Colors

Jack’s has learned the concept of color.  He was starting to get it for a while; anything red was “Mama” and anything blue was “Dada” (color of our cars), but he definitely didn’t get the bigger picture.  Lately, though, he has been pointing to different objects and saying “bluh” (blue) or “pur” (purple).  I can now say “Where’s the orange crayon?” and he knows which one I mean.

Color is such a crazy concept.. imagine trying to explain it to someone who can only see black and white.  I wonder what finally triggered it for Jack.

Jack’s had a mild fever the last two evenings.  It’s following the same pattern of about 7 months ago when he had croup….. man I hope that doesn’t happen again!

Sick again!

Jack is sick again, darn it.  I know, that’s how it goes with kids.  This time it’s just a cold, so far.  The thing about a cold, though, is that it’ll bring his cough back, which he’s had since…. mid-July.  It was ALMOST gone, he occasionally had a cough when he woke up, but this’ll bring it back. Foo.

 

Combover

Today, I used the comb on Jack’s hair for the first time.  We’ve never bothered before; when his hair dries it just seems to go in the right place.  Today I tried putting a part in, which didn’t last.  Jack enjoyed running the comb on his head though.

I think he’s been blessed with the Pearl high forehead; not one of my favorite things about myself.  Oh well.  He can have bangs.

At one of Jack’s doctor appointments, the doctor said “Who combs his hair?”  I said “No one.”  Kind of an odd thing to say though, isn’t it?  But his hair does look combed despite the lack of comb and brush.

Balance Beam

Today we went to a class at the Little Gym, which is  a place filled with mats, parallel bars, balance beams, etc.  During the class, there are various “activities” that the kids are encouraged to do (like walk along a balance beam) and also just time for them to run around and explore.  There were only 4 other kids, and Jack was by far the youngest and smallest.

Jack started out a little clingy, but was soon running all over the room.  He especially liked some foam archways for crawling under, and when we were playing with bouncing balls he brought one over to roll through.  I think he had a great time, so we’ll definitely go back.

One of Jack’s new words is “go”.  We’ll be sitting at a traffic light and the light turns green and he says “Goooooooo!”  It’s kind of amazing that he can now say things from the back seat, where I can’t see him, and actually communicate with me.

This week is flying by..

Last night I was thinking, “Wow, Wednesday already?”  That’s a big turnaround from last week.  We had a busy day:  preschool in the morning, then I took Jack for a swim lesson at 5.  Rushed home to make dinner, then after dinner rushed off to the gym to run on the treadmill (I’m up to two 3 minute jogging intervals and two 5 minute ones, woo hoo!)

Jack is definitely in an attachment phase.  He kept coming to find me at preschool, and once he fell not very hard and someone brought him to me because he was crying.  Usually that type of thing doesn’t bother him.  I was on observation this week, and during the discussion portion, where we sit in a circle (at the little toddler tables..) he kept bringing me things.  Also, turns out a couple of other kids at school had hand, foot & mouth disease so I suspect that’s what Jack had as well.

We haven’t been to a swim lesson since June (we did go swimming in Hawaii and Twain Harte in July though).  I really wish they had a mid-afternoon lesson, but the next earliest is at 1:30, smack dab in the middle of nap time.  The 5:00 class is chaos; there were only two other kids in the class, but the pool was filled with lessons and all the adults sitting on the edges and lots of yelling.  Jack did ok; he was a bit clingy in the beginning but let the teacher put him on the slide and do a couple of swims to me.  So he hasn’t forgotten everything!  I like the lesson package at this place because I bought 9 lessons that I have a year to use; today I called up during Jack’s nap and asked if there was space in the 5:00 class, so it can be very last-minute.

Jemba

Yesterday, our cat Jemba was limping, and when I looked at his paw, I saw one of his nails had become overgrown and was poking into his pad.  He hadn’t shown any signs of distress before then, surprisingly.  Anyway I took him in this morning, and the vet cut his nails and cleaned out the hole in his pad and prescribed antibiotics.   For some reason, Jemba’s never been very good at sharpening his claws.  Our other cat, Max, uses the two different scratching posts we have, but Jemba rarely does, and is always getting his claws tangled in things.

Ok.. time for a meme!

1. What is the color of your toothbrush? I use a Braun electric toothbrush; my toothbrush head is white with a little red circle at the bottom.

2. Name one person who made you smile today. My friend Lisa.

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Putting “product” in my hair after my shower.

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Physical therapy exercises.

5. What is your favorite candy bar? At the moment I would say Heath bar.

6. Have you ever been to a strip club? Nope.

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? “What’cha looking for?”  [As Chris was spinning in circles in the kitchen..]

8. What is your favorite ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip.  The green kind.

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? Water.

10. Do you like your wallet? It serves its purpose.  It’s better than my last one, which wasn’t wide enough to hold an unfolded bill.  What is the point of such a wallet?

11. What was the last thing you ate? Strawberries.

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? No.

