Jack is 3! (And a Few Growth Chart Moments)

Jack had a birthday last weekend.  I can’t believe my little guy is 3 already!  Here is a collage of his 3 birthdays

We had a very small celebration the morning of his birthday.  Rick and I had decorated the kitchen after Jack was in bed, and we laid out his many presents for him to see when he came downstairs in the morning.  He was surprised, that’s for sure. 

We don’t do a big Christmas – only three presents each – but we love to do big birthdays.  Actually, I should rephrase that. We don’t do a big Christmas for JACK, but do do big birthdays for JACK.  When it comes to us, we still do birthdays pretty low key. It’s so fun to lavish Jack with presents!  It’s also hard to resist the toys in the toy aisle when everything you look at shouts “Jack would LOVE this!”  So, we over did it.  I’m not worried about it.

The other big part of Jack’s birthdays is the cake.  We love being ‘creative’ with his cakes.  When I had a minor computer crash last year, I lost very few photos.  We were really lucky.  But the one set of photos that we did loose were last year’s birthday pictures.  So, if you want to see our AMAZING (well, impressive perhaps, but amazing, I’m not sure) train cake from last year’s birthday, please check out last year’s birthday post.  We were pretty proud of that one. This year I found a cake on Pinterest that I knew had to be Jack’s birthday cake this year.  The original is so much prettier than mine, but ours turned out much better than I thought it would.  This was a super easy cake to put together!

The fun part was that the inside was a surprise- it was construction colors.  If you go to the original link, you can see how much better hers was.  And you can see a picture tutorial on how to make the diagonal cake design from one of her links. 

The best part is that Jack loved it.  He wanted to help the backhoe dig up the cake.

Jack’s such a big boy now.  He’s completely potty trained – even at night.  He talks up a storm, using words and phrases like “I realized I had the wrong one..” and “I’ve been thinking about ….”  He uses utensils like a champ when he eats .  He listens to chapter books at bedtime now (Magic Treehouse). He wants to do everything himself and he’s usually pretty good about doing it right.  He helps us cook and even puts the toothpaste on his own toothbrush without smooshing too much out on the brush.    We’re very proud of him and hope we haven’t ruined him yet in his first three years.  Hopefully he’ll get a little brother or sister this year.  That was our hope last year, but it looks like this year will be more likely.  Fingers are crossed!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACK!

Scripture, Snapshot, & a Growth Chart Moment

Yesterday was a HUGE Growth Chart Moment for Jack. We cleaned out his big toy box. and donated toys to Goodwill.    While we picked through every last truck, train, and car, I asked if he wanted to give it away or keep it.  More times than not, he said “give it away!” I told him that there were other little boys who didn’t have any toys who might like to have the ones he didn’t want anymore.  Little did I know how generous my son is!

If I had to guess, I’d say that 3/4 of his toys were placed in the ‘give it away’ pile. 

One toy he chose to put in that pile made me tear up a little.  He has a toy Mack from the movie Cars who he plays with All.The.Time.  He has a Lightning McQueen that goes with it (Mack’s trailer opens up for Lightning to drive up into).  When he put Mack in the ‘give it away’ pile, I said, ‘But you play with this all the time!  What about lightning?  Where will you put him now?”  He looked up and said, “Oh yeah!” He then ran to get his Lightning McQueen race car and put it in the pile with Mack.  I guess they go together.   He made me cry a bit with that one.

For clarity, I kept saying “you know, you’ll never see these toys again.  Ever.”  He didn’t seem to care about that.  He kept saying that other boys needed toys to play with. 

I have a lot to learn, and I think he will be the one to teach me!

Potty Training–a Huge Growth Chart Moment

I have to say that I was pretty nervous going into Potty Training Week. I had read this post from Marriage Confessions about her Potty Camp, and I took a few ideas from her training for Jack’s training.  . I’ll try to make this short, sweet, and to the point., but if you’ve been a reader for long, you know that I don’t seem to try very hard at that.

How did I know Jack was ready to potty train?

The biggest clue what that he started running to the bathroom to poop in his diaper.  He’d stop what he was doing, run to the bathroom and just stand there, grunting.  Every time he did that, we’d ask if he wanted to poop in the potty.  “No.” 

He also went to the potty right after we saw a friend of his use the potty.  He didn’t have any issues sitting on the big potty without any seat adaptor, so I knew he didn’t have any fear of the big potty anymore. 

A lot of when you potty train (as a SAHM) is admitting when the mom is ready to put the work in.  I knew it was a lot of commitment on the part of the mom, so I waited until I was ready to put in the time that was needed.  That helped a lot.

What tools did I use?

