16 months

In just a couple of days Jackson Philip will be 16 months old- that is nearly a year and a half if you do the math. A year and a half-old doesn't seem that far from being a baby, but if you know my little man, you would know that he is far into toddler-hood, bordering on manhood at times. He has enough personality for someone three times his size and he continues to brighten our every day, pushing us to be the best we can be for the sake of being the best possible example for him. Because time is going too quickly and because he evolves so much every day, here is a rundown of Jackson as we know him today, at 16 months:


-He has inherited many things from me and many things from Dan, but one thing is for sure... he has my independence. He yearns to do as much as possible for himself, studying how we do things so that the next time around he won't need as much help. 


-His vocabulary continues to grow- a few of the things he says: mama, dada, nanna, poppy, mamaw, papaw, bubba, "dan" (for Uncle Jordan), sammy, ling-a-ling-a (for Bing), bye bye, night night, diaper, up, help, no, yes, waffle, pears, apple, banana, more, down, outside, wagon, tree, dog, cat, shoe, sock, juice, milk, mail, truck, baseball, ball, block, pray, church, amen, baby, hooray, uh-uh, oops... and others I'm forgetting at the moment.


-He does sounds for dogs, cows, chickens, monkeys, pigs, sheep and points to his ears, hair, tongue, nose, eyes, hands, feet, belly. He mimics frogs (sticks his tongue in and out) and when you ask him what monkeys eat he tells you proudly, 'bananas.'


-He shows you how to close your eyes (dramatically, of course), if you ask him to smile he cheeses it up as big as possible and if you say "It's nice to meet you, Jackson" he extends his hand out to shake yours. All hilarious, making Dan and I crack up every time, which he, of course, just eats up. 


-He loves prayer time at dinner- often initiating it himself, extending his little hands out and saying "pray"- I'm not sure if God would be so pleased because Dan and I concentrate more on how cute and funny it is to watch his serious little face as we pray out loud instead of looking down and focusing on the prayer, but he appropriately finishes with an "amen" along with us. 


-He loves to be outside and gets offended when Dan is outside working and we are inside playing when it's too hot or rainy out. Wagon rides are his favorite, especially his daily one with Dan to get the mail. He thinks getting the mail is his job and is pretty possessive of it when he brings it into the house. He walks around with the stack of mail for awhile and then when he decides it's time he will hand it over to me, but don't you dare try looking through the mail until he has given you permission! 


-We still don't allow Jackson to watch television and don't plan to do so until he's at least 2, if even then, but he has caught on to the fact that baseball (the Reds) are on the TV a lot lately. It's pretty much the only thing we watch when Jackson is awake so the naive little guy thinks that the TV is made for baseball and points to the TV and says "baseball" even if a commercial is on. 


-His favorite things to play with are his wagon, blocks, balls and reading books. There are some days when I have to remind myself how much I always wanted him to love books as much as we do in order to keep my patience when I am reading a book for the 10th time in a row. The boy has his favorites and insists on reading them over and over. Beyond his toys, he is just as happy to sit down and figure out how to put lids on his cups and dishes- you can almost see his mind working out loud, learning how things go together- that would be the Dan and Papaw in him. 


-He and Sammy continue to have a love-hate relationship- he LOVES "mammy" and Sammy sometimes loves him back, although Ihe's more annoyed with Jackson 80% of the time. Jackson chases him around, laughing, thinking that they are best buddies but not realizing that Sammy doesn't so much love it when Jackson pulls his hair, body-slams him or "hugs" him. But, JP makes up for his rough play when he gives Sammy more treats than he needs. 


-JP lets us know when he needs his diaper changed- making the "yucky" sound and then proceeding to go into his bedroom to get a diaper out. We have been talking about the 'big boy' potty and reading potty training books to him so he begins to understand the concept. I was hoping to wait until I am on maternity leave to potty-train him, but he may actually be ready to begin sooner, but we'll see how it goes. 


-I am continuously amazed at how much of what we say to him he understands. We made it into a little game a couple of weeks ago- I write down on index cards words of things around the house and then I read it to him and he takes the card and places it on the object (for example, I will write down "diapers" and he will take the card and put it in his diaper drawer. I'm hoping this will help him begin to connect the verbal words he understands with the written forms. 


-He and Dan are best buddies. Dan claims that he is now Jackson favorite. I correct him in saying that now he and I are just tied for his favorite, but either way they have a lot of fun together playing. 


I'm sure there are so, so many things that I'm forgetting to document, but the moral of the story is that there are no words to describe how much we love you, Jackson. No words to explain to you how much richness you bring to our every day and how in awe we are of you every day as you continue to grow and learn and emerge naturally into the person you were intended to be. We love you forever!