Jayson The Tornado

Things he's saying: 

Jayson talks constantly, not much coherent yet.  He tries to say strawberry, but gets tripped up on the extra syllables. He's been using the word "mine" a lot.  We catch occasional words/phrases like "whoah buddy," hi, bye, car, cat, hat, hot, Laura, Dora, dad (not da-da, not daddy), nana (banana), and of course "No!"

Things he's doing:

• Mimicking Agnes on Despicable Me, particularly the part where she smacks her cheeks, clicks her tongue and asks if it's annoying.
• Throwing himself down
• Smacking... uggh, yes, we've reached the terrible twos a bit early.  He apparently has a hard time expressing when he's upset so he smacks.  
• Smacking leads to time-outs.  Time-out is good for both mommy and Jayson.  Just the other day he was in time-out before I even left daycare at drop-off.  He smacked another little boy the minute we got there, then just after I got his coat off he did it again so I asked where their time-out chair was and told him to go sit there because he was naughty.  He scowled at me, sat down in the chair, and then then he wagged his pointer finger at me (the "no-no" gesture).  I had a hard time keeping a straight face.  This is proving to be a challenging time for us.
• Diaper changes have become a battle.  He is either trying the alligator death-roll to get out of them, or putting his hands where they don't belong.  This is particularly interesting when he's done a number two.  Yeah. So much fun.
• Running everywhere and playing hide-and-seek.  We're working on counting with hide-and-seek. I'll say "one, two" and Jayson will screech "three!"
• Following simple commands like "bring me your sneakers," "take out your binky," "go sit in your chair," "please pick that up," and "can I have a hug/kiss?"
• Eating from plates/bowls and using his silverware for the most part.  We're still working on having him had things to us when he's done, rather than throw them on the floor.
• Testing out the potty.  We're having him sit on it whenever he follows us in to the bathroom, or right before we put him in his bath.  He loves reading "Do You Wear Diapers?" while sitting on his little toilet.  He has yet to go on it, but it's a work in progress.
• Swimming lessons (we completed our last one on 10/21/14).  I can't say he got much out of this first round of lessons (he's so young yet), but we're at least acclimating him to the water.
• Everything is a phone.  While I was at a conference recently, Jayson and I talked frequently on the phone.  He has the concept down pretty well, but any toy in the relative shape/size of a phone he plays pretend is a phone. 
• Climbing.  You'll find him standing on the couch, climbing on the dining room chairs, up on the coffee table.  If there's a way to climb something, he'll figure it out.  I see many ER visits in our future.
• Dancing.  He loves to dance and clap his hands.  
• Ring around the Rosie. He will do this til we all can't stand up straight from dizziness.

Things he loves:

• He loves fruit.  He loves teething on apples - we call him our apple shredder.  He doesn't like the skin, so he'll take that out of his mouth and/or spit that part out.
• He loves Monsters, Despicable Me, Cars, Planes, and Frozen.  We joined the Disney Movie Club and started his movie collection.
• He loves chicken nuggets, mixed veggies, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, and pizza.

What he's wearing:

He's finally in his 18 months clothing, but the pants are still a little long.  He takes after his father in that regard.  He's about 32 inches tall.  At his last appointment he weighed 21.5 lbs.  We have his next appointment 11/24.  I'll be interested to see how much he weighs then.

Bedtime Rituals:

He's mostly sleeping through the night now.  Occasionally he gets up around 2am for a diaper change and some snuggles, but this is only on days where he's not feeling well or if he's teething.  Right now he has molars coming through so I've had a few nights that I've had to get up with him.  His bedtime ritual has been bath time, mommy towel dries/dresses him, daddy preps his bottle, and then mommy sits with him in the rocker in his room with only a nightlight on.  I've begun playing the Lullabies station for him on iHeart radio on my phone.

Nicknames:

Jayson the Tornado (because he makes an absolute mess of the house), Jay-man, Jay buddy, Mr. Krueger, Little Man, Baby Man.  I'm sure I'm missing a few. He'll answer to most of these with "what?!"