Just John

As I'm sweeping the kitchen this morning, John pulls out a cookbook and approaches me with his favorite proposition of late, "Mama, make cookies."  He holds up the cookbook as if reading the ingredients and starts saying, "Chocolate, butter, library, cookies, Cookie Monster, cheese," then looks up at me and confirms, "Okay?"  I dropped the broom, asked him to find another recipe, and caught this on camera:

Yes, avacado and tomato were the first two ingredients mentioned in this recipe of his.  My favorite is the obvious, "Get a bowl; make cookies."

John is such a fun age, two years and two months!

After his last swim class

After his summer haircut                        

He is able to express his personality more and more, and his comments crack me up.  Here are some of his more frequent verbalizations:

*Many unprompted "Thank you, Mommy"s throughout the day (love that!).
*Everything circular is a cookie. "Mmmm, that delicious cookie.  Ommm nommm nommm nommm." The problem is we're going through a whole second round of wanting to put everything in his mouth.
*"No no mom, by myself"
*"Oh no" over any drop, spill, etc.
*Singing "C is for Cookie" with his peppy little head bob dance
*Frequently requesting a "Story bout Cookie Monmoh" ('Monster' said in an especially low and husky voice)
*Making jokes about nonsense words, particularly "appleday" and "badubah".  These words are clearly hilarious.
*Checking my comprehension constantly with an emphatic, "Okay?"  Once he's sure I get it, he often repeats with a more satisfied and determined, "Okay."

Here's a random 2 minute glimpse into his personality, ABC's included:

He gets that there is a tune, and he knows the letters well, but it's fun to see what order he decides to sing them in each day.

Here's another clip, showing his mastery of the iPad.  Here he opened Skype and tried to call his cousin Emma, all on his own.  I once said if someone is not online, they are "sleeping", so he now assumes that if the receiver doesn't pick up, they must be asleep.


Here are a few pictures capturing his favorite things:

Cookie Monster (Matt sent me this picture from a hospital lunch; it is now John's favorite thing to see on my phone, "Blueberry Cookie Monmoh")

Getting cookies out of our teeth; he is quite the avid tooth brusher (making his dad quite proud).  He knew just what to do when he saw this toothbrush at a nearby kids' museum.

And he loves outings.  We went apple picking yesterday with Sarah and Miles, and John devoured this choice apple, stem and all, before we even got back to the car.

I am so excited to see John step up to the role of big brother.  He is such an animated, curious, and kind little boy, so I'm hoping the transition of sharing the spotlight goes fairly smoothly.  John is a two year old, so we have plenty of testing limits, but the rest of his expressiveness is so fun!  Sure love you, little man.