when you're not looking

Jack makes these little leaps when we're least expecting it.
Yesterday he was playing with this toy he has where he hits these balls down into a little track and they come out the bottom. There are four balls of different colors and four colored holes to put them in. Yesterday was the first time he very decidedly moved the colored balls to their respective hole color before hitting them done. He did this repeatedly until he was done playing with it.
Sunday he was skyping with Nana and when she came on the screen he went and got her picture off the refrigerator and brought it to her.

Daily Intake July 20, 2009

When Jack noticed that one of his friends was wearing heels, he let me know that he wanted to take off his shoes and socks. He found the pink heels and tried them on. When it was too hard to walk, he took them off.

other news

Jack really likes riding around on his new tricycle. He can't really reach the pedals yet, but he really likes holding on to the handlebars. We had a very nice day yesterday-took a little spin on the tricycle to the park, then after nap we went to the Academy of Sciences to look at fish and stingrays, then hit the playground on the way home. Jack liked having me sit in an enclosed area under one of the play structures and play with sand together. I did too.

Daily Intake July 17, 2009

When I sat in the wooden wagon, Jack and his friends laughed. They were then very eager to push me around. Jack pushed me on his own for about five feet.

definitely talking

The other day I was parking a friend's car with Jack in the back seat. I scraped the hubcap of the car against the curb and it made that terrible noise. The natural reaction is to glance around nervously to see if anyone else heard or noticed, which I did. Suddenly out of the back seat, I hear, clear as day, "What's that noise?"

Jack also says "What's that?" and "I don't want it."

Amazing.

from Daily Intake July 15, 2009:

For some reason, Jack loves dumping sand on Tycco's head. Tycco loves it too but I showed Jack that it's just as fun to dump sand on himself, which he did.

I have to start paying attention to the things that Jack is eating at daycare. We don't have to bring snacks anymore, because the school provides them, and sometimes he'll eat things that never even crossed my mind, like yesterday it said that snack was graham crackers with cream cheese. Never would have crossed my mind.

Jack's having a lot of problems sleeping again. I am reminded about what I read that when a kid makes advances in one area (like talking) they can often regress in another area. Also, we've all been sick and some nights I know that Jack's coughing wakes him up and it's hard for him to go back to sleep.

Fortunately, our downstairs neighbor is out of town and the apartment next door is empty until August 1, so Jack's hollering in the middle of the night isn't probably disturbing anyone except us.

Fourth of July 2009

Jack had a great time at a picnic on the fourth of July. He played in a tub of water, got soaking wet, tried strawberries for the first time (which he ate an entire pint of including the stems), danced and watched a 10 year old magician do tricks.

Jack says "down" for down and for up now, in the pictures you can see him crouched down softly saying "down...down...down" then he springs up and says "DOWWWWWWWWWWWN!"

Second session of summer daycare started this week and kicked off with Jack's 1/2 birthday. Grandma is visiting right now and she made banana muffins for the teachers and the kids. At snack time everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Jack to which he responded with shy smiles, and for the rest of the day, Oulu walked around saying "Happy Birthday to ya!" to Jack.

Jack really likes pushing his baby doll around in the stroller at home, but he gets frustrated because the doll has a fabric body and plastic arms and legs and Jack wants to take the all the clothes off, which include, of course, the body. The dolls at school are all plastic and Jack can play with them in the water. Jack loves playing in the water-showers, the pool, bathtubs, lakes, and a couple days ago we went to Chrissy Field with Grandma and Jack stomped in the ocean waves.

From daily intake:

July 6, 2009

When I was napping Jack today, he started patting his bottom when I (Jill) was patting his back. As if he wanted me to pat his bottom. So we both patted his bottom together until he fell asleep. :)

July 8, 2009

Jack's day was full of water fun! In the morning he joined his friends at the water table with sponges and after nap he was back at the table when he noticed there were baby dolls, soapy water and more sponges!

July 10, 2009

Jack and Faith put on the plastic backpacks and ran from the front door to the loft. Whenever they passed me, they waved, said "goodbye!" and blew me kisses. Later in the afternoon, he and his friends helped me sweep when I gave them little brooms.

