Sense of humor.

Jake has a great sense of humor, and it's so sweet when he shows it. We had a great Christmas/New Year's break at home, and he was very verbal and talkative the whole time. He has also started cracking jokes. The other day Matt bought the little round Cheetos - he calls them "Cheezy Poofs" a la South Park. So Jake started saying, "I want Cheezy Poo-poo!" with the cutest inflection. He's very clear that he's saying it to get a reaction. I'd say, "They're Cheezy PooFFFFFFs," and do this big exaggerated "ffffff" sound. "Cheezy....Poo-poo!" he'd reply, drawing it out so that I might think he was about to put the "f" on the end.

He has a big thing for fart sounds, too. Making them and cracking up. He is very much a boy, no?

We went to our friends' house on New Year's - they are an older couple whose kids are grown. He really engaged them, interacting and playing with both of them, hugging the guy, giggling, running back and forth between kitchen and living room. We're still having a lot of issues with him picking and shredding plants, and now that it is winter, people's houseplants are in danger when we go visit. We successfully redirected him to eating and only a little bit of rolling/shredding bread, but when we left, they definitely had some vacuuming to do.

Matt is reading several books on Zen meditation and loving-kindness, in preparation for a graduate course he's taking this weekend (a three-day intensive retreat in the White Mountains). I'm planning to read them as well. I feel like I need every bit of strength and patience for the boy, sometimes. As much as I love him, as funny, sweet and loving as he is, break with him home 24/7 was also, frankly, exhausting.

I will be back to a regular posting schedule. I don't know what happened to December. It just blipped by before I even noticed!