can you hear me?

Wow we have been pretty busy around here the past few days. Jack has been having so much fun lately. Pete has been taking him out and showing him the ins and outs of frisbee golf, and Jack will be out throwing daddy in no time. He has been playing with poker chips, coins, pens, cups, and anything he can get his hands on; he has been lining stuff up in a row and/or sorting things. I am not real sure what his method is, but I know that he has one because he is very serious when doing these things. I could go on and on really because it seems that every day he just learns how to do so much more.

This has been our week of doctor's visits and we aren't quite done yet. This morning we had to go get the 15 month shots. Jack wasn't even phased, he acted like nothing happened. Then we ran a couple of errands, but I had not had breakfast yet so we also went to Panera. Quite a few people stopped to tell Jack that not only was he cute but they really liked his shoes. Then it was off to Borders to pick up a few things. We were browsing in the kids department when Jack noticed this little stuffed dog-Spot- and so I let him carry it around. He would not let that thing go -he sat it on the shelf next to where he was looking, then he carried it over to the little table and chairs and he sat it on the chair, then he introduced it to some other stuffed animals that were in the corner. Of course I bought it for him, I am weak, that and well the dog's face was very wet from Jack eating it. So two of the above pictures show Jack and his new favorite, at least for today, stuffed animal.

Then it was home for a nap before we went to another doctor's appointment this afternoon. This doctor's appt. was a hearing test. Jack has been struggling with ear infections all winter long. We just haven't been able to shake them. Yesterday we had an appointment with the ENT and today we had a hearing test- the verdict is--TUBES. It is very sad. Jack has minimal hearing loss due to his multiple ear infections, and this was something we sort of figured. He never says the ends of words. It is sha for shoes, d for dog and duck, fl for flower, and if it weren't for context and sign language I don't know that we would fully understand what he was talking about. However, he is one smart cookie- during the hearing test he and Pete were in this little room with a window, and I was on the other side of this window with the two ladies giving the test. The grad student was making noises and Jack saw her through the window, figured out that she was the one doing it, and just stared at her the whole time. They had to change the lighting so he wouldn't see her. I say- very clever young sir.

The surgery is to be done in a couple of weeks. This means that for a year he has to wear ear plugs in the bath and when he is going to be anywhere near, in or around water. He also has to wear this head band type thing in addition to his ear plugs when he swims. He can't play in lakes or oceans--he can only hang out at the very edge where water meets land. At least now his language skills will improve and he won't be sick anymore. Still mommy and daddy are a little stressed out about the surgery.

Our favorite time-- pool time

Hi all!! We were so excited that this afternoon the weather was perfect swimming weather. Before now it has either been too cloudy or chilly for us, but today it was perfect. Jack took to the water very quickly. He wasn't scared or intimidated at all. I tell you what, this boy is not afraid of anything. He just climbed right in, splashed and was walking around like it was no big deal. He did fall face first a few times but mom and dad were there to pull him back up. He would never cry when he fell and only after the third time falling did he become slightly more cautious. He loved climbing up and down the steps, I think that was his favorite part. We stayed for about an hour and a half and then it was time for a nap. We look forward to going back soon.

Afternoons with the Weigels

Looking at a few of the pictures taken over the past week I thought the diaper, shoes, and cellphone picture best described our mornings. I am not a morning person. I don't like to talk to anyone, I need time to adjust to the day, this means food asap, coke, and sitting on the couch watching GMA. I don't really smile or make any sort of facial expression - I just am. I wake up when I hear Jack in his room crying or talking to himself. I take him out of his crib, put him directly in his high chair, give him a banana and then proceed to make him a bagel, and usually oatmeal for me- all of this is done in complete silence. Once he is in his high chair I sit on the couch and turn on the tv and eat my food and drink my coke. We don't really interact much in the first 30 minutes of the day. Maybe this won't win me mother of the year awards but then no one is perfect. Once I notice Tigran eating more of Jack's food than Jack I take him out of the chair and let him roam free. I am now making facial expressions and speaking in one or two word phrases. I do change his diaper at this point, but I am not motivated enough to put on his clothes so he goes sans clothes all morning. At this point he goes and finds his shoes. I find this humorous. He doesn't like it at all when we put on his diaper or any clothing, but first thing in the morning before he can play or proceed any further with his day he absolutely must have on his shoes. Once the shoes are on things go in a few different directions but almost always the next thing is my cellphone. He finds it, opens it up and begins laughing and talking and laughing. So there he is in just a diaper, shoes, and having the best time ever talking on the phone. There I am saying why does he have to be so chipper in the morning? Oh well, it is very cute.

The next picture was just to show you that while in the morning I am no June Cleaver I do better in the afternoon. After his nap and my adjustment to the world we are ready to go. The past couple weeks Pete has been home starting at lunch time so Jack and I have been showing him what we do while he is normally at school. We have gone to the parks, playgrounds, fountains, "zoo", and the farmer's market. We have had a blast sharing our afternoons with daddy. The above picture is from one of our outings. We went to the "zoo" here in town. Now I keep putting quotes around it because there are like 5 animals at this zoo so I don't really think of it as a zoo. I mean if I walk down the street I can see five different animals, but still it is free so I should shut up. When you walk in there are little foutains and this was Jack's favorite part of the zoo. He went up to all of them and got drenched. After we saw all the animals Pete and I sat on a bench and just let Jack play in the water. He had a blast.

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.

It is the little things

Tonight Jack was having a hard time getting to sleep so we got him out of bed; maybe not the best idea but when you hear your kid coughing and screaming and crying of course you are going to get him. Pete and I were in the midst of playing Yahtzee when we got him and brought him out. He watched us shake the cup and roll the dice once; then he grabbed it from me and shook the cup and actually rolled the dice. Yes, we have the smartest child in the world!!

Today we went to visit our friends Elsie and Tamri-- Jack was so so so super excited to see Elsie today! I have never seen him get so excited over anything. He saw her and he squealed, pointed, touched, shook, clapped, and smiled. It was the cutest thing ever. He is really starting to love other kids and wanting to play with and be near other kids.

He is hating cups with no handles. Does anyone have any advice?! We put juice or shakes in his handled cups and give him a taste and he loves it- we pour it in the non- handled cup and he won't even try it. We give him a taste with the lid off and he drinks-- we put the lid on and he wants nothing to do with that cup because it has no handles!!

Jack is super excited about flap books and books that have various textures. He loves to read them and participate in reading them. He is also a fan of this book called Hattie and the Fox. He loves reading it and he loves the various voices that I use. He keeps asking for me to read it again and again.

We have started to really watch the Signing Times videos that we own. Jack will watch them for a couple minutes and loves the kids in them. I really am learning a lot and actually want to learn a whole lot more. I am using these signs with Jack all the time. We are learning thank you, my turn, your turn, car, more, please, share, and so many more. It is really cool. Right now he only knows one sign and that is ceiling fan. He uses it every time that he sees one. He gets so so excited. I am eager to see him learn more signs so he can become excited about those signs as well.

He is obsessed with turning lights on and off. He wants to do it all the time. He sees a light switch in any room, and he points to it and wants to flip it on and off. I stand him on the garbage can in the kitchen, and he just stands there for minutes on end switching the lights on and off over and over gain.

Things here are going very well. This kid has brought so much joy and happiness to our lives. I can't even remember our lives before Jack. I have no idea what we did with our days or talked about with our friends. I guess that is the way it goes. Jack just makes us smile. We are truly truly blessed.