Jake - 23 months

A little late on this one.   We were at the beach when he turned 23 months old, 7/23.

It's unreal how fast Jake's vocabulary is growing.  He is learning new words every single day.  He will try to repeat most things you say (if he's in the mood), and has really started repeating words he hears in our conversations.  He repeated a really bad word, and I mean the big terrible, I said while driving the other day, which really made me realize that I. HAVE. GOT. TO. WATCH. MY. MOUTH.  I didn't even acknowledge that he said it because, if I had, he would probably still be saying it. 

I always like to count things in front of him so he will become familiar with numbers and counting.  If we say "one", he'll say "twooooo".  Right now he's stuck on the numbers 8 and 9.   He'll line stuff up and say, "eeeiiig", niiiiigh, NIGH!"  I love it.

He is in a solid size 3T clothes, but still fits in 2T's, too.  If buying from Target, which I mostly do, I am now buying 4T because they shrink and he'll grow into them.  He's wearing size 7 shoe, but they're getting more and more snug.  The next pair will be an 8.  He's in size 6 diaper.
I very rarely put him in Jon Jon's anymore.  He wore two at the beach, one because of the heat and one for pictures, but I'm almost ready to retire them all together, I think.  I think kids of a certain age/size look creepy dressed like that.  Makes me sad, though, because nothing is cuter than a little toddler running around in a Jon Jon in the summer time.

He is becoming more picky about foods, especially vegetables.  I still like to offer them, but I'm not pushing it.  He'll come back around.  He loves fruit and is a good eater, otherwise.  One problem, though, is that he asks for snacks all day long.  I like to give him an afternoon snack (and a morning one if he asks for it).  He eats plenty at meals, so I don't think he needs more than 2 snacks, but I guess he just loves to eat.  He is also a little too into juice right now. I have never loved him to have anything other than water (and milk), but I'm ok with him having some (very) diluted juice once a day.  Mostly I don't like it because the more of that stuff he has, the less he wants to drink plain water, which is not ok.  Plus it's a waste of calories and sugar, neither of which big boy needs.  We got into some bad habits on vacation, so we're trying to get back to normal.

Jake now requests to have his back tickled when I'm tucking him in at night.  I tickled it the other week trying to get him to settle down and he loved it.  I completely understand, as my dad used to tickle my back every night when I was little and I still like to have it tickled.  Jake will say, "uh, back" and lay down while pulling up the back of his shirt.  Lord, what did I start? :)

He still naps twice most days (except at Bea's) and goes to bed around 6:30.  He wakes around 6:30/6:45.

He is in a hitting phase again.  Time outs don't seem to make a difference and neither does "spanking" (slapping his hands).  He is STUBBORN.  I'm thinking we should just try completely ignoring it and see how that works.

This is such a challenging stage, but also so, so fun.  I swear Jake makes me laugh so hard every day.  He has the funniest facial expressions.

I cannot believe he'll be two in less than a month!