I borrowed a seat adaptor from a friend.  I knew Jack could sit on the big potty, but I also thought it might be easier on him if he didn’t have to hold himself up the whole time he was sitting.  This was invaluable for training I think.

I made a potty chart.  It was a sad little potty chart. I wrote “Jack’s Potty Chart” on a piece of paper and taped it up by the potty.  Then I got a sheet of (45) smiley stickers from my sticker pile.  (ex-teachers have LOTS of stickers). I put one sticker up on the ‘o’ of Potty so he knew that a sticker went on the paper somewhere when he used the potty. 

I bought a jug of Gatorade.  This stuff goes right through Jack and makes him need to use the bathroom a LOT.  I figured that if he was going to get the idea that ‘pee goes in the potty’, it wouldn’t hurt to have a lot of opportunities to see that in action.  I diluted it with some water.

I set my phone alarm to go off every 20 minutes and downloaded a ringtone called Potty Dance.  From Katie’s post, I liked that she took her son to the potty every 15 minutes. I changed that to asking him if he had to go every 20 minutes.  He got pretty annoyed with that, so I stopped this after day one.

I purchased some big boy underwear.  Some were trainers with some padding in them in case he didn’t get it right away, and some were just normal little boy underpants.  So cute!!

So, How did it go?

Day 1

It went much better than I expected!!  The first day, I took his diaper off after his morning change and didn’t replace it.  He was uncertain about that, but I said we could sit on the potty if he needed to potty.  He didn’t have an accident that morning at all.  But he didn’t want to poop in the potty, so I put the diaper on him later in the morning when I knew he’d probably poop.

That afternoon I put underpants on him.  He forgot that they weren’t diapers, so he peed in them.  If he didn’t have the underpants on, he was fine and remembered to run to the potty.  So I left him without anything on the bottom for the rest of the day.  (If I left the house, I put a diaper on him).

Day 2

(I just want to say I wasn’t the one who painted the bathroom.)

The next day he didn’t want to leave his diaper off, but I kind of forced the issue.  I just didn’t put a new dipe on him.  He didn’t have any accidents, and he even pooped in the potty. Day two and he was already pooping on the potty!??  That was too good to be true!! He was happy to be rewarded with stickers and saying “YAY!!” after he flushed.

But it was too good to be true.  that afternoon, he pooped in his underpants.  But he kept saying he did it on purpose.  He knows that when I change his poopy diaper, I go plop the poop into the potty. (I didn’t mean to use alliteration, but that’s a fun sentence to say…go read it again) His idea was that if he pooped in his underpants, he could just plop it into the potty.  He tried to.  I asked him how that worked out for him and he said “not good”.  Since then, no more poop accidents.

Day 3

The next day he had a pee accident, but it was because he was upset about having to come inside after having played outside for about an hour with no bathroom time. He was so upset, he peed as Daddy brought him in the house.  Poor guy.  Poor Daddy.

Day 4

The next day we went to Kroger to do some grocery shopping.  I did put a diaper on him, but told him that he could use the bathroom at Kroger if he wanted to.  He did!!  It was our first ‘out of our home/foreign potty’ experience.  He loved it.  That morning he had finished up his sticker sheet. That means he had used the potty 45 times in about a week.  That Gatorade is powerful stuff! And he only had three accidents.  That’s pretty good in my estimation, so I let him pick out a new toy.  He was very happy to pick out a new semi truck!

Day 5

The next day, we went to work at my church office for a few hours, and he went to the bathroom there 3 times, even pooping once!  I think he’s good to go without a diaper now if I know there will be bathrooms around for him.

He did it!!

I know he’s not even three yet, but I could tell he was ready to start learning to do his business on the potty.  We are still wearing diapers at night, and they’re still pretty soaked in the morning, so we’re not nighttime potty trained yet, but I’m okay with that.  I thought that I might be sad about him being out of diapers – you know, growing up and all – but I’m so happy for him.  He’s so proud.  He’s getting the hang of pushing down his pants and can kind of pull them up by himself too.  He’s Mr. Independent for sure.

Now if we could just figure out how to get him to go to sleep by himself…..

Growth Chart Moments

It’s been almost 5 months since I’ve done a Growth Chart Moments post.  If you’re new to this blog (within the past 5 months anyway), these are posts where I list some milestones Jack has reached or cute things he’s doing lately.  This one is more of  a ‘cute thing he’s doing’ post.  Jack’s certainly growing FAST, and there are a ton more that I could have listed. These are my highlights from recent moments we’ve had.

Jack can recognize when there are two things together.  He’ll say both, or he’ll correctly say there are 2 of them.  Sometimes he can identify 3 items, but not every time I don’t think.  He loves to identify double trailer semis when they go by.

