Jack: I gotta booger.
Mommy: You need a Kleenex?
Jack: No, I do it with my finger.
Mommy is looking at something on eBay. On the home page is the Red Sox jersey that was buried in the new Yankee Stadium.
Jack: That shirt all dirty.
Thank You October 26, 2008
Totally unprompted, as Daddy was taking Jack to his “rain bath”, Jack said, “Thank you for loving me.”
Mommy and Daddy melted.
Mommy said, “Jack, that may be the cutest thing you’ve ever said in your entire life.”
Jack said, “Thank you for loving me.” And Daddy said, “You’re welcome.” And Jack said, “Thank you for loving me.” And Daddy said, “OK Jack, now you’re milking it.”
Jack’s First Haunted House (and Other Stories) October 24, 2008
Tonight, we went to a haunted house at the Danz Biz Dance Company in downtown Antioch. We went, because we’re trying to get out more and see people, so we’ve joined a Meetup group (Creative Kids) and one of the families we met invited us to go.
I didn’t want to. I hated haunted houses as a child, and I really thought Jack would be scared. But then I thought, “Do I really think he’ll be scared? Or am I projecting my childhood onto him?” So, because I didn’t want to be a wimp, and because I like the other family, I said yes.
Bad. Idea.
I don’t know if anyone from CMU reads this, but, we used to do the “Chamber of Horrors” in the second subbasement of Margaret Morrison. We hung black drapes and created a maze, and each portion had its own scenes. It was a lot of fun. But it was scary. The Danz Biz Haunted House followed that motif.
I just walked through with Jack as quickly as I could without offending anyone. I pointed out the neat things to Jack, like the spider webs, and the Halloween lights. He started to cry at one point, and I just walked really fast and turned the corner. Fortunately, it was a forest scene. And although we could tell that the kids would normally jump out of the trees, in our case, they had taken off their masks and were peeping “Happy Halloween”. Thank God. At the end, there was candy. And although we hadn’t eaten dinner yet, I let Jack have an entire lollipop, because I did not want him to remember the scary part. I wanted him to associate it with candy.
On the way to the Haunted House, Jack asked, “Is there breakable stuff in there?” So cute!
We’re supposed to go to the Haunted Library on Monday, but I think not. Even if it is meant for little kids, I don’t want to take the chance of scaring the crap out of Jack. I’m trying very hard to accentuate the positive aspects of the dark. I was afraid of the dark far longer than I care to admit, and it’s a fear I don’t want him to have.
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Words Words Words
As we all know, Jack is a verbal giant. This evening, after the Haunted House, we went for a walk on a pier. He pointed at the pier posts and asked, “What those?”. I said “Piers”. He said, “They logs!” I didn’t know he knew the word “logs”.
Other words he likes to say: “O’Ryan” (for Orion, his cousin), “properly”, “I may?”, “Jackson Louis Chi-is-ter”.
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Dr. Singer
Jack loves his doctor. He knows his doctor’s name: “Doctor Singer”. We’ve had a few conversations about Dr. Singer.
Driving near Dr. Singer’s old office…
Jack: That my doctor’s office?
Mommy: That was your doctor’s office. But he moved.
Jack: Which one we walk to?
Mommy: We could walk to this one, but the one he moved to is far away.
Driving to the Haunted House, so we passed Dr. Singer’s old office again…
Jack: That not Dr. Singer’s office.
Mommy: No, that not Dr. Singer’s office. We’re going to see a new doctor next week.
Jack: (nervous) I like Dr. Singer!
Mommy: I like Dr. Singer too. We’re just going to see this new doctor so he can look at your ears. How do your ears feel?
Jack: They all bedder.
Mommy: Good. The new doctor is just going to look at your ears.
Jack: My ears all bedder. (Puts his hands on his ears.) I keep my hands here to keep them all bedder.
Mommy: Oh, honey, you don’t have to do that! We’re just going to see this new doctor so he can see if your ears are all better.
