Jack: 21 Months Old

On the 22nd, Jack turned 21 months old. Although Jack will now smile for pictures, he doesn't have the patience to sit still long enough for me to take more than a couple of shots, so I only have a few to mark this milestone. Here are some of my favorite things about Baby Jack:

He is the most talkative in the morning. He carries on long conversations that we don't understand. He gets up close to your faces, makes sure you are looking him right in the eye, and then he chatters away. Then, he pauses for our response, and no matter what we say in return, he says "no" and runs away. Every time!
My favorite time of the day is just before his nap. After lunch, I carry him to his room for his nap (about 11:15-11:30am every day--I know it's early, but he is ready by then.) This is when he is the absolute cutest. He snuggles into me and giggles. He also is suddenly very ticklish when I try to change his diaper. He lights up when I lay him down with his blanket and happily plays in his crib for a few minutes before falling asleep. I almost hate to put him down.

He loves letters, although he doesn't know what they are yet. We watch Super Why together almost everyday and he repeats the letters as they spell out words. He LOVES the show. We went to a craft store last week and when I walked past an aisle of wooden letters, he got very excited. He wanted to hold them all and he kept calling out letters (although they didn't match up to the ones he was holding.)
He will say most words, provided he is prompted first, but still offers little on his own that we understand. One of my favorites is "jew" (juice.) This applies to all drinks.
We are working on please and thank you. He only says please when prompted, but he will say thank you on his own, usually before he gets what he wants, so I don't think he understands the difference between the two. If I ask him, "what do you say?" when he wants something, his response is "say." Oh well, we will keep working on this one.

He loves his dad so much. When his dad leaves for work in the morning, he says good-bye and isn't upset at all. (What can I say? The boy loves routine.) However, if Stuart comes home during the day, leaves in the evening, or if we stop by his office to visit, Jack becomes hysterical at the idea of leaving his dad. He will cry like his heart is breaking, with big sobs as he gulps for air. Last week we went to Pei Wei for dinner and Jack went nuts when Stuart went to the bathroom. It was so bad, I had to take Jack to the men's room and stand outside the door and wait so that he would calm down.