He can almost say his full name.  His middle name is Emerson, which he sometimes pronounces Esserman.  I love to hear him say “Jack Esserman!” 

Some of my favorite words he still messes up (there are very few that he doesn’t say correctly) are Cabozer (bulldozer), Perftick! (perfect), Extavator (excavator) and  Let’s metend! (pretend). I love those.

The other day we said “Jack, say, ‘No way, Jose!’”  He said “No way, Hadozee!”  We lost it.  We ask him to say it almost every day now.  He can finally say it right, but he makes sure to mess it up so we laugh. He loves to make us laugh.  He’s always asking, “Is this fun?” “Is this silly?”

Any time Daddy asks him to give him a countdown, he shouts, “3,5,4,3,5,4!” while pointing his finger in the air.

He can put in and even change the DVD’s he wants to watch.  He still asks if he can watch a certain video, but he can open the player, change out the DVD (I taught him to poke his finger through the hole), and push the right buttons to get it to play.  My job here is done!

He rode his tricycle for the first time today – forward that is.  He’s been able to pedal backwards for a while now, but forward is much harder.  We went for a ride around our neighborhood this morning, and he loved it.  He wants to ride all the time!

And anytime he’s around a new person, he’ll tell them that he’s a big boy now.  And that he is.  He no longer resembles the little baby boy he was. 

Oh, and he’s calling me Hon now.  Thanks, Hon. (Honey)

Growth Chart Moments

My little Jack is growing up.  I haven’t done one of these posts in a long time.  Way too long.  Jack is just growing way too fast, and saying and doing things new every day that I can’t keep up! 

At 25 months, he has the vocabulary of a 5 year old.  Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but I’ve met 3 year olds who don’t speak as clearly and with as many words as Jack does.  He really is ahead of his age on language.  When his doctor asked if he's saying small sentences now that he’s 2, I said, “He’s talking in paragraphs!”

Here are a few things that have come out of my adorable, yet very ornery son lately.

Actually- He uses this correctly!  “Actually, this is blue, not green." I think I say this a lot, but I never thought he’d pick up on it and use it correctly like he does.

Not quite- He get’s a cute little thinker’s face going when he’s trying to get something to line up or to complete a task.  His head is cocked to one side, his eyebrows are frowning, and he says “Not quite…..There!  I did it!!”

Nice to see you today, Heather – When Heather, who had come over to work on a project the other day, was getting ready to leave, he said (with no prompting whatsoever), “Nice to see you today, Heather!”  Really!  It floored us.  Heather especially.  She also commented that day about how well he said her name.  Most kids say “Header” but Jack actually gets the ‘th’ blend in there.

They’re very similar- Daddy was working with him one night a while ago on using the word similar.  He just happened to have two red trucks out and Rick pointed out how they were very similar, but not exactly alike.  They pointed out what was similar and what was different.  Now, Jack will take two of his toys, look at them, and say ‘they’re verwee simiwar.’  Also with the same thinker’s face he has when he says “not quite.”

Counts objects up to 3- One day a while go, he dropped 3 paper bowls on the floor.  I just left them there (like I do with most things dropped on my floor), and just a few minutes later he counted them correctly.  That was awesome!

counts to 10, kind of- Every once in a while, while we’re driving in the van, he’ll count.  He usually says “one, two, sthree, five, four, five, FOUR!!!”  But every once in a while, when you can get him to say ‘six”, he will continue all the way to ten.  The last time he counted to thirteen, but he skipped twelve.

Mom and Dad –This one makes me sad.  He went straight from calling me Mama, to MOM.  Right around the same time he switched to mom, he switched to Dad.  No Daddy anymore.  I’m not sure where he picked this up, since we refer to each other as Mommy and Daddy.  The funniest though, is when he calls me Mother.  “Can you pick me up, Muzzer?”   That one came out of the blue too.

Oh my goshess! – This last one make me laugh every time.  I often say “Oh my gosh!” and “oh my goodness!”   He has taken the two and mixed them up to form “Oh my GOSHESS!” 

Oh, and he also likes to eat lemons.  Just like his mommy mom Mother.

‘MANDA!!!!!

My son is very articulate.  When the doctor asked me how his language was coming, I said “he’s talking in paragraphs.”  That’s not entirely true of course, but it’s darn close.  He says things that I don’t think most 2 year olds say, and he’s been saying them for a few months now. 

For example:

“Das is not a fire engine, das is a ambulance.”

“I tickled myself!”

“I’ll be right back. See you soon, Mama!”

“Hi Yellow Truck, I’m Jack.  Nice to meet you.”

