17 months old!

Today Jack is 17 months old and I am amazed at how time zips on by... I have a snow day today and was actually able to go to the parent center with Kiddo and his dad. We spent 2 hours playing and chatting with the other die-hards who braved the 8 inches of snow in the name of "getting out of the house with the toddler." It was wild to watch Jack running all over the room. I kept thinking back to his first 10 weeks, those endless days, going to Baby and Me group, the way it was my lifeline. How very small Jack was and how big the 10, 11, 12 month old babies seemed. How it seemed impossible he'd ever be that size. Now he's a toddler, one of the big kids who wanders around stealing toys from babies... He had a blast, preferring the bin of trucks and the train table, but also enjoying playing "peek" from inside the play house, as well as dumping the bin of pegs and pegboards, repeatedly and with glee.

What's Jack up to these days, you ask?
Well, he now likes to try to walk down the steps, facing forward. He's good about knowing he needs to hold someone's hand for this, though.
He has 16 teeth.
He tries saying new words almost every day and we can understand more and more of what he is saying. He has about 35 words he can use now, and can also sign for more, please, all done, and (sort of) music and book.
He likes to read books with us now, and will point out any truck he sees on the page. We also had a 30 minute discourse on trucks, he and I, on our drive to Lakewood last night. He would say truck, and then I would look around and sure enough, there would be a truck near us, and I'd talk about it to him.. and then the cycle would repeat. He never gets tired of trucks. I am not sure how I am raising this child to be such a BOY...!
He is getting better at following simple directions, and likes to go get objects and bring them to us, or take them to a named person.
He can feed himself yogurt, rather successfully, and he is quickly learning how to drink from a non-sippy-lidded plastic cup.
He is, much to my chagrin, getting more interested in TV. He'll sit with us and watch for 10 minutes or so...More and more baby DVD's are showing up in our house these days.
He is learning how to run, which means he's also learning how to fall more often.
He's got a great smile and all the language that's emerging is really making his personality shine...

Winter, winter, and more winter...

Yumm-o! Here is Jack, the yogurt faced kid. Yogurt is the main thing that keeps him alive these days, I think. Also, you will note in this photo that Jack's eyes are still blue.

Playgroups make winter more bearable. Jack and his daddy attend group at the parent center 1-2 times a week. Mommy was lucky to be off work on MLK day when we got together with Haley, Grayson, Jamie and Vera. Wow, how these babies have grown. Really, as I look at the picture above, I have to admit they are toddlers now. Crazy...

Big snow! We have had some real, deep winter cold recently, with temperatures hovering in the teens and steady snow. It is beautiful out. We've gotten good use from Jack's sled (thanks nieghbor Bill!) as most sidewalks are impassable. Jack has very limited motion in his snowsuit/mitten/scarf combo. We have to kind of prop him up in the sled and watch how much it tilts to one side... we've had a few face plants already. Hopefull he'll figure out "holding on" sometime!
This is just the most awesome picture of Corydon ever. English Flying Spaniel....


Corydon sings about the snow. Jack smirks at it...

Skating...

Here are belated pics from our lovely night on the Rink at Wade Oval, compliments of Melinda and her schnazzy new camera....

In other news, Jack can now walk backwards. He gets a real kick out of this, looking at us with his mischievous grin as he carefully steps away from us. He loves to have us say "bye" to him as though he's heading out on a big trip.

Today he also very purposefully nodded his head for "yes" to a question. I am very excited about leaving the "no only" era behind. Very excited.

He can also sign for "please," if we ask him, and he likes to give a "bump" to show affection - touching forehead to forehead. He has given Corydon bumps a few times.

Today he also said "sink" a few times. He has discovered that playing in the water at the sink is the best thing ever, and asks for it every chance he gets.

Big boy bath!

Jack had a big event this evening-- he had his first bath in the ACTUAL bathtub. That's right, until tonight our 16 month old son was still getting his bath in the kitchen sink. How embarrassing! :) Tonight, he and I happened to be hanging out in the bathroom (one of his favorite pastimes these days) when I realized it was about time for his bath. I mentioned this to him and the smart little bugger looked right at the bathtub, and then back at me, as though to say "Shall we?" So we did and he seemed to have a great time. It was rather strange to see the little guy sitting in the great big tub-- squeezed into the kitchen sink, he looks huge. But by moving bathtime to the tub, I am now able to perpetuate the notion that I still have a tiny, little baby.

Seriously, I know I've been exclaiming over how big and grown up he seems for the past, oh, year or so-- but recently he REALLY seems big and grown up. The combination of the fact that his 18 month clothes are getting a little small, and that he is starting to be able to run, and that he is talking so much more... it all comes together to equal "toddler". Little boy. Crazy.

