Time for a Haircut?

I know I have previously written about my son's little bald head. Well, he is finally getting some hair. The curls in the back are cute, but I think it is getting too long. He has serious bed-head when he wakes in the morning and it gets a bit out of control. Stuart does not agree. He thinks it took so long for the hair to show up that we should wait before cutting it. Take a look at the wild hair in these pictures and give us your opinion (not that we will take your advice, mind you, but please share anyway.) Please vote on the right side of the blog. Thanks.

19 months old

On the 22nd, Jack turned 19 months old. Here is a snapshot of what he is up to these days:

• He loves stuffed animals, but only small ones he can hold in his hand. He wants nothing to do with larger ones. He carries around little stuffed dogs and cats and kisses them throughout the day.
• He will mimic many words, but still volunteers little on his own. If you ask him what his name is, he will tell you, if he is in the mood. When prompted, he knows to say please if he wants something.
• He knows what he wants and is insistent. Temper tantrums are common.
• He resists his bedtime story because he knows that is the last thing to happen before bed. Once we convince him to sit down for the stories, he will insist on multiple readings to delay what is coming next.
• Current favorite toy is a travel size stick of deodorant. (It still has the original plastic covering under the cap that he doesn't know to remove.) He carries it all over the place and rubs it on his legs. I keep it in my diaper bag in case he gets fussy in the car.
• He is fast. He runs very quickly and climbs on stuff before you know it.
• He likes Sesame Street, but only some of the characters. Elmo's world is a hit, as well as the Count, Murry and his Little Lamb, Slimy, and Ernie and Bert. He definitely does not like Telly, Baby Bear, and Abby Cadabby (unless she is singing.) I bought the shirt in this picture yesterday and he was so excited he carried it around the house with him the rest of the day.
• He has strong opinions on clothing. The first preference is always to be naked. But, he will throw aside many a shirt I pick out in favor of another one. He also hates it when I wear certain things. It is weird. If I try to put a sweat shirt on over my clothes in the morning, he screams, cries, and tries his best to pull it off of me. Same thing with pants or a robe. He does not do this with Stuart, just with me. I don't get it. It's only in the morning that he reacts this way.
• He is still the happiest, most energetic kid I have ever encountered...and I love that about him!

Animal Planet

Jack loves animals. There are only 2 that he really knows. There is the kitty, who says meow and there is the dog, who barks. He can differentiate the cats and dogs, but all other animals are lumped into the barking dog category. He just loves the Animal Planet channel and gets very excited when he watches it, often barking at the screen. Here he is calling out to the "kitties" with his meow. Then he starts barking for some inexplicable reason. He was trying his best to climb up to the screen to get a better look. It's a good thing he can't reach the new tv. He broke the other one banging on it when he was watching monkeys one day. (Nice excuse for Stuart to get the new flat screen.)

Beautiful

This pic is from Friday morning. Jack woke up at 5:40am on Friday and Stuart was too tired to deal with it, so he put him in bed with us. However, I couldn't go back to sleep. They both slept in very late. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

When it comes to sleeping, we have been lucky, we know this. At least for the most part. From very early on, Jack slept through the night. He was even sleeping 4-5 hours at a stretch from 2 weeks old. Seriously. We did have the challenge that he slept in our bed until he was 8 months old, but that was more our fault because we didn't want to let him out of our sight. Once I stopped breast feeding, we were able to teach him to go to sleep on his own fairly quickly and he would sleep from 7:30pm-6:30am, usually. This last week has been a challenge. When he wakes during the night, he won't go back to sleep unless I hold him first. Last night he kept climbing out of his crib. He was fast too. He could get out and appear in our room before the alarm went off in his room. Stuart tried taking his bumper out so he couldn't climb on it, but he managed to get out anyway. After that he was hysterical every time I tried to lay him down. It took me almost an hour to figure out that he didn't want to sleep in there without the bumper. Once I put it back in, he stopped crying immediately, and even started giggling. Who knew he was so attached to that thing?

