At 21 months, Jaxon is talking...a lot. His vocabulary is definitely larger than any of our other kids had at this age. He also speaks very clearly so even strangers can understand him (this can be a good and bad thing!). At this point he says so many words I couldn't begin to list them all. He also has a great memory and rarely needs to be told the correct word for something more than once. He loves Elmo, but doesn't have patience for a whole episode on TV - the theme song is enough for him!
His favorite phrase is "me too!" and he says it often in response to most of the things his siblings say. It's adorable...and a little frustrating sometimes since he can't always be involved in everything they do since they are so much older. He really thinks he is older than he actually is.
I recently put out our Fisher-Price manger scene for him to play with. I showed him each piece and told him it's name: Jesus, Mary, lamb, shepherd. Later, I heard him singing "Jesus, Jesus" while rocking the baby Jesus in his hands. <sweetness>
I find Jaxon to be a very picky eater, but he loves spaghetti, salad, fruit (especially kiwi and watermelon), eggs and pizza. He's a cheese snob and prefers gourmet varieties from Whole Foods to standard Kraft. He doesn't like meat, and especially seems to turn his nose up at chicken. I think keeping chickens caused him to decide chickens were for chasing, not eating.
Some other things he can do:
-point to all his body parts as I call him out, including things like his forehead, back and tongue. The only thing he has trouble with are knees- he always points to teeth when I say knees!
-retrieve items from other rooms for me or put things away where they belong.
-understand consequences.
-makes connections.
-count to 3
-recognize landmarks and stores. When we pull up to Wal-Mart he says "Mal-Mart" and says "football" when we pass the football field. When we get to the end of the road that leads to our church/his school, he says "Yay!" in anticipation of our arrival (and on days we don't turn in to the church/school, he cries and tells us to turn around!). He also knows which restaurants have his favorite foods and calls them out as we pass by or turn in.
He's a great little singer, as shown by this cute video - he had just watched the older kids sing "Joy, Joy, Joy" in a Christmas program and this was his own little version:
Jaxon does two things that help remind us he's still a little bit of a baby:
The first is he is still breastfeeding, though typically it's only at night. I'd love to wean him, but I don't know how. He's very uninterested in weaning and I'm having a hard time taking a firm stance against it.
The second baby like thing he does is wake during the night, often. He is not a good sleeper. At all. On most nights, he has difficulty settling down and when he finally does, I'm lucky if he sleeps for 3 hours before waking. Once he wakes the first time, he's often up every 1-2 hours after that. I keep hoping his sleep patterns will magically change, but so far, no luck on that.
