Whirlwind of a week... and walking!!

First and foremost! Jack has upped his "step count" from 5 to 20! Today at group (reports Nat) he walked a good 4 feet across the room, and actually repeated the performance for mom tonight at home. It's very exciting. He seems to enjoy it, until he decides to chicken out again...

Now, for Jack's week in review:

Time is flying. Not only is the holiday season afoot, with all of its ensuing chaos and joy, but we are also very busy getting the Bedford house ready to rent out again. Jack has spent much of the past week traveling down to Bedford with daddy and crawling around on questionably clean floors while Nat makes repairs. We are close, now! We will hopefully be showing the house to potential renters this weekend and if the fates are with us, a lease will be signed by Christmas. Please.

Last weekend was a busy one. Saturday Jack and I headed to Lakewood in the morning and he played with Grandma while mommy went to WSC dress rehearsal, then played with Auntie Bec while mommy and Grandma did some Christmas shopping. Home again home again in time to be left with grandma again (this time at our house), while mommy and daddy went out on the town . (It was the annual holiday party for school, and was really quite fun. I even played a round of cornhole, against my better judgement. Luckily no one was injured by my errant throws....)

Sunday afternoon mommy had bookclub and daddy had work to do in Bedford-- so Jack chose bookclub. He had a great time exploring the joys of a salad spinner and eating ritz crackers while sitting on the couch at Melissa's house, while we talked away. I think we did talk about the book for about 5 minutes... Sunday evening was the WSC concert. Jack and I met up with Nat for dinner at Aladinn's and then Jack helped his dad usher for the concert. He actually sat in one of the auditorium seats for a large part of the concert. It was so sweet to look out into the audience and catch glimpses of just the top of his little head in that seat. I also got to hear his little voice a few times as he "talked" about the songs, in the quiet moments between numbers...! I had to work hard to keep from laughing. We'll see if we can hear his little "da, da, da" on the recording...

It was almost relaxing to go back to work on Monday! Almost. Nothing slows down at school. This year continues to be a doozy, with the curriculum and meetings and lots of pressure racing on towards the finish. At least my students are, for the most part, delightful kids. When I get to work with them! This week I will be out for meetings 2 1/2 out of 5 days. Next week, I will be out of the building 1 day and then we have on day and then tests on 3 days in a row. And then it will be winter break! whew!

Ok, that was mommy's little vent. All done now.

Jack, for his part, seems remarkable unconcerned with the fact that we don't yet have our Christmas cards out or our tree up. He is a terrifically happy kid almost all the time, when he is not throwing his head back and wailing at some injustice in the world. Luckily, he usually recovers quite quickly from these tantrum-ettes.

Recently, Jack enjoys:
*the song "Peanut Butter... and jelly." Belly laughs when we do the "and jelly" part with a little tickle involved.
*The book "bow wow". He anticipates what is under each flap with appropriate noises and word attempts, and asks for the book by name...
*finding his body parts on our request. So far he can identify his nose, mouth, teeth, head, hair, ears, hands, feet, and toes. We are working on eyes and knees...
*Anything to do with cars, trucks, and buses. How did he get to be such a boy????
*The microwave, or anything else he can open and close. Shh, don't tell him, but he's getting a kitchen play set for Christmas... :)