Growing Boy

Wow, I just realized I have only written four posts this month.  Crazy!  I don’t even know where all that time went.  I guess I’ll claim to have been sitting and doing a lot of deep thinking!

Jack seems to have gone through a growth spurt.  I didn’t really notice a change in his appearance but I did take note of the increased food consumption.  Suddenly his Medium diapers are on their last snaps and his clothing stash is pretty thin even though I just bought a bunch of summer clothes in June.  He has a few pairs of shoes that suddenly don’t fit him anymore, too.  It’s amazing how quickly toddlers go through stuff!  Of course, this all happens after his birthday party.  Isn’t that how life always goes?

I’ve been meaning to read up some more on toddler nutrition.  We still have Jack drinking whole milk but I do believe at some point we’re supposed to switch to 2% or something.  I am not too worried because Jack is good about regulating his food intake, and he still prefers mama’s milk over what he calls “chocolate milk.”  I haven’t made the switch because I vaguely remember reading an essay on staying with whole milk longer than 2 years.  Nevertheless, I’d better get on that research.  Knowing the answer will relieve my anxiety about the subject!

I was finally able to get Jack to come around on squeezable yogurt!  We found some organic yogurt in tubes and I figured the novelty would renew his interest.  He wasn’t too sure for a while there but over the last few days he has seen the light.  He asked for the yogurt last night and giggled after every sip.  He ate the whole thing.

Toddler actor studio

Jack loves to pretend.  This weekend involved much pretend play and it cracked me up every time.

Dog – he purposefully spilled cheerios so that he could eat them off the floor.  He also barks and licks.

Orc, wizard- He caught a bit of Lord of the Rings this weekend and he LOVED it.  He immediately started hissing like an orc.  He then held his hand (palm out) toward the television as the army’s horses sped down the mountain.  I think he was trying to be Gandolf and helping the good army along with his powers.

Lion – This involves roaring and biting.  It is not my favorite game, as he often ends up biting my butt.

Pirate – “Yarrgh!  I’m pirate!  I’m finding treasures!”  The scrunchy face that goes along with this is funny on its own!

Fish – Laying belly-down in the bathtub, “Hey mama!  I’m a fish!  I’m swimmin’!”

Monsters under the bed – “Hey mama!  Let’s go find monsters under bed!”  He grabs my hand and drags me into his bedroom to look for monsters.  He is really hoping to find some, too.  Sometimes I can manage to throw one of his monster toys under the bed before he notices, but regardless he always claims (triumphantly) to find monsters hiding under there.

Where have I been?

Yeah, sorry folks.  I’ve just been so wrapped up in my life…

Jack and I have moved to our new apartment.  Joe is staying with us currently but it looks like he may have found a place to live up in the north bay, much closer to his place of work.  He is possibly starting his move on Monday.

The landscaping at the new place is beautiful, with streams running all along the property and ducks swimming everywhere.  Jack runs to the window a million times a day to look out at the ducks.  He LOVES the ducks.

Jack has been so incredibly amazing every day.  I am so thankful that he is in my life.  His smiling face keeps me afloat.  His daycare provider said to me yesterday, “Jack is always happy!”  He is right – Jack is an incredibly happy kid and I feel lucky to know him.

My greatest joy of late has been hearing Jack mispronounce words.  My favorites are:

“Hey mama, is that what inja says?”  (ninja)
“See the ellacracker?!”  (helicopter)

He seems to be going through a major growth spurt.  He is usually a pretty sparse eater but lately he’s been gobbling everything up.  He eats a cup of cheerios before daycare, then eats a full breakfast once there (Wednesday he ate FOUR pancakes!).  When he gets home he eats two cheese sticks.  Two days ago he finished his plate of beans & couscous.  Yesterday he ate pork loin at lunch like he was starving.  What a nice change!

The Two Year Old

I’ve been super busy.  Jack and I are moving to a new apartment on Saturday so I’ve been packing every day.  I’m almost done – the only things left are the things we use on a daily basis (which includes nearly everything Jack owns).  Jack has had a grand time playing peek-a-boo in the closet while I pack.  He keeps me busy in other ways, as well.

One of my bosses gave Jack a Melissa & Doug set of puzzles for his birthday.  Jack is obsessed with it!  We put the four puzzles together again and again every day.  Each time I fit two pieces together, he says “You did it, Mama!”  He also gives himself plenty of praise, muttering “good job” with one nod of his head as the puzzle comes together.  I suspect he doesn’t need help putting the puzzles together at this point, but he likes the company for sure.

Upon hearing, “I wanna walk!” on Sunday, Jack and I headed outdoors for a stroll around the court.  Jack saw the moon in the sky, stopped and pointed (as he often does), and said, “See half-moon, Mama?!”  He repeated this over and over again, his volume rising each time.  Suddenly he stopped shouting and said, “Wanna catch half-moon!” and jumped up with his arms in the air.  I about fell over from the cuteness!  We spent the rest of our walk attempting to jump high enough to reach the leaves on the trees.  Jack laughed every time I groaned and missed (which was every time).

One of the more irritating developments recently has been the, “Hey mama!” tossed at my direction over and over and over and over and over and over again.  I respond, “Hey, Jack!” or “What do you need, son?” and he just repeats himself again.  I can’t for the life of me figure out what the point of this game is.

Jack has also taken a liking to pretending to be scared.  I think this came out of watching too much Monsters, Inc.  With every viewing of the movie, he would visibly get sucked into the story more and began anticipating what would happen next (meanwhile, I’m in the background reciting every line in sync with the characters).  He eventually started to clap his hands to his face and say, “OH!  You scared me!”  He then improvised by hiding behind doors and jumping out at me roaring, then asking, “You scared me, mama?”  (He sometimes mixes up you and me.)

There are so many things I see every day that shows me Jack is no longer a baby.  He asks me tons of questions and has a vivid imagination (often pretends to be a dog licking or a lion biting).  He loves to help with dishes, groceries, and laundry.  He has clear preferences about the shoes he wears and the TV shows he wants to watch (usually Curious George or Super Y).  His attention span is fantastic – the other day I sat and watched him as he decided to take every single Duplo block he owns and stick them all together in a huge brick.  That’s 70 pieces or so and he put them together so that none of the pieces stuck out on the sides of the “square.”  It was like Tetris.  I was amazed that he had the patience and the forethought to fit the pieces together perfectly.  He is like a little worker bee, driven to apply a process to everything he owns using a set of invisible instructions.  Where do they get this stuff?

Narrator

Jack has started narrating everything.  I’m not sure what compels him to do this, but it’s awfully cute.

“Mama, see cows?  Mooooo!”

“Mama, we’re walkin’ to office!”

“Hey mama, I’m jumpin’!”

“Daddy’s workin’.”

“Gonna take a bath with daddy!”

“Gonna go in there, watch George.”

“We’re gonna have miiiiilk on couch.”

“Kitties are fightin’.  Psssst!”