Countdown

With 16 days to go before the impending sibling, I feel I ought to spend some time focused on my firstborn-- namely by updating his blog before I have no more time to do so!! :)

Before turning to that task, however, I have an important question for you, dear reader. I am wondering if this blog should morph into being about both Jack and his as-yet-unnamed sister, or if I ought to try and run two separate blogs to give both children their due... What are your thoughts?

So, Jack these days...

Not any real big news to report recently. Life has been remarkably settled for as upended as it soon shall be. The family at large continues to enjoy Spring, with weather that has been, for the most part, stunning and a neighborhood in full flower. We take regular walks to the park, via Starbucks, and really life is pretty grand from my vantage point perched atop a picnic table, watching boy and dog frolic in the green, or clamber around on the slides, backlit by the evening sun. Have I mentioned what a climber the boy has become? He has mastered the equipment at Cumberland park to the point that we sometimes get to talking and realize we don't quite know where he is-- and we don't panic. He loves to climb up the slides as well as preferring the "big boy ladders" to the steps. He also loves to swing. Interestingly he refers to the enclosed toddler swing as his "big boy swing", despite the fact that he can sit on the real swings pretty well. I don't mind that he still prefers the safer swing as he does like to pushed "paster" and higher than ever and I don't have to worry quite as much when he's fully surrounded.

Jack is also quite the talker these days. He continues to amaze us with words he knows and he uses the most delightful grammar in his ever-increasing utterances. He is branching his speech out into new territory these days, in two ways. One-- he is always trying to find better words to describe and explain the tings he sees in his world. For example, yesterday on a walk we took a detour to look at these very odd scooters, contraptions with 3 wheels and an arched roof sheltering the seat. Jack thoughts these were quite fine. He talked with us about the colors of the "minos" (yes, he most certainly still calls motorcycles "minos" and I have to say we do nothing to discourage it because it is so stinking cute..) and then paused for a moment. "Look at the minos..." he said, and then appeared to reconsider before continuing, "look at the, at the.... ROCKET minos!" I found this to be a delightful description.

Two-- he makes up more words these days. He jibber jabbers in what seem to be complex sentence structures, or uses similar "words" to make up his own language for familiar tunes. My favorite of this is the tune of "Frere Jaques" sung with a strange combination of words resembling "Heeni Hanni" that ends up sounding rather like a Hebrew chant. Last night at bedtime I asked him what songs we should sing (because you know he has to say the name of the song BEFORE I sing or it JUST won't work...) and he replied, "Mookie cookie!!" I said to him, "Mommy doesn't know that song, honey-- how about one I know?" and he said with a hint of exasperation, "It a TONG, mommy!" as though he was simply amazed I didn't know that one. He's a funny monkey.

Now, lest you believe (as I tend to) that this boy must be an emerging genius (no bias here!!) I'll have you know that we are seeing considerably less progress in areas such as potty training, sleeping through the night, and using his big boy bed. As in, no progress. I am not sure the boy will ever do those things, actually. It's a good thing he is cute enough to make up for it. :)

Introducing....

.... the amazing flexible toddler!

So, Jack has been complaining, off and on, about his legs hurting. Mostly this happens at night and with our boy's wonderful propensity toward night time waking and getting snuggles out of us, it was hard to know if he was pretending, or if was that his foot fell asleep, or what.
But recently its been happening more often and a few times during the day, too. Nat took him in to the pediatrician today just to make sure that it was nothing major.

It turns out these phantom leg pains DO have a cause, and that cause is: Jack is extremely flexible. Yep, I laughed out loud about that one. Really, an extremely flexible child coming from these parents?? Apparently the doc moved Jack's joints around a bit and discovered that Jack can put his foot above his head and touch his thumb to his wrist,etc etc. All these flexy ligaments can be overextended easily leading to pain. Poor baby. But happily not a reason to worry. In fact the Dr. said that this is a sign that the boy may be very good at sports! (Surprises all the time around here...) We were told to give him Motrin if he is in pain and just make sure that it's not always one spot that bothers him.

And, we'd better get a piano, and some gymnastics equipment... time to capitalize on this newfound gift of his! Our special little boy...!

More things Jack says...

Have I mentioned that I wish I could freeze time right now? I just love this age. I just love my son. I used to be a bit of a cynic regarding that mush-gushy idea of absolute, unconditional parental love. But suddenly these days I am understanding it. Because I am so absolutely, unconditionally in love with this 3 foot tall, charming child that lives in my house. The one with the most wonderful sparkling smile, the contagious laugh, and the funniest little patterns of speech you have ever heard. He is perfect (I say that without the slightest hint of bias!).

Here are a few of the little "turns of phrase" that I love right now:

"You ready por dis??" or the variant "Ready por show?" when he wants us to watch him do something.

"What think of dis?" when he wants us to respond to whatever "show" he just put on...

