Two and a Half

I can honestly say we are never short on entertainment in our house. At two and a half, Jack is nonstop energy! He talks constantly. "Where are we going?" "What you going to do, Mom?" "Where's Target? Our house? Leavenworth?" (that was a fun car ride.) "What's that?" "Want to play with me, Mom?" He gives us the play by play about everything we're doing or going to do. And he always wants to know, "What we going to do first?" The other day he was talking on the phone to Brett (who is out of town) and told him, "We went to Haggen and to the burrito store, but the burrito store was closed so we went to the sandwich store." It was so cute that he remembered all that and then had to tell it to Daddy. Nothing gets past him. My favorite is when he wants us to give us his options. We ask him what he wants to eat and he'll say "Talk about it, Mom." And then he'll say, "What you going to have?" He's also quite the negotiator. We usually give him two options and he always comes up with his own. He's been having a little trouble going to bed lately, so we've been threatening to close his door (which he does NOT like.) He'll call from upstairs, "Mommy, just come up here and don't shut my door, ok?" like it's that easy. He also really listens to what we're talking about, even if we're not talking to him and he'll add his two cents. And he remembers everything we say, so we really have to do what we say we're going to do (or promise to do later) or there's a lot of explaining to do!

Daddy bought him his own shaving kit (not real, of course.)

He loves to play doctor and dentist right now and uses random stuff around the house as his tools. He'll pretend to clean our teeth, "It's pink. It tastes like strawberry" (in a sing-song voice). Or I'll get to be the doctor. "I'm sick." "What's wrong with you, Jack?" And he'll make something up. "My ear hurts" or "My tummy hurts." If Daddy's home, "Daddy, you're the doctor and Mommy, you're the nurse." He's quite the little dictator.

Lately, he's also been pretending to play with his Gramma and Poppe. His blue octopus is Gramma and his bear is Poppe. He carries them around, talks to them, plays blocks and reads to them. We even had to take them with us in the car and couldn't leave until they were strapped in! I draw the line at taking them into any stores with us or giving them baths, but it is very cute to watch him interact with his pretend grandparents. And he'll play for a long time with them so it's a great chance for me to get stuff done.

Playing blocks with Gramma and Poppe.

Strapped in the backseat.

Jack is still quite the cautious kid, but he's getting more adventurous. He is starting to like going down slides, but only if I'm right next to it and he loves to jump on the bed or jump from the ottoman to the couch. He just recently started jumping off the ottoman onto the floor. He's not your average rough and tumble boy, so whenever that side of him comes out, we really encourage it!

Climbing Daddy's ladder, using his hammer.

He loves to help out with pretty much whatever we're doing: washing dishes, cooking, baking, cleaning, making the bed, doing the laundry. He's able to help empty the dishwasher by putting the silverware away. Usually, he's not actually that helpful, but I'm glad he likes to do this stuff with us. And he could spend a long time looking at and playing with some of Daddy's tools. He's fascinated by them and loves to pretend to hang things on the wall or actually help change the batteries in a toy or flashlight.

Helping put together a shelf for the garage.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxdxrfffffhhghhsehjrfjhghghjfchkhjdhgggffdasazzxcxxsafgfhkjgfhgghhhhghggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggghghhhghhhhghgghghhggghhghghghgghgghgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhghghghhghhghghhhhhghghhhhhhhhhhhgghghhgghhghghhhhhhghghhg (Jack wanted to help me blog for a minute. Love this kid.)

Washing dishes.

Jack loves to have us play and interact with us. He does play by himself, but if it's up to him, he'd have 100% of our time and attention. The funniest things come out of his mouth when we're playing. We play Starbucks and he hands me my pretend coffee in the "brown thing" (sleeve) and says, "You need a doughnut for your kid?" "My kid?" I say, to which he responds, "Yeah, in the backseat. Your kid." (Maybe I should stop going through the drive-thru). Or I was making him a "pizza" and pretending to put cheese on it and he brings it back and says, "You missed a spot, lady." He absolutely loves playing with his cars, trucks and machines. He knows the names for everything (excavator, roller, skid steer, grader) and what they do. It's pretty impressive.

He's starting to figure out this Christmas thing. "It's almost Christmas time!" He'll say in a sing song voice. And he talks about it snowing and Santa coming (you know, all the true meanings of Christmas.) The funniest thing right now is when a Christmas commercial comes on. Specifically the Marshalls/TJ Maxx/Home Goods one. He pretty much stops whatever he's doing and comes running to watch it. We have our advent calender ready to go and are set to record some of the classic Christmas movies. I'm super excited to share all this with my little man.

I'm sure there are things that I've missed, but I've been trying to write this post for a couple of weeks now. It's so hard to put into words what my kiddo is like, but I love having it documented so I can (and he can too, someday) go back and remember what he was doing at all these milestones.  Oh, and my favorite thing right now, "Mom, I love you SOOOO much!" Oh, buddy, you are the best!