Jack: They ARE all bedder.
Mommy: Good, then if they’re all better, he’ll tell us that.
Jack: They are bedder.
Mommy: OK Jack. But Dr. Singer wants us to see this new doctor so he can check your ears. We’re not leaving Dr. Singer. We’re just going to see this new doctor just so he can check your ears.
Jack: (mollified) Dr. Singer check my eyes too.
Mommy: That’s right, Dr. Singer checks your eyes, but this doctor will just check your ears.
Jack: What new doctor’s name?
Mommy: I have to look it up. (Finds business card.) Dr. Rosen.
Jack: Dr. Rosen?
Mommy: Yes.
Jack: Sassy doctor, Dr. Hage-eh-men.
Mommy: Yes, Jack. Sassy’s doctor is Dr. Hagerman.
During dress up…
Last weekend, Jack put on his breathing mask and decided he was a doctor. I asked if he was Dr. Singer. He said, “No, I Dr. Hage-eh-man”. He says it as 3 distinct syllables.
Before bed time…
Jack: Where my medicine?
Mommy: Daddy said you don’t need to take your medicine anymore. You’re all done.
Jack: (jumps down from my lap and runs to the door) I do need it! Dr. Singer said I need my medicine to make my ears feel bedder!
Jack can now grab the medicine dropper, put it in his mouth, and push the plunger all by himself. How did we luck out on that?
Out of the blue…
Jack: What happened to the baby?
Mommy: The baby at Dr. Singer’s?
Jack: Yeah.
Mommy: The baby got shots.
Jack: The baby got shots.
The last time we were at the doctor’s office, there was a baby crying. We found out it was because the baby was getting vaccinated. We don’t vaccinate (OK, Jack had 3 shots for Hib) so Jack didn’t know what the fuss was about. For the past week, he’ll randomly bring up the baby getting shots. Mostly, he seems to be empathetic to the baby’s plight.
By the way we LOVE Dr. Singer. Dr. Richard Singer, with Sutter Delta Medical Group, in case you’re looking for a pediatrician in Antioch or Brentwood.
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We’re the Same
Sometime in the late summer, Jack discovered the idea of “the same”. He now notices whenever anything is “the same” as what he has. So, for example, Daddy drinks Pepsi and Jack has a cup that says Pepsi on it. Jack says, “We got the same!”
He pointed to our roof and said, “We got a brown roof.” Umm… OK… we do, but I hadn’t really noticed. Then, he pointed to our neighbors’ roof. He’s friends with the kids there. He said, “They got a brown roof! They got the same!” He’s right. We do. Jack really does pay a lot of attention.
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Line Up
Jack is also into lining objects up. He will take his bath toys and line them up one by one on the side of the tub. He takes his play food and lines it up on the carpet. He’ll line up the crackers or other food that he’s eating. It’s just neat to watch.
A Particularly Cute Evening October 24, 2008
On October 21, I picked Jack up from preschool. Daddy went into the city to have dinner with Donovan, Gus, and Jenn. Jack was very cute and talkative that evening. Some highlights…
Driving home…
Jack: What O’Ryan doing? (Orion is Jack’s cousin, my nephew)
Mommy: He’s sleeping.
Jack: Uh-uh, the sun is not down! He not sleeping!
Mommy: That’s the wonder of this planet, Jack. The sun is down in Florida, where Orion lives. The sun is down in Florida and Pennsylvania.
Jack: Grandma Sandy lives in Pencil-bainya.
Mommy: And who else?
Jack: Grampa Clyde.
Mommy: And who else?
Jack: Mmmmm… don’ know.
Mommy: GG, your great-grandma. Grandma Sandy, Grampa Clyde-
Jack: I don’t like Grandmas!
Mommy: You don’t?
Jack: No. I like Mommies and Daddies.
Mommy: I like Mommies and Daddies too.
Jack: No! You don’t like them. I like them!
