Butterflies, dragons, and Jared

It all started the other evening when Jared decided to fly. He held out his arms as "wings" and soared all over the living room. Mom asked whether he was a bird or a plane and learned that he was neither: "I a butterfly!" Jared exclaimed. All that evening and most of the next day, Jared declared himself to be a butterfly, and he made sure to include everyone in his game ("Amanda a butterfly! You a butterfly!" etc.). And then, just about 24 hrs later when everyone had gotten good at playing along with Jared's butterfly game, it was time for a change. "I not a butterfly; I a dragon!" he announced. Should be fun to see how dragon day turns out. :)

note: Jared wasn't just any dragon, either; he was an orange dragon, in an egg, getting ready to crack and find his way to Dragon Mountain. That's what he said.

The Backyard Barbershop

Jared's latest favorite hang-out

If Jared's outside, there's a good chance you'll find him right here, doing just what he's doing . . .

The Spiderman Umbrella

Amanda has a princess umbrella; why shouldn't Jared have a Spiderman umbrella? Maybe for his birthday . . . no charge for the picture, though!

Jared Update April 2010

As always, Jared is in one of those always-doing-something-funny/cute/interesting/etc. phases. The pictures with this post show him playing "drums" with some plastic bowling pins and a diaper box; he loved it. Other things Jared has been up to lately: His current favorite outdoor game is "cooking" which involves harvesting leaves (all the while saying "I cooking! I cooking!") and then (occasionally) putting the leaves on a table or in a pot to be mixed with other random findings from the outdoors. He has also expanded his Kung Fu Panda quoting to include the famous finger-hold-of-doom scene. His last baby tooth is just about all the way in, finally; it was a tooth just in front of his molars that's finally come in several months if not a year after the rest of the teeth. Better late than never! Jared is also very interested in produce. He even ate most of the last batch of corn for corn on the cob that Mom bought: before said corn had a chance to be cooked. Additionally, he is still fond of snuggling (much to Mom's delight), and he also gives sweet little hugs and kisses. Love that Jared!

"How? How? HOW?"

One of Jared's current favorite things to do is to quote a little section from the movie Kung Fu Panda. For those who haven't seen the movie, in the original, there's a scene where the hero, the panda, is questioning how the Kung Fu master can turn him into a real warrior. The panda says, "How? How? HOW?" to which the master responds, "I don't know." So, now Jared goes around saying "How? How? HOW?" and then "I don't know!" If someone else starts off on the how's, he'll finish the section with his cute little "I don't know!" And, of course, he also quotes it along with the actual movie. Now, to figure out how to talk him out of answering "I don't know" to all of Mom's questions . . .

"I like it!" and "I don't know, Mommy."

Jared has now progressed to expressing his desires positively. When he sees something he wants, he says "I like it" and then names the thing. A little more fun that his previous routine of saying "no" to everything he didn't want before saying "OK" to anything.

He has also picked up the phrase, "I don't know," and he uses it frequently, such as when Mom asks what he's doing or why he's doing it.

Some sweet things Jared does: he regularly says "Love you, too, Mommy"; he goes to bed without a fuss (he even beat Mom to his room today for naptime and was waiting patiently on his bed to be tucked in when she arrived); he loves to hold his baby brother; he worries about his siblings when they are sad; he loves to dance with Mom, Dad, and/or Amanda; and he gives great hugs and sweet toddler kisses.