More Florida Fun

Wheee!


Jack and Daddy at the beach

"Waz up, ladies? How you doin'?"

We wanted to take Jack to the beach before the oil hit (it hasn't hit yet). We picked the perfect day since it wasn't too hot. Jack wasn't sure what he thought of the sand at first (he takes after Mommy--I HATE sand.) looking at it on his hands and not being able to get it off. He pointed out the "AGUA!" and was hesitant at first to go play in it. But that all changed when Daddy took him. He still didn't want to swim fully in it but he found the tide interesting and loved running up and down the coast.

Florida Fun! Part 1

Jack can't get enough of the water!


Didn't take long for him to want to jump off the stairs!

The boys

Jack and Daddy

Paul, Jack and I arrived in Florida about a week ago after a long car ride. Jack handled the ride fairly well but did get whiny off and on. But we all felt that way. Since our arrival, it's been non-stop fun and new things! Yes, we've been to Florida before with him. However, he is now at the age where he can do so many things and enjoy them. His favorite of all is swimming. There really must be something to those astrological charts. Jack is an Aquarius. In German, Aquarius translates to "Wassermann" (water man). And ain't THAT the truth.

From day one, he took to the water with no fear whatsoever. He loved splashing and it didn't take long for him to really want to do everything himself. He doesn't want you to help him swim but he can't do it himself yet. By day 2, he was jumping off of the stairs into the water. By day 4, he was jumping off the side of the pool and blowing bubbles in the water and practicing holding his breath On day 5, he tried to jump into the water whenever he could catch you looking away for a second. Paul turned to throw the toy for the dog and Jack plunged in off of the steps. He went down into the water about a foot before Paul could grab him. When he came up, we realized he had held his breath the whole time and had a huge grin on his face. He's simply fearless. But the more fearless he becomes, the more annoyed he gets when you try to help him. And whenever he sees a pool, pond or lake, he points and screams, "AGUA!!" We were thinking that with his build, he'd probably be a football player. But after this past week, we may have a little swimmer on our hands. We're definitely going to look into lessons when we get home!

First Cannonball?

Tonight was Jack's bath night. He loves his bath and likes to play with toys, splash and get squirted by his squirty toys. But tonight, he figured out something new. He kept standing up and then plopping down (which is not so worrysome since we have an inflatable toddler tub) to see how much he could splash. At first I thought it was an accident but when he kept doing it, I realized that this must be what a baby cannonball looks like.

Creating a Diversion

Jack doesn't really like brushing his teeth. He'll do it. But he doesn't think it's that much fun. Each night we read three stories and after the last one, it's tooth brushing time. Once I grab the brush, he tries to distract me by throwing his stuffed animal that he has been carrying throughout story time onto the floor. It's like he's saying, "Oh no, I just dropped my monkey and I can't possibly brush my teeth without my monkey with me." He knows I'll bend down to get it, thus delaying the inevitable tooth brushing. He always loses. But I do appreciate the effort.

OH NO!! SHEEP!!

Jack's new favorite phrase is "Oh no!!!" He says it when he falls (or pretends to fall), he says it when he drops something, he says it when he goes to make a basket on his mini hoop and misses, and he says it whenever he thinks he'll get a good laugh which is frequently.

His words, in general are getting more clear and it's getting more and more fun! He's also getting better and better at physical skills. He can put his puzzle together quickly and manipulate the pieces really well. He is a pro at his shape sorter and catches a ball 9 out of 10 times. We have perfected the Pippen to Jordan assist to score on his basketball hoop. The other day, he was walking and tried to walk over a ball. He misjudged and fell forward. I was terrified that he was going to ram head first into the wall but he put his hands up perfectly and protected himself. It's amazing. He's turning more and more into a little boy each day.

However, there still are times where he can be a big old baby. I took him to the Barnyard Zoo on Sunday, thinking he'd love to see the animals. He liked the peacocks and then we moved over to the deer, which he was fine with until I fed it. He started to whimper and refused to look at the deer. I pulled him out of his stroller and decided to carry him. Good thing I did. As we passed the sheep pen, the sheep stuck his head out and made as loud of a noise as he could. The kid shook in my arms, threw his arms around my neck and started bawling. After that, the Barnyard Zoo pretty much sucked in his eyes. He didn't even want to look at the cow, which is one of his favorites. Here I was worried about scaring him by doing a monster theme in what will be his new, big boy room. Now I think that the monsters will be fine. It's the sheep I'll have to avoid!!

L-M-N-O-Pop!!

Jack loves going through his alphabet cards. He recognizes A, B, H, K, and S on sight but none of these are as fun as L, M, N, O and P. As soon as I get out the cards, he starts laughing and smiling and yelling. We go through all the letters and he always says SOMETHING after each one:

Me: B
Jack: Ba-ba
Me: C
Jack: gato (there's a cat on the card and Gato is his new favorite word)
Me: J
Jack: Ba-boo

However, when we get to K, he really starts getting fired up. And I don't even need to prompt him by saying the letters first:

"ELLLLLLLL!'
"EMMMMM!!"
"ENNNNNN!!"
"OOO!"
"POP!!"

Then he just says whatever comes to mind for the remainder of the alphabet with, for some reason, the exceptions of S, T, W, X, and Y. He can say those.

It's actually kind of strange what he decides to like. Today we were coloring. Sort of. At the moment, Jack is in his Jackson Pollock stage but he likes his crayons. He took them all out of the box and kept going, "Ohhhhh!" with each new color. I kept saying the name of the color he had in his hand, just to get him used to it. Then, out of nowhere, he grabs a color and says "llellow". I made him say it a few times before I believed it. Then he kept saying it all night, with the exception of when he decided he liked the word purple ("Perp"). Why not simple colors like blue or red or green? Nope, Jack likes "llellow" and "perp". But after I practiced saying yellow his way, with a lot more L, I realized it is much more fun that way!!

A Great Weekend with Nonny!! (Pictures coming soon!)

Nonny flew in this weekend for a much needed Jack fix. We calculated that since he has been born, she has gone no longer than 2 months before seeing him again. The last time she saw him was for his birthday in February and since we weren't planning on visiting until this summer, Nonny felt that she needed an April visit in between! And boy, are we glad she did!

Jack had an awesome time with his Nonny! Usually, he calls the computer, "Nonny" due to the fact that we Skype a lot with her. So seeing her in 3-D was at first a little strange. For about 10 minutes until he warmed up to her. From that point on there were a million laughs, hugs and kisses! We went shopping, bought new toys, played in the park and ran around just having fun. In fact, she wore him out so much that he slept until after 8 on both Friday and Saturday! So we were pretty grateful for that!!

We are sad to see her go (Mommy had fun too!) but in a month or so, we'll be down in Florida for two weeks of fun! Come on, Summer!!!