All things Jack

Some stuff that Jack is doing/liking these days

I haven't had much energy lately so we've been reading a lot more. Here are some of the books we have been borrowing from the library:
- The Island of the Skog
-Make Way for Ducklings
-A Pocket for Corduroy
-If You Give a Pig a Party ---and other Laura Numeroff books
-Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Pickles Over Pittsburgh

There are others-- currently we have 10+ books checked out-- but these are the ones we have been reading over and over.

Playing games takes a little more energy but we play Memory and Hi Ho Cherry-O

He loves to do puzzles and is enjoying 24 piece puzzles. I bought him a 48 piece puzzle for Christmas--we will see how it goes.

We bought him Brain Quest for Threes and he loves them and the mouse Molly.

He loves to listen and sing to Raffi

He loves going on drives. They can't be errands or trips to places he is familiar with, they have to be aimless driving around and turning the wrong way drives.

He loves exploring and hiking with Pete.

We have been teaching him to spell and how to sound out words- he is doing a great job. He can spell words like: up, stop, go, park, dark, dog, mom, dad, bath, and a few others. He can almost always tell you what a word starts with unless he is being silly then he tells you the wrong thing on purpose.

That is another he loves to do right now: spell words wrong, count wrong, sing songs wrong, tell you the wrong color, and etc-- I think he must be bored with our games.

He likes making caves out of blankets and cushions.

When frustrated he tells you what he wants to do before he does it-
- I want to scream
-I want to hit you
- I want to throw a ball at you
He does these things but has started to sort of temper these urges, and now if you really get his attention you can distract him. Yesterday he wanted to throw a ball at me, but I was able to get him to throw it up in the air to see if he could hit the ceiling.

He can also be really really sweet. He will randomly say I love you. When he is having a good time he will say thank you for doing whatever activity we are doing. If he can tell I am tired or don't feel well he will automatically get me a coke or bottle of water. If I complain of an 'owie" he wants to kiss it right away to make it better. He loves to just hang out with us and sit by us. He remembers things he has done recently with Pete and will randomly say: I had a good time when we went to the Squirrel Park ( a park in town with a lot of squirrels) or That was nice when Daddy went to Home Depot.

He has been sleeping in his room through the night. We still lock the door for the most part but he isn't banging or crying to come out anymore. He usually stays in there until around 7:15-7:30am before making noise to come out. For the past few days I have been unlocking it before I go to bed just so we can get out of the locking the door phase and it has gone really well with him not leaving his room in the morning until around 7:15. He sleeps on the floor in his sleeping bag and refuses to sleep in his bed. He has become a fan of the night light, and I think all of this has helped him.

I think he will have some issues with Big Baby, but hopefully it won't be too bad. He wanted to read a book the other day and when I suggested he read it to Big Baby he told me that Big Baby doesn't like books, and that I should read it only to him. He found our umbrella stroller and wanted me to push him around in it like a baby. I got out our baby toys and now Jack loves to play with them-so I am a bit worried. We have a few more months but it is something we will definitely have to be aware of.

We got family pictures taken last weekend-- I am excited to see them. I hope they turned out well ( Jack actually smiling). They were taken at a local park and most were us exploring because that is all Jack wanted to do. I will post some when we get them in a couple weeks.