“Come wis me, Mama.  Let’s go see Daddy!”

“Daddy, you’re home!  I’ve been waiting for you!”

“I don’t want to get in my crib. I wanna sit on da floor. Yea, Mommy, you sit in da rocking chair and I sit on da floor. I don’t wanna be in my crib”

“Mommy yelled, ‘I want my shovel back!!!!’” (there’s a story behind this one I’ll post soon")

And twice now, he’s tried to get my attention or get me to give him what he wants by finally yelling:

“MANDA!!  Get me my water!”

The doctor said he’s going to be hard to potty train.  “The intelligent ones are the most stubborn ones to train.”  Great.

 

Growth Chart Moments

Jack turned 18 months last week.  A year and a half!  Time flies when you’re having fun!

Here are some cute things he’s doing or saying that I’m sure to forget if I don’t write them down.

• He says “BESS YOU” to anyone who sneezes, coughs, hiccups, or burps. 
• He calls all animals by the noise they make. 
• Dogs = FUFF FUFF!
• Sheep = BA!
• Cows = MMMMMMMOO! ( sometimes Mmmmmeee)
• Mokey’s = OOO OOO EEEE EEE EEEEE!
• He counts to two.  Sometimes he counts to three, but his three sounds like one, so we’re not really sure about that one.
• He yells “CHASE!” and “RUN RUN!” when he he wants you to chase after him.  His chase turns into chrase after a few times.
• He loves putting blankets around him while walking around.  He loves all blankets and hats, and he loves to wrap them around his shoulders or waist and see how far he can walk around the house before it falls off.
• He is in love with CHOO CHOOs!  The boy turns his food into choo-choos, and everything looks like a choo choo track to him evidently.  He can sit on Daddy’s lap and watch choo-choo videos online all day long!
• He still loves to read books.  He knows what he likes and doesn’t like each night for bedtime, and it changes every night!  His nursery floor is covered with books that he fishes through to find just the right ones for that night.
• He can identify most animals, but that doesn’t mean he wants to touch them or get to close.  He’ll enjoy looking from afar for now.

OH, and he’s sleeping through the night now!  It only took 17 or so months, but he’s not getting up much at all now.  YAY!!!!!

This is his favorite blanket to wrap around himself.  And he can’t go to sleep without it on top of him…even if his room is 82 degrees!!!

Our little Darth Vader Boy.

 

He likes to wear hats!

Some Growth Chart Moments

I haven’t stopped to mention all the new things Jack has been up to in a while.  He’s growing SO FAST!  It seems that he’s getting smarter by the day. 

Some of the words he has now include (but are not limited to):

Hi!: Which started out as “Hi-ya!” and has now become just “Hi!”

Bye: He will say “Bu-Bye!” constantly around the house or in the van. I think he likes how it sounds

Bus: This was one of his first words. But until this weekend, it was just “buu”. Now he has added the s at the end.

Shoe: It sounds like “tschoo” And he can also match up his shoes.  I ask him to go get his shoes, he’ll bring me one shoe.  When I ask him to get the other one, he picks out the matching shoe every time.  This is only impressive because all of his shoes are just thrown in a pile, so he really has to dig to find the other one.

Woof: this was another first word, but it still sounds like “fuff Fuff!”

Free: Just yesterday I pulled him out of his high chair and said “You’re Free!” Now he’s saying “Fee!” all over the place.

Amen:  At dinner time each night, we hold each other’s hands and say grace.  Jack will grab my hand and sit patiently until Daddy’s done saying his prayer.  Rick always ends the same way, so Jack figured out when to shout “AY-MEEEE!”  It’s so adorable.

Choo-Choo: he loves everything that has to do with Choo-Choo trains.  He says “Choo Choooooo” and something like “chgga chgga”

Animal noises: Baaaa, Meeeeee (which is really Moooo), Cuck cuck for Cluck cluck, and a weird oink sound that I can’t type into words. It sounds like he’s clearing his throat.

He LOVES books.  I mean LOOOOOVES books!  I think he’d let me read to him every minute of every day.  He has definite favorites, and he’s learned how to ask for them.  Two books that I love the way he asks for are Goodnight Moon and Clickety Clack.  He’ll say “Hushhhh” for Goodnight Moon or a sound like he’s clearing his throat for Clickety Clack.  (he must not get the K sound yet)

He has become a very stubborn boy.  (Though, I guess I saw that back when he was stubborn about not going to sleep all those times!)  He is mostly obedient, but he does like to test the limits with most things.  When I say “Don’t do that,” it’s must sound like an invitation to “see how far you can go before Mom says NO again". 

