So long, summer

I've thoroughly enjoyed this summer, spending our mornings at the park, visiting the zoo with friends, and floating around friends' pools. Jake's changed so much from his birthday at the beginning of the summer to now, from a baby to a 'kid'. But man am I anxious for fall to really hit so we can spend both our mornings and afternoons outside, rather than biding our time indoors until the afternoon heat waves pass (plus, Jake's got some seriously cute sweaters once the temperatures drop enough!). We braved a not-quite-so-extreme heat wave the other day to "celebrate" the first day of fall at one of our favorite parks. 

16 months and the first fall day

I feel a bit like a traitor for wishing away summer after I about died waiting for it to come after last winter, but once that first fall-ish breeze comes there's no looking back. This Saturday was an honest to goodness perfect early fall day. Deric spent the morning at the golf course and Jake and I spent our morning in the backyard, coloring the patio (and ourselves) with chalk, cleaning up the garden beds and collecting sticks. We had the windows open, I baked chocolate chip cookies and fall decorations started to make their appearance. Of course, this week the temps are nice and high again but I have hope that fall is only weeks away! 

A little about Jake at 16 months:

These past couple months have been some of my favorites. He's such a perfect mix of baby and kid now, still cuddly before bed and babbling away,  but also putting on his own shoes (okay, just his Crocs, but still!) and becoming semi-successful with a fork. He mimics everything Deric does; I've even heard him mimic the cadence(?) of an entire sentence that Deric said. Jake walks with either one arm swinging wide or with  hands behind his back, belly stuck out to balance that big noggin of his. Just this week he's started to give me real kisses when I ask (which is every five minutes, poor kid) and he can pronounce "but(t)" as clear as day. We're so proud. 

little reader

Jake's interest in books has really taken off in the past few weeks. He looks at books more than he plays with any of his toys and will bring us books all throughout the day, grunting "uh? uh?" to us as he throws them in our lap and then tries to climb into the chair with us. Its interesting to see which books he becomes absorbed in, without turning the pages on us mid-sentence, and which books don't hold his attention past the first page before he's sliding back out of our laps to find a new book. Honest disclaimer: I filter any books that come in our house before Jake can read them, weeding out the annoying ones and any that have tons of animal sounds (except for Mr. Brown Can Moo, because from day one he would laugh out loud at that one) because I'd rather not have to make animal sounds 100+ times a day. Mother of the year.

A couple of his favorites: Hibernation Station, our first library book to suffer a casualty; The Snowy Day; Mr. Brown Can Moo; Little People Farm lift-the-flap; First 100 Words; The Pig on the Hill, and Lucy's Red Wagon.

Since we make up all our own signs for words around here, I taught him one for 'book' and he's semi-mastered it, which is good enough because I'm really the only one who needs to understand what he means. See below..(I tried to teach him to put his hands together and fold them out like a open book, but he just does the second half of the sign. Like I said, good enough!)

Proud of himself after learning to standing the book upright...

I hope Jake's love for books sticks around (for obvious reasons, like earning those college scholarships) but also because books are wayyyy cheaper than toys. But most importantly, I sincerely hope he inherits my love for the Harry Potter series. Seriously. He'd better.