Jack had his 3 year old well visit (no shots of course) last week. He’s 35 1/2 inches tall and weighs 32 pounds. I almost can’t carry him anymore!
New Year’s 2009 Update January 1, 2009
Jack will be THREE years old next month! Our little baby is now a big boy. Jack is very excited about turning 3, and very much wants a birthday party. “Happy Birthday” is one of his favorite songs.
Jack had a good Christmas. This year, he knew to be excited. He would ask everyday “Is it Christmas?” and we’d have to say, “No, but it’s the Christmas season!”. Jack is a little confused now that Christmas happened. He wants it to be Christmas again.
Our little man made out like a bandit, acquiring a kitchen and food to go in it, many Thomas trains and track, several books, an electronic piano, a froggie towel to go with his doggie towel, and more. You can read more about Christmas in this post.
For the record, Jack is 30 pounds and is about 35 inches tall. He communicates at a five year old’s level, speaking full sentences, using pronouns and prepositions, and making up stories. He’s also singing all the time! This Christmas, his favorite tunes are “Jingle Bells”, “Frosty the Snowman”, and “Away in a Manger”. He’ll put new lyrics in any song, turning “I Like to Move It” into “I like to do anything Mommy and Daddy don’t let me do”.
Oh yes! The boy loves to get into trouble. He’s all about semantics. But he’s also very lovable, and gives hugs and kisses to humans and animals. He still loves to visit the pet store, and he’s getting along better with our neighbors’ dogs.
Jack enjoys being outside more than anything. Because it’s colder and raining sometimes, he’s frustrated at being in the house. Of course, we could tell him that his friends on the East Coast don’t get to go out without a coat from October through April, but we don’t think he’ll understand that.
He does show an interest in going to Disneyland, which we hope to do towards the end of next year.
Jack’s interests include Thomas & Friends (trains), WALL*E, trucks and dirt, music (especially boom-boom-bap), reading (reciting the books he’s memorized), cooking, and pretending everything. The kid has a serious imagination on him.
Overall, Jack is a good kid, who is incredibly smart. He likes school, though due to our employment situations, he’ll be going part time in January. He has many friends, and we’re trying to make sure we cultivate these friendships.
Oh, and although Jack has been asking for a baby, we have no plans to adopt in 2009. Ask us again in 2010.
September Web Site Update September 6, 2008
As usual, Jack is surpassing the milestones of other kids his age. This September, Jack will be 32 months old. (Soon, we can stop keeping track of months. Woo hoo!) In terms of milestones, he’s at about a 4 year level in his language, cognitive, social, and emotional milestones. He’s about average in his physical milestones. For example, he can throw a ball, but can’t catch it. He can’t draw letters, but he can draw lines and other shapes. He can alternate feet going up and down stairs (who knew that was a milestone?), but he can’t pedal a tricycle.
For the record, Jack is just about 30 pounds and is 35 inches tall.
Jack started Montessori preschool in July, just after July 4th, actually. We’d love to show you some pictures from Jack’s first fireworks display, but the camera is gone. It was either stolen from my car, or a gremlin has taken it from the house. I’m very distressed about this. In the end, Jack really did like his first fireworks. Once they were done, he said, “Wan’ it again. Jus’ one more time.”
Jack is learning a lot in school. He can put on his own shirt, shorts, and shoes. He can wash his hands, and indeed hates having dirty hands. His vocabulary continues to grow, with words like “reservoir”, “Neosporin”, “happenstance”, and “dame la mano”. Jack speaks in complete sentences, with pronouns, although they’re not always grammatically correct. He remains ahead of the curve, verbiage-wise. He asks for many of his books by name, and has practically memorized B is for Bulldozer. He has some pretty impressive words from that book too – he knows the names of many big trucks, including the excavator. Furthermore, Jack enjoys hearing “Once ‘pon a time”s, especially the one where “Pooh Bear gets stuck in Rabbit’s house”.
Jack has many friends at school, and he’s continuing to make more as the summer ends and “real” school begins.
Jack saw his second in-theater movie, Wall*e and LOVED it. He now has four Wall*e books, a Wall*e lunchbox (thanks Nana), and a transforming Wall*e and the Reject Bots (thanks Grandma and Grandpa).
