What a joy!

I know I say this all of the time, but Jared is at such a wonderful age right now! He is very mobile and communicates somewhat. He understands a lot more than you would imagine. He makes me laugh every day, and I am so happy that I get to spend all day with him.
Now I have to hurry up and type as much as I can before he wakes up from his nap...

So much has happened that I'm going to summarize:
~Jared gallops around. It cracks me and Steve up every time. I have no idea where he got this from, but it is so cute!
~Understands "upstairs," "downstairs," "food," "done," "Jared's room" and much more
~Thinks it's funny to feed his half-eaten Kix cereal to whoever is feeding him
~Is eating a lot of adult foods. No candy for Halloween, but I did give him a doughnut hole.
~Loves closing the dishwasher, doors, and the gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. Sometimes he closes it before you make it through the gate!
~Knows where his hair, tongue, and nose are (he usually sticks his finger(s) up his nose when you ask him)
~He brushes his own hair and teeth now. Sometimes even with the correct brushes! :)
~Loves imitating: he pretended to remove hair from his brush and throw it away after I did it one time
~Loves dancing to music! He usually gallops around, swings his arm around, or spins around. He also likes it when Steve and I pick him up and make him dance with us.
~Loves watching people. There was a fairly big construction project at the end of our driveway (they had to correct the hump at the end of our driveway to direct the water flow), and Jared and Steve stayed outside for 2 hours just watching. They should be hired to work for PennDot! ;) It was very exciting - there was a dump truck, a steam roller, and a front loader!
~Will stop whatever he is doing to watch traffic or point to a plane in the sky. He even follows the plane sound as they travel over our house.
~Has gotten super crazy about putting toys away. This baffles me and Steve. All of the toys in the dining room are put emphatically into his play pen. If you remove something, it gets tossed right back in. Everything in the living room that isn't nailed down (blankets, pillows on the sofa, shoes, nursing pillows, toys, etc.) ends up on the other side of the fence that we keep around the TV. Steve gets nervous (rightfully so) that Jared will throw something damaging into our new TV. Jared also throws his Lovey on the other side of the fence, then gets mad when he can't retrieve it. He also throws everything in his room into his crib. We'll see how long this cleaning streak lasts...

I'm being beckoned...