At dinner…
Jack: Is there a Daddy at my house?
Mommy: No, Jack. Daddy went to have dinner with some of his friends.
Jack: Daddy not like his friends!
At bath time…
Mommy lets Jack “slide” down his sloped bathtub wall.
Jack: I have a slide in my bath tub! (beat) Where’s the ladder?
Drumroll please…
And October 21 is the official beginning of Jack asking “why?”. Until recently, he didn’t understand “why”. We’d ask him, “Why are you crying?” or “Why do you like (or hate) this thing?” and he’d stare at us blankly. But a couple of months ago or so, he started understanding it when we’d ask. However, October 21 was the first night that he asked me a couple of “why” questions. Sadly, they were so commonplace that I don’t remember what they were.
A Good Night to Be a Mommy October 8, 2008
Jack was ever-so-cute tonight. The really cute stuff is at the end, so if you’re pressed for time, I suggest to scroll to the play-like dialog stuff.
I picked him up from school early so we could buy new shoes. In the car, every time we went under an overpass, he would cry “A tunnel! We going through a tunnel!”. He also pretended that we were in a plane, flying to Gramma Sandy’s house. When I told him we were going to dinner with Great-Grandma, he said, “And Nana and Grampa?”. And I said, “No, just Great-Grandma”. Well, he had a little fit, pining for Nana and Grandpa. So I told him that Great-Grandma was going on vacation to visit Aunt Monica, Uncle Ed, and some of Jack’s cousins. So then Jack asks, “Orion? Where Orion live? Where Orion house?” Orion is my sister’s oldest son, and they came to visit back in July. Jack still asks after him from time to time. I told him where Orion lives, and Jack was OK with that.
He wanted to be in the backpack (Ergo) to walk to the shoe store, and I had a dickens of a time getting him in because there wasn’t a bench nearby for us to stand/sit on. A random woman walked by – she looked like Cherry, my friend Susan’s friend, for anyone reading this who might know her – anyway, she asked if we needed help, and she helped us out. Very nice.
Jack noticed that there is a “splash mountain” near the shoe store. Indeed, there were two. So we stopped at one and I leaned in so he could get a little splashed.
At the shoe store, it took him approximately 10 seconds to find the Wall*e crocs. Yes, there are Wall*e crocs and they are $32.99. They also only come in whole sizes. So I had Jack try one on to show him, see, it didn’t fit. And he accepted that. But if he couldn’t get Wall*e shoes, he wasn’t going to get any shoes. I had been all set to get him a treat in the store. This shoe store carries some Thomas and Friends trains. But he threw a fit, so I managed to try a pair of shoes on, they fit, and I bought them. He finally calmed down when another little boy came in the store and tried to touch the Thomas stuff. Jack said, “That’s for Christmas!” and the little boy jumped back. The shoe lady did let Jack pick a sticker, and we found Nemo, so all was good.
Then, Jack walked back to the car with me. But he was confused. He said, “We going to a res-tar-rant?” Yes. “We walking to the res-tar-rant.” No. Uh-oh. Jack said, “We have to walk to the res-tar-rant. There are too many cars!”
I told Jack that I was sorry, but we had to drive. Next time, I’d pick a restaurant that was closer. We passed Fresh Choice, and Jack pointed and said, “We going to that res-tar-rant?” No. We were going to one that Great-Grandma liked. “She like THAT res-ar-rant!” OK…
Then I made the mistake of saying that I had to go to the Elephant Pharmacy. Jack freaked at the idea of seeing elephants and animals. I explained that, no, it wasn’t a zoo, it was a grocery store, and I don’t know why they call it the Elephant Pharm. Jack got very distracted and into the idea of “finding animals I can pet”. I mentioned going to a pumpkin patch and he yelled “NO! I want to go to the zoo!” Ah well.
We got to the restaurant, and Jack was relatively charming, eating some of his dinner and a lot of Great-Grandma’s.
