A star...

These past couple weeks have been so great-- To be specific, Jack has been so well behaved and absolutely as sweet as can be. When he sees Mike or I, his face just lights up. Of course, ours does too. He just makes you beam. We know that the "terrible twos" are just around the corner, but right now (and I hope I'm not jinxing this by putting it in print), he is such a good little kid. He's social, laid back (unless you take away his truck-- that's gonna get a reaction), and just genuinely happy. He listens faily well to instructions and usually follows them. And when he doesn't, he flashes this mischievious grin that makes it hard for us to resist cracking up.

I know I'm partial and every mom must feel this way about their child (or children), but I just think Jack is the absolute greatest. They're a lot of reasons we feel this way. For example, he'll be playing with his toys and all of a sudden, will put one down, run over and hug my legs, and then go back to what he was doing. When you holds him before bed and he's a little bit sleepy, he'll lean into you and nuzzly his head into your shoulder.

When we wake up on the weekends, he'll often grab some of his favorite books and snuggle in bed with us to read. He's recognizing objects extremely well...it amazes us when he points to some many different pictures in his books as we name them. He gets really excited when he knows he's correctly identified them correctly.

Then there's the way he likes to make others smile. When we were back home for my cousins wedding, he walked into my parents house and said "Pop!" as he saw my dad with a big (huge) grin. He knew he made my dad's day (and he melted my heart-- who knows what he did to my dad's heart because it was such a special gesture). When one of his classmates is upset, he'll go over to them, crouch down next to the crying child and gently pat them on the back or pet their head. Its just too cute.

I know this stage is going to pass-- or at least these exact moments. So, we're treasuring every single one of them. I am hopeful that although he will outgrow some of these specific actions, that the sensitivity behind them will continue to develop as he gets older. He's a star.