(Like here, where I told him NOT to get into the bag of charcoal. You can see that he just heard the invitation)

And he is a MY-BYSELF kind of kid.  When my sister was little, she would say, “No! I do my-byself!”  That has stuck with our family to this day.  Jack definitely doesn’t want anyone’s help when he’s determined to do something on his own. 

I can’t believe he’s already 16 months old.  Even though this second year isn’t nearly as fast as the first year, it’s still going by so quickly.  He seems to know more or do something new every day.  He is  a total blessing to our family, and I can’t wait to see what he does next!  (maybe it will go to sleep without a fight – a mom can hope!)

*oh, and by the way, for anyone who is interested, we’re no longer breastfeeding.  He was completely weaned after my Mommy Retreat.  All went well!

He’s Advanced for his Age!

That’s what Jack’s doctor said this morning.  I have proof now.  We’ve always known our son was a genius, and now we have medical confirmation.

Okay, we won’t go that far, but his doctor did say that exact phrase about his walking skills this morning.  He is officially walking backwards now.  He’s slow, and sometimes looks like he’s dancing, but he does walk backwards now. 

We had to go in to see our doctor, because Jack has Conjunctivitis.  A.K.A. Pink Eye. Poor little squirt.  We were with a play group yesterday from 10-11am, and by 2pm I could see the globs in his eyes.  He’s not really phased by it, unless you call a sleepless night where he would ONLY sleep snuggled into his mommy not being phased.  We’re making it through though.

I do have some more Growth Chart Moments for you.  This last month has been a HUGE Growth Chart month for us.  He’s really coming along nicely!  Or shall I say “advancedly?”  (Let’s hope he doesn’t have my grammar)

• He’s nodding his head ‘yes’ now.  Last time I mentioned he has the ‘no’ shake down.  These last couple of days you could see him working on the yes nod.  It’s more of an entire upper body twitch, but it still gets the point across.  It’s slowly becoming a head nod and not so much a bend at the waist.
• He’s saying “HI!” to us now.  Its his official first word.  Sometimes it sounds like ‘Hey!’ and sometimes it’s a ‘Hi!"’.  He hasn’t unveiled it to anyone other than Daddy and Mommy, but I’m sure some day he’ll be handing out Hi’s to every stranger he passes.
• He says “Da!” for Daddy now.  He still can’t decide which one of us is Mommy and which is Daddy, but he does call Rick “Da'” now.  Let me explain what I mean.  When we ask him where Mommy is, he may point to me or he may point to Rick.  Same thing goes for Daddy.  But he always calls his Daddy, Da.  You try to figure that out.
• His only other word right now is “Ba.”  That may be Bonk, for when he bonks his head, or it may be button.  It’s usually one of those two though, so I consider it a word.

And, of course, he’s still the cutest thing ever.  Even if he’s starting to have temper tantrums now.

Growth Chart Moments-So Soon!?

It hasn’t been that long since my last growth chart moments post, but new skillz are popping up every day around here!  So, here we go on another Growth Chart Moments adventure.

• Just last night, Jack blew on his food to cool it down.  It was the cutest thing!  I usually blow on his food before I put it on his plate, but he’d never noticed or cared about that before.  Last night he picked up his green beans and blew on them before he put them in his mouth.  We thought that may have been the cutest thing we’ve ever seen! 

 

• He recently figured out that some of his toys have strings attached to them.  And those toys that have strings attached to them also have wheels on them.  He finally put those bits of information together and has now started pulling his pull-along toys.  He has pulled his wooden puppy and xylophone along behind him as he walks all over our house.  It’s the cutest thing we’ve ever seen!

*Check out his pegged jeans and scrunched socks! His pants weren’t staying rolled this day and I was so done with them! ! *and check out the poor ‘dead dog’ being pulled along.

• I’ve started counting with Jack recently.  I’ve counted toys, buttons, people in pictures, more toys and more buttons.  It only took a day or two and now he’s counting everything too!  He points to the things he’s counting and then makes the same counting inflections as we do when we count.  It took me a while to figure out that he was counting, because he doesn’t say numbers or even the same sound as he counts, but his inflection is spot on. He likes to count our buttons, his toys, his food, and pictures in his books.  Sometimes I think he just likes making the counting sounds.  It’s the cutest thing we’ve ever seen!

 

• Jack likes to BONK his head.  If we say the word BONK, he’ll immediately bonk his head with whatever toy is in his hand.  If there isn’t a toy in his hand, he’ll hit his head on the nearest object.  Sometimes that’s Daddy, sometimes it’s the window or furniture, and sometimes it’s the floor.  It’s the cutest thing we’ve ever seen!

