Santa and steps and smarts and soups and stuff

Jakey and I in front of the fake tree. Not sure why he looks like he has a beer belly in this picture! Pretty awesome skull shirt though, right?

Jake has learned how to blow kisses. It's pretty darn cute. Even if it looks like he is trying to eat his entire hand while doing it. Pay no attention to my freakishly long fingers.

We took Jake to see a neighborhood Christmas light display tonight and he had a good time taking it all in from the BOB stroller. He found the snowmen and blinking lights especially exciting. And I think Santa is starting to grow on him. Or at least looking at Santa is now ok. I'm sure if we tried to leave him on Santa's lap again he would still have the same hysterical reaction! But he now smiles when he sees Santa decorations. Progress. Maybe next year he will be able to stand near Santa without melting down?!

Speaking of progress...Jake has made some on the walking front. He has been attempting (and has been mostly successful) to take many more steps in the last few days. Today he walked about 5 feet from his toy bins to the couch - without falling. That is his longest distance to date. And Joe and I both were able to witness it! Very exciting stuff, people.

Jake is quite the smarty pants these days. Very much a babbler, and a man of few actual words, but he understands A TON. I am amazed at how fast he learns the meaning of words. I'm sure it is completely normal for an almost 15-month-old to be understanding so many words, but to us he is a boy genius! He has become a fan of the word "Da" (much different than "Da Da"), and uses it to ask questions. As in "what's that?" Today he pointed to his new hat and asked "Da" and I said "That is Jakey's hat." And he grabbed it and put it on his head! As a first time parent I was so used to the baby phase that the toddler phase really snuck up on me. I was so programmed to think "he's too young for that" that I now have to train myself to think differently. It is so gratifying to see him learning simple concepts right before our eyes! I can't believe he actually helps get dressed or undressed by switching his toy from one hand to the other so I can remove or put on his shirt sleeves, and by balancing on one leg so he can step out of his pants properly. Jakey knows where his belly, nose, hair, eyes, teeth are and can accurately point to them most of the time. We are still working on his ears :) Who is this big boy and what did he do with my baby?

Here is a random Jake fact: this child LOVES soup. He has not met a soup he does not like. Seriously. He loves to find out what he is eating and holds his food up in the air until we tell him what it is. If we say soup he will put the food in his mouth. One of his faves is the broccoli cheddar soup from Panera! I get him to eat broccoli at home by adding some cheese sauce and telling him it is soup. (Telling him Mahi Mahi is chicken works well too!) He doesn't like steamed veggies very much but soggy soup veggies he devours. Especially the carrots and celery. And of course I am glad he will eat veggies this way - better this way than no way - but we try to limit his "soupage" due to the high sodium content. He usually only gets soup when we go out to eat. Or if I make soup at home I use minimal salt. Us grown ups can always add more salt later if we must. And I usually must! By the way, does it bother anyone else when Rachael Ray says "stoup"? It irritates me almost as much as when she says "EVOO." So annoying. Just say olive oil!!! We already know about the extra virgin/first press/better quality issue. We don't need you to repeat it every.single.time.

Way too much caffeine for me today/tonight. Can you tell? The especially long rambling blog posts are usually due to this. Starbucks in the morning to fuel my garage sale-ing induced early rising, Coffee Bean in the evening because you have to have a yummy hot drink while looking at Christmas lights, and Arnold Palmers and Diet Cokes in between. Holy crap that is a lot of caffeine for one day! At least for me it is...