Speaking of talking, a BZ poll today asked about how many words the kiddos are saying. I made a list and determined, to the best of my memory, he's currently got about 27 that he uses spontaneously and functionally and that at least I can understand. Here they are:

No, truck, dog, dad, mama, sit, take it, down, stay (the previous 4 are said to the dog, of course!), up, sock, shoes, boot, hat, go, out, hot, eye, nose, cheese, keys, mew (for cat), water, down, done, hi, bye, night-night, bow wow

He also signs for more and is starting to sign for please, and just started nodding his head...

Other exciting news in our world-- it is going to be -12 out tonight. That is pretty darn cold for Cleveland. We are off school tomorrow so children don't freeze to death. Hooray for cold days!!

NYC pictures!

Playing at the Brooklyn Children's Museum-- what an awesome place! Jack loved the water table, the sand table, and the slide, as well as the big tunnel/ramp system you walk through in the entry way. He could have walked up and down that all day, but we forced him to explore because WE wanted to see all the cool stuff...

Silly Daddy and Jack in the apartment...

Hanging out in Caroline's apartment...

Mommy and Jack posing with Alice in Central Park...

Daddy and Jack in Central Park. How cute are they!!

Back to the real world

Time moves at a vastly different speed here in the real world... Since our return from NYC on Saturday, real life has returned with a vengeance. This week I have had 2 late meetings, WSC has started up again, and last night was my first spinning class of the new session. It is a rather rude awakening after 16 days off, in which I did, officially, no school work whatsoever, nor any exercise to speak of. The other difficult thing to adjust to is the general lack of cookies. I had become used to eating cookies at any time the mood struck, day or night. I find myself oddly hungry all the time with a mere 3 meals a day!

Jacky bear has, I'm sure, been adjusting too. He complains less than I do, as a general rule, but I do think the missing one another is quite mutual. Poor little bub is a sicky today, too, with a fever of 102. :( No other symptoms, and he's still been remarkably cheerful.

The Tiny Cup

We have had a wonderful two days spent tromping around in Manhattan. Lots of walking, lots of cold, lots of swarming people and swerving cars. Its been great fun! We managed to visit a great many of Nat's old haunts from his time at NYU, including, today-- Pizza Booth! Home of the world's best pizza. It hadn't changed a bit: Still a dive, still the world's best pizza. Even Jack, the non-eater-mouse, chowed down on it....
But I digress.
I meant for this post to be about Jack's exploits at the Tiny Cup Cafe, which, despite being located in Brooklyn and not Manhattan, turned out to be one of our very favorite parts of the trip. The Tiny Cup is a little cafe about a block and a half from Caroline's apartment-- just about the distance that it is possible to walk while carrying Very Heavy Baby in your arms...It is a delightful spot in so many ways. Charming, low key atmosphere, mismatched furniture, menu written on blackboards, homemade pastries arranged casually on an eclectic mix of cake stands on the counter. There is an old hoosier cabinet where you can serve yourself water from metal pitchers or put cream in your coffee, and strange, half finished red and gold stenciling on one wall. In the front of the cafe, two sitting areas are marked by very orange furniture, including a delightful corduroy couch which we used as home base on two out of the 3 of our visits. The staff are all young and hip and friendly. And, most importantly for Jack, the laid-back atmosphere and un-crowded nature of the place let him have free reign. Lately he's not been much for staying seated during mealtimes. Lots of whining tends to happen when we force him to sit in a high chair while we eat and he plays with, then flings, his food. So, when we are out, it is ever-so-much easier on everyone involved when he can move around.

At the Tiny Cup, he not only wandered around, he stole the show. Each and every time. He became the official welcoming committee, saying a bold "iieee" to each person who walked in. He flirted shamelessly with pretty young women. He developed a bit of an obsession with tall black men, going up to and "talking" to any one that walked in the door, and then staring in unabashed wonder at them for long period of time. And, every person he talked with responded, enthusiastically. Within a few minutes, everyone in the cafe knew his name. This evening he walked across the room to strike up a conversation with a young woman who'd been dutifully working the whole time we ate. She looked up, smiled at him, and said "Hi Jack, how are you doing." Last night, a charming British man named Clinton introduced himself to Jack and carried on quite a conversation. Tonight, a woman named Lucy did the same and entertained Jack for about 10 minutes while we ate. The tall black man he greeted at breakfast this morning smiled and waved at him off and on while getting his coffee to go. After he left, the waitress turned to us and said, "That is the happiest I have ever seen that man. He never smiles!" This evening, a woman across the room could not keep her eyes off of Jack, gushing about how beautiful he is to the extent that I worried a little bit about letting him out of my sight. Before she left, she came and gave him a few coins to add to his collection that he had been playing with at the table. Since we have been here Jack has earned 35 cents, a sucker, and compliments from at least 20 strangers. We should take him on a national tour...