway towards his room, and flop himself onto his playmat in the corner of his room (which is the cue to tickle him).  He likes to do this in stores and other public places as well.  It usually starts because he's walking off and we hustle over to guide him back.  I've learned that when he's reached his boundary, it is best to calmly and nonchalantly walk toward him.  If you wait too long and then have to really hurry to catch up to him (even if he is just walking at this point), he automatically goes into chase mode - picking up speed, checking over his shoulder, and giggling with delight!  
• has shown that he understands much of what I say to him.  Some I've noticed lately are "lay down, I have to change your diaper," "go give this to so-and-so," "go sit down in your chair and you can have your ba-ba" (sippy cup, no we're not still on bottles!).  I've actually been a bit surprised by the things he does after saying something once.  I fully expect non-action because a) he's one, and b) I used to have to repeat and repeat myself to my older kids to get them to pay attention.  
• doesn't care for lettuce and will hand you back the one stray shred that made it into his mouth because it was stuck on something else.
• can identify hair, ears, eyes, nose, teeth, tongue, hands, fingers, elbow, belly button, feet, toes.
• still loves books, mainly books with real photos in them.  And mostly books about vehicles of any kind, or animals.  He doesn't care so much to sit and listen to a story.  He wants to turn the pages back and forth, point to everything he knows, say or attempt to say what it is or make it's noise.  
• tilts his head back and howls when asked what a wolf says.  It is the cutest thing I've ever seen.  Seriously.  Thanks, Granna, for teaching him that one!
• plays really well independently.  Usually a queit kid=trouble, but when I go check on him, I usually find him in his room surrounded by all his wooden trains and trucks, concentrating on making that one wheel spin with his little pointer finger.
• responds, when asked if he's a toot, by pointing to himself and saying "I toot."
• tries to put on his brother's shoes.  
• gets a sly look as he tries to get away with something.  This is especially noticed when he's testing his physical boundries.  He'll creep further and further away, stopping every so often to look back at Mom or Dad with that glimmer in his eye, waiting to see if we're gonna stop him.  If not, he slys it up a little more and starts running as fast as those baby legs can go!  He also likes to do this while waiting for Mason's allergy shots.  The door in the waiting room doesn't fully close without a good push and you can be sure that if it is left with even the slightest crack in it, Jack will notice and escape into the foyer with that devilish grin.
• loves, I mean LOVES, to dig in sand or dirt or mulch or whatever he can find.  
• is obsessed with being outside.  Everything is fascinating to him outside.  He'll look for birds, spy the moon, run wild in the opposite direction, dig in the sand, climb the playscape with no help, jump on the trampoline, step on leaves, draw with chalk, pick up rocks, point out cars, ride his tricycle, but he will NOT sit still.  :)
• likes to scribble with chalk and crayons and will request to "cu-wer" (color) or asks for "talt" (chalk) to draw on the chalk board wall (and other walls because he doesn't understand the difference yet).  I've learned to just give him the white chalk - it blends into our paint color much better than the bright orange. :)
• will sit still for an episode of 'Jack's Big Music Show' and will let you know when he needs some down time by saying 'ha hoo hi sow' (Jack's music show).
• produces 's' sounds on that fall at the ends of words with an inward breath.  So the word 'shoes' for example would start with a regular s sound (because he says syoos), but then he sucks in to make that last 's' sound.  Whatever works I guess.
• learned how to shimmy his way onto our quite tall master tub surround.  He perched himself up there the other day while I was in the shower and gave a few of his tub toys a bath under the running water (which he turned on).
• figured out the latch on the baby gate door and made it halfway up the stairs before he was caught!
• LOVES the train table upstairs!  Yes!  Bringing it back to life!  Owen and Mason have been over it for some time now.
• is still learning words faster than we can keep track and is starting to put 2 words together.  Today I heard 'syoo off.'  Not sure if he was telling me it came off, or letting me know he wanted it off/was taking it off.  Either way,the shoe was half off of his foot.
• likes pretending to take everyone's temperature via their ear (usually with an empty medicine syringe), or he will pretend to squirt saline up people's noses, including his own AND the dog's, with a saline can he confiscated (don't worry, he can't actually work it, and besides, it's saline!).
• is working on learning patience.  The poor kid gets frustrated that his Eggo waffle isn't ready the minute it comes out of the freezer.  I know, first world problems.  The other day, instead of fretting about me putting it in the toaster, he looked at me with wide eyes and said 'cookin' with the same inflection in his voice that I've said it to him.  It was adorable!
• adores blueberries and very clearly calls them by name.
• tries to wipe his own rear end.  Thankfully it isn't during diaper changes!  This usually happens when I sit him up on the changing table.  He can reach the wipes when he's sitting up, so he'll grab one and reach around behind himself and start wiping his bottom.  
• hollers for his best buddies Owen (says this one pretty clear), Mason (hasn't quite mastered pronouncing this one yet), and Emma (easy peasy).
• is unbelievably good at mimicking our words.  He doesn't retain them as new vocabulary words necessarily, but he will repeat with undeniable clarity (and the same inflection) a 4 or 5 word phrase that someone just said.  
• likes to take cuddle or quick hug breaks with Mommy in the midst of playing.  He will run over toward where I'm sitting with a big grin and his hands outstretched.  
• lays down on his 'piwow' pet with a big grin, which lasts all of 2 seconds.  Literally.
• can step down a single step without using his hands or backing down on his belly.  Can almost step up a single step but usually puts his hands down once he's gotten both feet up the step.  Too much momentum I guess.
• notices, and does not like when someone takes his toy.  Especially his 'Makeen' (Lightning McQueen) cars.  Even if he's set it down, if he plans to come right back to it and it is missing, the kid goes bananas!  
• enjoys bringing you one of the boys' iPods so he can watch Baby Einstein.  He started out calling them 'bipods' but now he calls them by their correct name.  The iPad is also lugged to us for games/movies (we have it in a kid case) which is also called an iPod.
• gets a kick out of brushing his teeth, especially when you let him hold the tooth brush!