TWENTY-TWO MONTHS!!!

 It hit me last night that after this monthly bear shoot, we only have one more before he is two.  I don't know how that happened!  Almost two is a fun age, but I am just in disbelief at how fast everything is going.  At 22 months, Paxton is:

•  Starting to babble a lot more.  He will go off on rants of gibberish that only he understands.  We mostly just laugh at him the whole time.  He still hasn't added a ton of new words, but he has learned to sing happy birthday and Jingle Bells.  He has also found a new way to communicate.  He brings us books and when we get to the page with the picture of what he wants, he will whine for it.  This works in some cases (like when he wants to blow bubbles), but not in cases where he points to the little house in goodnight moon and whines...we don't know what that means.  He has added a few new words: he says jump, jump, jump when he's jumping on his bed and he says book, book, book when he brings us a book.

•  Able to make the sounds for lots of animals now.  He knows monkey, fish, frog, cow, sheep, bird, kitty, goat, pig, and bee.  There are lots of pictures in his book that he can point to and make the sound for, even if he won't say the word.

•  Very sweet right now.  Every morning when I come in to get him, he gets a huge smile and says "hiiiiii".  Then he jumps on his bed for a few seconds and then is ready to get out.  He will let me rock him while he drinks his milk for maybe a minute and then is ready to get down.  He will also give me a kiss after each diaper change after I pull his pants up without being asked.  When we ask for a kiss, he will either give us a kiss or lean his forehead forward and accept a forehead kiss.  Every night he tells Jared "night night" and accepts a forehead kiss.  Then as I'm rocking him, he sticks his foot in my face for me to rub.  When he's done being rocked, he will tell me "night night" and I will put him in bed. 

•  Starting to act much better in public, especially at restaurants.  He almost never throws things down anymore.  When we go to dinner with Grandpa, we are able to stay through the whole meal and not take him outside at the end when he's finished.  I think some of the more fussy issues we were having with him the past month or so were teething related, because now that all of his teeth are through, he's a whole different kid.  He is much more agreeable and is happy all the time.  He was never terrible or difficult, but we are definitely noticing the improvement. 

•  Really starting to like Daddy.  He copies all of Daddy's wrestling moves and is crazy with him.  Jared brings out a side of him that I don't see when he isn't home.  He gets so hyper and excited! I love it. 

•  Wearing 24 month pants, 2T shirts, size 6 shoes and size 5 diapers.  He sleeps about 11 hours at night and usually takes a three hour afternoon nap.  His favorite foods are mandarin oranges, fruit snacks, grilled cheese sandwiches, bananas, green beans, and cheetohs.  I made cupcakes over Christmas break and he figured out that those are a cool treat.  Now he asks for cupcakes daily.  His favorite book right now is Good Night Moon.  He still loves Mickey Mouse, building block towers and knocking them down, and playing outside.