J is for J

J is for Toddler J, of course. Today's post will be a bullet list of some of his current cutenesses...

--J has begun to say "oh-tay" instead of okay, like he is some character out of an old tv show, the character's name and the show's name escape me now but you know the one I mean, right?

--J's skills with language have grown immensely since he finally decided he wanted to talk, but, of course, we are still in the mostly interpretive communication stage. I often find myself saying "I don't know what that is" after he emphatically asks for something and if he's feeling cooperative, he will go and get or point to said item, letting me know. However, if he's feeling out of sorts, he will just yell the same thing over and over again, as if that will help me figure it out. Then I tell him the sad truth: "J, at this point I am the person who understands you the best; if I don't get it, no one will. So I would advise you to help me figure you out, oh-tay?" Surprisingly, this logical, rational response doesn't always help the situation!

--J's current favorite foods are chocolate milk, pretzels, cupcakes, ice cream, chocolate pudding, strawberries, watermelon, and ham. He also enjoys the raisins in raisin bran. Not the flakes, mind you, just the raisins, please.

--J likes to request a "bite" every morning. He means vitamin, Flintstone's gummy variety, and he would eat a whole bottle if we let him. His vocabulary has developed oddly, actually. He still doesn't say certain seemingly common words like food (though yes to "eat") but instead can say such useful words as "castle" and "dino." Why, no one knows!

--J is in love with our friend Becca, whom he calls "Caca." She is sweet to allow him to call her something that sounds so unflattering!

--J loves planes, trains, and automobiles...and construction vehicles and boats and motorcycles and emergency vehicles and police cars and buses and big trucks and...you get the idea.

--J is still little enough to get scared at random moments. The other day we were out by the airport when a big military transport plane was landing. They were coming in quite low, right over where we were parked, and normally this would be a very exciting development, but when J looked up and saw how close they were and how much closer their trajectory was putting them, he turned his head to the side and buried it in his stroller, convinced for all the world that we were about to be smashed by jet. Another day recently he was watching Chicken Run with the husband and sat there on the husband's lap quite contentedly, even laughing at times, until I happened to walk by and stop to see what was going on, at which point he grabbed onto me, clutching me for dear life, and asking me to sit right next to them. He was enjoying the movie, clearly, but he wasn't QUITE sure about these chickens and needed some reinforcements.

--J now, at long last, after much work on the husband's part, says "wuv wu" when I tell him goodnight before the husband reads him stories and sings songs before J goes to bed. It's VERY cute!