Thing the First: Jim's new favorite activity is watching videos of himself as a baby. I don't think he realizes that it'ts him, but he still loves the videos and specifically requests them by signing 'baby.' The best ones, of course, are the ones with me or Noah in them, too. He will look around all important-like and sign 'dad' or say 'ma ma!' It's terribly cute.
Rowdy boy bumped his head.
Thing the Second: He now requires crib buddies. Before every nap or bedtime, he goes around his room and takes up a collection of favored objects to sleep with him. Lately it's been a couple books, a truck or two, and all of his stuffed animals. Fortunately he's left the phase he was in two weeks ago, in which he insisted on taking a potato or two with him each night. (not a Mr. Potatohead or any such thing - an actual raw potato) He's very insistent about how these things are to be arranged, too. If you move one, he'll put it back where he put it. One time I put in an additional book. As soon as I laid him down, he popped right back up, threw the offending tome out of his crib, and lay back down to sleep.
Thing the Third: He's starting to try to play one parent off the other, I think. When it's just me, he's fine. When it's just Noah, he's fine. But when he's with both of us at once, he's a monster. Usually, he's all about MAMA. If Noah so much as touches him, he dissolves into hysterics. If he does something he knows he shouldn't, he immediately runs to me and grabs my legs. On the occasions where Noah gets to him first and tells him not to do X, he puts on his best pitiful face and starts shouting "MAMA! MAMA!" We try not to laugh, but it's hilarious and cute. Our usual solution is for me to just leave. The second I'm out of sight and he's forced to contend with Dad, he's perfectly happy again.
He's started using his angry eyes in earnest occasionally.
General things: Jim is overall becoming very contrary. His favorite words are "no" and "uh uh," both frequently coupled with violent shaking of the head. He doesn't like to share, and he doesn't like to relinquish anything. If you tell him not to do something, he'll keep doing it while chanting "no no no." I think we're maybe beginning the legendary terrible twos. He's still pretty cute though, so I guess we'll keep him anyway.
Oh, speaking of favorite words, he's starting to talk more. His words right now are: cereal, honey, cheese, please, hi, bye-bye, mama, hat, hot, candy cane, and george (Curious George, to be precise). He can do 15-20 animal noises, plus noises for a wide variety of things with motors. He also knows a ton of signs, too many to list. We have four or five sign books, and he knows all the signs in at least two of them. I know he's still behind in terms of words (a 2-year-old is supposed to have around 50, I believe), but I think he's doing pretty well. Can you guys believe he's going to be two next month?
