Time flies!

So much for trying to post more regularly….The last post was in January 2008.  A lot has happened since then! We now live in Madison, WI, Jack rides a tricycle like a champ, ice skates (shuffles), jumps, talks, and is just super (I may be biased–I am his mom)!

Jack blows me away each and every day! Today he did three things that I must note or else I know I will forget, even though they are very memorable.  First, he asked his first, “WHY?” question.  Our car has recently returned from a short stint at the auto body shop…nevermind why it was in the shop.. Anyway, I decided to roll down all the windows and let the car air out in our driveway.  When I rolled down Jack’s window (rear passenger side), Jack told me he wanted it all the way down.  I told Jack that his window does not go all the way down.  He promptly asked, “Why mama?”

Second, in the afternoon when we returned home from school Jack runs to his baba holding the sheet of paper that describes his day (from the perspective of his teachers–how well he ate, hours of his nap, and how he did overall during the day.  The categories available for “My day went—’very well’ ‘well’ ‘OK’ and ‘Could have been better’”  Jack points to ‘OK’ and says “okay” to his dad.  He seemed to be “reading” and understanding that it was more than the letters ‘O’ and ‘K.’

Third, he knows the letters in his name and can spell out his name (most of the time).

All of his behaviors are probably perfectly normal for his age, but they blow me away!!  Being a parent and watching Jack grow and learn has been such a wonderful experience!

I hope to write more in the future!

 

a little new and a little old

Since I didn’t post very much last year, I have decided that I’ll include a little bit of old news with new news.

Last week Jack figured out how to buckle his booster seat, open the pantry, and open the dishwasher! He has been trying really really hard to open doors.  He holds onto the knob and turns it, but hasn’t quite figured out how to open the door. We’re not quite ready to have him saunter in and out of rooms as he pleases.

Christmas Cookies I’m attaching a photo of Jack making Christmas sugar cookies. He really liked putting all the ingredients together, rolling out the dough, cutting out the cookies, and decorating them with red and green sprinkles! Anytime the oven alarm beeps he runs over to the oven and points at it.  He wants to see what is inside the oven. It is really nice to see his interest in cooking. In the evenings, when I make dinner, he pulls out a pot and starts making dinner too. It is really nice! 

 

more sleepy time and choo-choos

Today Jack set a new nap record at the babysitter’s! He slept for 2.5 hours! It is incredible all the ways that he is changing. I remember someone telling me that around 18 months is when babies start taking one long nap. Jack has been taking 1.5-2 hour naps, but they seem to be getting longer! Wow, he is almost 1.5 years old! I can’t believe it!

On Thursday, he was pushing his train on the ground and saying woo-woo….woo.woo. He really loves trains!  One of the malls near us has an indoor train that goes around the bottom level of the mall and riding it is one of Jack’s favorite things to do.  When he is not riding the train he likes to run after it waving at all the people on the train.

Mike’s dad told me that there are a lot of children’s books about trains and that he never realized that trains were such a big deal. I wonder the direction of the effect, if children love trains so much, therefore creating a demand for train books or if authors like to write about trains and hence kids read a lot about trains and like them.  I think it is probably a little from column a and a little from column b. We don’t have any train books and Jack loves trains! I guess I should do my part and buy him at least one of the thousands of train books our there.

Choo-choo

 

sledding mush mush

It is official, Jack loves snow! He likes to run around in it, touch it, throw it, and best of all sled on it! We took a couple of runs in our front yard. Here is a picture of us Sledding.

 

Its a snow birthday!

JX wants to give a shout out to his beautiful sweet cousins, Olivia and Audrey! They are one today and he can’t wait to celebrate with them! As a special birthday present, reminiscent of the day these girls left the hospital, the skies have opened and are giving out snow today! It started out with a few flakes, but those flakes turned into large wet flakes and now we have about an inch or two of snow on the ground! Plus, it is still snowing! Below are a few pictures of Jack enjoying the snow! He hopes his cousins enjoy watching the snow as much as he does!

HAPPY SNOWY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA AND AUDREY!

Wow! This snow is pretty cool!

Snow is everywhere!

