20 Months

It is the 20th of the month and Jake is 20 months old. It was a beautiful, sunny day (a glimpse of spring!) and we spent time playing outside.
He loves his boots -- he asks to wear them instead of his shoes, but the boots are only for outside play.
Playing inside the bucket.
Dirt, anyone?
Tonight was a total lunar eclipse. This is the shot I took from our upstairs window. The moon was a coppery color. Very beautiful.
At 20 months Jake is certainly becoming more of his own person. He insists on doing many things himself, or while helping us help him. He loves to put the dishes with the cat's food on the floor and also pick up the dishes when the cats have cleaned their plates. His communication and understanding grow on a daily basis. He is much more sure-footed on both smooth and rough terrian, can run, and is starting to figure out jumping. He can go down a step or two just holding onto one of our hands, rather than 2. One of the best things has been how snuggly he's become, giving us lots of hugs, and choosing to spend time being held, with his head on Daddy's or my shoulder. He hasn't been entirely tantrum-free, but they are usually short lived and infrequent and mostly caused when he can't have something he wants. He eats well most days, and some of his favorite foods right now are kiwi, crackers, grapefruit, smoked salmon, V8, brown rice, and avocados. At Jake's request, music is pretty much constantly playing at our house. He has a broad and growing CD collection, but is now able to tell us which ones are his favorites and when to play them (repeatedly). Sometimes we put in a CD, he listens, and then tells us to 'stop' the CD because he doesn't like it. We're really enjoying being with him as he grows...

This is Jake 1 year ago, February 2007.