The Kenner Family: Jack 18 Months!

At Jack's 18 month check-up he weighed in at 28 lbs (the 72% percentile for his age) and measured 32 3/4 inches (the 64% percentile for his age.) He is a very healthy, happy, growing boy! Jack is officially a toddler, now that he basically RUNS everywhere! He's very talkative too and has the best manners, saying "pwease" and "dank choo" and now "scoose me" when ever appropriate. He also is a little heart melter with his "I wuv you's" and random "loves"(pats on the back) and kisses he gives. I couldn't even begin to tell you all the words Jack know's because he's a little mimic and copies everything you say.

Jack has started saying sentences though and the first one happened the other night. My mom and dad had stopped by right before bedtime and "Papa" was drawing on the magna doodle with Jack on his lap. Jack was telling him what do draw from "chop choo" to "car" and then Jack would erase them. Our cat was downstairs so my dad drew a cat and Jack very firmly said to him, "Cars, no baby meow!" It was SO funny! We all looked at each other like, "Did he really just say that?" He calls our little cat "baby meow" and I'd never heard him say a sentence so clearly before! Now it's been happening more frequently and I'm still caught off guard when there's no gibber gabber mixed in with his clear words/demands. One word/action Jack mixes up a lot though is Up and Down. He say's dowwwwn for down and dowwwwn? for up with a little question-like fluction at the end (you'd have to hear it to understand what I'm talking about). So we have to constantly remind him, "Do you mean Up?" and Jack thinks for a minute and then looks back at you and say's "UP!" You'd think by the millionth time it would click, but now I think it's become a game for him..

I started watching my friends baby Alex a few weeks ago and it's been a little peak into what our future will look like when we decide to have another baby. All has been mostly positive too, besides learning how to manage two children when they are screaming/crying at the same time, but it has been surprisingly smooth. I used to watch 5 children at the same time 4 under the age of 2....for some reason the more you have the easier it gets, sounds pretty ridiculous right? So having just 2 and wanting to split my time fairly between both has been harder than caring for 5 all at once. Anyways, Jack is SO helpful and gentle with Alex. He likes to bring his "baba" and "binktie" to him and it makes Alex smile SO wide having Jack close by. Jack also likes it when I turn off the swing and let him push alex himself (very softly) and he likes to bounce the bouncer FOR Alex. Jack never gets jealous either. When I'm bathing Alex or feeding him all he wants to do is help, he never wants to take the spot light off of me tending to the babies needs. It's so reassuring to see such a gentle loving nature in my little boy. He will make a wonderful big brother!

This weekend we went camping with my sister Heather and her Hall side of the family. She has 10 nieces and nephews and Jack had a BLAST playing with them in the dirt. He LOVES "rocks" and would climb to the top of a small hill to throw a rock, slide all the way back down to get the same rock and climb back up ALL day if we let him. He also just enjoyed wiping dirt all over his pants and hair and stuffing rocks into the cuffs of his pants and his pockets. Rylee, Heather's niece was pestering Jack all weekend telling him "No Jack-Jack!" about a million times and sometimes Jack would just ignore her and keep on with his adventures and other times he would be naughty and throw dirt at her or tell her "abijigagamina NO NO!" Like he was telling her to leave him alone. Being a defensive mom I kinda was a little bit proud that he knew how to stand up for himself, but also corrected him by telling him to "Be nice." & "Don't throw dirt." When Jack get's riled up and excited he starts jumping, throwing things, and sometimes biting (sorry auntie Heather). He just get's SO excited! When we have to correct him he get's really embarrassed and covers his face :( We then have him say "sorry" to the victim and give them a "hug". That's all I've really come up with so far on a form of "punishment" because he really doesn't understand time-out yet. The best we can do right now is remove him from the situation that's making him upset and have "quiet time" in his room until he can calm down. He has never bit another child, but I try to avoid wrestling because that's the only time he's ever bit anybody was when they were playing I'm just glad it's never been and aggressive act!

Jack is our little clown at home and Chris and I just laugh all the day long with that little boy. He helps keep things into perspective with how much JOY he brings us. Jack is just such a HAPPY boy and so accepting and loving of all of our family and friends. I swear his giggle could cure cancer with how infectious it is! Jack always wants to "elp" too, whenever i'm making dinner he is right there at my legs trying to climb up them so he can see what i'm making. I've started letting him stand on a chair so he can help stir or watch me chop. Jack is only scared of one thing; the garbage man. Whenever he hears the garbage man coming he finds me and is shaking all over. It's really sad :( he then reaches for me and we have to wave and watch the garbage man drive by, the whole time he's shaking, but unless I show him "It's just a BIG car." he seems to be scared longer. I also sometimes just find him staring out the front window waving a "cars" and watching for "aiwrpanes".

Jack is sleeping 12+ hours a night still and takes one 2 hour nap, (We are really lucky he does't wake up in the night!) We "brush teeth", read a book, our scriptures, and pray with him before "Nigh Nigh" and his little "maymen" after prayer is just too cute! He slept with Chris and I for the first time on our camping trip last weekend. We slept in a tent and he thought it was AWESOME, he kept saying "stars" and pointing to the top of the tent because we had just taught him about the stars and pointed out The Big Dipper. He went down with out a fight and it was so nice snuggling his warm body in-between us. (Won't make this a habit, but it was fun having a family sleepover). We keep busy with lots of trips to the Zoo, the library, Thanksgiving point etc. The past 18 months have been a blast! We Love you Jack!

Scheels day out