Growing like a weed... a beautiful, amazing, loving little weed.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Favorite Things - 29 months
Right now, I think it'd probably be easier to list the things he *doesn't* like to do... which actually probably only includes one thing - brushing his teeth. The kid has so many toys thanks to his daddy's obsession to stock him up with every cool thrift store find. Cars, trucks, games, puzzles, mega blocks (from a friend), Fisher Price Little People (both the vintage ones and the newer chunky ones whose playsets almost all require batteries and make obnoxious noises and songs), baseball cards and other trading cards, books, balls, Smurfs, superheros, miscellaneous character toys, plush toys, and so on. I keep pointing out our lack of space and J's overabundance of playthings, but Daddy just can't help himself. If we had more storage space, I'd box up about half of his toys and start a rotation schedule with them. He plays with everything, though, and seems to rotate through them on his own. I'd bet that he plays with about half of every kind of toy each day and then the other half the next day. :P
His most recent acquisition is a Fisher Price Little People Racin' Ramps (I think it's called) parking garage.
He's had it for about a week now and plays with it several times every day for at least half an hour each time. Another recent favorite is a puzzle map of the United States. I originally picked it up intending to store it away for a few years, but J wanted it as soon as he saw it in the cart. He leans over it and studies it - checking out the pictures, colors, and shapes. He can actually do that one better than a simple 9-12 piece Playskool board puzzle. I'm guessing that's because each state is an individual picture in itself rather than a separate part of a big picture. He loves puzzles and still works on some of the more "age appropriate" ones almost every day, but he LOVES the U.S. puzzle. I'll have to look into finding a world map puzzle next. :)
Sensory bins are still fun - mostly water but rice, ooblek, and various beans and baubles, too. We found a water table at a yard sale last year, and he loves bringing different toys outside to play with in there. I try to save that for warmer days to keep it a little more "special" so he'll enjoy it more and for longer, but it's nice for beautiful days, too. So relaxing to just stand around in the shade dumping water back and forth from one cup or toy to another. He has a play kitchen with a removable sink, so he'll ask to have water in there sometimes, too. Sensory "bins" have been great to occupy him while I'm trying to cook or wash dishes. Sometimes, if I pull out one that he hasn't played with for a while, he'll spend a good thirty minutes with it. Other times, though, he just wants Mommy's undivided attention - no matter what he's playing with at the moment.
It's so cute to watch him play - imagining, making his little noises, singing parts of his favorite songs, imitating bits and pieces of his interactions with us and others. Sometimes he asks us (or PULLS us!) into his room just to stand there while he plays. Other times, he seems to get self-conscious when he catches me peeking around a corner watching and listening to him. "No, Mommy, noooo! Go 'way, Mommy!" His soft little mousey voice growing into a squeaky shriek. He's just now nearing two-and-a-half... and I'm already feeling sad thinking that one day his voice is going to change.
His most recent acquisition is a Fisher Price Little People Racin' Ramps (I think it's called) parking garage.
