Birthday cake

Our little boy turned two today. Here is the birthday boy eating cake at Poppa and Nana's last week. Two year old update coming soon!

Jump

He can jump! He's been working on this lately and today is the first time he actually got it! I think he was more surprised than we were!

Tonight, like other nights, he needed the aid of his step stool to practice this skill. Facing me while standing on the step stool, he placed his right hand on my left and his left on my right, then talked himself through the jump: "Bend," he said as he bent down on his knees, "take a deep breath.... and jump." On that final word, he launched himself off the step stool and landed with a soft thud on the rug. He even remembered to bend his knees a little as he landed.

He did the jump with dad first, but Jon was not sure whether he lifted Dex off or if Dex pushed off on his own. He did it several times with dad, and by the time it was mommy's turn to watch, there was absolutely no doubt. He really, really did jump. Another skill to add to his list.

23 months

He is a little boy. As much as I still think he is my baby, I do get daily reminders that he is all grown up.

Last Saturday at lunch, we sat there eating our grilled cheese sandwiches from our own plates: Jon, me and Dex. He is pretty much self-sufficient at meal times now (some meals more than others). Sure, we still need to bib him and cover his lap to minimize the post-meal clean up, but he would sit there and eat his sandwich his way -- alternating between dipping it in ketchup before biting and digging out the cheese with his index finger, munching away until it gets down to the crusts that he then leaves uneaten on his plate. He even participates in the conversation -- telling us about backhoes and dump trucks, whatever random thought involving construction vehicles flit through his mind at the moment. He sits there chatting away, taking sips of milk from a glass to wash down his meal. If he wasn't sitting in a high chair and if his face wasn't smeared in ketchup and covered in bread crumbs, I could have sworn we were dining with a kid older than the 23-month old that he is.

Less than a month before his second birthday. He's still on the move. He's still growing like crazy. Highlights of the month:

- More words and phrases: now saying "I don't know," "probably," and "maybe."

- Using "I," "me," and "you" more often, interchangebly, but often used correctly.

- Experimenting with more present tense/past tense words (do and do-ed it, throw and throw-ed it) and singular/plural (mouse and mouses).

- Now eating grapes with peel. He's outgrown this allergy/sensitivity!

- He is working on his jump. He tries to push off with both feet but only succeeds in doing a silly tip toe step dance. He doesn't get the idea of having both feet off the floor at the same time. Not yet anyway. He's very close.

- Can take off his hat and gloves by himself but we need to work on removing the coat and boots.

- Potty training is going well. He's done both a number 1 and a number 2, but the number 2 was only at the daycare.

I'm sure there's more stuff to report, but I better post this now. It's been sitting in draft form for the last two weeks and he's having a birthday soon!