Frustrations

Jack has recently started grunting and growling when he is frustrated. Hmmm...wonder where he got that from...

Welcome Home

Nothing sounds better than my two men playing together...

mmmmm...ketchup

Here is Jack enjoying ketchup for the first time. (We had tried it with him before, but he wasn't remotely interested.) Like any kid, he wasn't interested in the rest of his food, just in licking the ketchup. (This was from a couple of weeks ago.)

Jack has been a bizarre eater. He doesn't particularly care for sweets, but will try them on occasion. He will eat most of what we eat, even when it is strongly flavored, including, hot salsa, garlic teriyaki salmon, bagels with sun dried tomato cream cheese, etc. Textures, however, seem to be limiting our menu when it comes to fruits and vegetables. With the exception of broccoli, Jack will only eat pureed vegetables and fruit. I have tried everything, but he won't touch it. I am so tired of buying baby food! And breakfast is a fight every morning. He doesn't want anything to do with breakfast. On occasion he will eat some of my eggs, if I put salsa on them, or he will eat some oatmeal, but only the baby stuff, he doesn't like the texture of regular oatmeal. Sheesh! Any suggestions?

Side note: Dad comes home tonight! Yea! As a homecoming present, Jack learned how to climb out of his crib today. I had the motion sensor monitor turned on in his room when I put him down for his nap. It is designed to ensure your baby is breathing and goes off if no movement is detected for 20 seconds. Once he made his escape, the alarm went off, scaring the crap out of him. Poor baby. That might make him think twice before making the attempt again.

I Miss You

Dear Nana and Granddad,

I miss you very much. It is hard not seeing you as often as I would like. I am disappointed that you won't be here this spring, but hope to see you soon. Congratulations on your 50th wedding anniversary. (I know I am a little late, but I haven't learned to read a calendar yet.) I wish I could celebrate with you both!

Hugs and Kisses,
Jackson

Socialization?

Because there is a big age difference between Jack and his sisters, and because they live so far away, he doesn't get the opportunity to have the experience of growing up with lots of siblings around. Also, because of where we live, he doesn't see his cousins but once or twice a year. Even most of my friends with kids the same age live far away. Growing up in a big family, I really wanted him to have the benefits of being around lots of kids. Well, that hasn't worked out too well. So, I have had to improvise. Currently, I take Jack to the mall about 2-3 times a week to use the kids play area and he loves it. I go about an hour before the mall opens so it isn't too crowded. And, as an added bonus, I get to chat with the "regular" visitors: moms, grandmas, and the occasional nannies. (Starbucks is the only open store so I can get a quick caffeine fix too!) It is such a regular occurrence that the second I enter Starbucks, Jack starts screaming in happy anticipation.

Well, it seems Jack is getting a reputation with his crazy antics at the mall. Luckily, most of the other parents are understanding. Here are just some of the challenges I face:

• Jack tries to kiss the other kids and it really upsets them. What can I say? He is a lover!
• He is, by far, the loudest kid there. Screaming in happiness.
• He would rather be around other kids then play on the equipment. He runs over to any group of kids, and pushes his way to the middle of the crowd. He then stamps his feet and screams and laughs. (It has scared more than a few children.) Some of the kids are too mellow and are not sure how to take his enthusiasm, so they tell him to go away, or cry the second he approaches.
• When other kids lay on the ground to rest, he thinks it is a game and runs over and jumps on them. I am not exaggerating. He straddles them, bouncing up and down. It is the most embarrassing of all his moves.
• If other children are crying (those not near him.) He will run over to see if he can help and will often start to cry if they don't stop.
• He usually prefers to play with older kids. He also tends to go for the girls instead of the boys, but the older girls get very tired of his rough play very quickly.
• He tries to steal everyone's drinks. He knows he shouldn't do this, so if he gets a hold of one, he runs in the other direction with it. This isn't limited to the kid's sippy cups. He has taken water bottles and coffee cups right out of the hands of unsuspecting moms. (And don't get me started on cell phones, he will take those too!)

