17 Months Old

As of yesterday, Jack is 17 months old. Here is a brief snapshot of his life and abilities today:

• His favorite toy is his little lawn mower. He takes it all over the house.


• He still loves his blanket. If he sees it, he runs over, throws himself down on it and rolls around with his face buried in it. I have to distract him so I can put it away.
• He still loves the sink in the master bathroom, climbs up on the tub to get to the counter where he can climb into the sink so he can get wet. Stuart even removed the faucet handles, but that doesn't stop him. He figured out how to turn it on from the base (which takes some force) and drenches himself in the sink. When he is bored with that, he walks over to the medicine cabinet to help himself to goodies.
• He loves to get out the pot holder, put it on, and then open the oven.


• He has outgrown his flexible little baby shoes. We went and bought 2 new pairs of big kid shoes. They were a size 7.5 and 8 respectively!
• He is obsessed with the garbage can. It's making me crazy. He throws things into it and takes trash out of it all the time.


• He can open anything. This includes our drawers, the cabinets, my tube of mascara (not easy to clean up by the way) and even child-proof caps. Very scary stuff.
• He has learned how to lock the back door. It was funny when Stuart was trying to grill salmon Monday night. Each time he went outside to check on the fish, Jack would lock him out of the house.
• He won't stop putting things in his mouth: rocks, Desitin, shoes, whatever he finds.
• He is obsessed with the car. He loves to sit in the driver seat and pretend to drive. He even loves sitting in the garage and just exploring the inside of the car. However, when he mistakenly hits the car horn, he runs and jumps in my lap and holds real still with his head against me. I have taken him to the park on more than one occasion where he was more interested in our car then in the playground equipment. After trying to keep him from running back to the car to play in it multiple times, I gave up and took him home.
• He still isn't talking--at least not so I can understand him. He seems to hold whole conversations with me that are another language. He will repeat some words we say to him when he is in the mood to do so, but there are few words he will say spontaneously on his own: daddy, mom (which still applies to more than just me,) kitty (tee tee,) gog (dog,) and of course, no. I'm beginning to worry about this. Shouldn't he be saying more? Seriously? How about something useful, like drink, food, bite, more, done, etc?
• He does this thing lately, where he spins in circles, stomping his feet as he goes. It is his own little happy dance. We just love it.

All in all, he is one crazy, adorable baby.