Summer Time...

So this post will be a little sporadic, so try and stay with me. I don't really have one thing to write about, so thought I would just do a little "what we've been up to" post. Jake is still growing like a weed getting taller and taller!!

Yep, that's the 3ft. red line at his head.

(As you can see he wasn't real thrilled about standing for a picture)

He is pretty sure he is part monkey and climbs and swings from anything he can reach!!

I can't say that his height is working to our advantage, HA! He enjoys being able to see onto tables, cabinets and drawers. Unfortunately he thinks that means anything within reach is fair game. He gets to hear the word "no" quite a bit.

He is still our little helper. I can't get out the duster, broom, or vacuum without allowing him to help. We have two of everything so that Mommy can have one, and Jake can have one. He's actually pretty good when it comes to dusting and descent with a vacuum (small bissel of course). He also likes to help clean out his little pool and water table. You won't see this Mommy complaining!

He still LOVES being outside and having friends over to play. We've gone to the big pool a few times, but since I'm by myself I haven't been able to get any pictures or videos :-( He's pretty cute in his life jacket. He LOVES to jump off the side. I still haven't taken him COMPLETELY under the water, but pretty close. That's just Mommy's fear, not Jake's. He doesn't seem to have a bone of fear in his body when it comes to things like that. He's working on learning to ride his tricycle since his legs are finally long enough to reach the pedals. He still likes to just scoot himself along, but is getting better with the pedals each time we go out. He'll be taking off before we know it!

One of his favorite INDOOR places to go to is the science spectrum and of course Jumpin' Jungle. I've just got one video of him going down the big slide at Jumpin' Jungle. He thinks he's pretty big and can conquer anything the big kids can. In this video he's trying to copy how the big kids went down on their back. He laid back a little too far and had to scoot up to slide down, silly boy, he's a hoot. Sometimes I wish I could video him all day so I could share the joy and laughter that he brings to me even on the toughest days. He's starting to say more and more, "Ahh Man!" is his favorite phrase... but I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the science spectrum, he still LOVES to go see the choo-choo's and now the airplane room. He will spend a majority of his time there.

We're not potty training yet, but we're thinking about tackling that after his 2nd birthday in October, still warm enough to run around outside in his birthday suite! We're not in any big hurry, but think, hey, if we can save money on diapers, that would be AWESOME!

As for his speech he's "talking" more and more. He has a little over 100 words that I can understand and about 35 that the general public could understand. He's starting to put two words together. "Bye-Bye Daddy", "Daddy Work", "Bye-Bye Joe-Joe", "I crash", "More please", "Chocolate Milk" and a few more.

I was actually concerned about his speech and had ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) come out. It's a FREE service to ANYONE to have them come out and do an evaluation. They handle, speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy and I'm sure a lot more. So they came out last week and "evaluated" Jake. Needless to say he didn't qualify. He is 22 months old; his expressive speech (how well he communicates with others) he was performing at 26 months. His receptive speech (how well he understands others/follows directions, etc) he was performing at 34 months. MOMMY BRAGGING RIGHTS... He's a smart cookie!! He amazes me everyday at what he understands. I thought this was pretty funny; they put a little monkey inside a circle and asked him to get the monkey out of the circle... so he picked up the circle and moved it out of the way, HA! The therapists thought that was pretty funny too. He is a THINKER. You can see the wheels moving in his head. Another thing they did was get out dolls and ask him to get the Mommy, Daddy, Baby, etc., he did that with no problem. Then they asked him to give them the Daddy's little girl, he did that. Then asked him where the little girl's Daddy was, he chose correctly. They tested him on his understanding of position words like on top of, behind, under, etc. He identified all the primary colors (blue, red, orange, yellow, green, and also white and purple).  They asked him to hand him the block that was bigger and smaller and he got that correct. Then had him sort the circles and squares and he did that. He put shape puzzles together and stacked 7 small blocks. I REALLY enjoyed having them out. I could go on and on bragging, but I'll stop there. Have I mentioned how he absolutely AMAZES me every day?!?

This video is pretty long and taken a month or so back. He speech would be more clear if he wasn't eating the whole time. It's just that the highchair is the only place he sits still long enough for me to get any kind of video of him talking. This is more for me to have, watch if you have a few extra minutes.

His newest thing is jumping off his bed... STRESSES THIS MOMMY OUT!!



I'm sure there is a lot I've left out, but I'll end here for now. To sum it up, Jake is such a blessing to us EVERY day! He really is a good boy. He has his moments of pushing boundaries, but all in all behaves very well. I've implemented a picture schedule to help us get through the day and mostly help him know when it's TV time and when it's not. He LOVES his DVD's. His favorites are Thomas, Dinosaur Train, Curious George, and Cars. He would watch shows all day if I would let him.

I am so blessed to be able to stay home with Jake every day. We have so much fun together and I love to see him grow and change every day. I wish I could document it all! I hope you have enjoyed the photos and videos of our ALMOST 2 year old. Oh, and by the way, we are NOT speaking the "terrible two's" over our boy. So you won't see a post titled "The Terrible Two's" Just sayin'.