Cheap Tricks

My baby is not so much a baby anymore, he's slowly turning into a toddler. I don't know how I feel about this. One the one hand, I love him being independent and mobile. On the other, I don't. I'm sort of sad he's so big and grown up all of the sudden. He's learning new tricks faster than I keep up with him.

He's now an efficient up the stairs climber. Up only. He hasn't figured out how to climb down, only fall down. But the falling down doesn't stop him from going up. As much as I wish it did.



The other day we were outside playing and I had left the back door wide open because, you know, I'm ghetto like that. (This is not new news.) After a few minutes of doing I don't remember, I looked around and couldn't find him. Apparently he'd decided he was done playing outside and had crawled in the house, gone up the stairs and was in Ben's room playing with the train set. Mr. Independent, off to find something to do on his own. I love it and hate it at the same time.

He's climbing up more than just stairs. He climbs up whatever he can and cruises along furniture and walls like crazy. He's even just barely started to walk with his truck.



He said his very first word a few days ago (other than mama and dada). It was Benny. He said it four times in a row and hasn't said it since. But I'm still counting it!

He loves to help me weed the flowerbeds. Well, he tries anyway. And by try, I mean he just rips the tops of the flowers off and then tries to dispose of the evidence by eating them. And yet I'm always wondering why his poo is so often funny colored... (TMI, sorry.)

He can flush the toilet. I'm thinking that's pretty advanced stuff considering Ben still doesn't flush the toilet unless told to.

He likes to play chasing games. I say, "Jake, where are you going?" and he turns around, gives me the funniest grin (all his grins are funny, really), squeals really loud and then takes off as fast as he can in the other direction. Then he squeals again when I catch him. We do this mostly at bed and nap time when I set him down on the floor to straighten out his blankets. It's almost like he's trying to get away from going to sleep...

He helps me unload the dishwasher. Sometimes he even climbs on the door to get to the top shelf. He's such a helper.



This is big news. He can now beat up his brother. This is Ben losing a wrestling match to Jake the Pincher. This is what I get to live with for the rest of my existence: fighting boys. Are you so jealous?



And his very newest trick, just of the last few days, is standing! He can stand on his own for just a few seconds at a time, but I'll take it. He's getting so big!



Do you love his sticky body? We may or may not been having a Naked Popsicle Party in the backyard tonight.



He's still obviously learning how to correctly eat a popsicle. But that's no trick I'm in a hurry for him to learn. It's just to cute watching him eat it all wrong!