Where's Mommy?

Carmen taught Jack some new Spanish:

Carmen: Donde estaba Mommy hoy? (Where was Mommy today)
Jack: Mommy working!
Carmen: Y Daddy? (and Daddy)
Jack: Daddy too!

Bye Bye, Poo Poo!

Grandma has started taking the contents of Jack's diapers over to the toilet to show him how to flush. I guess usually he likes flushing the toilet but perhaps he was a little shy today with Mommy there. So Grandma did the dirty work for him. After making the deposit, she flushed. Jack excitedly waved at his creation and yelled, "Bye-Bye, Poo Poo!!!"

J-A-?-?

Today Jack was playing with his letters. He put the J and the A next to each other and then stood up and looked around and said, "Where da K? Where da C?"

Computer Kid

Surfin' the 'Net??

Must be watching YouTube!

Say "Cheese"!

Jack loves the computer. In fact, unless we are Skyping with Nonny, we really can't ever use the computer while he is awake. Here he caught Daddy trying to sneak in some computer time.

Alphabet Soup

I couple of months ago, I bought letters and numbers made of foam that could go in the bathtub. Jack knew his letters on the flashcards but I thought he memorized the pictures more than the letters. So in an effort to help him remember the actual letters, I put them in a big container and we made "soup". He now knows his letters with no problem whatsoever and loves making "soup" (picking up letters, putting them in the container, stirring them, smelling them and then shaking them all over the floor). Anyway, we have also been spelling things with the letters. He especially likes when we spell his name. We ask him what it says and he yells, "GACK!" (This is also his answer when we ask what anyone or any animal's name is.)

Today, Paul and I were sitting in the living room talking and Jack was on the floor playing with his letters. All of a sudden, he stands up and yells, "GACK" at us. When I went over to see what he was talking about I saw that he had spelled J-A-C-K on the floor out of his letters! We celebrated the first time he spelled his name with lots of cheers and then Paul asked, "Jack, are you a genius?" "YES!" he said.

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Jack also now knows the animals: tiger, snake, rhino, zebra, giraffe, lion, and antelope. He is pretty good on elephant and after he says it, when you say, "in other words. . . " he says (as best he can) "pachyderm". I guess watching all those Moose songs has really sunken in!

Little (bilingual) Chatterbox

My little man is getting so big!

Always smiling!

Playing with Daddy

Jack's new words are constantly improving with regard to clarity and quantity. He learns new words like crazy and almost daily we hear him mastering new skills. He can now carry on a conversation that would make my Spanish 1 students jealous! Just today:

Mommy: Jack, como te llamas?

Jack: Gack.

Mommy: Jack what?

Jack: Soto

Mommy: Como estas?

Jack: Bien.

Mommy: Y cuantos anos tienes?

Jack: Un ano!

He has also gotten so much more clear with "I love you" and is now saying each word, and saying them at appropriate times. In addition, he has finally figured out "Thank you." He has been saying it for quite awhile but always says it when he is handing you something. Today, he started saying "thank you" whenever we gave him something that he wanted. He sweetly looked us in the eye and said it. When we would say "You're welcome," he would smile and say "welcome!" So I guess we have that one to work on!

He's also getting better at combining words. He's saying, "Go, Mommy", "Yummy apple", "nice doggie" among others. We also taught him the following just today:

Mommy: Jack, are you smart?

Jack: Ein Geen--is (I'm a genius.)

We're still working on the pronounciation of that one!

Forrest Gump

Jack loves to run. He constantly wants to go for walks, where he will just yell out, "WUNNING!" and take off running. Often he will stop and yell, "SET,SET,SET, GOOO!" and take off. When he stops running, he'll often yell, "WALKING" to let you know the action he is performing! And he can walk and run forever. It's nice to be able to go anywhere with him, knowing that he can keep up and that he will listen and follow when we ask.

Baby Sister and Stuff

Jack now answers "Yeshhh" when you ask him if he wants a baby sister. Also, if you ask him where his sister is, he either pokes me in the belly or, more embarassingly when in public, starts trying to lift my shirt up. Apparently he is not aware that only Mommys have babies because yesterday, when we asked him, he went over to Paul and lifted his shirt up. He does seem to be very interested in little babies, which is encouraging. Today we were at a barbecue with quite a few babies and he cautiously watched the babies from afar. I hope he adjusts well to his new sister. I think he will be a fabulous big brother once he gets over the fact that he will have to share the role of being the center of our universe!

In other news, he has also decided that he wants to sleep with a different book each night. We read three books each night and then he picks one that he wants to take into his crib. I guess he likes to read a little before he falls asleep. I then have to wait until he is sound asleep to extract it from wherever it is. Sometimes it's pretty easy and other times he is sleeping right on it, leading me to fine tune my old skills at the Operation game!

He has also proven to be such a big sweetheart. Very often, when we are around other small children, they take whatever he is playing with. He has never been aggressive and gone back after his toy. He simply moves on to a different toy. He also never takes toys from other kids. Recently, it was almost as if a kid was watching him so he could pounce on whatever Jack chose. After he ripped a car out of Jack's hand, Jack reached over and grabbed a different toy and held it out to the kid, saying, "Dank u". He never objected, just happily chose something else. Part of me would like him to stand up to these assertive kids and the other part of me loves that he both does not get aggressive and that he finds joy in enough things that he can happily move on to something else with little drama.


Skills update:

Since 18 months, Jack can identify every letter in random order. He has also recently improved on his numbers, saying 1-10 now without problems in English and mostly in Spanish (he still doesn't like "nueve".