Don't forget's for John-Mark

John-Mark is 19 months now and thinks he's 3! When we go to local parks he runs off and is the first to climb up the highest slide or conquer the rock wall. Because I'm not standing right on top of him other moms always run over to help him because he just looks too little to be doing the stuff he's doing! I always have to come over and let them know he does have a mom around and that even though he's little he has a brother only 1 year older so he thinks he's much bigger than he is. He rarely ever has any big tumbles or falls when he's climbing - he's full of adventure but also has some caution in him in that he'll only do something he feels very confident he can do. He LOVES to be outside playing in the dirt and "collecting" rocks. Praise God for this wonderful house that Jeremy talked me into moving to :) It is just perfect for these boys. I can open the door and let them run all over the yard and keep an eye on them while I'm inside feeding Gracie or doing laundry.
John-Mark seems to be the most liked baby I've ever seen! Little girls LOVE him and want to baby him. We have a friend with a 5 year old daughter who adores him and every time she sees him she promptly picks him up and carries her "baby" around on her hip which he loves. It's hysterical because she probably only weighs about 10 or 15 pounds more than he does. On numerous occasions we'll be at a park playing and some little girl will take a liking to him and try to carry him around and push him in swings, etc. And the boys love him too! All of James' little buddies are always asking for him. They come in the door and the first person they look for is John-Mark! He seems to be the kind of kid that everyone likes to be around - I always wished I was that kid :) It could be his infectious laughter and big grin. When he laughs I can't help but laugh too! He's so stinkin' adorable and fun - and he knows it too! He's quite the flirt! John-Mark is picking up on sooo much more than I remember James doing at this age - since we watch the Letter Factory all the time and James and I sing the ABC's all the time he already knows at least 8 letters or so and sings a good bit of the song! He also counts as well (more in a mimicking way) but he's headed in that direction. Still not up on his colors but it took James until almost 2 before he had those down. He is recognizing some shapes. Yesterday Gracie had a heart on her shirt and he walked up and said "heart mommy"! So smart :)
He continues to be a one-a-day short napper (about 1 1/2 hrs) most days then sleep like a rock from 7 - 6:30ish each night. You always know when it's 7pm when you're around John-Mark because it's like he literally slows to a stop and just crashes!
John-Mark loves his big brother and wants to do EVERYTHING he does. He loves to get James fired up and then run away and yell "no, no". We continue to work on sharing -which James does pretty well with but John-Mark hasn't really grasped the concept yet :)

Climbing the rock wall like a champ - James only figured out how to do this a couple of months ago - but like I said, if James is doing something - John-Mark is going to do it too!

At Pump-It-Up sliding like a wild man all by himself!