Jake @ 25 months

So far, two years old is possibly my favorite stage because despite the clash of wills, I love to see his personality developing in everything he does. He's old enough to be involved in almost everything we're doing and appreciate doing fun things. Lately one of his favorite pastimes is drawing on his magnetic drawing board and proudly announcing what he drew with "wook Mommy, wook!" His repertoire consists mainly of circles, the letter J, castles or train tracks. Anytime he plays with playdoh or builds something he'll announce that he's made a castle. The other day at lunch he pressed two slices of cheese together and proudly declared even that a castle.

And I definitely love to listen to him talk because his pronunciations are so funny. Every day Jake says something new that cracks me up. Like when he told my mom over FaceTime (and later our neighbors) that "Daddy play basetball [basketball] alllllll day." I laughed so hard when he started using the phrase "alllll day" that now he totally hams it up every time, squinting his eyes and tilting his head off to the side. He draws out his syllables like a true Southerner when he knows he's being funny.

^straight hammin' at lunch

 His responses to me lately are always either "No Mommy no!" or "Aaaaayyyy-k", with quick little "nope!"s thrown in there to mix it up.

While Sarah was here, she taught him the word "caboose" while we watched the train at the park but he pronounces it "camoose". Tomatoes in the garden are "tomaynos" and vegetables are "bestables".

^ever so helpful while Dad fixes the dryer

We've recently begun helping him pray before bed (which he refers to as "talk to Dod") and soon after that we were drawing with chalk on the driveway and he asked me to draw God....right buddy, I'll just whip that one up for ya.

^he's always enjoyed putting silverware away but now that he's got a stool to see over the edge, 

he was occupied for at least five minutes rearranging everything

One morning as I was driving him to his weekly playdate at his friend's house, I told him I was going to miss him. He promptly replied, "No Mommy, I go to Bryn's house."

^free smoothie day!

While he ate a granola bar in the kitchen, a chunk dropped on the floor so I told him to put it in the trash. He said "Nope, I eat it!" and plunked it into his mouth. No big deal at home, but he's gotten into this habit out in public too...yikes.

^cooking/baking lessons are starting!

Jake seems to be slowly coming out of his introvert shell lately, chatting up friends of ours that he used to ignore. Its like he's just bursting at the seams when he talks to anyone but us because suddenly he's stuttering like crazy as he tries to get all those thoughts out as fast as he can. And our friends smile away as they attempt to understand him, but no one usually catches anything but "train" or "Daddy" over and over again.

^he loves to see himself in the mirror after baths, usually yelling "baby 'rito [burrito]!"