First Conversation?

Paul's been gone this weekend at a friend's bachelor party. So it's been Mommy and Jack for the last two days, which has been great since I have missed a lot of quality time while at my classes this summer.

Yesterday, I wanted to do something fun so I took Jack to the pool. It was my first time doing it all by myself and I was worried at first but it was pretty easy because he follows directions well. We got there around 5, right in the middle of the lifeguard break where kids under 14 have to leave the water. I thought Jack would have a tough time not going in and understanding why he couldn't but he just stayed by me as I told him to wait.

The sky was overcast and it wasn't as warm as predicted so I wanted him to play in the kiddie pool part and not dress him up in full swimming gear and get in myself. He played and enjoyed himself for about a half an hour, which is a short period of time for him and a pool.

Then he said: "Home."
Me: You wanna go home?
Jack: Bye-bye
Me: You wanna go bye bye?
Jack: Yeah.

I said, "okay", and started to walk out of the pool. He followed. Once he got out I wanted to make sure.

Me: You wanna go home?
Jack: Yeah
Me: Or do you want to go back in the pool?

He looked back at the pool and said: No-no.

Chatty Jackie

Jack loves to talk. He wakes up every morning and goes to sleep every night talking. There is no meaning to the words he strings together, which makes it even more funny and cute: "Hi, Jo-Jo, lunch, one, two, three, apple, key, etc."

He is soaking words like a sponge. Yesterday, I walked downstairs and Paul showed Jack a flashcard with an octagon on it, "Ak-gon!" Really? An octagon? It seems that he grabs something or looks at it, we identify it and he's got it. Then he likes to point out all the things he knows. Sitting in his high chair eating, he'll excitedly point and say, "Ight" (light) or "gato". He's showed us this a million times but he still loves it. A couple of days ago, he put two of his words together to say "More, please."

He is also now adding more endings to words. We are no longer "Mama" and "Dada" but instead "Momm-eeee" and "Dad-eee". This started this the other day when he was standing in the family room, noticed the pictures on the mantel, pointed and said "Popp-eee" (He's always just said "Pop".) Instead of calling meat "emmmm" at dinner, he is now calling it "Meeeat". He is constantly cracking us up with his new words and his chattiness. Who knows what his baby sister will be like? His chattiness plus GIRL?? We could be in for it!

Get your own books!

Jack was over at Grandma's house this past weekend for an overnight stay while Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a night out. Grandma invited Jack's cousin, Sierra over because Sierra absolutely adores Jack. She's 4 but it's almost like Jack is the older kid and she is following him around and looking up to him. She's very sweet with him and I feel bad that Jack really doesn't give her the time of day but he doesn't really play with other kids yet. He'll be in their presence but he plays next to them rather than with them. I've read that this is pretty typical and I guess they don't start truly play with other kids until a little later.

Anyway, Sierra was enjoying Grandma's so much that she asked to stay overnight. Before bed, Grandma started to read the kids some of the books I had packed. Jack picked out his ladybug counting book, as counting is one of his new favorite things, and they all snuggled up on the bed. Apparently he was holding the book and Sierra snatched it out of his hands (Sierra likes Jack but right now she doesn't like him as much as she dislikes sharing.) He didn't cry, he just reached over and tried to touch the book. Sierra pushed his hand away. So Jack said, "Down" and started scooting himself off the bed. Once he got to his feet, he walked over and ripped the book out of Sierra's hand, walked over to his Grandma and said, "Up!"

He's come a long way. A few months ago, he bawled his eyes out when Sierra kept taking his toys away from him. It's good to see him fighting back!

Eating habits

Jack is a pretty good eater in that he eats a lot of what he likes. He's a bad eater when it comes to the amount of different things he eats. Everything I've read (and his pediatrician) say to just make sure he eats and keep offering him foods. Each meal we offer him something from every food group but when it comes down to it, the daily menu of what he actually chooses to eat is pretty much the same.

