October in Pictures

moonfinder...

We had a busy and fun Sunday which involved travel to Pittsburgh and Youngstown, and the creation of a new song...

I was scheduled to sing in a concert in Youngstown on Sunday evening with WSC. Spur of the moment, Nat and I decided that if we were going that far, why not drive just a little further and head to IKEA? :) It was a lovely crisp blue-sky day but a bit on the cold side, so, perfect for a drive. The foliage was lovely, about a week past it's prime, I think, but still rich with oranges and yellows on the rolling PA hills. We had a fun time at IKEA, kept our spending under fair control, with our only real disappointment being that they were out of stock of the kids plastic cutlery Jack is using these days. The kiddo was adorable. He is really becoming quite adept at shopping, as on numerous occasions he picked up an item he fancied and tried to hoist it up into the cart. This was particularly cute when that item was a toddler sized chair!

After IKEA-ing we headed back to Youngstown and managed to find the church for the concert after getting only marginally lost. The concert was wonderful, actually. I'd been bitter about having to miss Melinda's baby shower thanks to the unfortunate midday timing of both events. But I have to say it may have been almost worth it. It was a really meaningful concert for John and the emotion of it carried through for the whole choir, I think. The audience was primarily members of the congregation and it was a while new experience to sing religious songs for a wholly religious audience. They really got into the spirituals section of the concert. After our first encore (and second standing ovation--- very enthusiastic religious audience!) John shared a story of being 13 years old, a member of the church we were singing in, when the Capital University Choir came to sing. He and a friend, dragged to the concert against their will, sat in the very back of the balcony, determined to not enjoy the show. “And then,” he said, “ the choir sang this arrangement of A Mighty Fortress is Our God-- and it changed my life.” We ended with that song and I think there were tears in a lot of eyes by the time we finished.

Jack managed to sit through about 2/3 of the concert pretty quietly before Nat had to take him out for a walk. After the show we snacked a bit at the reception and then headed home-- with a stop at Dunnkin Donuts on the way. While Nat ran in for our snacks, Jack and hung out in the car, and Jack decided to look for the moon. He's been very into the moon recently. He managed to find the moon, not much more than mere glimmer in the still-light evening sky, and pointed in out to me. I commented that he was quite a “moonfinder” and thus a new song was born. Sung to the tune of “moonshadow” of course, it went something like this:

I'm in the car with a moonfinder, moonfinder moonfinder.

My little boy is a moonfinder, moonfinder....

The moon is shining in the night

Shining in the sky so bright

Shining for my Jack to find,

Moonfinder moonfinder...

OK, so its a little insipid all typed out here. But he decided that he loves the song and all week, any time he has seen the moon he has wanted to hear the song. “Ting moonfinder!” he will say. “Tine-ing bright!” He is very cute!

Finally Fall!

Happily, the month of October has taken a turn for the better and we actually had a day of fall sunshine, golden leaves shining against the blue sky... this is the way fall is supposed to feel! insert sigh of relief here....

Accordingly I figured I had better do some blog updating, now that I haven't got depressing weather to blame.

Recent developments in the world of Jack include:

Leaps and bounds in conversational skills. He can now chat with us in 7-8 word sentences, and can come up with alternate ways to express himself when we don't understand him the first time. He continues to say all his "S" sounds at "t" and so those sentences are exceedingly adorable.


Some favorite Jackism's:
When asked what he will be for halloween: "I be Max wearin wolf suit. Max from wild things are!"
Greeting me today upon returning home: "Hi mommy! one mitititppi, two mitititippi...." (he ad been watching daddy make kettle corn, and listening to him counting the seconds, apparently.

Singing continues. This week's favorite? Baa baa Black sheep have any woof, of course! We have been listening to that one on repeat...

More updates to follow soon. Promise. But for now a couple of incomplete videos of Jack's award winning rendition of "ABC's as Dinosaur"

Falling leaves, flying time

Fall is racing onward in a haze of long days at school, busy evenings of Jack-chasing at home, and a series of weeks where the sun never made an appearance. I apologize for the lack of blog updates but it seems that my motivation to write is directly linked to the weather and it's current appeal-- or lack thereof.

I have decided I am NOT in fact ready for winter. Or fall, for that matter. Or at least, for kind of wet, very grey 50 degree weather. Sigh.

On a positive note, Jack is nearly equipped to meet the approach of winter-- thanks to 3 weekends in a row of kids resales, he now has a new fall/winter wardrobe, coat, shoes, and blanket sleepers. I really love kids resales.

So, what has the boy been up to recently? Talking up a storm, as usual. Each day he surprises us with a new trick of grammar or turn of phrase. This week its been "I like this one" or "I don't like that one". He has an opinion on everything and is never shy about sharing!

This week we've also seen a spike in his interest in singing. He can now perform a very quiet, utterly adorable Jack-version of Itsy bitsy spider and Twinkle twinkle little star. Or as Jack says it, little tar. I will be kind of sad when he starts to say his "s" 's.

He can also sing the alphabet song now, with pretty good accuracy. "ting aybeetees!" he will say. This weekend at the most recent resale Jack purchased a small white dinosaure (dinotaur) from a bin of Happy Meal toys. He loves this dinosaur. He makes it talk, makes it climb up on things, makes it dance-- and has it sing the aybeetees. One day soon I will treat you to a video of Jack performing the ABC song in the voice of Dinotaur. It is indescribable, really, but does involve a very deep voice and little lips pouted out and a very serious face. It is my new favorite thing.

This weekend we also went to a 2year old birthday party for another of Jack's little friends, Grayson. I first met Grayson when he was 4 days old at a breastfeeding support group meeting! He shows up in some old blog posts from back when the "doctor's wives" playgroup was operational. It is neat to have such a history with little Grayson and his mom, to have watched him grow up alongside Jack. Jack had a fabulous time at the party-- he is really understanding and loving this whole birthday thing. He sang along with gusto to "Happy Birthday" and suggested that we immediately "Do it again!" as soon as the candle was blown out. We struggled a bit with the fact that the presents were for Grayson, not for Jack. But he did all right, because Grasyon had a ride on Mino that made very realistic engine noises. Doesn't take much to keep this kid happy, really.