Jones is 22 Months Old, or, What's Going on With Jones in February!

Jones is 22 months old!

Who, me?

At 22 months, Jones:

• Weighs around 30 pounds, wears a size 5 diaper, size 18-24 months and 24 months clothes, and some 2T, size 5 and size 6 shoes (depends on the shoe), and I have no idea how tall he is.  People comment that he's a tall baby, but I don't know ... he comes up to near the top of my thigh.

• Went through a growth spurt at the beginning of the month, I think, because for awhile he was all about cleaning his plate at mealtimes and then requesting, "More!", or needing a snack before dinner.  One night he ate his entire dinner of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and spinach, and then turned around and ate two yogurts and half a cup of milk before bed.  This little interlude didn't last long (lending credence to my theory that it was a growth spurt), and we're back to not caring anything about food at all.  He scarfs down his breakfast in the morning, and it's still his favorite meal of the day. The other night we had breakfast for dinner and he thought that was about the coolest thing ever.  Favorite foods:  spinach (we're off of broccoli, back to spinach), salmon (he eats an entire single serving package of salmon on his own), mashed potatoes, roast chicken, carrots (if I make him the carrot/pea/corn/green bean mixture (and by "make" I mean, "microwave the Steamfresh bag"), he'll pick out all of the carrots and eat them first), oatmeal ("Oats!"), pancakes, yogurt, Nutrigrain bars (always - "Bar! Bar!"), and marshmallows ("Marshy!").

Chowing down on some PB & J

You know how they say that some folks like peanut butter and some like the jelly?  Jones is a jelly man.

• Loves his tricycle ("My bike!  Bike, bike bike!") but still doesn't pedal it.  He just skims his feet on the floor and zooms all over the house.  Loves his Cozy Coupe ("Car!") and attempts to get in it anytime we head out to the garage (which is where it is staying 'til warm weather arrives).  Loves books, and wants to read with you - his four favorites right now are one entitled Colors that folds out and has (obviously) lots of different things in different colors.  Apparently, his favorite color is orange; the second favorite is a book called Shapes, and I have to say he's pretty good with identifying the basic shapes - circle, square, triangle (which, hilariously, he often calls pizza because that's the picture that goes with triangle in the book), heart, and star.  The third favorite is entitled Moo, Baa, La La La, and is pretty cute - it's all about animal noises.  He loves for Alan to read it to him because Alan really gets into making the noises realistic and Jones just grins and giggles and imitates the animals right along with him - it's super cute.  The fourth favorite, maybe the most favorite, is his bedtime book, Goodnight Baby, which has farm animals and all of their babies, and you put the baby animals in their beds.  We have to read this two or three times at bedtime, and I think Alan and I have just about got it memorized at this point.  Side story:  when I was little, my mom would read to me and would, occasionally, attempt to skip pages in order to hurry bedtime along.  Much to her chagrin, I had memorized almost all of the books, so when she would try this covert action, I would always grab her hand and make her turn it back to the page she was trying to skip and read it.  If our experience with Goodnight Baby is any indication, I think we can look forward to Jones also memorizing his favorites and accepting no substitutions.

• Talks more and more every day.  It's still hard to understand some of it, but a lot of it is clear.  He asks for hugs (so sweet, but beware:  the other day, he crawled up in my lap and was snuggling me, arms around my neck, just really giving me some good lovin' and then, all of a sudden, the little toot hauled off and bit me on the shoulder.  Bit me hard, too - it left a bruise.  I yelled out of a combination of shock and pain, and that scared him (and Alan), so maybe he won't do it again (he also got a talking-to about how we don't bite people)).  He can count to five, and he loves to identify animals and tell you what sound they make - horses, cows, and lions are are favorite animals to imitate ("What does the lion say?"  "Rrrroooaaarrrr!"  Too cute!), and he can also do chicken, rooster, sheep, dog, cat (he calls the cat a "meow-meow"), snake, zebra (although we don't really have a sound for the zebra, but he can identify one), monkey, duck, and pig.  He's also a big fan of trucks, cars, trains, and planes, and loves to roll them all around the floor and on any surface that can handle wheels.  He also loves to draw and color, and his favorite writing implement is a pen (he takes them illicitly from the desk while no one is looking), which we take away as soon as we see he has one, and give him crayons.  He likes the crayons okay, but he feels they are inferior to the power of the ink pen.

• Loves Mickey Mouse, and can identify all of the main characters in the Clubhouse.  It's the only show that he actually sits down and watches.  He also loves the Little Einsteins, I think primarily because of their catchy theme song.  Still a big fan of PBS, especially Curious George, The Cat in the Hat, Dinosaur Train, and Sesame Street.  He likes to ride his tricycle around the room and watch cartoons - multi-tasking, toddler-style - with all of these shows except for Mickey Mouse.  Mickey Mouse requires all of his attention.

He's annoyed with me taking his picture while he tries to watch Mouse.

Entranced by the antics of Mouse and the Clubhouse

• Wants to do a lot of things on his own:  brush his hair, brush his teeth, put on his socks and shoes ... he doesn't really like to hold my hand and walk, he wants to walk by himself or be carried (one extreme or the other), but we're working on that - he's really too much for me to carry if I have anything else in my hands!
• Shoes are still our favorite item of clothing.  On the weekends, he wakes up and has to put on his shoes with his pajamas.  It makes him so happy :o).

I had to add these pics of Jones and Alan, because they look so cute, and their outfits are coordinated :o)

• Is precious, in every way.