Jack really started to love drawing back in May, and will now scribble on anything he can find. He has crayons, markers, pens, and pencils everywhere. He’s pretty good at drawing ovals and circles. He also loves drawing with his sidewalk chalk. Jack doesn’t write letters, but apparently his cousin, our nephew, Orion does. We got the chance to visit with Orion and his brother Cyrus at the end of July. Pictures forthcoming, we promise.
Jack has gotten to the stage where he tells everyone what to do – where to sit, what to draw, what to read, and so on. It’s very cute, in a small dictator kind of way. He’s also into pretend play. He loves his play food, and will share it with anyone. He has a great imagination too. He’s pretended that a basket with cloth napkins is a bucket and shovels. He’ll throw a birthday party for any of his stuffed animal friends.
Jack knows his colors, and recognizes most capital letters. He understands things that are the same and things that are different. He enjoys pointing out similarities between himself and Mommy and Daddy, for example. Jack can count to 20 (though he sometimes skips 16) and can recognize most numbers from 1 through 11.
Jack loves playing outside, and since we had our front and back yards re-sodded, he spends lots of time out there.
One task Jack hasn’t mastered is toilet training. He was very into it at the beginning of June, and we thought our gDiaper days were numbered, but, upon starting preschool, Jack became very anti-toilet. We need to be more consistent about it here at home, and encourage him to use the toilet more often.
We just got back from Pennsylvania, where we visited with Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Clyde, GG (Great-Grandma Trimble), Aunt Pam, Aunt Molly, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Lolo, and cousins Bryan, Joe, and Marie. We went to the zoo for the first time, and played at Pleasant Kingdom. Again, pictures will come soon.
Nine Months October 27, 2006
At 9 months, Jack is meeting pretty much all of the milestones listed in What to Expect the First Year. He’s figured out the “If I drop it, it still
exists and Mommy and Daddy will pick it up for me” game. He does not crawl, but he does creep, schooch, and roll himself all over the place. Thanks to Auntie Trisha, he now walks when he stands holding on to someone’s fingers. While we were in NH, he finally learned how to sit up from a lying down position. This has brought his schooching to a
whole new level. Now, all he wants to do is stand! Holding onto us, holding onto a table or chair, holding onto the crib rail.
Most importantly, Jack has TWO words: “Hi” and “Daddy.” “Hi” definitely means “Hi” but “Daddy” may mean “Mommy” and “Daddy” as he often says it to Mommy. The cutest behavior is watching him
saying “Hi” to himself in a mirror. For the record, he first said, “Hi” on October 2, and “Daddy” on October 13.
Jack will often respond to his own name, but he usually responds to “Jackson” better than to “Jack” or “Jack-Jack”.
At his 9 month check up, Jack was 20 pounds and 26 and 3/4 inches.
He is 50th percentile for weight and is finally on the chart, length-wise, in the 5th-10th percentile. His head circumference is in the 90th percentile.
His two bottom teeth are in, and his two top ones are still growing. He loves to bite and chew on anything he can grab. Yes, we have teether toys, but items that he’s not supposed to chew are so much tastier,
including human fingers. As for food, Jack does like yogurt (Yo-Baby), and combinations of cereal and fruit from the jar, in addition to his orange foods.
Jack’s favorite toys are blocks. He now has a few different sets, and he loves them all. He loves knocking towers down, and banging blocks t
ogether. He has also learned how to drum on empty containers and tables.
We were in New Hampshire for 18 days this month, and we were happy to see a lot of our friends. Jack didn’t take too well to the time change, so spent the first week being cranky and not sleeping well at all. The
second week, he was great, but because we lost the first week, we didn’t have a chance to connect with everyone we wanted to see. On October 8, we had a small dedication ceremony for Jack, at which his godparents and parents promised to look after him in all ways, including spiritually. As we are not members of a church, this occurred at his godparents’ home. His godparents are Marc & Joanne Gamache, of
Bedford, NH. Jack was a big hit at the Swonger household, where our flower girls, Jenn and Katie, clamored for his attention. They spent lots of time constructing elaborate towers and then letting Jack destroy them.
He still sleeps well at night, going to bed between 7 and 8pm and waking
up between 5:30 and 7am. Naps continue to be a challenge. So what else is new?