He is fearless and often tumbles and falls as he is running and jumping. However, my biggest concern is that he is going to hurt another kid in his attempts to play with them. It really is exhausting. Especially when you get the parent who ignores their kid so they can talk on their cell phone and I have to keep them from pushing my kid around. I also constantly tell people he is only 18 months old. He is so big, they sometimes expect more from him then he is capable of delivering. I don't really get to relax much at all during the process and most of my adult conversations are interrupted by my running to pull Jack off of some child who doesn't think his rough play is fun. But he sure takes some great naps on the days we go!

I think I will have to enroll him in something more formal pretty soon so he can work on etiquette, but for now he is just not calm enough for it. A couple of weeks ago, on one of our visits, there were 3 older kids that took to Jack and played with him. Each one came up to me at various times and told me, "That baby is crazy!" Yeah, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Hurry Home Dad

Last night we took Stuart to the airport for his trip to China. He will be gone a full week and I am not looking forward to it. I know it's only a week, but I cried. Being alone with Jack will be challenging and exhausting, but the bigger issue is that I will miss Stuart so much. We really just love being together and it's not the same without him around. (I know this isn't the greatest picture, but I could not get one where they looked good together...Stuart kept making faces.)

Helping - Part 2

Jack loves to help with tools. It is his absolute favorite activity. He plays with the tools and tries his best to mimic our actions. Lately, however, he insists on helping with every project. It is cute, but really extends all of our project timelines.

This simple assembly took forever, because Jack climbed on every piece as we went along and kept stealing all of the tools. (No comments on the cheesy pink screw driver. I'm not sure where Jack hid the good one...)

He even helped assemble his crib after the new carpet was put in his room.

Helping - Part 1

Jack loves to help out in the kitchen. He always needs to stir whatever is on the stove and taste it. Afterward, he says "mmmm" no matter what it is I'm making. Problem is, he is a bit too helpful. If you aren't careful, he will steal your ingredients while cooking. He knows he isn't supposed to so he takes it and runs and hides. I find him all over the place with various items I need.

apples...


just checking to make sure the half and half tastes ok...


is this bread still fresh?


I caught him in the bedroom with the barbecue sauce.

He decided to prepare the zucchini himself.

Checking the oven (he does at least have an oven mitt on.) And no, it isn't turned on. We now have a lock for the oven.

Salad dressing. I found him with this item days after he stole it from the fridge. Needless to say, it had to be thrown out...

I think the plan was to make a fast getaway in his car with the sour cream.

Something New for Jack to Destroy

Well, we finally decided to put new carpeting in all of the bedrooms in the house. (We replaced the rest of the flooring last year.) We had been debating the decision for awhile when Stuart knocked over an entire gallon of paint in the master bedroom while we were redecorating. (Not once, but twice!) The carpet was covered, so that pretty much made the decision for us. Jack was very excited about all the furniture being moved around the house. He thought the piles of furniture were great fun to climb on all day.

We even made a tent in the family room during the demolition. He loved that!


The new carpet feels so nice! (Yes, I know it is a dark color. I wanted it lighter, Stuart wanted it even darker, so this is the compromise. In any event, it should camouflage some of the damage Jack will inflict on it in the future...we hope.)

Now, if I can only get our house put back together...

Cheese!

Dangerous

Don't let this sweet face fool you. Jack is a tough little boy. He isn't timid or tentative in his actions. He is strong and forceful. He doesn't do anything half way; everything is with his full force! Case in point, he has now given me my 2nd fat lip. Thursday morning he took his diaper off when he realized I hadn't bothered to put pants on him. I pulled him onto my lap to fasten his diaper and he pulled away...hard. Jumped right up and banged his head into my mouth. Ow.