Jack reprimands me out of the blue

"Mama you are talking a lot and a lot to me all day long! You are not paying attention to what you are supposed to do! you are just being crazy Mama! You are just being crazy!"

Lucy and Jack

For a while I was determined to get sand into Jack's sandbox. It's cleaner than dirt, doesn't fly around as much and doesn't get muddy, and probably a little more fun to dig in. It's also really expensive and hard to transport if you can find it for free. So we settling on a dirt box for now. We keep it covered when not in use and Lucy enjoys it too.

Chrissy Field, September 9

On a warm day Chrissy Field is great. Lucy can run around and tear it up with the other dogs, Jack can play in the pools of water in the sand. The picture with his hat and coat on is from when we first arrived and Jack looked at the ocean and said, "I don't want to go in the water, I just want to watch...the waves....float."
Later, he was down to his skivvies splashing in and out of the water, digging in the sand.

construction and destruction

Jack wants to read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel every day at least twice. He is especially interested in the part where Mary Ann can't get any jobs because the new shovels are doing all the work and she and Mike are VERY SAD. He also likes the part where the fire department comes because the steam shovel is making so much smoke they think it is a fire.

He loves the part where the steam shovel is making noise: BANG! CRASH! FASTER AND FASTER! LOUDER AND LOUDER! Jack laughs and yells this part out loud and throws his fists in the air like he's cheering.

Jack is also very interested in breaking things these days. We are trying to figure out things for him to break to direct his energy.

bummer

So I brought Jack back to the Janet Pommeroy center for swimming lessons, but we had to miss the first week because our friend Lisa desperately needed a place for her son Lorem to come and play (see pictures above of warming up after hot afternoon/wading pool fun). So we went to make up on Thursday and for the first time since Jack started swimming his swim diaper leaked poop into the pool! Jack was pretty traumatized. We got out first and when everyone else had to get out, Jack put two and two together and just cried and cried.

Last week he had a cold so we skipped. In the meantime we're trying to get Jack started using pull-ups instead of diapers. Well those looked like swim diapers to him and he wasn't having any of that!!

So today we went to swimming and Jack did not want to go. I told him we would just go watch the other kids and if he didn't want to get in he didn't have to. I also had to borrow a disposable swim diaper from the pool. Jack did not want to put that on either. So we went out to the pool side with Jack in the nude and he watched for a while as the other kids got in the pool. After a while he said that yes, he would like to get in and I told him we had to put on the swim diaper for him to go in the pool. And he did!

Unfortunately, today a different kid pooped in the pool and we all had to get out right after song time! But Jack was willing to wear a pull-up after swim class and even tried his best to pull one up when we were getting him ready for bed tonight.

He really likes to talk about all this pooping in the pool. He says, "Mama, I want to talk about the pool." and I say, "okay, Jack, what happened in the pool" and he rattles off how he went poop in the pool and everyone had to get out and he was sad, etc. Now he ends the story with "there was poop in the pool, but Jack didn't do it, another kid did it!"

ratchet

on a recent visit to a neighbors house Jack became enamored with a ratchet. Sean gave him two to play with and he uses them for everything from fixing Blue Guy's (know by some as Grover's) nose to putting out forest fires and fixing his bed.

Tonight he started pounding on his dresser with them and told Sean he was "making moons!"

today in the garden Jack made rainbows with the hose for the first time.