I don’t even remember the last time I made a list! I can’t believe it’s been so long. And I’ve been feeling quite listy lately too.
- Jack is a wildman. Uh, yeah, he has been for a while… well, he’s getting pretty good at this walking thing. But, he’s got to be the most stubborn baby in the universe, and he absolutely refuses to walk to me (or E) or when we actually want him to do it. And if you try to stand him up in the middle of the room, forget about it. But when he’s playing, he does quite a bit of walking and standing on his own. And he is getting braver and braver… occasionally he’ll be distracted by the television and will take four or five steps toward it without realizing it.
- I have to say that as Jack becomes more skilled with his mobility, I seem to be adapting to the level of craziness. He doesn’t seem to be as much as a handful, even though I know that he is. I’m not so exhausted at the end of the day and carrying his 20+ pound body around with my left arm while juggling the 10 pound beach bag, and a sippy cup… or whatever I’m juggling at the moment, doesn’t literally wear me out to the point that I have to lay down when I put him down. And the sweating, is not quite so extreme, even considering the lovely mid-90 degree temperatures we’ve been experiencing lately. So, this is quite a good thing.
- And so it seems, now that I’m finally adjusting to the level of craziness, that he is quickly losing interest in his morning nap. Which is absolutely necessary for mommy’s sanity. So sometimes he has “quiet time” – which usually involves bouncing and squealing in his crib, along with the tossing of Ralphie and all seven of his bedtime sucky’s across the room, but not before he bangs on the wall and racks his sucky’s back and forth along the beadboard. At least he is enjoying his quiet time. And trust me, he is. I’ve never known a kid who enjoys his crib like Jack.
- So, my little “talker” has slowed down quite a bit. Before, he was throwing out new words right and left, but it was quite obvious that he was only imitating. Now, he is more intersted in mastering the sound of the word and identifying it. And when he does so- oh, the pride. How sweet it is to see him so proud of himself! I love it. His current favorites are duck, which sounds more like “dut”, and is also very similar to the word for dog (somewhere more along the lines of “dod”), which is the only thing that he will refer to Sophie as. He loves to scream out Momma and Daddy, either in absolute delight or pure frustration, upon our entering and leaving the room. Quite entertaining. My absolute favorite new word is bear, which sounds much more like, “beaww”. So painfully cute. And the best part is that I gave him one of his fuzzy white stuffed animals that I keep in his room and told him it was a bear – then he said it (in his cute little voice) and then I realized it wasn’t a bear, it was a lamb. Now it is a bear. At least I didn’t call it a monkey.
- He has gotten really good at following direction and really seems to understand what I’m talking about now. Which is so so fantastic. And he is surprisingly interested in being cooperative, for the most part. With the exception of diaper changing. Which has gotten especially challenging. But sometimes he surprises me and he’ll crawl over to the diaper caddy and grab a diaper for me. He loves to go get books and sit on my lap, so I can read a story. Then I will ask him to read it to me and he jabbers on for a while, while he flips through the book. He can identify the ducks in the I Spy book, and Ralphie (a tiny mouse) in one of the pages of the Peter Rabbit book.
- Last but not least, we’ve started the sippy cup crusade. I’ve traded three bottles for sippy cups and he is doing quite well. Actually, he hardly put up a fight. He doesn’t quite drink the amount of (soy) milk I’d like him to, but he’s drinking milk from a sippy and that’s the biggest hurdle. And he drinks plenty of water throughout the day. He was never really all that attached to the bottle and I think that it has a lot to do with the fact that we determined his reflux was due to cow’s milk so late in the game. His formula probably made him feel cruddy, so I wonder if he related the bottle with reflux.
Ok, so that’s it for now… looks like another list entirely devoted to the Jacker-doodle-doo! He’s changing so much every day! Craziness! I’ll post more pictures later in the week. Hope you’re all having a good week!
Mama Zzz... 
