I'm sure the "girls in white dresses" will be coming all too soon...

I thought it would be fun to list a few of Jack's favorite things to try to capture a brief snapshot of his life now. Jack loves:

• water: One of his favorite "toys" is our watering can. When we go out to the front yard, he picks it up and will often be seen carrying it down the block on our walks. He also enjoys turning on the spigot in the backyard (Daddy's fault for showing him) and shaking his water cup up and down to splash its contents everywhere. While he often enjoys drinking his water, he also thinks it's quite hilarious to either spit it out like a fountain or let it dribble down the front of his shirt. This makes his shirt "et." Water is alternately known as "wawa," "bwabwa," "bahbah," and "agua."
  
• public bathrooms: UGH. Another one we can thank Daddy for. Jack loves the blue triangular signs that have become the universal symbol for restroom. He used to go up to the door and just pat the signs. One ill-fated day, he did this when Daddy was watching him and Daddy thought that meant Jack wanted to go in the bathroom. It didn't then, but it does now. ALL THE TIME. I am eagerly awaiting the day this obsession passes. Public bathrooms trumped even Elmo when we went to "Breakfast with Elmo" last week. Whenever Jack sees a public restroom sign, he calls, "Booboon!"
• Elmo: Even though we never watch TV, Jack loves Elmo. His first experience with Elmo was on a box of organic crackers we had bought for him. Jack and I were looking at the picture on the box, and I told Jack, "This is Elmo. Elmo." Five minutes later, Jack was saying, "Elmo!" every time he saw the fuzzy red monster. He also calls Cookie Monster "Elmo." Another favorite from the Sesame Street gang is Big Bird, also heavily featured on aforementioned box of crackers. Big Bird was formerly known as "Bigbee," presently known as "Babette."
• cats and dogs: Jack loves Echo and Emmy. His love is moderately tolerated by Echo but positively spurned by Emmy. When he sees either cat, he rubs his fingers together and bangs on the ground in imitation of the ways Tom and I call them. When he sees any cat, he'll say any combination of "Mau!", "teetee" (kitty), or "Enny" (Emmy). When he calls Echo "Emmy," we correct him and then he says "Et-tow!" All dogs are "baba" to Jack. We think it's a combination of puppy and bow-wow.
• drawers and cabinets: Jack loves to open any of the drawers and cabinets that are not baby-proofed and pull everything in them out and throw them all over the ground. This includes pots and pans, tupperware containers, bathing suits, make-up, contact lenses, and whatever is in our nightstand drawers. The little stinker is finally getting taller, so the baby-proofing line is getting higher and higher.
• buttons: Jack likes anything with buttons or switches, including our microwave, our refrigerator, our telephones, and our computer keyboards.
• singing songs: Currently included in Jack's rotation are these classics: "Twinkle, Twinkle," "ABCD," "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," "The Wheels on the Bus," "The Bye-Bye Song" (to the tune of "Good-Night, Ladies"), "The Diaper Song" (roughly to the tune of "Ten Little Indians"). Among his favorite songs to dance to are: "Hop, Little Bunnies," "The Hokey Pokey," "Twist and Shout," "Freeze."
• eating: I would say Jack is a bottomless pit, but I've seen his diaper and the bottom is...well, his bottom. If he's like this before he's two, I can only imagine what the food bill will be when he's 16. His favorite foods are berries of all varieties ("boo-wees" in a sing-songy voice), crackers ("dados" generically, or "Elmo!", "Babette" (Big Bird), "ah-ee" (Wheat Thins), depending on the variety), tofu ("oh-oo"), raisins ("dadeens"), peas ("tees"), sausage ("dah-dat"), yogurt ("doh-dirt"), avocado ("doh"), soy milk ("mimi"), cheerios ("durohs"), cheese ("cheese"), and something mysteriously called "bah-baht" that we haven't figured out yet. Most days, the first words he says to me are, "Eat? Bah-baht!" He also likes broccoli, eggs, toast (sometimes), and oatmeal, but he doesn't know how to call for them. Unless one of them is the yet-to-be-determined "bah-baht." (Lightbulb! Could it be broccoli??)
• nursing: *sigh* See my previous post.
  

While there are (many) times the fact that Jack knows what he wants can be challenging to the point of maddening, it's so fun to see his little personality come out. He's changing all the time, and it's a wild ride.