He's had it for about a week now and plays with it several times every day for at least half an hour each time. Another recent favorite is a puzzle map of the United States. I originally picked it up intending to store it away for a few years, but J wanted it as soon as he saw it in the cart. He leans over it and studies it - checking out the pictures, colors, and shapes. He can actually do that one better than a simple 9-12 piece Playskool board puzzle. I'm guessing that's because each state is an individual picture in itself rather than a separate part of a big picture. He loves puzzles and still works on some of the more "age appropriate" ones almost every day, but he LOVES the U.S. puzzle. I'll have to look into finding a world map puzzle next. :) 
Sensory bins are still fun - mostly water but rice, ooblek, and various beans and baubles, too. We found a water table at a yard sale last year, and he loves bringing different toys outside to play with in there. I try to save that for warmer days to keep it a little more "special" so he'll enjoy it more and for longer, but it's nice for beautiful days, too. So relaxing to just stand around in the shade dumping water back and forth from one cup or toy to another. He has a play kitchen with a removable sink, so he'll ask to have water in there sometimes, too. Sensory "bins" have been great to occupy him while I'm trying to cook or wash dishes. Sometimes, if I pull out one that he hasn't played with for a while, he'll spend a good thirty minutes with it. Other times, though, he just wants Mommy's undivided attention - no matter what he's playing with at the moment.It's so cute to watch him play - imagining, making his little noises, singing parts of his favorite songs, imitating bits and pieces of his interactions with us and others. Sometimes he asks us (or PULLS us!) into his room just to stand there while he plays. Other times, he seems to get self-conscious when he catches me peeking around a corner watching and listening to him. "No, Mommy, noooo! Go 'way, Mommy!" His soft little mousey voice growing into a squeaky shriek. He's just now nearing two-and-a-half... and I'm already feeling sad thinking that one day his voice is going to change.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Simply Amazing
As little J grows, I'm continually amazed at his development - all of the connections going on through that cute, little head of his. Lately, he's been coming up to me and engaging me with a word, phrase, or song that we haven't talked about or heard for months. We picked up the book If You Take a Mouse To the Movies a few days ago, and it's become his new favorite. He's been focusing on one picture where the mouse is running with his hand outstretched... and saying, "mihl... mihl..." (thinking of the ASL sign for "milk"). That's not exceptional in itself since we still talk about signing and he still uses a few every now and then. Today, though, he signed and said "Milk More" and asked to see the "movie". He was asking to see a fun signing video on youtube that we hadn't watched in at least five or six months! Amazing!
Over the past few months, J's learned all of the letters of the alphabet (uppercase and lowercase) and can enunciate almost all of their sounds when asked. He picked all of this up by choosing different letters on starfall.com during teethbrushing sessions (since we still can't get through brushing without an entertaining distraction). I think he can sing the ABC's pretty well, too, but it's not something I ask him to sing/rehearse or anything. Same with his numbers 1 through 10 (but might skip number 6?). Sometimes I'll catch him singing to himself while playing independently; sometimes he sings along with me and fills in letters/number if I stop at a certain one. Most of the time, though, he doesn't like for us to sing. ;P "NO, Mama, NO... no sinin'!"
We've always read at least one bedtime story each night - sometimes two or three. Then, of course, we read throughout the day, too, if he asks. He probably has at least twenty books that we've read about fifty times each and now sits down and "reads" a few to himself every now and then. It's so cute to watch him look at the pictures and turn the pages and then to hear his soft voice babble a few words that relate to the storyline for each page.
Over the past few months, J's learned all of the letters of the alphabet (uppercase and lowercase) and can enunciate almost all of their sounds when asked. He picked all of this up by choosing different letters on starfall.com during teethbrushing sessions (since we still can't get through brushing without an entertaining distraction). I think he can sing the ABC's pretty well, too, but it's not something I ask him to sing/rehearse or anything. Same with his numbers 1 through 10 (but might skip number 6?). Sometimes I'll catch him singing to himself while playing independently; sometimes he sings along with me and fills in letters/number if I stop at a certain one. Most of the time, though, he doesn't like for us to sing. ;P "NO, Mama, NO... no sinin'!"
We've always read at least one bedtime story each night - sometimes two or three. Then, of course, we read throughout the day, too, if he asks. He probably has at least twenty books that we've read about fifty times each and now sits down and "reads" a few to himself every now and then. It's so cute to watch him look at the pictures and turn the pages and then to hear his soft voice babble a few words that relate to the storyline for each page.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Jakey-Speak
.
I've always wanted to make sure to keep an ongoing record of the cute and funny things that J says over the years. He's not old enough yet for much funny conversation, but he can be a very funny little guy and loves goofing around and being silly. When kids are this little, though, their interpretations are so literal... and it's amusing how small their literal world starts out.