"choo-choo house" Yes-- he's been saying this for a while but I thought I should capture that he still uses it to refer to any location with a train table -- ie, a place to play. But he now differentiates between all of the different choo choo houses we frequent. For instance-- driving past Legacy Village he noted to us that "Dere a different choo choo house at Legacy Billage!"

"timilar"- he is now able to use the word "similar" appropriately in conversation. I don't know about anyone else but I am astounded by this...

fire hydrants

Meet Jack's latest obsession: the common urban fire hydrant. The kid is VERY into fire hyrdrants all of a sudden; "pire hyrants," he calls them, and he is constantly on the watch for them as we drive. This makes for exciting drives as we are never out of sight of a fire hydrant! We had never realized just how many differences there are among fire hydrants: combinations of colors, top sizes and styles, body sizes and styles... Jack likes to point them all out to us.
Some of the running commentary heard on our drive down Monticello this evening:

"oooooh! Look, dere's one! It have a short top. .... It's RED! Dat one have a large top..... OOOH!! I tee one. I tee dat pire hydrant. It's behind me now..."

Etc, etc.

Just have to share the incredible cutenss of my son.
Yesterday I was reading a book and relaxing on the patio while Jack played with his bubbles in the backyard. (yes, life is pretty good sometimes...)
Jack came over to me, looked at me and my book, then put his finger on the text and carefully moving across a line of text (from left to right, I must add!!) he "read" to me: "When mommy is sitting, she has a sister in her tummy! It's my sister." Then he walked off to play again.

Melt my heart.

Happy Easter!

We have had a most lovely Easter day here in Cleveland. The weather was a wonderful surprise, with the day dawning clear and sunny after a week of depressing forecasts. We started our day with a special day breakfast and Easter baskets (not to mention a few jelly beans!) and then an egg hunt out in the backyard. Then off to the West side for church with mom, Becca, and PB. We had a relaxing Easter dinner in Lakewood and a great drive through Lakeview cemetary (while the boy had a bit of a car nap)-- the flowering trees are just beginning to bloom but it will be at least a week for Daffodil Hill to be in it's glory. Home again home again for a nice Skype chat with Grampa and Vovo, and then a walk to Cumberland Park where Jack had a great time playing with Rachel, an adorable girl from out neighborhood (and where we enjoyed chatting with her parents for the first time). Our boy was simply splendid all day. He enjoyed his Easter gifts of a bouncy ball, a baby doll, and a singing basket of chicks, immensely. He also enjoyed all the candy, but managed to avoid being too hyper or too annoying even as a overly-sugared toddler. Plus, as you will note in the photos, he was truly adorable today. The sun brings out his eyes.

For your enjoyment, a slideshow of photos from today (a few from earlier in the week, too), and some videos... (click on the slideshow to view the Picasa album and see the videos in action-- they're the ones that look like bad photos! :) )

38 days!

According to that baby-meter to the right, that's how long we have til the due date. Ack! I suppose really we are "ready". I mean, we have certainly procured a massive quantity of pink clothing for the little girl. The nursery is almost put back together, and aside from getting some wipes and diaper cream to keep downstairs, we're set. BUT-- are we really ready??? Ready to be a family of 4 instead of 3? Ready for Jack to no longer be an only child? Am I ready to be a mom of 2? I suppose, ready or not here it comes. And, with the closet full and smelling of Dreft and the nursery shiny and prepped, I AM getting a bit more excited to have a new little teeny tiny in the house. But I am not sure I'm ready to give up our easy, predictable life-as-we-know-it, just yet.
I am just hoping that little girl takes her time and waits til that due date so I can get myself as ready as possible.

A cute story about the soon-to-be big brother:
At the Cleveland Heights egg hunt a couple weeks ago Jack became the proud owner of about 50 mini chocolate eggs. Being restrictive parents, we helped him pack them up in a baggie and we've been rationing them out, generally as an after-nap snack, ever since. Today I gave Jack his baggie of "choclick" as he calls it, so he could pick out the egg of his choice. He walked over to me with two eggs in in hand and said, "Here, mommy" while giving one to me. Then, back to the bag he went, saying "one por daddy", and carefully picked out another. He came over, handed the bag full of eggs to me, and took an egg to Daddy in the other room. All before unwrapping his own candy. Without being asked. He's pretty spectacular.

And an image from today:

We took a trip to Turtle Park to celebrate the 82 degree weather this evening. Jack could NOT be convinced to wear a T-shirt (he gets quite upset when he can't pull the sleeves of his T-shirts down to his wrists, saying "I need one with long sleeves!!! with tears in his eyes). We did manage to get him into shorts (thanks to the above mentioned chocolate distraction) but he refused to even look at sandals. So, off to the park we went, with Jack dressed in a long sleeve henley, long denim shorts, and tennies with sport socks. Add the bucket hat and his slightly doddering walk, and it was like we'd brought a little tiny 80 year old man to the playground with us. Watching him wander around, clutching his blue shovel in one hand and a broken steering wheel in the other, I loved him so very, very much.