I can see where this bonking thing might become a bad thing – We were at a mall play area yesterday (for the first time), and Jack was playing along nicely by himself and then with another little boy who was there playing too.  Everything was going well until Jack decided to BONK his head.  He stopped what he was doing, leaned down to the floor (can you touch your head to the floor while still standing on your feet??) and bonked his head.  Several times.  Many times!  He would run a little, then BONK!  Run some more and then BONK!  Yes, mine is the crazy child hitting his head on the ground.  Time to go, honey!!

So, as you can see, we are enamored with our son and think he’s the cutest thing we’ve ever seen.  We say to each other, “just when you think he can’t get any cuter, he DOES get cuter!”  I’ve been made fun of from the beginning for saying “he’s so cute!” all the time.  It’s not that I’m bragging.  It’s that I’m totally in awe of how cute this son of ours is.  You don’t even have to agree with me. I’m the Mom and I may be  blinded by love!!

God certainly blessed us with a great little guy!

Growth Chart Moments

It’s time for me to stop and look at how my son is growing and developing now-a-days.  I love these posts.  I’m always amazed at how much he’s learning and how quickly he’s growing. Here are a few things we’ve noticed in the last couple of months.

He is understanding simple commands.  When we say “Jack, pick that up” or “Jack, can you find the so-and-so?” he does the command or finds the object without any hesitation.  Okay, so he doesn’t always follow the command, but he knows what we’re asking him to do.  What amazes us is that it’s not just the repetitive things he’s able to follow – things we do all the time.  It’s the things we come up with that he either hasn’t done or hasn’t heard before that make us aware of how smart he is.  I love when you say “let’s go change your diaper,” and he goes straight to the stairs.  

I mentioned that he’s learning sign language now.  What I didn’t realize is that he’s using these new signs in ways we didn’t expect.  He is signing “all done” when he wants us to pick him up or get him down from somewhere.  After wondering about it for a while, we figured out that we always take him down from the high chair when he signs ‘all done’, so it makes sense that he uses that sign when he wants us to get him up higher (like onto the back of the couch so he can look out the windows), or when he wants to get down from somewhere (like from the back of the couch when he’s done looking out the window). 

He’s a good eater.  He eats *almost* everything we put on his tray.  The only things he won’t eat are eggs and cottage cheese. Other than that, he’ll eat most everything else we offer him.  And he can eat normal bite sizes for the mot part too.  We don’t have to make sure everything is super tiny when he eats.  He likes big mouthfuls, and he does a good job of chewing most things.  Though, he does swallow things whole more often than we first assumed.   His diapers prove that.  Oh, and he LOVES vegetables.  He loves all vegetables, but his favorite is broccoli.  Isn’t that weird??  We love it, but we’re surprised by it.

He has the cutest babble recently.  He says “bee-da bee-da bee-da bee-da.”  That doesn’t come through as cute as it sounds.  Say it really fast, hardly moving your mouth, just your lips, and you have a hint of how cute it is.  It makes us laugh each time. 

His one year molars are coming in now.  He has 2 molars that have finally cut through.  It took them around a month, but it wasn’t too traumatic for us.  He didn’t loose a ton of sleep, but he did chew on everything that he could get his hands on.  I’m glad to see them coming through.  Now he’ll have a bit of relief before the bottom two come through.

Another cute thing he does is that when he finds something he wants to play with (usually my cell phone, keys or sunglasses) he says, “Oooohhhh!”  His inflections with his oooohs and awwwws, are just so adorable.

The biggest news is something that just happened last night.  He slept through the night!!!  This is the first. time. EVER!  I hope this lasts for a while, but my hopes aren’t too high yet.  His night was different last night.  Because of our Valentine Date, Aunt Beth got to put him to bed last night.  That may have been what made the difference.  I’m pretty sure she won’t want to drive down to my place every night to put my son to sleep, so this may have been a one-night occurrence for him.

Our little guy is growing up so fast.  We love seeing him change and develop as he grows, and I love sharing what he’s doing.  He’s a special little guy, and we’re blessed to have him in our lives!

(His mom was a math teacher and his Daddy a CPA.  His love for that calculator comes honestly!)

Did you know I have a blog?

You did?

It seems that I must have forgotten.  This is the "I haven't posted in so long" post.  But I promise I will TRY to keep it short.  (naps don't last all that long around her)

A few HUGE Growth Chart Moments:

• Jack's WALKING!!! He started taking a few steps before Christmas, but it was last week that he decided that walking is just as good (almost) as crawling now.  He used to walk to us, but crawled to anywhere he wanted to get to quickly.  Now, he's choosing to walk to most places if he's already on his feet.  He still crawls a bunch, so I'd say he's 50-50 at this point.