A few months ago, our oven mysteriously stopped working and, after a couple of days, locked itself up on us. Seriously! We tried and tried to figure out how to get the lock to slide back open, but nothing worked. The landlord finally came over to check it out one day and was talking with us about the gas and how the oven ran on gas AND electric while the burners were just gas. Anyway, the word "gas" kept coming up and after a few minutes, J (standing next to me in the living room) started squatting down and grunting then popped up and said, "Gaaaaah! Gaaaaah!" And then he squatted down and did it all over again! Apparently he thought we were talking about a different kind of gas. ;D
His speech is still moving right along, but he has a few everyday words that he just can't pronounce right repeatedly yet.
cereal - cereGUL
Diego - Dee-LAY-go
binky - baybayKEY or buhbuhkey
banana - buhnahUH
roller coaster - rohlur pahsur
Wonder Woman (he's obsessed!) - ruhnruh RUHmin
He still uses sign language for some words (especially when I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what he's saying), butJ's really been persistent with his communication and gets frustrated when we ask him to repeat something or misunderstand him.
He's developed a fixation with his binky lately - wanting control of it throughout the day instead of leaving it in his crib or throwing it in the sink when he wakes up in the morning or after his nap. We have him leave it inside when he plays outside and have him take it out when he's talking to us. It's getting annoying having to remind him to remove it all of the time ("I can't understand you with your Binky in your mouth."), but I'm hopeful that this is just a phase that he'll outgrown quickly if we don't make an issue out of it. Fingers crossed.
UPDATE: Around the 15th, I noticed his two-year molar peeking through the gum line on the right side. I'm guessing this must be the reason for the extra binky need recently. He had a horrible screaming session the following night that was only helped with letting him wake up to play out in the living room for about an hour. No other bouts since then, but the left side molar has yet to make an appearance. Hopefully, once those both come in, the binky usage will go back to normal and maybe someday soon we can be done with it completely. Fingers crossed.
I've always wanted to make sure to keep an ongoing record of the cute and funny things that J says over the years. He's not old enough yet for much funny conversation, but he can be a very funny little guy and loves goofing around and being silly. When kids are this little, though, their interpretations are so literal... and it's amusing how small their literal world starts out.
A few months ago, our oven mysteriously stopped working and, after a couple of days, locked itself up on us. Seriously! We tried and tried to figure out how to get the lock to slide back open, but nothing worked. The landlord finally came over to check it out one day and was talking with us about the gas and how the oven ran on gas AND electric while the burners were just gas. Anyway, the word "gas" kept coming up and after a few minutes, J (standing next to me in the living room) started squatting down and grunting then popped up and said, "Gaaaaah! Gaaaaah!" And then he squatted down and did it all over again! Apparently he thought we were talking about a different kind of gas. ;D
His speech is still moving right along, but he has a few everyday words that he just can't pronounce right repeatedly yet.
cereal - cereGUL
Diego - Dee-LAY-go
binky - baybayKEY or buhbuhkey
banana - buhnahUH
roller coaster - rohlur pahsur
Wonder Woman (he's obsessed!) - ruhnruh RUHmin
He still uses sign language for some words (especially when I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what he's saying), butJ's really been persistent with his communication and gets frustrated when we ask him to repeat something or misunderstand him.
He's developed a fixation with his binky lately - wanting control of it throughout the day instead of leaving it in his crib or throwing it in the sink when he wakes up in the morning or after his nap. We have him leave it inside when he plays outside and have him take it out when he's talking to us. It's getting annoying having to remind him to remove it all of the time ("I can't understand you with your Binky in your mouth."), but I'm hopeful that this is just a phase that he'll outgrown quickly if we don't make an issue out of it. Fingers crossed.
UPDATE: Around the 15th, I noticed his two-year molar peeking through the gum line on the right side. I'm guessing this must be the reason for the extra binky need recently. He had a horrible screaming session the following night that was only helped with letting him wake up to play out in the living room for about an hour. No other bouts since then, but the left side molar has yet to make an appearance. Hopefully, once those both come in, the binky usage will go back to normal and maybe someday soon we can be done with it completely. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
You Know You're a Mom When...
You know you're a mom when...
you're excited to hear thunder after three days of no rain for the sole reason that this now means your little one will have puddles to play with the next time you take a walk.
you're excited to hear thunder after three days of no rain for the sole reason that this now means your little one will have puddles to play with the next time you take a walk.