 

curious jack

Jack in stroller

Jack and I went to a Halloween event today and a blast! Jack liked story and song time at the toy store. He also really liked playing with the little trains. He is starting to get the hang of trick or treating…he picked up a few pieces of candy for me. This event was a great opportunity to test out Jack’s Halloween costume. It is a little tight, but Jack didn’t seem to mind too much. All we need to do now is to find a costume for Mike.

We are leaving for Texas this weekend and Jack can’t wait to see his aunt, uncle, and grandparents! Yeah!

Trains and Jack

 

Coupe de Jack

J

Jack’s new ride

 

apples and pumpkins

We had a very nice fall day yesterday (it didn’t feel like fall, it was 80!), we went to a farm to pick apples and pumpkins! We went to Larriland Farm in Mt. Airy, MD with Colleen, Auke, Saskia, and Maren. The drive out to the farm was gorgeous! The fall foliage is almost at its peak, the trees were beautiful golds, reds, and oranges! We had heard that it would be a low-key small farm, but we were pleasantly surprised by all the activities going on at the farm! There was a straw maze, which Jack loved loved! Jack ran all around it while Mike chased after him. Mike had to follow him closely or else Jack would disappear in the maze. It was really cute! There was also an area called the toddler maze, but was mainly just a large area filled with straw. Jack really enjoyed walking, sliding, and falling on the straw. He had a blast! We ate pulled pork and chicken sandwiches with sweet potato fries and washed it all down with apple cider. Our visit to the farm would not be complete without some of their famous apple fritters, so we HAD to try them. They were yummy! Jack thought they were okay. Mike gave him some of the apple fritter claiming that they were just apples…

After eating and working out in the straw maze, we took a nice leisurely hayride. Jack and I really enjoyed our first hayride! The hay was so soft! We saw the cast and crew of Shrek, Harry Potter, and Winne the Pooh. The hayride must have pooped Jack out because he decided to take a nap while we picked apples. He woke up just in time to run around the pumpkin patch! We did let him pull on a few apple trees, but he was more interested in the rotting ones on the ground.

What a great day

Jack playing in straw

 

che che

Jack started saying che che this morning. I asked him where the che che was and he picked up his little car and said che che. This is a new word/sound for him. I think it may be correlated to having more teeth in his mouth. He now officially has 8 teeth! Four on top and four on bottom. In the last week, the bottom outer right and then outer left teeth have come in. I think his pre-molars are about to come through as well. So exciting! All these new sounds he makes with each new tooth! When his middle top teeth came in he made the th-sound over and over. His current favorite sounds or words are da-da-di-da, ba-ba-ba (either Chinese for father or could be for ball), re-re-re, and occasionally ma-ma-ma, me-me-me. I think we need to pay closer attention to him when he talks to see if he is using the same word/sound to identify something specific.

 

walks around the neighborhood

Every evening when Jack returns home and gets out of the car he walks over to his stroller, pats the seat, and attempts to climb into the stroller. What is a mom to do, but give into her son’s interest in going for a walk. I think Jack is determined to enjoy every minute of this wonderful fall weather before it gets too cold. I prefer this interpretation over the idea that Jack may be telling his mom she needs to get into shape. Either interpretation results in taking walks around the neighborhood. Sometimes we even take two walks in the evening!

Jack really loves riding in little play cars. Our neighbor has one similar to the one he rode around Playwise a few weeks ago. The other night he tried to climb into it Duke’s of Hazard style before I showed him how to open the door on the other side of the car. He now knows that both legs go in the car before shutting the door. I pushed Jack around in the car for 15 or 20 minutes. When it was time to go inside for dinner I opened the door and Jack promply slammed it shut. This opening and slamming of the door went on for about 2 minutes. Finally, I was quick enough to open the door and hold it open while I pulled him out of the car. He did not want to leave the car, he kept walking back towards it (behind a gate in our neighbor’s backyard). He loves the car! I’m hoping to get him a car off of freecycle. If we get one, maybe we could take it on walks around the neighborhood. Jack will have to choose between a stroller ride and a car ride, I’m pretty sure I know which one he will choose.