So, here’s where it gets good. Jack was very sweet to Great-Grandma and gave her hugs and kisses. On the way home, he once again pretended we were on a plane, and that it was dark on the plane. He saw some real planes and talked about the “big jet plane” and how he wanted to get on a jet plane and go see “Gramma Sandy and Grampa Clyde”. Then he asked, “We can touch the plane?”
Me: Umm… yeah, if we can get close to it.
Jack: We can touch it?
Me: Yes, but it’s hard to reach it.
Jack: It not break-able? We can touch it?
Me: OH! Yes, Jack, we can touch it. It’s not breakable. But planes fly very high in the sky.
Jack: I need someone lift me up.
Me: Oh Jack, no one can lift you up that high.
Jack: The moon is cold.
Me: Yes, Jack, the moon is cold.
Jack: We can touch it? It not breakable?
Me: Well, Jack, the moon is very far away. If you grow up and become an astronaut, then you can touch the moon.
Driving…
Jack: I need an as-so-not to bring me to touch the plane.
Me: No Jack. You need an astronaut to bring you to the moon. You need to be a pilot to touch a plane.
Jack: I need an as-so-not to bring me to the moon.
Me: Yes Jack. You need an astronaut to bring you to the moon.
We got home, and Jack helped by getting Daddy to come out and help me with the stuff that always accompanies Jack. Daddy and Jack watched Wall*e – the one with MO in it (but that’s another post) – and they went up to take a bath.
Then, I heard Jack announce “I peeing!”
Daddy: That’s great Jack!
Jack: I get M n M now?
Daddy: Jack, just let me see in the toilet to check… You did pee! Good job Jack!
Mommy: (coming upstairs with pjs and a towel) You peed? Great job Jack!
Jack: I get M n M!
Daddy: Just let me wash my hands and I’ll get you one.
Mommy comes into the bathroom and grabs the M&M canister. She gives Jack a green one.
Jack: I can have five?
Mommy: You can have one.
Jack: I can have four?
Daddy: You can have one.
Jack: Three?
Mommy: No, Jack, one.
Jack: Two?
Mommy: If you’re a really good boy and behave in the bath, then you can have one more M&M.
And he was good in the bath, so he got another M&M. A red one.
Mommy: I figure if we only use M&Ms for bathroom-related treats, we’re all good.
Daddy: (puzzled) Why?
Mommy: Because we don’t want M&Ms to become blase.
Daddy: (confused look)
Mommy: We only want to give him M&Ms for bathroom-related behavior…
Daddy: OH! I thought you said RED M&Ms and I was confused.
After bath, Mommy and Jack go into Jack’s room. Jack asks for dots – that is, his lotion, which we put on every other night to keep his skin from getting itchy. So, I loaded him up with dots, and he smoothed them in. (I won’t include Daddy’s Silence of the Lambs reference.)
Jack gave Daddy a good hug, and we sat down to read Olivia and the Missing Toy. Not to spoil the plot, but Perry the dog chews up Olivia’s best toy. Jack commented on this while reading. Then he realized that our cat Jinxy was in the room with us.
Jack: Jinxy not chew up my toys.
Mommy: No, Jack, Jinxy does not chew up your toys.
Jack: Jinxy not chew my toys. (gets off Mommy’s lap) Jinxy can have my duck.
He fishes a cloth duck out of the block bin (I guess the duck was helping Duplo Pooh build a house) and extends it to Jinxy.
Jack: She can have my duck. Here Jinxy, you can have my duck. You not chew on it. Here Jinxy. Jinxy can have my duck. She not break it. Here Jinxy.
Jinxy: Confused, lazy look at Jack
Mommy: You want to give the duck to Jinxy?
Jack: Here Jinxy. See, I sharing my toys! (Glee!)
Mommy: Yes, you’re doing a good job Jack. If you want to give the duck to Jinxy you can, but you don’t have to.
Jack: Here Jinxy. (Puts the toy about a foot from Jinxy’s head.)
