racing ahead

Nowadays when people ask me how Jack is doing I can barely keep up with what's new. He seems to be figuring out something small, but significant, almost every day. He points regularly to things he wants and he knows where things are kept and will point to the cabinet or look for certain objects on a shelf. I'm pretty sure he's saying "mama!" and "papa!" and he recognizes his name and when I ask him where the "ball" is in his picture book he points to it (however, he tends to point to it anyway, so who knows?). He can't walk yet but he shuffles around on his knees which looks really funny when he tries to hurry. He can also stand by himself, although he doesn't seem to realize it yet. He LOVES his elephant mobile from Karen and Casey Leamy.

He's forever trying to get me to hold him up to it when he's on the changing table or in his crib so he can gently grab the elephants, then he smiles an lets go. This is all fine of course, except that he's heavy after a while and generally has no diaper on at this point. He's a massive flirt on the bus, scanning around for a nice face as soon as we sit down and then smiling and staring at people to get their attention. He also loves watching other kids. When we were at the library yesterday a mother set her daughter down, probably about 6 months old or so, and Jack crawled right over and kneeled in front of her, I assume to play.

Jack especially likes playing his drum and his xylophone with the little stick mallets and opening and shutting books. Of course he also likes electrical outlets, playing in the toilet water, anything made of glass, the computer keyboard, the paper shredder, our cellphones, digital camera and iPod and trying to open the oven broiler door.

We had Jack's first parent/teacher conference today at daycare, which was really fun. The school puts together a binder of pictures with descriptions of what the kid is doing and what skills they're using to do it. It is so cool to see that Jack has friends at school, I love thinking of him having his own experiences that are shaping him each day, things I don't even know about but are clearly all very positive. Today he arrived at school at the same time as Olu. Olu pointed at Jack and said "Jack...Jack" over and over and Jack smiled and pointed at Olu. Then the two of them sat down at the tiny little table for some laughs over oatmeal.

Sorry I don't have any new pictures, Jack is mad for the camera. Sean and I are going to try and take some over the weekend and on his birthday.

from daily intake:

January 5, 2009

Jack & his friend Olu both had a toy phone. They were standing in front of each other & babbling on the phone while looking at each other.

January 7, 2009

After lunch Jack Olu and I (Hanaadi) went outside and the two boys played in the sandbox for over 15 mins. Jack grabbed one shovel in each hand and banged them onto the stump.

January 9, 2009

Jack practiced standing independently for about 10-15 seconds. He was creeping along the edge of the riser when he let go and stood perfectly balanced. He continued babbling and gesturing with his arms as he stood.