• He's also trying to climb on everything.  I'm sure there will be some bumps and bruises in our near future.  Did you ever notice that with each major milestone, a new set of bruises appear? 

• He plays Peek-a-Boo with us now.  Usually during a diaper change or a meal, he'll cover his eyes and then reveal himself to us with a big grin. So cute!
• He's identifying body parts now.  He can point to his belly, piggies, head, and I think hair when you ask him.  The funny part is that when you ask him where his nose is, he points to the nose of the person closest to him.  We are working on ears and mouth now.  He went to the dentist with me last week, so we worked on teeth with him.  I think he had if for that day. 

• He mimics a lot of what we do now.  When we go into the bathroom, I often take his hairbrush and brush his hair.  Now he brushes his own hair when you give him the brush.  He picked up the broom the other day and swept the floor.  He takes the toy that's in his hand-be it a Little People, cup, car or anything else - and makes it fly like a plane or go like a car.  Remember when I was worried about my son not learning Boy Noises?  There are no worries there anymore.  Everything sounds like a car or plane now (they sound the same of course)
  
• He makes animal noises now.  He can bark like a dog, tweet like a bird, and grunt like a monkey. Sometimes it's on command but other times it's just when he sees or hears that animal.  All of those sounds are the same when they come out, but I bet they all sound like the real thing in his head. When I ask him if he's a birdie or a doggie, he points to the birdies in our backyard to clarify. 
  
• He is just plain smarter. He catches things much more than I realize.  This morning I said I have to go blow my nose, and he immediately got up with me, grabbed my legs as we walked to the bathroom, and pointed to the tissues for me.  He may not be able to communicate with words, but he sure does say a lot in his own way!

I'm Back! But Not Really...

Well, thanks to Aaron, I have a new power supply cord!  THANKS AARON!!!  

So, I'm back!  But not really.  We had a new Growth Chart Moment yesterday, and it's still with us today.  Jack got his first high fever in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and it's been coming on and off since then.  This morning it was down to 100, but he seemed more irritable today than yesterday. He has a clogged/runny nose to go along with it, so we'll see what happens, and then call the doctor if it doesn't go away soon.

Yes, he's one week away from being 11 months old, and this is his first high fever.  Can  you believe it?  I guess it's the combination of breastfeeding and staying at home that has done the trick.  This works well for me, since I have no clue what to do when he gets sick. I've used my free sample of Tylenol and offered him water or nursing as often as I can, which I think is all I can do, right?  I'm trying to figure out if he needs to be snuggly warm or kept in cooler clothing when his fever spikes.  Daddy's been a great help.  Especially since he's recently had a few fevers himself and knows what helps him. 

Because of Jack's fever, I'm not able to get online much to read my favorite blogs.  That means I missed 7 days of blog reading, giveaways, and mom tips, and I will continue to miss even more! (I did get three books read this week though!)

I hope you had a great week, and a great one to come! Feel free to leave me a link or two of really great entries I shouldn't miss from last week.

New Skillz

Jack is working on his skillz.  His gross motor skillz that is.

Sorry, once a 6th grade teacher, always a 6th grade teacher.

He has taken to crawling over Mommy every time she lies on the floor.  (Why the third person you ask?  I don't really know) This game can go on over and over and over and over again with endless giggles and squeals of delight.  Once he makes it over one direction, he immediately turns around and goes the other direction.  Every once in a while, he stops to bite.  THAT'S not fun at all!!

I love to get down on the floor with him and see how many times he'll climb over Mt. Mommy.  He's getting a bit of rug burn on his little nose because of how hard he lands, but he doesn't seem to mind that at all.  He LOVES climbing.    And I love playing with my little man.

Here he is climbing over his cousin.  He really likes to climb over people!

Important Growth Chart Moment

This may not seem like a big deal, but to me it's HUGE.  As of today, Jack has started taking undesirable objects out of his mouth. 

Let me explain.

Jack likes to put things in his mouth.  EVERYTHING in his mouth.  We can't stay outside long, because I get so  frustrated with having to constantly take the acorns that he can't seem to resist out of his mouth.  I keep a pretty tidy house (not CLEAN, but tidy) now because of his curious adventures he likes to take around all the furniture, but there are still small objects to be found on my floor.  Sometimes it's old food he's thrown or dropped on the floor, or sometimes its a tiny pebble brought in on a shoe.  Whatever it is, if he finds it, it ends up in his mouth!  He puts up quite a fight when I try to fish it out, and sometimes he ends up swallowing it before I can get my finger in there. 