Monday, March 19, 2012
First Haircut *sniff, sniff*
Pre-baby days, I alway used to say that - if I had a boy - I would just let his hair grow out and let him decide if and when to cut it as he got older. J never had much hair when he was a baby, and it took a good year-and-a-half for it to grow long enough to even be worthy of a little trim. I did a little snipping last summer when it started hanging in his eyes (just because I couldn't stand it myself) and have trimmed it a couple times again since then. Just his "bangs" and then a little around his ears.
Summer's coming, though. And midwest summers are HOT. and HUMID. There's a picture I took last summer of J toddling around outside with a "mohawk" I gave him made possible only because of how much his face was sweating with all of the heat and humidity. :P It was time for Daddy's spring haircut, so we took J in, too.
He sat next to me in the waiting chairs watching the barbers snip and buzz away on the other men. He pointed at the piles of hair on the floor ("Mama... Mama... look hair.") and at the stray clippings that fell on the capes. Daddy hopped up for his turn; J watched and pointed and watched. His turn came, and I think we were more nervous FOR him than he was. I snapped a
couple of pictures and sat down while Daddy stood there and held J's hand. I think J probably would have been fine without the hand-holding, though. Sometimes, Daddy's still a little too overprotective. ;) In Daddy's defense, though, J *was* just sitting up on top of a box in the chair and was a little unsteady.He just sat still, though, and tried to follow
the barber's prompts to either look at me or look out the window at the cars and trucks passing by. No fussing... no hesitation... no apparent nervousness whatsoever. I was a little surprised with how well he did, but then again... J's a pretty mellow, easy-going kid - especially out in public. So far.The barber cut it quite a bit shorter than I was envisioning, but I'm sure it'll grow back pretty quick. Plus it will be even cooler for summer.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Bad Mommy Blogger and the Beginning of Year Two!
Yes, yes... I'm a terrible mommy blogger. You can thank our computer, though. It's been having issues for close to a year now... probably due to our lack of upkeep - but still! Most days it will take us two hours just to do things (click on links, read emails, etc.) that would normally take someone maybe twenty minutes to do! It's super slow, freezes up for minutes at a time (sometimes blanking out the screen), and sometimes just shuts the browser window down for no apparent reason other than it feels like it. We're working on getting it cleaned up, but in the meantime I really haven't felt like blogging and dealing with all of those issues. Anyway, I hate writing blogs without including pictures. To me, a blog entry without pictures is like a... I don't know. I'm terrible with analogies. ;P It's just incomplete. You can read a book about a person's life, but pictures and video BRING the life. Ya know? And the majority of my pictures haven't been edited (for sharpness, brightness, red eye, etc.) because it takes forever to edit them on this slow computer. I suppose I *could* have been blogging all along and then just go back and throw the pictures into the posts whenever I got around to it, but that just didn't feel right at the time. Now, though? Now it's been waaaay too long since my last post that, at this point, I just don't care anymore! I need to write!
Little J. Where do I even start? These past few months have both dragged by and flown by at the same time. Not having much disposable income at all, we really haven't strayed far from the house very often. I feel like he's leading a pretty sheltered life, but what can we do? I take him for walks around our neighborhood, but there aren't any kids close to his age at all. The ones who *are* here are in school most of the day. So, we visit the neighbor's backyard rooster and chickens (through the fence), poke around in the dirt and gravel for cool rocks, sticks, acorns, nuts and so forth and play with them in his water table, squish berries between our fingers, splash in puddles and throw things in them, look skyward for hawks and airplanes, and say "hi" to the neighborhood dogs. He's getting much more stable on his feet and his pace is getting quicker, so we've actually been making full laps around the neighborhood lately. Well, we were until it started getting colder and raining more often, anyway. I usually try to get him outside for at least fifteen to thirty minutes a few times a week. On the nicer days, we're outside for close to an hour-and-a-half.
