17 months

It's amazing how fast time does "fly."  We can hardly believe Jake is almost a year and a half old, which means that very soon he will seem much bigger than he already does... because he'll be a big brother!

Jake continues to be a fun, energetic boy (yes, he's more boy than baby now).  He is talking more and more, learning lots of new words like "double" (from giving double fives), "toothbrush" (no, you might not be able to understand that one), "duck" (plain as day), and "door."  He even knows several of his body parts and can remember animal noises.

He loves to run around wild and wrestle now, and play a much more interactive game of peek-a-boo.  He really gets excited when he can climb on top of you and bounce over and over again, which goes better on Dad's belly than Mom's.  His walk has turned into a pretty confident run during these play sessions, and we recently discovered that he can climb up into our chairs at the table.  That move requires some impressive ab work.

We're still amazed at how sweet he is when he decides to calm down for bedtime.  After we play hard, he knows his bedtime routine and says "night night" when we get ready for bed.  He loves brushing his teeth- all 14 of them! Then we all lie down in his bed, read a Bible story, sing a hymn, and pray. This now includes Jake saying "men" when we're finished.  Very cute.  Then Beth and I tend to just want to lie there because he is so calm, just rolling his head back and forth looking right at us, giving kisses over and over again.  Eventually we realize we have to let him go to sleep on his own so we get up, and he sleeps like a champ in his big boy bed.

At the end of the day Beth and I sometimes remark to one another - "What are we getting ourselves into with adding another kid to this?  We're doing well enough with just one!"  Then we look down at Sam kicking around inside her belly and are simply amazed.  This gift of new life is such a blessing, and we can't believe he'll soon be here.  And we think of that end of the day sigh Jake gives as he turns his head and looks you in the eyes.

Yeah, we're ready for another one.