July 13, 2009

Thanks for the muffins! We loved them! This morning waterplay was so fun! We borrowed the shower pole from the bigger yard and when I turned it on, Jack rushed over to join his friends. They all got so soaked that their sunscreen washed off!

There's been an incident

I forgot to add Jack's recent incident reports---

June 17, 2009

Jack was reaching for a toy outside and lost his balance. He fell and scraped his left side of his face near his eyebrow.

first aid: we put an icy on the scratch but no bleeding

June 22, 2009

Jack was playing with cups and a child wanted one. The child bit Jack on the forehead. There were teeth marks left on the area. Jack was given an icy for the bite.

note: That bite lasted a while!

July 2, 2009

Jack and I spent the day at home bumbling around. In the morning we set up the sprinkler on the street level part of the garden and Jack was very excited about the sprinkler. Then we went to the back of the building and weeded the garden. Jack enjoys putting rocks in a bucket and then carrying them around with him. Whenever I watered the garden he'd laugh as he put his hand in the stream. By late morning he was soaking wet and we went upstairs to change clothes and have something to eat. Jack really enjoys counting down with the microwave- "5! 4! 3! 2! 1! ZERO!!!!!" and the microwave beeps and Jack laughs and laughs.

We played with a lot of different toys today-pull toys, pans in the kitchen (always a favorite), the broom, cups, the tape measure, Babydoll in his stroller, and the toy truck Gramps made him.

This afternoon Justin and Sparrow came over for lunch. Sparrow set up the xylophone for Jack and they also watch a few videos on youtube together. Justin turned me on to finger breakdancing which Jack enjoyed a lot. We also talked about "Free To Be You and Me" and what an impact it made on both of us. How corny and obvious the equality issues seem now, and how it's amazing that there was a time that it was necessary. Did you know Michael Jackson was in the FTBYM movie? I didn't until today, I only saw the movie once probably although I listened to the record a hundred times with Laura Vetter, my best friend from childhood.

After Justin and Sparrow left, we were playing with the blocks, or rather I was. I was trying to build a tower and Jack knocked it down. I pretended to cry because I wondered if he could understand that it made me sad when he wrecked what I had made. Jack looked at me so sympathetically and said "Mama mama" and gave me hugs. He held my face in his hand and said "Mama mama" and then babbled at me and pointed this way and that way and then gave me more hugs. He tried to make me laugh and when it didn't work he gave me more hugs. All of this probably didn't last more than a minute, but I'm glad to see he showed compassion, (even if he did promptly destroy my tower again). Then he helped me put the blocks away in the bin.

Papa came home and the two of them took a bath and when I came in to get Jack he showed me how he could kick in the water just like he does at swimming class. (He has become an excellent kicker).

Father's Day 2009

Actually that last post wasn't about Father's Day, THIS post is about Father's Day. Sean, Jack and I went to the park in the morning. Sean made coffee over a fire and we ate bread and fruit and cheese and whatnot. We lounged around. Jack busied himself investigating the sprinkler system, stacking dry grass on Papa's leg, fitting the french bread into the coffee cup and talking on Mama's cellphone. After naptime we went downtown and hung out in Yerba Buena park while some music played. Then we went into Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and checked out the Nick Cave exhibit. The show is great and Papa enjoyed it a lot but Jack was mostly interested in the floor outlets.

Daily intakes:

June 26, 2009

In the kitchen in the sandbox, Jack found a cup and pretended to drink from it. He then offered it to Tycco then came to give me some-When Cameron noticed, he found a cup and gave Jack "cheers!". They laughed as their cups collided with one another

June 29, 2009

Jack enjoyed scooping sand into the pails today. He would be so proud and show everyone the pail

July 1, 2009

This morning all the toddlers and teachers went on a walk to the fish pond by Burk Hall. Jack got to run around on the grass with me and some of the older toddlers and even chose to walk instead of staying in the stroller.

Father's Day 2009

So I decided to just skip over the last part of May and the beginning of June and going to my dad's funeral and all that. The cool Jack part of that story was that he whispered during the burial.