Mommy: (Picks up toy) Here, I’ll give it to her. Here you go Jinx.
Jinxy: sniff sniff look up tilt head
Mommy: I think she says “Thank you Jack” but she’s not in the mood to play right now.
Jack: Oh. (Takes duck back.)
Mommy: But you did a good job sharing.
Then, we brushed Jack’s teeth while discussing why we have cats and not dogs – dogs chew up toys. We went and read Olivia one more time. Jack giggled HYSTERICALLY at the part where Olivia looks under the cat. We turned out the light and said “night night” to the street. Then Jack put his hands up and said loudly “Up! Up!” I was confused.
Jack: I waking the sun up.
Mommy: (perhaps a bit more seriously than she should) Oh, don’t do that Jack! He’s sleeping. He needs his sleep.
Jack: (chastened look)
Mommy: The sun was awake all day, and now it’s time for him to go night-night.
Jack: He go in his rocking chair?
Mommy: Yes, he rocks with his Mommy in his rocking chair.
Jack: What’s his Mommy’s name?
Mommy: Umm… I don’t know. But I think his Daddy’s name is Zeus.
Jack: What’s his Mommy’s name?
Mommy: I don’t know.
Jack: Zeus.
Mommy: No, that’s his Daddy’s name. Hera? I think it might have been Hera.
Jack: Zeus-ee
Mommy: Zeus was his Daddy. We’ll have to ask Daddy.
And then I sang Jack to sleep in the rocker.
A very, very good night to be a Mommy.
May 14: Jack Kisses Jinxy
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.
Summer Recap August 28, 2008
I know I’ve been terrible at updating this blog. I now have a new laptop, and am trying to make up for lost time. I just published a particularly cute story about Jack and Sassy.
This summer has been very busy for us. Mommy’s been working, Daddy’s been working and picking up Mommy’s slack, and Jack started Montessori preschool.
Every Saturday, Mommy, Jack, and sometimes our neighbor Nee-Nee (Jeanine) go to the Brentwood Farmers’ Market. We see the “boom boom bap guys”. The Big Fat Swing Company, which consists of three high school guys who play sax, drums, and piano, plays almost every week. We also go to the “Splash Fountain” – a small but nifty fountain at the end of the street.
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- Jack at the Splash Fountain
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- Boom Boom Bap Guys
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- Daddy and Jack at the Reservoir
On Sundays, we go to the reservoir – and yes, Jack can say “reservoir.” It sounds like “reservoir” too – “rez-eh-var”. Daddy has come with us just once. “Noah an’ Joe” – two friends from the MOMS Club – come with their parents and little brother Elijah. I’ve only taken the camera once, so there are few pictures in existence.
Speaking of the MOMS Club, we left. It’s a long story, but they banned Dads. We’re hoping to remain friends with the moms who didn’t support that initiative.
Jack saw his second movie, Wall*e, with Daddy on July 2, as we recorded here. Since then, he’s been in full Wall*e mode. Nana bought him a Wall*e lunchbox to take to school with him. He is now the coolest kid in town.
Jack can now reliably count to 20. He can recognize most of the uppercase letters and some of the lowercase. He can recognize many numbers, including 10. He has a hard time with “1″ and “7″ depending on the font.
Now that summer is just about done, we find ourselves in Pittsburgh, PA, visiting “Gramma Sandy and Grampa Clyde”. More news and pictures to come…
What Your Name? August 28, 2008
Jack is learning that everyone has more than one name. He knows his: Jackson Louis Chittister.
“I got two O’s,” he says, “Mommy and Daddy got one O.” This is true.
In stories, he asks what the characters’ names are, and if we don’t know, I’ll try to get him to make them up. He’ll name them after his friends.
On Monday, our sick Sassy cat was lying on the couch. He was so very nice to her, and brought Sassy some “tea” in a cup with a saucer. He said it would “make you all better”. Then he asked, “What Sassy name?”