I asked Paul today if he thinks we should start laying down the law more and offering him what we eat. If he refuses, that's all he gets. Paul convinced me that we are giving him a wide variety and that he is doing well. So I didn't worry about it when we made him his usual (ground turkey, green beans (which is actually not a regular staple for Jack), and noodles) and then started to eat our pizza and salad. He ate a couple of bites then looked at me and said "PEE-ta!". I cut him a piece figuring he just wanted to practice his new word. 1 slice later and about a million "PEE-tas", he still wanted more! And after, the kid who has refused to eat any fruit for the past two weeks, devoured a bunch of cherries! Maybe his tastes are getting more mature after all!!

Still Loves Jeopardy!

When Jack drinks his 3 glasses of milk each day, he likes to snuggle. We give him one in the morning when he first wakes up and we snuggle on the couch and watch some cartoons. In the afternoon and at night, we usually watch Jeopardy. Though he doesn't dance as much as he used to during the Final Jeopardy song, he still loves the show. Each time that a contestant lands on a Daily Double, he puts his milk down and claps for them. Then he watches to see if they get it right, if they do, he claps some more and then resumes drinking. When it comes time for Final Jeopardy, he looks at both of us, excitedly grinning when the clue is revealed. I keep taking the contestant tests and doing poorly. Maybe Jack is the Soto that will actually make it on the show!

16.5 months

Jack continues to amaze us all the time. He is pretty verbal, which we are getting a big kick out of. It's so cool to see all that he can do and all he has learned. He loves trying new things (not in the food department but in the activity one!) and he loves to learn.

Words he can say:

Mama, Da-da, Poppy (Pop), Nonny (na-na), banana (na-na), apple (ah-puh), purple (puh-pul), yellow (lell-oh), blue, red (weh), green (grrrr), please (peas), thank you (ank u), hi, bye-bye, Cherrios (chee-tos), gato, agua, ca-ca, poo-poo (and makes a stinky face and waves his hand in front of his face), night-night (nigh-n), no, oh no!, up, down, yay, balloon (boon), bubble (bah-boo), light (ight), out, ball, book, car (cah), cow, pig, hat, hot, cold, numbers 1 and 2 in English, 1-4 in Spanish (with varying degrees of clarity), Jo-Jo (his stuffed monkey), Bunky (other stuffed toy), toes, leg, baby, wow, on, cloud, I love you (I laaaa), egg, waffle (wah-woo), hug, go, moose, Dora, more (mo), mas (ma), plane (which sounds an awful lot like please but he pointed up to a plane and said it.), potato (Ta-to)


Cool Tricks:

--Knows his ABCs. We practice with flashcards and he LOVES it. He always wants to do them over and over and cries when we put them away. He knows them in and out of order but still struggles with C, F, J and S.

--he can catch a ball almost all the time. He's been doing this for a month or so and seems to be very coordinated

--if you hold up one finger he says "Wahn" and 2 fingers he says "two".

--can point to ear, nose, mouth, tummy, toes and leg but often prefers pointing to your nose, toes and leg. Ear, mouth and tummy he does on himself.

--We're getting better at colors but he usually calls everything yellow at first. With practice, he can usually get blue and green too but mostly everything is yellow at first.


--He is pretty good at puzzles


Likes/Favorites:

--books, books, books! Jack loves to flip through his own books and loves to be read to. We read every night and he is pointing out a lot of things in the books. He also has memorized certain things on certain pages. For example, in the book, Corneilius P. Mud, Are you Ready for Bed? he always says "No!" on the page with no and the following page has "Hmmm" which he also says.

--swimming and anything to do with water

--his stuffed monkey Jo-Jo

--Wonder Pets and Jeopardy (he claps whenever someone gets a Daily Double and gets so excited for Final Jeopardy)

--Running (he loves to run all the time and likes to jabber while he runs, which is pretty funny)

--ABC cards

--Anything with buttons to push. He is especially annoying if you are trying to work on the computer.

--hiding but he always picks the same places so he isn't that hard to find!

Dislikes:

--Anything that isn't his idea.

--Not much. He's really a happy kid who likes doing most things. We are beyond lucky!

And still more!

First boat ride

Pizza at Helen Back's

Hittin' the links

Mommy's boy