Booful day!

That is my favorite of Jack's new catch phrases. Especially as he tends to utter it, all sleepy eyed and soft-voiced, when we look outside into particularly gloomy weather. He is such a little optimist. Last night leaving Gram's house, we stepped out into a blustery, spit-raining, 50 degree almost-October night. And Jack looked around and proclaimed "Iss booful day ouside!" It's hard not to appreciate life around this little guy.

Our most recent "booful day" was a trip to Woofstock on Sunday-- an annual dog festival at Holden Arboretum. I adore dog festivals. Nothing like hundreds of well-behaved, beautiful dogs out with their doting humans, booths of dog-related crap, and dog contests to watch. We had a great time petting dogs and recieving admiration on Corydon's behalf. Jack loved the "extremes" of the dog world: his favorites were little white fluffy dogs, and a huge mastiff we saw on our way out. He is most certainly NOT afraid of dogs, reaching out to "touch him" with every dog we saw. We should probably work with him on that as not every dog is a Woofstock dog...

A lovely weekend

Can't complain about the weather this week. Unfortunately being back on our new fall schedule means that there wasn't much time to enjoy it during the week... but we were able to make up for that this weekend. Friday night we went out for a great dinner at California Pizza Kitchen with Melinda and Will, spent some time listening to a festive band and wandering around Legacy before returning home, putting a boy to bed and having a fire in the backyard. Saturday Nat went down to Bedford to play henchman and Jack and I headed off to get his hair cut. It's kind of crazy how much he "grew up" in the few minutes it took to cut his hair! It's his first real "boy" cut and now instead of looking rather like a Beatles reject he looks "all-American kid", with it very short in the back. (this evening we realized that if we use a bit of mousse we can spike it up in front for a wonderful Eurotrash look. I have this feeling some boy may be wearing hair products to group on Tuesday...) On the way home from the salon, a cute place that specializes in kids cuts, complete with chairs that are actually cars to drive and a flat screen TV playing kids movies at each station, we went right past the "preston's hope" playground, a fabulous looking place we can see from the highway and always talk about stopping at. So, we stopped, and it was fabulous. As you can see from the pics above, Jack had a pretty wonderful time, running and laughing and riding in as many more cars as he could find. He and I played for a good hour before we headed home for lunch. It was a great morning with my boy.
Saturday night Gram came out to watch Jack, and Nat and I went out to our first movie in about 6 months. The Informant. Good fun.
Today, we had an exciting road trip to Wooster, for the occasion of sending Becca off to COLLEGE! I can't believe my baby sister is actually moved out, starting college... all grown up. It was neat to see all the kids moving in, all the excitement and possibility in the air.
Being only 30 minutes from Strasburg, we stopped and had a nice visit with the Cobes side of the family. Jack was so excited to see cousin Emma (he'd bee talking about her all day). We sat in Diana's yard enjoying trail and swiss and a decadent ice-cream dessert while updating one another on our lives and talking quite a bit about Strasburg athletics while the kids ran about in the yard. With all of John-Johns trucks, Emma fawning over him, as well as a real, live ride-on Mino, Jack was pretty much in heaven. Nice day.

On a side note, we have been thinking recently about some of the things that Jack says that just tickle us. Here are a few:

"Cue me" -- Excuse me. He is quite polite about this, except for the fact that by the time he says it, he's already pushing past.
"Let's do it!" -- this is a new one. Said, like so many other things, with tremendous enthusiasm.

Sparx in the city....

Jack's most recent adventure out on the town was going to the annual "Sparx in the City" tour of Cleveland neighborhoods. On a wonderful, warm Saturday, we took advantage of free buses and trolleys running loops through 7 different Cleveland "boroughs" if you will. Jack was thrilled with the chance to ride on actual buses, and we were thrilled to explore parts of our own city as tourists for a day. We drove through midtown and Asia town and explored an artists live-work community in a fabulous old factory in what is apparently known as "the Quadrangle", a neighborhood I never even knew existed. Jack got into looking at the art, standing an inch away from the canvases and saying "I like this one!" He almost moved in with one of the artists, establishing himself on the couch in his studio. We explored downtown, ran into a friend from the parent center in the East 4th neighborhood, walked to the Warehouse district, found about a gazillion new restaurants we ought to try, and then got back on a trolley to head to Ohio City and Tremont. In Tremont we were treated to an Art festival where Jack decided to sit on a chalk drawing of a cat. A very cute photo op, as you can see above, but as it turns out, a not-so-smart parenting moment for Nat and Amanda, who then spent 5 minutes attempting to de-chalk the boy. Sigh.
We were out and about for 3 and a half hours and I think mom and dad were more ready for bed than Jack by the time we got home! It was a wonderful afternoon....

Rock star

How often must I apologize for how remiss I've been in updating the blog??? As often, I suppose, as I continue to be remiss....
I blame the hectic start of school. Of course, seeing as I am now in week 4 of school, I am not sure how long I can keep using that excuse.
Sigh.

Here, in an effort to make up for my lack of constant updating, is the most wonderful video in the universe.




Yes, he is playing air guitar. Yes, he is wearing a headband. Yes, his hair is a bit reminiscent of Bon Jovi. And yes, that is "Smoke on the Water" you hear.

Isn't your day just going better now??? :)

Heard this evening...

"I can reach it" (while reaching into a bag of pretzels)
"I got him!" (upon finding his favorite mino)
"I play bubbles!" (when asked what was done with Kaitlyn, his babysitter, tonight)

Yes, we have entered the age of pronouns. Also, the age of carefully enunciated 3 syllable words.... Also heard this evening:

Bull-doze. Er.
Banan. Na

Its like he has to consider that last syllable before saying it...

Every time I feel impressed by a "leap" he's taken in his verbal skills, he goes and takes another. What a kid.

In other news, here are his official "stats" from his 2 year old appointment yesterday:

Height: 37.5 inches (81%)
Weight: 29 pounds (60%)
Head: who knows the measurement but apparently its right around 57%. Or so.

This was encouraging news; it is nice to know for certain that he is growing despite his continued erratic eating habits. Can't complain too much, though-- this evening he did eat half of a Banan. Na. on the way back from Turtle Park.

Conversationalist

Jack is becoming more of a talker each day... The other day I came in after work and and heard people talking in the kitchen. I wondered to myself who Nat was chatting with, who might be visiting.. then realized that his conversation partner was Jack! Today I listened to Jack's side of the conversation as he chatted with Nat on the phone. It was one of the cutest things I have heard in a long time! Lots of "yeah's" and "yep's" and the occasional "MINO!" thrown in. And then, he would turn to me and say "Daddy on dere!" with a look of wonderment.
Some of my favorite Jack phrases of late:
"Iss really hot!" followed by "It cool down!" He has a thing about whether his food is hot.
"tanks" and "you wedum" He is becoming much more polite these days. "Tanks" comes after almost every conversation exchange.
"HI, mommy!!" OK, that doesn't seem like an earth-shattering utterance for a 2 year old, I know. But what makes it special is the way he enunciates the words these days-- and the tone of absolute joy in his voice when he says it. And the fact that this phrase is very often paired with a "Monkey hug" (imagine a 2 year old clinging to my shin, all 4 limbs wrapped around..)
However, just to make sure that I don't feel too special, he also says "HI, torton (Corydon)" and HI, motter guck/motter van/tar/pish (monster truck, monster van, car, fish) with exactly the same enthusiasm....