Nostalgia

I was looking through my old email files today, trying to get our painfully complicated tax receipts organized (not enjoyable), and came across a very, very enjoyable video of Jack's friend Kaia's first birthday party.  It's so old now I can hardly imagine that that's what Jack was like just before we left London.  He looks so small, and so, well, BALD!!!

Hilariously edited by her daddy, it's worth a watch all the way through.  But if you're looking to cut corners and just catch the Jack snippets, start just after the 1 minute mark.  You'll catch a brief clip of Jack making his first advances (that day) toward Kaia.  Then around the minute and a half mark he makes his true moves, mouth agape.  He stares up in horror as if he had just noticed that Kaia's daddy (who I think is a whopping 6'5"!) had spied them, then promptly goes back to gumming at her arm.  Stacy (Kaia's mommy) described the incident as Kaia's "first snog."  Kaia eventually terminates said snog by whopping Jack on the head several times.  I think of it as hugging about the ears with enthusiasm.  Here's to hoping Jack learns to control his amorous impulses a little more as a teenager!

Oh, and be sure to keep  watching at least for the baby races down the hall of our apartment building.  It's a tight one between Kaia and Eliza "The Cheeks" Coles.  It's immediately followed by a great clip of Kaia and Eliza trading a toy back and forth.  I can just hear Stacy narrating Kaia saying, "I'll take that, thank YOU!"

Celebrity Sightings, Jack-style

Jack met one of his anti-heroes today.  The Cat in the Hat was at the Pottery Barn Kids in the mall just a mile from our house.  Jack loves The Cat in the Hat and has worked up to filling in a word every other line or so when we read it to him.  

He's not as crazy about The Cat as he is about One Fish, Two Fish, which is probably Jack's third-favorite book, but he still likes it.  If you're going by number of copies of the book Jack has loved to death, Goodnight Moon is far ahead of the rest (copies two and three are currently in rotation in very poor, extremely taped-up condition), but if you're going on number of shout outs Jack has given, tops in the book department is Owl Babies.  At this point Jack has mentioned Owl Babies to several of our neighbors, countless grocery store checkout workers, our dry cleaner (twice), and our librarian, who nodded her approval at his good taste.

At any rate, today Jack was a little scared at first, but it was nothing like his Santa fear that surprised me so much a few months ago.  

By the time we were done with the picture and The Cat was signing his copy of the book, Jack was hugging The Cat and giving him high fives.  Owing to a lack of finger control, The Cat could not reciprocate the fist bumps Jack offered; Jack was very disappointed about that (I so wish I was kidding!).

Tonight, just before dinner, I mentioned to Jack that sometime we should probably get "The Cat In the Hat Comes Back."  Big mistake.  Once Jack learned there was a sequel, all I heard was "Kaa Haa Baa!" over and over and over.  

So as soon as Ben got home we headed to the nearest book store.  We read it before bedtime, although I have to say I was a little disappointed; I remember reading it as a little girl and had thought that it included a backwards recitation of the entire alphabet.  I thought that book was where I learned that particular toddler party trick and I was looking forward to teaching it to Jack (really?  learning it backward before learning it forward?) over time.  But it's not in there.  Guidance, Nonna?

By the way, in the video Jack's standing at our kitchen sink, and he's standing on top of a chair that he pulled over there himself.  That's right, he's figured out how to move a dining room chair to any place in the house in order to reach higher.  No counter space is safe any longer.  And Jack is currently obsessed with closing, locking, and unlocking all our doors.  I hear, "Nock.  Uh-nock" (translated, "Lock, unlock") many times an hour as Jack exercises his fine motor skills.

So if you're keeping track at home, that means the only things keeping Jack in the house are 1) lack of understanding of how deadbolts work, and 2) inability to reach to reach said deadbolts.  As he made significant "progress" toward conquering the first liability this weekend at Nonna and Pops' house, I'm hoping Jack's next growth spurt is a long way off.

A Long Awaited Video

Jack's vocabulary has expanded exponentially.  Pad Thai--didn't see that one coming anytime soon...

Six Things You Should Know About Jack

I've got snow pictures to fill in and several fun outings to blog about, but I just wanted to write down several snippets that I'd otherwise forget about:

1) I apparently listen to too much NPR/Slate podcasts/Economist.com audiofiles.  Jack turned to me a few days ago and said, "Obama?" and made his sign for music.  He was asking me to turn on news radio, which he refers to as "Obama music."  Obama music is currently ranking ahead of regular music in his request list, although I can't tell if that's really his preference or is a result of his "NO!" stage starting to get into full swing.  ("Obama music, Momma!"  "Jack, would you like to listen to regular music instead?  Norah Jones music?"  "No!  Obama music.")  By the way, "Obama" sounds a little more like "Ohhh baba" when coming from Jack; it's very dramatically stated.

2) Jack loves to "'nuggle, 'nuggle, 'nuggle," which involves him rubbing his nose against the neck or stomach of the closest available parent and/or stuffed animal.  I can't tell you how thrilled I am to get him to slow down for a few seconds to snuggle; from walking time until very recently, most of the action has involved running, not cuddling.  Don't get me wrong, he still runs a lot, and definitely runs away quickly when he sees Ben or me heading toward him with the intent to take clothes on or off of him (doesn't really seem to matter which it is, just that the change in clothing status will be occurring).  But when he's not pretending to tackle Waddle Waddle or making up a ball game (usually involving some sort of throwing and then running to a wall that apparently constitutes base--the rules vary greatly and are generally unclear to me for the first 15 minutes of play), then he's all cuddles and attempts to read.

3) Every morning when he wakes up, we bring Jack into our (blissfully king-sized) bed, and he always carries with him an assortment of books.  If he doesn't have the one he wants, he'll turn to us very seriously, and say, "Wait, wait, wait.  Wait Momma.  Wait Daddy."  When he's certain we won't move, he slips off the bed, goes into his room to retrieve his desired story, and comes back, saying, "Wait!" again as soon as he enters our room, just to be extra sure we won't get out of bed before he's ready.  

4) Amazingly, Jack reciprocates this stillness when asked to wait.  He's waited at the top of several (sometimes very tall) slides while I get positioned to catch him, a feat that occasionally takes almost a minute, or 10 eternities in toddler time.  Several times I've left Jack upstairs while telling him to wait while I get a snack or drink for him downstairs, and when I come back he's still standing in exactly the same place on the other side of the baby gate.  Even when he's resisting a nap (as happened for about 2 hours today, ugh!) and is inconsolable, if I leave put him in his crib temporarily and ask him to wait while I go find the precious Waddle Waddle or Goodnight Moon that's missing, he is instantly calm and stays calm until I get back.  It's amazing.  Who would have thought?

5) We have made it through 3 of the last 4 masses without having to go to the cry room.  Bible books with lots of flaps are the most wonderful invention ever (although the Noah's Ark one is a little dangerous, being a minefield of potential animal noise-inducers for an eager little boy).  Yay for Jack! 

6) Speaking of "Yay for Jack!" potty training is getting a bit of a step up.  We now have a song for when Jack successfully sits on, uses (one verse for each version), or flushes the potty.  There are also a few variations in which other members of the family's names are inserted so that Jack learns that all grownups use the potty.  And of course, every verse involves Jack saying "Yay!" at the end.  So now every time a toilet flushes in our house, regardless of whether he's been a part of the act, whether he's even in fact on the same floor as the flushee, Jack lets out a completely delighted, "Yay, [person who flushed the potty]!"