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.