I said, “Sassy Chittister.”
His eyes got wide and he smiled, “Like me?!? Chi-ti-ser?!?”
Ten Stories About Jack April 28, 2008
Work has been heating up, so I’ve not had a chance to do much, blog-wise. I have been jotting down notes, which add up to 10 stories about Jack.
Story One – “I like”
Jack is very big on sentences. His new favorite seems to be: “I like x.” and “x like me.” For example, “I like Alex. Alex like me.” (Alex is a girl at day care.) “I like Mommy. Mommy like me.”
He is also very into the concept of friends. Last Friday evening (4/18) when I was taking him home from day care, we had to stop at Trader Joe’s, which is right next to the pet store, one of Jack’s favorite places. He asked, “We go to peh-store?” I said, “Maybe.” He said, “I see birdies, fishies, and squeak-squeaks. I like birdies. I like fishies. I like squeak-squeaks. They my friends.”
The way he says “friends” is so adorable! I can’t write it phonetically. It’s just the way he intones the word “friends”. It’s almost Southern in pronunciation.
That leads me to a related topic – “mine”. In the last week, Jack has gotten very possessive. If he’s holding it, it’s “mine.” He likes to say “My Mommy.”, “My Daddy.”, “That Jack Mommy.”, “That Jack Daddy.” and so on. (Sometimes he does say, “Jack’s”, but sometimes he doesn’t.
Story Two – Boo Boo
Jack had a boo-boo on his leg – his knee, to be exact. He looked at it and said, “I am broken.” Really – all 3 words.
He then asked for a Band-Aid. He also remembered on Friday (4/18) that I told him we would get him Pooh bear Band-Aids, thus necessitating a trip to Target. They didn’t have Pooh Band-Aids, but they had Spiderman, and that was OK.
Story Three – Toilet Training
I never understood the excitement and pride that parents seemed to feel when announcing to the world that their child had used the toilet. Personally, I feel that such information is best kept to oneself.
Now, to be a total hypocrite, last week (Tuesday, I think), Jack used the toilet for the first time. He’s been sitting on it since January. We bought him a little seat that goes over the real toilet. I’m reading The Everything ‘Toilet’ Training Book (I don’t use the p-word) and it told me to get a couple books for Jack to enjoy. I found two that are pretty neat. Uh-Oh Gotta Go! and the Karen Katz book A ‘Toilet’ For Me. Anyway, we had been in the hot tub (see next story) and I took Jack out of his kick-kick clothes. He peed on the carpet. I said that was OK and asked him if he’d like to sit on the toilet. So he did. And while we were reading, he pooped! Woo hoo! Now, I get the excitement and pride.
Story Four – Height
Jack is now tall enough (34 inches) to stand with his feet touching the bottom of the hot tub, and his chin just touches the water. He’s very happy about this. Sadly, our hot tub seems to be broken, so we can’t go kick kick anymore. I hope we get this ironed out before the summer, when it’s too hot to go in the hot tub.
Story Five “Hi-Oh”
Jack now says “Hello” but he says it “Hi-Oh” like “Ohio” without the first “O”.
Story Six – Dolphin?
All I have written down is “dolphin.” I don’t know what that means. I do know that Jack can recognize dolphins as opposed to fish. But I’m sure that he did something cute involving the word “dolphin” and now I just don’t know what it is.