But the time has come!!!!  Today, he had something in his mouth that he shouldn't have been eating, and he PICKED IT OUT OF HIS MOUTH!  He stuck out his tongue and got it out of there!  I know this will carry over to the food department, where he won't keep good food in his mouth that he should eat, but for now I'm happy about this new milestone.  Maybe we can spend more time outdoors!  (Just when it starts to get cold, right?)

Some Small Growth Chart Moments

Here are just a few things Jack is doing at 9 1/2 months.

• He has learned how to point.  He points at something specific that he may want or just think is neat, but he also points just to see his fingers point.  He'll study his fingers, marveling at the new contortions they're doing. 
• Jack is standing by himself now.  At first, he didn't realize he was doing it. He would switch a toy from one hand to the other, while standing, and not fall on his rump.  I even 'fought' him over putting on a jacket one time, the whole time he was standing without holding on to anything.  Now, I think he tests it out every so often to see how long he can keep his balance.  He does a great job!  My prediction was that he will be walking at the end of his 9th month.  We'll see!
•  His crawling is getting better and better because of his new sense of balance and strength.  He can crawl right over me (I call it climbing over Mt. Mommy) and through the bottom rungs of the kitchen chairs.  He also loves to crawl in and out of his big Fisher Price toy.  I think he'll be the boy who builds forts to climb into.  
• He loves to play the throwing game.  He will throw a toy off of his highchair endlessly!  When Daddy is holding him, he'll throw the toy (or spoon, vitamin bottle, or shoe...) down, and Daddy will lower him to the toy to grab it.  This game goes on until Daddy can no longer bend over.  Jack LOVES it.
• And as I mentioned in my last post, he's becoming quite the talker.  It's so adorable to hear him talk to his toys, mimic sounds from a toy, and talk to us as if asking us in depth questions.  Or maybe he's telling us something important at the time.  We just don't know . 

I am really looking forward to the holidays when we'll get to see all of our family.  My prediction will be that he'll be running around, trying to keep up with his many cousins come Christmastime.  We'll see!

Getting Up To Speed

It's been a while since I've mentioned any Growth Chart Moments, though they're happening almost every day around here now.  I'm going to try to remember all of them, and get you up to speed on Jack's accomplishments. They are in order as best as I can remember.

He can now walk (assisted with our fingers) with shoes on.  He had a good solid month of walking like this barefoot, but with winter coming up, I wanted to get him used to having shoes on his feet.  He had to learn how to walk all over again the first time I put shoes on him.  But now he's back to normal, cruising and walking all the time.  Baby shoes are adorable!!!

He is now 'crawl running.'  When he sees what he wants (like the doorstop that makes LOUD noises when hit), he crawls really fast towards it.  I call it crawl running.

Bath time is now in the big tub!  We went from the baby tub on the kitchen counter, to the baby tub in the big tub, now to just being in the big tub.  He loves it.  He scoots around on his little bottom, and sometimes even tries to crawl around. 

We decided it was time to get a convertible car seat.  A friend of ours gave us her old front-facing car seat for him to use, but we don't think he's old enough to be front facing yet.  His infant seat only goes to 22lbs, and I'm pretty sure he's over 20lbs now, so we had to get something soon.  Craigslist is a wonderful thing!! 

His top teeth are coming in.  One has been there for a few weeks now, but the other one is still trying to come through.   It has wreaked havoc on nursing!  Without going into detail, I'm going to take a little break from it for a few days.  If any of you have advice or encouragement, I'll take it!!!  This is painful stuff!!

Jack finally tried to climb our stairs this past week.  And he did it on the first try!  I turned around to see him on the first step.  What did I do? I ran to get the camera of course!  And then I kept my hand behind his bottom and encouraged him to go up further.  He made it about half way before he fell and decided it wasn't for him. He hasn't tried it since.

As of yesterday, he understands what "I'm gonna get you" means.  It's so cute to hear him squeal with delight and anticipation when you say those words to him.  He crawl-runs away as fast as his little knees can take him!  It's so fun! He has yet to figure out what "come and get me" means.

Today, Jack clapped for the first time.  All it took was taking him to the PBR Rodeo!  He was sitting on Daddy's lap, and all of a sudden he just started clapping.  Every time he did it, we encouraged him.  Tonight at dinner, he clapped between every bite of chicken.  Yay for meat!

Whew! That is a lot of Growth Chart Moments!!!  I can't believe how much growing he has done in his short 9 months.  (He will be 9 months on the 14th.)  That's about how long I had him inside of me.  It amazed me how much growing he did in that short time while he was in my womb, and now it has amazed me how much growing he's done in our home.  What a little guy.  We love him so much!!