Keys

Jack has two very clear favorite activities. 1. Cars 2. Keys-- I suppose these are not entirely dissimilar. As soon as he finishes eating breakfast (sometimes before) he signs car and this means open the balcony door so I can watch the cars as they drive by. If the door is already open and he signs car it means, I want to stand on the balcony and for some reason you only let me do that with your permission. This happens on and off for the whole day. He will intersperse his day with keys. He is very cognizant of my car key vs. play keys or just the plain old apartment key. It has to be my car key and the big W that is part of my keychain. We did try to trick him and were quickly made aware that he was no fool. He loves this key. He puts it in the space between the door and the doorframe and he carries them around all day with a huge smile on his face. He even eats and sleeps with the keys. Oh yes this is a true story. In his high chair while eating bologna he will want the keys right there with him-they were very sticky after that. I have since tried hiding the keys when it is lunch time. Today he was holding the keys when we got home and were getting ready for a nap-he refused to let me take the keys out of his hands so he fell asleep with his blankie and the car keys. I am not sure what I am going to do because he likes to put them in stuff too-one day it took me all afternoon before I found them. I asked him where they were and it just made him cry because I reminded him that he didn't have them at that moment.

No Handles

The other day we had some friends over for Pete's delicious fajitas. Their daughter is the girl in picture above, and Jack is crazy about her. Every time he sees her he smiles, shakes, claps, and goes up and gives her at least three hugs. Well she was on the other side of the room and Jack just had to be next to her, instead of crawling he walked over to her!! It is very exciting. He is now walking more and more. He will walk from the tv to the table or back and forth between Pete and I. Everyday he is doing it a little more. He is such a little man.

He is also starting to discover language. He can say socks and shoes. However, sometimes he calls both socks. Still it is way cute. He is able to follow simple directions as well. If I ask him where the ball is--he will go to it. If I tell him it is time to put on his socks and shoes he goes to them and tries to put them on. He also does a modified version of the sign for shoes. He hasn't gotten the socks sign down yet. We are trying to teach him where his eyes, nose, and mouth are. He does a better job when Pete is asking. He grabs my toes and that is his way of tickling me.

After many weeks of Jack refusing to have anything to do with his sippy cup with no handles, he is now drinking out of it like a pro. Now the big thing is that we have to teach him that throwing his cup on the floor is not what we do when we are done drinking. I kept putting it on the coffee table and saying no the cup goes on the table. He kept tossing it on the floor-- there was juice all over our table. I think it will take a little bit of time. He is used to throwing it off his high chair to signal done. Since he knows the sign for all done I am trying to show him we say all done and then put it on the table.

Now that it has been warm the past few days we have gone to the playground for an extended amount of time and Jack has found his all time favorite thing to do--merry-go-round. He is the youngest kid on it and stays on it the longest. I usually sit on there and push it with my leg to help moderate the speed. He could easily spend an hour on that thing.

In the past week he has gone up so much-- he seems more and more like a little boy and less and less like a baby.

Spring?

Yesterday was beautiful! I put Jack in the car, rolled down the windows, and sang, off-key, to Jack Johnson. It was fabulous. It made me think of our last weekend in Louisville. It was August and we loaded the car with Jack and Tigran to do a couple of our favorite things. We went to Nancy's Ground Bagels, where the neighboring Cajun place had Jack Johnson blaring from their speakers, and then it was off to Cherokee Park where Tigran could play on dog hill. Now this was before all the ridiculous dog run crap they have going on now. Dog hill was like a little heaven for dogs- off leashes, not fenced in, big dogs and little dogs could mingle, and they would sniff butts and run up and down that huge hill- it was awesome! Oh well-- it was nice to remember such a great day.

Pete had his birthday this weekend. I made homemade cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting. I hate chocolate cakes, so I didn't enjoy them, but Pete thought they were delicious and that is what matters. Pete's dad came up so we could go out to dinner sans Jack, it was a nice rarity. We went to this place called Bistro 501. Pete enjoyed some scotch and a rack of lamb, and I had some cabernet with a bleu-cheese encrusted filet mignon. We thought the food was fantastic and would recommend this place to anyone in town. We were quite surprised that there were restaurants like this in our little town- it was an unexpected treat.

We went to campus to just walk around on Saturday. We had a great time. Jack played in the big fountain. They didn't have the water on yet. I think it will be fun to take him there when they have the water on. It will be like sprinklers, on a larger scale. There is also a lion fountain that Jack thought was neat. He liked touching the nose and growling at it.

Jack is going through a mimic phase. He watches me put my make-up on in the morning and has now shown an interest in my make-up brushes, much to Pete's dismay, so I let him hold on while I get ready. He saw me cleaning up a stain on the carpet the other day, and afterwards he wanted to use the scrubbing brush to clean it up as well, I let him. He is also very interested in calling daddy after I get off the phone with him. It is really cute. He is also taking his socks , or daddy's, and shoes off and trying to put them back on. He has the taking them off part down. He is signing a few words now:all done, ceiling fan, car(sort of), more(but not always at the correct time), and a few others. It isn't all the time but it is a start. He really loves the Signing Time video. We don't normally allow him watch videos or tv, but we put this 25 min. video on and he just is glued. I don't know whether to think it is cute or be concerned.

In final Jack news: He had a tympanogram yesterday that showed there is still fluid in his ears. After three antibiotics and about two months of battling this ear infection they are now giving him a shot of rocephin daily for three days followed by a rechecking of the ears in two weeks. If this does not work we are off to see the ear doctor.

Oh and in one final bit of Jack news: for those who really know us and know our sleep strategy for Jack, which has a ton more to do with me than Jack, I just want to let you all know that he is in his crib now. His real crib.