He is always watching and apparently listening

I've been so focused lately on trying to remember how to raise a baby that I haven't said much about Jake and how he's coming along. I think the most disconcerting thing about this age is how fast he's learning and how much he learns from watching us. Let me share a few examples.

A few weeks ago I put Emma in her crib for a couple minutes so I could go to the restroom. She immediately started crying. When I went to get her out of her crib a couple minutes later I found an assortment of objects that Jake had thrown (I mean lovingly placed) in there to make her, and I quote, "feel better." He is such an empathetic child. The first two things I saw made perfect sense. He had tossed her binky and her lovey in there hoping that would make her stop crying. When that didn't work he gave her one of his prize Lightning McQueen cars. And then he must have gotten desperate. I also found one of my dirty shirts. I'm guessing he thought just the scent of me would calm her down. Lastly, an entire can of formula. I'm telling myself over and over that when he chunked that in the crib it didn't actually hit Emma in the head or anything. Too bad he didn't give her a bottle and some water so she could have mixed herself up a drink.

Aside from his love for his sister, Jake is also very observant of Mike and I. This is starting to become a problem. Ya'll remember Brady? We have the biggest, most loving, loudest golden retriever in the history of dogs. He barks at everything and it annoys me. And when I'm annoyed I have a tendency to yell "SHUT UP BRADY!" I really never thought twice about it until the first time I heard Jake yell in no uncertain terms "SHUT UP BRADY!" He even yells in the same tone of voice that I do. I've tried telling him that it's not nice to say shut up and I've tried to curb the frequency with which I say it. Apparently, it's not working. Not only does he still tell Brady to shut up, but yesterday as I was singing to Emma, Jake walks over to me and says "Shut up Mama, Emma no want song." It seems I've created a monster. Thank goodness today is the last day of school and I have the entire summer to deprogram him before he tells a teacher to shut up. I'm certain that would win him another trip to the principal's office to see Ms. Kathy.

The other day I was reminded of how often I must tell him to try to do things for himself. We were out on a family walk with Jake in the jogging stroller and we were going up and down some small hills. I ran (using that term loosely here) down the first one because I knew he would think it was fun. When the next hill came up he said "More whee Mama!" and I said mama is too tired to run anymore Jake. And he said "just try mama! just try!" Since I didn't want to instil a quitters attitude in my son, I tried to run up and down every single one of those hills. And then I went home and laid down.

My absolute favorite thing about the boy right now is his love of dance. If he hears music he immediately starts bobbing his head up and down and puts his little hands up in the air to raise the roof. I LOVE IT! And he always looks at Mike and I and says "Come on Mama, Come on Daddy" until we're all bobbing our heads up and down. Sometimes you just gotta dance. However, I do wish he had better dancing role models to imitate than Mike and I because I'm afraid he might get made fun of later on in life if he just does the little booty shake without moving his feet any that we do around here. Maybe I should let him start watching some old Michael Jackson videos.