Story Seven – Tigo Beads
On April 15, Jack came home with a bag full of toys and books from day care. His day care provider, Angie (who is WONDERFUL!) had gone to a forum presented by First Five, about their Tigo program. First Five is dedicated to helping children ages 0-5, and the Tigo program teaches parents how to play with and read to their children. I think it’s awful that a program like that has to exist. Angie was actually supposed to give us (all the parents) a 3 hour class on how to use the toys, and the toys came with this pull out card with instructions, telling us what skills the toys develop. Anyway, one of the toys was lacing beads! I’ve been wanting to get Jack some lacing beads, but I wasn’t sure he was ready. Well, he dumped them out and wanted to play with them. At first, he couldn’t figure out how to do it, and got frustrated, so he asked for help. (I love that he asks for help instead of getting so mad he wants to stop.) I showed him how to lace the beads once, then I held his hands while he did it, then he did it all by himself! I was so excited! I took a video, which I’m putting here (Or not. It’s so big, I have to upload it to YouTube then link it, and I don’t want to do that tonigh. BTW: When he says “Wanna see Jack” he means that he wants to see himself on the camera’s LCD. He’s starting to take pictures, but that’s another post.) I did include a picture of Jack playing Tigo beads.
Story 8 – Cake
Jack loves cake. All kinds of cake. But other than that, I cannot remember why I wrote down “cake.” This story isn’t that good, is it? It’s just a reminder that Mommy created this blog because she couldn’t remember these stories, and therefore should post more often.
Story Nine – eBay
I’ve been bidding on items on eBay. In the middle of last week, the Red Sox “curse jersey” was up for auction. It was on the eBay home page. Jack saw it, and said, wrinkling his nose, pointing at the screen, “That shirt all dirty.”
Story Ten – 1, 2, 3, 4
On Wednesday night (4/23) at 11:54pm, Jack called out from his crib, “One, two, three, four!” then stopped. I have no idea what he was dreaming about. (I know the time because I was working on my computer and wrote it down.)
Plus One
To make up for the dolphin and cake stories, I will tell you about something that happened today (4/28). Jack found Max’s Wii guitar for Guitar Hero. He picked it up and said, “I wanna rock” (only “rock” is still pronounced “wok”, but close enough). Sadly, I was on the phone with my friend Anna and not able to get to the camera in time.
First Sunday Update April 6, 2008
Still haven’t gotten around to announcing the existence of this blog yet. It’s work’s fault.
Some goals for this blog:
- Posting weekly updates
- Cataloging Jack’s numerous words
- Sharing incredibly cute stories
- Publishing more pictures more often
- Adding some extra pages with Jack’s “reading list” and toy reviews
So, for this week – It was a decent Jack week. As I type this, he is asleep. Today, we went to the park and played in the sand. I think he must have got some in his eyes as he had been rubbing them all day. By bed time, they were extremely puffy, even after a bath. We gave him some Benadryl.
He’s liking his new day care provider – Angie – and so are we. She’s incredibly sweet, and very communicative. She has 4 other kids there around Jack’s age, as well as her 9 y/o daughter and one baby girl. We went to the Jungle (a play space) on Saturday, and I met one of the other parents. Nice time.
What else we did this week:
- Saturday (4/5): Went to Contra Loma Regional Park and saw lots of cows (I have video, and it’s adorable! Jack kept saying “Hello cows. Nice to see you!” and “Moo!”)
- Friday (4/4): I worked until very late and was very upset about doing so.
- Wednesday (4/2): Playgroup in the morning, and we had fun, although someone brought up vaccines. I had to leave the room. I brought Jack to Angie’s after that, then came home. I was in a lot of pain on Wednesday and Thursday, probably from a lot of walking.
- Tuesday (4/1): I fell prey to one April Fool’s Day joke.
- Monday (3/31): Jack did two cute things that I want to write about. I wrote them down in my paper journal, which I don’t have with me right now. I will remember to post them eventually.
Some of Jack’s new words this week: digest (digesting), insane, static electricity
I haven’t downloaded any of April’s pictures to the computer yet. I’ll have to add one in here from March and just deal. I have 283 pictures from February, and I’m still going through and renaming and cropping them. I have 274 from March 1 – 27.
We have been reading Micawber, by John Lithgow, as our last book each night before lights out. I highly recommend it! It’s about a squirrel who paints, but that brief synopsis does not do the book justice. It’s written in rhyme, complete with big words like “peregrination” and “beguiler.” I love it!
