Team Sullivan: JJ & Jayla Update

Wow, JJ has changed so much in just one month! He has started using connecting words when talking like ‘bring’, ‘and’, ‘to’, ‘in’, etc. to form sentences! It is quite a different world now listening to him jabber on and on. He also says ‘me’, ‘you’, and the ever popular phrase, ‘No, I don’t want to!’ All this talking makes for some interesting conversations in our house. JJ can now recount memories, or re-tell what he did during his day, during Sunday school, at music class, and on and on. His personality is easy to see now, and he can tell us ‘I don’t like’ and ‘You funny’ and ‘Wow, Mom!’ according to different things that he has opinions on. He also says ‘Dad, know what?’ and then he will tell him something. It is so cute! This is by far my most favorite stage with him yet! You also may have noticed JJ holding a cabbage patch doll in some recent pictures. Well, a few weeks ago my mom got out all of my old dolls, cradles, and blankets that I used to play with when I was little. She was actually sorting through these things for Jayla, but JJ found them all and the last time we were at her house he played with the dolls the entire time. He fed them, burped them, laid them down for naps, and yes, even took them potty (including sound effects). Well, I was a little worried to tell Jake about JJ’s new found ‘Daddy day care’ but I knew Jake would come across the pictures at some point….so I told him. He said, “Don’t worry. When my mom used to run her day care I played house with all the dolls and cradles too.” Whew! That made me feel better! Other than JJ’s day care business, he also likes to sit and ‘read’ books (he flips through the pages and says what he sees in the pictures) and ‘work’ on the computer just like Daddy does.

Jayla’s newest thing is that she can now point to things. If she sees something that sparks her interest she will point at it and then turn and look at me as if to say, “Do you see that?’ She also really notices people’s gestures/actions/emotions/sounds and will imitate them. For example, if she is watching people talk and one of them laughs she will start laughing too. It is so cute and she does it every time…almost like she doesn’t want to be left out of the joke or something. Also, this last weekend when we were at the tournament there was this game that was getting really intense. I was holding her while watching the game and I started cheering and yelling for the team really loud. All of a sudden she started kicking her feet and throwing her fists around and screaming in these high pitched bursts…..she would break out into it every time she heard me cheer, almost like she was trying to imitate what I was doing. Jayla also surprised us with saying ‘uh-oh’ the other day! She had dropped one of her toys on the floor and I said ‘uh-oh’ and to my surprise she looked up at me and said it right back! Now almost every time she drops a toy she will say it. Jayla’s two front-top teeth have poked their way through this month as well. The older Jayla gets the more and more she has started to resemble JJ, and the redder, and redder her hair gets! In fact everyone that stops me while we are out and about says, ‘Oh, you have two red-heads!’ Who would have thunk it?

Enjoy the pictures!

It's nap time...can you tell?