Jake likes to play in a corner.

The daycare first told us a few weeks back that Jake loves to go to the corner and just sit there and play by himself, with his back is facing everyone else.

I didn't really believe it, then I noticed one day at daycare that he led me over to the corner. He kind of just leaned in. At home I've noticed it more often. He's usually carrying a toy and he scoots over on his bum and likes to wedge the toy into the corner.

This is a bit saddening if it's a social mechanism to avoid other people. Hopefully it's more of a quirk - he likes the way the walls angle into a corner. Probably just a phase.

By the way, I didn't know as a parent how many "phases" kids seem to go through. They seem quite random, and the lengths vary from a few days to a few months. I guess it's all part of growing up and exploring different behaviours.

Jake plays with a doll.

The daycare told us that Jake likes one of the dolls; so we went to Zellers and bought a huge baby doll. We tried to get the least ugly one because some of them were freaky.

We use the doll to "model" behaviours for Jake. For example, brushing his teeth is a bit of a struggle. We gave Jake the toothbrush and asked him to brush the "baby's" teeth. He seems to love it. We also get him to brush the baby's hair, but he just bashes the baby's head with brush.

We say, "be gentle", but that doesn't work too well. Sometimes he gets mixed up and brushes the baby's mouth with the hairbrush. Also, he'll often brush the baby's eyes and face instead of his teeth.

We also tell Jake that the baby's sleeping now. We lay it down and pull the blanket over it. Then he smiles and signs "sleep".

Soon we're going to start "feeding" the baby.