Jake at 1.5 years

Jake, Jake, Jake...where do I start? Might as well start with my favorite thing about him. When he sees me after a period of separation, he smiles so big and runs to me at full speed for a hug. He does this for Kyle when he comes home from work, Noah after nap times, and a select few other people that he loves, so consider yourself lucky if you've experienced the Jake Welcome Back Hug. It has to be the sweetest thing in the world.

What's a little less sweet: Jake has learned the fine art of tantrum throwing. These have been some of my first experiences with drop-to-the-ground-and-scream-your-guts-out kind of tantrums. It has been an eye opening experience.

One common reason for tantrums: if I don't take him on a walk to see the horses when he wants. Several times a day he gets up into my face and makes that horse whinny sound (usually

showering my face with spit in the process) until I surrender and pack the boys up for a walk to the horses. We like to feed the horses apples and grass. He is always sad to go back home. The only time I have heard him put two words together in sequence is when we leave the horses: "Bye-Bye Horses."

So although horses are climbing the charts of Jake's favorite things in life, he con

tinues to love football. When Noah was Jake's age, he would request me to draw pictures of different animals. Jake just wants footballs.

Jake goes to Toddler Time once a week with some friends, and he loves it. He also enjoys art group on Tuesdays, mostly because I let him make a mess.

He is a good little sidekick to big brother Noah.

I'm starting to see a lot of copycat behavior, which is very cute.

Today while the boys were watching tv, I watched Jake climb up onto the arm of the couch just like Noah, and then he looked over at Noah and repositioned his little hands to match Big Brother's.

The brothers made a cute prehistoric pair for Halloween.

The whole caveman thing was a good excuse to grow his hair out. Since then, Kyle reintroduced Jake to the clippers, and now he has a new haircut. It's adorable, but I still mourn the loss of that cute little shaggy head.