videos and milestones

Jake learned how to count to three recently. However, I taught him by saying "one...twooo......THREEEEEEEEE!" all the time. And now he just likes just saying the THREEE! because it's just so exciting. I caught it on tape the other day and here it is!

We got dumped on with about a foot of snow last weekend, and took jake sledding for the very first time! I have a couple clips--mostly just for the grandmas. :)

I have a couple of other milestones to share. First of all, Jake has expanded his vocabulary to include the word YES! actually he says it more like "YESH!" But this one little word has made life just a little bit easier, especially at mealtimes. Now when I ask him if he wants a yogurt or a pickle, he can say NO to the pickle and YESH to the yogurt. Hooray!

And my favorite new milestone: Jake can say his prayers. Right before his bedtime he will fold his arms, bow his head, and squint up at us with one eye open. He is not always perfectly reverent for the whole prayer, but he starts them just right. A couple weeks ago Jake surprised me by folding his arms before I put him down for his nap. Now, we usually just pray with him before bedtime, but my little guy has decided that this is is definitely not enough. So when he folded his arms expectantly, I said "of course we can pray, would you like to say it?" and then Jake surprised me again by bowing his head, streaming about 5 seconds of gibberish, and ending with a loud AMEN. ha! My first thought was to feel so touched and humbled that my son is picking up on such a wonderful little routine, and somehow seems to understand that family prayer is an important part of each day. And my second thought was, Jake must be holding out on me. He doesn't talk very much yet, so I am never quite sure how much he can understand. But he seems to know a lot more than he lets on! Can we say "selective hearing?"

I love that kid.