In my last entry, I wrote about Halloween... but I forgot a cute story. At the downtown merchants' fall/Halloween festival, there was a little boy in a cow costume at one of the stores. J leaned in and gave him a hug... and the other boy hugged him back. As we were leaving, the little cow looked so sad... apparently confused as to why J was leaving and not staying to play with him. This became a story that J talked about daily for weeks on end. And he still talks about it from time to time even now. "Caaahw. Huuuug. Sah-ee. Ticteee. Can-ee. Puuuh." "Yeah. You were trick-or-treating, and you saw a little boy in his cow costume. You gave him a hug. He wanted to play, but we had to say, 'Sorry. We have to go trick-or-treating so they can put more candy in my pumpkin!'" Adorable.
We had Thanksgiving at my brother's and sister-in-law's house. My mom came down and my SIL's family was there (her mom, dad, brother, and aunt) as well as one of my brother's longtime friends and his parents. Jacob was happy to see everyone and loved spending some time with his baby cousin. He doesn't tend to eat well at social gatherings - too much to see, too many people to hug -, so he was down from the table within five to ten minutes running from person to person to baby person and trying to hunt down their fuzzy kitty cat.
Our Christmas tree was still stored away up my dad's house, so we spent the weekend up there two weeks before Christmas and then put it up down here just a week or so before Christmas. Jacob loved helping put it together and then decorating the bottom half with his ornaments. Of course, he wanted to put all of the ornaments on the same branches, so he needed a little help with helping. ;) We had him open his stocking and a few presents on Christmas morning and then headed back up to my dad's house to get settled and then head over to my mom's for dinner.
He really got into unwrapping presents this year, but he was still distracted enough with playing with everything once we got home that it took several more days before he finished unwrapping all of his presents from us. We kept the tree up until after his birthday, and he still points to the corner where we had it set up and talks about fairly often.
My dad gave him a talking father-and-son teddy bear set last year with the daddy bear reading "Twas The Night Before Christmas" and the son interjection off and on during the story. Jacob loved playing in his room and pressing it over and over again to get it to play. As soon as the story was over, it started all over again.
I planned a birthday party for him at home and went with a monkey theme. He's still loving the book "Hug" (where a monkey in the jungle goes searching for his mother and encounters many other wild animals all with *their* mothers getting hugs) and still loves bananas... so I went with a monkey theme. I didn't have any help planning, baking, decorating or anything, so it was all pretty simple... but I think it looked nice. We had thought that he would have at least three kiddo friends at his party, but none of them could come for one reason or another. One was having a bad day, one was sick, and the other had just become a "big sister" that weekend. Our place is pretty small, so we still had a decent house-full with my mom, her husband, my brother, my SIL, my nephew, and two of our friends. Jacob enjoyed the company, but I think he was actually a little sad that none of his friends made it since we had been talking about that happening for several days. He's all about hugs, though, so he got and gave plenty of those.
A few weeks ago, some of our St. Louis area friends came down, and J finally had his first hiking experience. Sadly, we got going too late and had to turn around and head back down the hill before the daylight completely disappeared, but J had a great time. It was already getting dusk when we got there, so I only got two half-way decent pictures. This is one of them.
D and I got our taxes done and sent out last week, so hopefully we'll get our refund back fairly soon and be able to get "out and about" a little more often... at least for a little while. Our refund is a decent amount, but so much of it is already "spoken for" - car repairs, credit card bills, and hopefully a washer and dryer. We were hoping to be able to take a trip out to the east coast to go visit D's parents (J's never met them yet... and, after eighteen years of being with D, neither have I!), but I'm not sure we'll have enough after everything's said and done. I guess there's always next year. :/
Little J. Where do I even start? These past few months have both dragged by and flown by at the same time. Not having much disposable income at all, we really haven't strayed far from the house very often. I feel like he's leading a pretty sheltered life, but what can we do? I take him for walks around our neighborhood, but there aren't any kids close to his age at all. The ones who *are* here are in school most of the day. So, we visit the neighbor's backyard rooster and chickens (through the fence), poke around in the dirt and gravel for cool rocks, sticks, acorns, nuts and so forth and play with them in his water table, squish berries between our fingers, splash in puddles and throw things in them, look skyward for hawks and airplanes, and say "hi" to the neighborhood dogs. He's getting much more stable on his feet and his pace is getting quicker, so we've actually been making full laps around the neighborhood lately. Well, we were until it started getting colder and raining more often, anyway. I usually try to get him outside for at least fifteen to thirty minutes a few times a week. On the nicer days, we're outside for close to an hour-and-a-half.
