17 months old!

Today Jack is 17 months old and I am amazed at how time zips on by... I have a snow day today and was actually able to go to the parent center with Kiddo and his dad. We spent 2 hours playing and chatting with the other die-hards who braved the 8 inches of snow in the name of "getting out of the house with the toddler." It was wild to watch Jack running all over the room. I kept thinking back to his first 10 weeks, those endless days, going to Baby and Me group, the way it was my lifeline. How very small Jack was and how big the 10, 11, 12 month old babies seemed. How it seemed impossible he'd ever be that size. Now he's a toddler, one of the big kids who wanders around stealing toys from babies... He had a blast, preferring the bin of trucks and the train table, but also enjoying playing "peek" from inside the play house, as well as dumping the bin of pegs and pegboards, repeatedly and with glee.

What's Jack up to these days, you ask?
Well, he now likes to try to walk down the steps, facing forward. He's good about knowing he needs to hold someone's hand for this, though.
He has 16 teeth.
He tries saying new words almost every day and we can understand more and more of what he is saying. He has about 35 words he can use now, and can also sign for more, please, all done, and (sort of) music and book.
He likes to read books with us now, and will point out any truck he sees on the page. We also had a 30 minute discourse on trucks, he and I, on our drive to Lakewood last night. He would say truck, and then I would look around and sure enough, there would be a truck near us, and I'd talk about it to him.. and then the cycle would repeat. He never gets tired of trucks. I am not sure how I am raising this child to be such a BOY...!
He is getting better at following simple directions, and likes to go get objects and bring them to us, or take them to a named person.
He can feed himself yogurt, rather successfully, and he is quickly learning how to drink from a non-sippy-lidded plastic cup.
He is, much to my chagrin, getting more interested in TV. He'll sit with us and watch for 10 minutes or so...More and more baby DVD's are showing up in our house these days.
He is learning how to run, which means he's also learning how to fall more often.
He's got a great smile and all the language that's emerging is really making his personality shine...