Jack at 2.5 years

Piercingly precious,

Completely irrational,

Jack: 2 and a half

Those are his two sides for sure!  What is most precious about him lately?

• His speech patterns: lots of intonation and ending sentences on a high note
• The way he now knows/shows remorse and will apologize for things and give you unprompted kisses to "make it better" (i.e. after he doesn't listen or scratches you)
• His memory - it's pretty good so don't tell him anything you don't intend to do!
• The way he says "You will be so proud of me?" when he talks about pooping, being good, being kind, etc.
• The way he says "That will be a good idea?" :)
• How he randomly reached for me one day and pulled my face in for a kiss - melt my heart!
• His voracious book appetite - we read and read and read over here.  He loves 70 page books like The Cat in the Hat, loves/loves/loves Curious George, and is slowly getting over a Cinderella fetish.
• His recognition of good/evil and the way he looks to label characters in the books he reads.  Stepsisters: not nice/Cinderella: nice, Queen: evil/Snow White: nice

And the completely irrational side?  That's an easy one to write about at this particular moment as he is crying hysterically at 3:00 because I gave him exactly what he asked for when presented with two options: bops in his bed for nap or read books, no bops.  He changed his mind over and over and after crying hysterically when I took away the bops THAT HE WILLINGLY HANDED ME, he is now crying hysterically because he has his bops but is supposed to be in his bed napping.

• I'm 100% convinced that he still NEEDS a nap, but he mostly refuses to TAKE one.  As my mom affirms, you can't MAKE a child take a nap, and do believe me I've tried.  The afternoons can be long with a grumpy, disagreeable 2 year old.
• He is 95% potty trained for #1 but will not go poopy in the potty even though he has done it before.  We are several months into this, so I'm starting to lose hope it's going to change anytime soon.  He had no accidents on a 15 hour car trip to SC, peeing in the toilet every 1 1/2-2 hrs when we'd stop, and he'll go put himself on the toilet to pee, but he will hold his poop until he has a pull-up on for school or a diaper on for bedtime.  We have very cool incentives for pooping which he'll tell you about excitedly but he'll also ask for a diaper so he can poop.  When asked why he won't poop in the potty ... "tuz I don't want to".
• On that note, that is his reason for most things "tuz I DON'T want to" or "tuz I DO want to", emphasis Jack's
• He has become increasingly attached to his pacifiers (bops).  This is not a battle I feel is worth fighting right now as he basically only has them for sleeping, the baby is about to be here, and she most likely will get to have them.  On the other hand, it's no fun going through bop separation in the morning and post nap.  Of course there are times, he happily and willingly hands them over, but the irrational, meltdowns are more common.

Here's some cuteness:


Shots from a Saturday in Jack-land