Happy Birthday Jack!

After a long morning nap, Jack, Papa and Mama went to the park where we met up with Sparrow, Athena and Gabriella. Sadly, none of the kids from Jack's daycare were able to make it, but Jack had a good time swinging on the swings, going down the slide and eating sand. Later he found a rubber band and played with it for a long time.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Jack had a very fine first birthday. We made Number One pizza dough cookies with the cookie cutters from Nana to take to the park and share with the other kids. For breakfast Papa made pancakes and Jack got to try blueberries for the first time, which he tends to eat the middles out of and leave the skins.

racing ahead in a day

yesterday I kept a list for the better part of the day of what Jack is into---

-turning the light switches on and off (one is harder than the other and he's very frustrated that he can't get it on-but he keeps trying!)

-standing by the window in his bedroom and looking out on the neighboring backyards, watching/following the pigeons as they fly by

-buttons on anything, particularly on clothes

-the keys to the file cabinet-he likes to take them out and shake them. he likes keys a lot in general. he also likes to open the drawers to the other file cabinet and pull out mama's papers

-Jack is getting the concept of puzzles, even though he hasn't quite mastered them yet. he knows the pieces are supposed to fit in the holes

-trying to put his shoes on

-putting his fingers through the holes in My Animals by Xavier Deneux and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, then grabbing his finger with his other hand from the other side of the page

-watching older kids

-realizing that things still exist when they are out of sight (there's a name for that). like the big bottle of vitamins that Jack loves to shake, inside the cupboard in the kitchen. when he's eating breakfast and gets bored, he points to the cupboard and gets more and more agitated until I give him the bottle. I guess this can also contribute to separation anxiety as kids realize that you are each separate entities and that you can leave. however, it's also why Jack still loves to play peek-a-boo so much.

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.

The party's over Jack

Jack went back to the daycare grindstone (ha ha) last week.  He had Nahid almost entirely to himself because the winter session has hardly any kids in it this time around. Oulu was out on Friday but should be back on Monday. He clutched to Sean a little when he got there, but warmed up quickly to his familiar room and Nahid's open arms inviting him to play.

Jack points a lot at things that he wants and he's capable of standing on his own, usually without realizing it. I was remarking to a neighbor today about how amazing it is that when they come out their little legs are just these bow-legged rubbery things, and then you consider how much muscle has to develop in the course of one year for him to be able to support his weight-it's pretty amazing. 

The other day I let Jack play with the phone and he put it (backwards) to his ear and said "yah yah yah!"

Lately Jack has been eating peas (he picks them out of his mixed vegetables), turkey, bread, oatmeal with banana and applesauce, yogurt, Monterey Jack (of course) cheese, tortillas with cheese melted on them, and next week he should be able to start drinking regular milk instead of formula-hurrah!!! He's still really hooked on nursing, so I'm trying to be patient. 

I've done a terrible job of teaching him to self-soothe, and I'm paying the price-he can only go back to sleep at night if he nurses and this happens probably 4 or 5 times per night-yawn.

From last week daycare:

Jack had a wonderful day exploring his room and visiting Room 2. He had some snack (cereal) in there with his older friends. 

nothing quite like Jack's laugh

Jack also loves getting pushed on the swing.

There is nothing in the world like hearing your baby laugh

The other day was busy at the playground since it's Holiday break and all. I tried to find a spot where Jack could play and not be tromped by bigger kids. I brought him over to these stairs and he started climbing up them. "Well, that's cool," I thought, "he's never done that before"

When he got to the top of the steps he just laid down on his stomach and went down the slide completely on his own. It was a hoot. He laughed and laughed and then tried to crawl back up the slide to do it again, laughing the whole time.

I showed him how to go back to the steps and climb up and he must have climbed the stairs and gone down the slide 20 times that day. Eventually when we left he cried and held out his hands to go back to the slide. It was awesome. I shot a short video which I will try to post or link to Youtube when I get a chance.