June is apparently a fast month.

Sorry, devoted Jack watchers, for the lack of updates this month. Simply shameful of me. To my credit, it's been a busy month. A particularly busy past two weeks, with the end of school, Jen visiting, alumni weekend, Dad and Ana visiting... We are off to NY tomorrow for a quick trip and then I will have some breathing room for a week! But, by then it will be July so tonight is the night for a quick update.

Before backtracking to catch everyone up on the missing chunk of June, there are several important Jack developments to note. Today he has begun to use 3-5 word sentences. Today, snap, just like that. Not that you can understand every word of the 3-5, and not like there is any grammar per se. But all of a sudden his speech patterns are distinctly different. Gone are the one. word. sentences. Now, a line like "whaihdat?" (What is that) or "dack get it self" is likely to come tumbling out of his mouth. Remarkable.
Today he has also switched from calling me mama to calling me momeeee. Emphasis on the eeeee. It's a little bittersweet. My new name is adorable coming out of his mouth (what wouldn't be???) but it somehow drieves home in a very poignant way just how quickly he is growing up. That sweet baby-inflected "MAma," emphasis on the MA, said with so much love... I think I will miss it.

Here, for an additional update, is a copy of a recent post on BZ, responding to a topic on "new tasks our little one's are doing...":

I feel like all of a sudden Jack can do SO much more for himself...
What we are NOT doing right now: Potty training, or independent dressing. No interest in either.

What he IS doing:
He can count 1-10, and recognize numbers 1,2,3,4,5, 8, and 10
He can recognize most colors and can name pink, yellow, red, blue, and green.
He can recognize most shapes and name heart, diamond, star, oval, and "moon."
He can recognize the letters A, S, T, O, P and H.
It's so crazy to watch him learn this kind of thing because we haven't really sat down and "taught" him any of this-- he just picks it up!
He is also feeding himself with utensils really well, drinking from a cup with no lid, and he loves to help make PBJ sandwiches-- spreading PB and trying to cut it!
He also loves to help with everything. He's great at mopping the floor (we do this on our hands and knees with a cloth and a squirt bottle of soap-- he will squirt the soap for me anywhere I point and then mop it up.) Actually he loves to clean up ANy mess. He also loves to help with the compost-- "dump!"
He is great at going and getting things for us when we ask-- IF he's in the mood.
And, he is starting to use 3-4 word sentences sometimes. I asked him what he got at the store today: "A pink baloon."
Oh, and its not really a task, but he currently calls the dog "tuna". It's apparently how he says "corydon". I find it absolutely hilarious.

Stay tuned, patient blog-watchers. More updates and pictures to be posted soon...

Meet the Trucks and fun with friends...

We had a lovely, busy weekend... We started off with a trip to Lakewood on Saturday for Meet the Trucks. Mass insanity, populated by every family with a toddler in the greater Cleveland area. Lots of children honking truck horns.... Jack was in awe, and rather overwhelmed by it all. (As soon as I find my camera cable I will upload a great video of the overloaded boy wandering in a daze from truck to truck.) There were some crazy lines to get into the trucks, so Jack didn't get to explore the cabs of the trucks in the detail that he would have liked. But I am pretty sure he had a good time. Of course, he also had a good time on the rocking horse in the playground there at Lakewood Park. It really doesn't take much!

After spending the afternoon with my mom, I headed home and we went over to Lotte and Jim's house for a barbeque. These are our lovely friends from the parent center who are moving to Pennsylvania in a month. Sigh. We are really getting tired of this happening. But we did have a great evening watching the 4 little boys play together-- climbing trees and reading books and everything in between. Linus and Evan taught Jack how to play tag! It was so incredibly cute to watch him "discover" what he was supposed to do. At first he stood there with a funny little confused grin when he was tagged, but before long he was running and schreeching and trying to tag everyone he saw.

On Sunday we had a gran into some neighbors there who we've met several other times at the park, 2 year old Hazel and her dad James, and ended up having them over to play at the house for a bit so we could exchange information to arrange a playdate sometime. So even though families we like keep moving out of Cleveland Heights, there do seem to be others around to meet, and little kids around the same age make for great conversation starters...

Sunday afternoon was Becca's graduation from Lakewood High!! It was crazy to see my little baby sister up there on stage. Seems like only a moment has passed since she was Jack's age, since I was the one on that same stage with my life spread out wide before me... I definitely got a bit nostalgic. Of course there is the train of thought that meanders along the edge of "what else could I be doing with my life now, 15 years out..." But then Nat went and got Jack and brought him to dinner and that little impish man was the center of our attention for 2 hours at the restaurant...and I felt a lot better about what I am doing with my life right now. I think its pretty worthwhile. And certainly very cute!