2 1/2

Jake turned 2 1/2 on Saturday! So hard to believe - he's growing up so fast. I know I'm biased, but he's the sweetest, cutest, smartest, 2 1/2 year old. Ever.

As far as milestones, Jake can count to 10... and is working on 20. Right about '13' he starts going "16, 17, 16, 18, 14...." It's one of those things that is too cute to correct. He also knows his alphabet, but o is sometimes "big circle." He's eating just about anything and everything, and Dave and I were surprised that when we grabbed lunch on Saturday he ate more than the two of use combined! His favorites are TV shows like "Thomas" and "Dora the Explorer" (he asks for TV way too much, though, so we're trying to limit it), going on slides at the playground, anything having to do with cars and trucks, and reading books (mainly books that have to do with cars and trucks). He loves 'helping' by helping me with the laundry and emptying the utensils from the dishwasher. The things that come out of his mouth are funny, and sometimes so sweet, and recently he's gotten a little harsh. His best recent quotes are:

"I like this pink chicken!" (salmon)
"Mommy you bigger than a monster truck!" (kind of true)
"I do it all-my-by-myself! No touch me!"
"... H, I, J, K, L, M, N, "big circle," P, Q, R"
"I love you Mommy. That make you happy." (in response to "Jake I'm mad you did that.." He's totally right by the way, I can't stay mad at him when he says that)
"Mommy, you got pants on?" (When he comes to wake me up in the morning. Don't get the wrong idea - the funny part about this is I don't know where it came from. I do, in fact, wear pants to bed. Every night.)

We celebrated the big 2-point-5 with a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which was really crowded and maybe a bit over Jake's head. But we hit up Dennis the Menace park after that which was awesome! It's a huge oceanside park with tons of slides and play structures.

 Started the day out right with pancakes shaped like cars and trucks (I can't take any credit for these... they were all Dave. Best dad in the world!)

 Looking at fish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

The jellyfish exhibit

Dennis the Menace Park.

The "big lellow slide" at Dennis the Menace park.

On a real antique steamtrain at Dennis the Menace park

The slides at Dennis the Menace park - check out the end where Jake comes down head first, feet up in the air and some strange man tries to save him by catching Dave.