22 Months

Jaisal is 22 months old. I can't believe my little guy is almost 2 years old! Jaisal has such a distinct personality. He is the sweetest most naughty little dude.  One of his favorite games is to drink water, hold it in his mouth for as long as possible, including trying to talk with water in his mouth, and then randomly dribble it out of his mouth (or on occasion spit it out).  We walk through a lot of wet spots that for a moment scare us and then we realize we've been Jaisaled.

Little man is running and jumping - everywhere and on everything.  You'll notice in this video that Jaisal is sans-pants. A common occurrence because the kid seems to hate pants or shorts and runs away after every diaper change. He's actually in his crib so that we can corral him and get his shorts on.



Jaisal is very much little boy. He loves airplanes (NOTE not planes, but always AIRplanes), choo choo trains, and trucks. He has an eagle eye for planes. He frequently points up to the sky and announces an airplane. We then have to spend a solid 30 seconds looking for what he found in 2 seconds or less. The plane is always up there somewhere. We have no idea how he sees these things.

Jaisal loves to imitate us. He'll repeat nearly anything we say in any language. My favorite English words to hear him say are octopus, motorcycle, and butterfly. He definitely trails off after two syllables and I think it's adorable. Like every kid, there are times when he is trying to talk to us and we have no idea what he is saying. What complicates this further is that he could be saying things in English, Spanish, or Gujarati or some combination thereof. There's a lot of nodding and placating going on these days when communication break downs occur.

Jaisal also imitates our physical motions. We try to use that to our advantage to have him help us with chores. Here he is loading the laundry machine for us.

He also watches me get dressed for work each morning and enjoys blow drying his hair (and his stomach because it tickles him).  Notice him holding the hairbrush in his other hand.  The kid is probably already more coordinated than I am.

I put the settings on low and cold for him since he gets very upset if the blow dryer isn't actually on.  Despite his expression, this is a happy moment "drying" his hair.

Other mummy copycat moments include trying to flat iron his hair (while it's off and cold of course), trying to walk around in heels (but he usually defers to daddy's shoes because they are easier to get on and maneuver in), and dragging a purse around the house.

Jaisal loves to sweep, vacuum, and mop the house. All while attempting to knee cap us and the dog with the various cleaning implements and then laughing maniacally. This isn't a video of him cleaning, but you can hear his maniacal laugh.



One of his favorite chores is watering. Notice I didn't say watering the plants. Jaisal will oblige our desire to water the plants, but his favorite thing is to water the ground off of our second floor deck.

Jaisal loves to say bye to people (but not hi) and will blow or give kisses to anyone. He's such a little flirt that way. He still loves reading but has a serious addiction to the iPad. I think he's only watched part of one episode of Sesame Street on TV, but we have a couple apps with Elmo, and much to mine and Kirk's chagrin Jaisal LOVES Elmo.  I swear that character was created to give parents migraines.

Jaisal's learning to count and recite the alphabet. He can identify certain letters and can fill in certain numbers if we count to him.

He remains a terrible sleeper. He's restless throughout the night, meaning we are restless throughout the night. All of which has been made worse by a recent cold. I really have no idea how we survived the long newborn phase where he woke up every 3-4 hours to eat. We are so exhausted by our current twice a night wake ups.  I imagine that for a good portion of the first year of his life, Kirk and I were part zombie.

Little man is turning into a pretty great eater. We no longer have to supplement his meals with high calorie Pediasure since he's gaining weight and growing adequately. We try to give him all kinds of foods to expand his palate. Recent oddball offerings include, nori (seaweed) as a snack and cabbage and cilantro toppings on our chicken tacos. He ate that all like a champ. Yet the little guy still will not eat yogurt. Crazy kid.

We're both just so in love with him and are beyond excited to get home each and every day to see him after work. We're so thankful to get to have these normal times with him.