In my last entry, I wrote about Halloween... but I forgot a cute story. At the downtown merchants' fall/Halloween festival, there was a little boy in a cow costume at one of the stores. J leaned in and gave him a hug... and the other boy hugged him back. As we were leaving, the little cow looked so sad... apparently confused as to why J was leaving and not staying to play with him. This became a story that J talked about daily for weeks on end. And he still talks about it from time to time even now. "Caaahw. Huuuug. Sah-ee. Ticteee. Can-ee. Puuuh." "Yeah. You were trick-or-treating, and you saw a little boy in his cow costume. You gave him a hug. He wanted to play, but we had to say, 'Sorry. We have to go trick-or-treating so they can put more candy in my pumpkin!'" Adorable.
We had Thanksgiving at my brother's and sister-in-law's house. My mom came down and my SIL's family was there (her mom, dad, brother, and aunt) as well as one of my brother's longtime friends and his parents. Jacob was happy to see everyone and loved spending some time with his baby cousin. He doesn't tend to eat well at social gatherings - too much to see, too many people to hug -, so he was down from the table within five to ten minutes running from person to person to baby person and trying to hunt down their fuzzy kitty cat.
Our Christmas tree was still stored away up my dad's house, so we spent the weekend up there two weeks before Christmas and then put it up down here just a week or so before Christmas. Jacob loved helping put it together and then decorating the bottom half with his ornaments. Of course, he wanted to put all of the ornaments on the same branches, so he needed a little help with helping. ;) We had him open his stocking and a few presents on Christmas morning and then headed back up to my dad's house to get settled and then head over to my mom's for dinner.
He really got into unwrapping presents this year, but he was still distracted enough with playing with everything once we got home that it took several more days before he finished unwrapping all of his presents from us. We kept the tree up until after his birthday, and he still points to the corner where we had it set up and talks about fairly often.
My dad gave him a talking father-and-son teddy bear set last year with the daddy bear reading "Twas The Night Before Christmas" and the son interjection off and on during the story. Jacob loved playing in his room and pressing it over and over again to get it to play. As soon as the story was over, it started all over again.
I planned a birthday party for him at home and went with a monkey theme. He's still loving the book "Hug" (where a monkey in the jungle goes searching for his mother and encounters many other wild animals all with *their* mothers getting hugs) and still loves bananas... so I went with a monkey theme. I didn't have any help planning, baking, decorating or anything, so it was all pretty simple... but I think it looked nice. We had thought that he would have at least three kiddo friends at his party, but none of them could come for one reason or another. One was having a bad day, one was sick, and the other had just become a "big sister" that weekend. Our place is pretty small, so we still had a decent house-full with my mom, her husband, my brother, my SIL, my nephew, and two of our friends. Jacob enjoyed the company, but I think he was actually a little sad that none of his friends made it since we had been talking about that happening for several days. He's all about hugs, though, so he got and gave plenty of those.
A few weeks ago, some of our St. Louis area friends came down, and J finally had his first hiking experience. Sadly, we got going too late and had to turn around and head back down the hill before the daylight completely disappeared, but J had a great time. It was already getting dusk when we got there, so I only got two half-way decent pictures. This is one of them.
D and I got our taxes done and sent out last week, so hopefully we'll get our refund back fairly soon and be able to get "out and about" a little more often... at least for a little while. Our refund is a decent amount, but so much of it is already "spoken for" - car repairs, credit card bills, and hopefully a washer and dryer. We were hoping to be able to take a trip out to the east coast to go visit D's parents (J's never met them yet... and, after eighteen years of being with D, neither have I!), but I'm not sure we'll have enough after everything's said and done. I guess there's always next year. :/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)