13. The last sporting event you watched? Uhh….  the last ENTIRE sporting event would be when Lisa and I went to a Giants baseball game in May… but I have seen bits and pieces of soccer when Chris watches it.

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? Butter?  Not a big popcorn eater.

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? My sister.

16. Ever go camping? Sure.

17. Do you take vitamins daily? Yes.  Sigh.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? Nope.

19. Do you have a tan? Nope.

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? Depends on what mood I’m in, a Chinese food mood or pizza mood!  But probably pizza more often.

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? When I’m out, yes.

22. What did your last text message say? “I will leave right now.”  [Going to pick up my nieces after their piano recital.]

23. What are you doing tomorrow? Going to Jack’s preschool.

24. Favorite color? Red.

25. Look to your left; what do you see? Chris, wiping down the kitchen counters.

Toys

We’ve been lucky to get lots of hand-me-down toys for Jack.  When Chris’s parents were here, we brought out a Fisher Price town that belonged to my nieces, and he’s really been enjoying that.  We’ve also gotten a bunch of great hand-me-down books.

Last week I dug out my old wooden Playskool blocks and he loves helping me build towers.  These were my favorite blocks when I was a kid.  He also likes coloring; I knew saving all that scratch paper for years would pay off someday!  He prefers one of us to draw pictures, then he likes to color over them.

Another big hit is the shape sorter that was a birthday gift from Chris’s parents; the recommended age is 6-18 months, but Jack’s still enjoying it.  Another great hand-me-down is the Fisher Price school bus (the version we have is older and doesn’t have batteries); a favorite activity is filling it up with all the Little People and having it crash off the coffee table.

It’s been fascinating watching how Jack has interacted with each toy as he gets older.  He now says “vroom vroom” when playing with the bus, and puts the Little People in and out of the door.  When we first got the shaper sorter, he couldn’t figure out which shapes went where.

I have so many fond memories of playing with my toys when I was little.  I hope Jack will have lots of good memories, too.

Potty Training

We started potty training a couple of weeks ago.  I know 18 months is a little young these days, and I hadn’t planned on starting until he was 2, but then I read the book Diaper-Free Before 3, and it changed my mind.

She makes a good point with the data:  it wasn’t really until the 1960s, when disposable diapers first started to appear, that potty training started getting pushed out to later and later.  Back in the “old days,” mothers were more motivated to get their babies trained when everything had to be washed by hand.

She advocates actually starting when the child can sit on his/her own (around 6 months), and just adding the potty time to the regular schedule.  I’d heard of people doing this, and thought a) they’re crazy and b) it’ll take too much time, but after reading the book I decided to give it a try.

Obviously we’re starting later, but we’re following the same principle, which is that we have Jack sit on the potty every 3 hours or so (generally whenever he’d normally have a diaper change).  He seems to enjoy it; we have lots of books and he either “reads” them or one of us reads to him.  The point is just to make it part of the daily routine, and eventually, he’ll get the association between actually going to the bathroom, and the potty.

So far he’s peed in the potty 4 times.  He’s also peed and pooped on the floor in the bathroom, in his room, etc., so it can be a bit messy.  And when we’re out and about, I don’t bring the potty with us or anything.

Eventually, when he starts to get the hang of it, I’ll have him wear training underwear during the day.  I don’t have a particular timeline for when he has to be potty trained, so I don’t feel a lot of pressure to get it done.  I just figure, I’d rather have him get used to the concept before he hits the 2s and REALLY wants to assert his independence.

The author says this method (if you started around 6 months) takes more time in the long run, but the child will end up trained at a younger age, and hopefully with less hassle.  She also says that to be “trained” doesn’t mean there are never any accidents; it can simply mean that the majority of the time, the child uses the potty.  We’ll see what happens!

Question for other people who’ve done potty training:  what do you use to clean the potty?  I don’t want to use something too harsh, but I do want to make sure it’s cleaned properly… and where do you clean it?  Seems kind of unsanitary to clean it in the bathtub.

Ahhh, the Weekend

The weekend == Daddy time.  Jack’s been very attached to his dad lately.  Yesterday morning Chris got him out of his crib and was holding him for a bit til he had to go take a shower.  He handed Jack to me and Jack started crying and sadly saying “Dada!”  When Chris comes home, Jack runs over to the laundry room door to greet him (it connects to the garage).  It’s wonderful to see him love his daddy so much.

In general, Jack hasn’t shown a lot of preference between me and Chris, but when Chris’s parents were visiting, there were a couple of times when he wanted me more.  Very unusual.  It’s nice to see it go both ways.

It also cracks me up to see what Jack refers to when he points and says “Mama!” or “Dada!”.  The TV, the beer in the fridge, and the blue toy car are all “Dada”.  Things that are “Mama!”:  pictures of blimps (because of the time Jack and I saw a blimp together.. what were you thinking?) , the washing machine (great), and the chair where I sit at the table.

Scotland the Brave

I had a physical therapy appointment this morning, but our sitter has the flu so had to cancel.  Since I couldn’t do that, I packed up the jog stroller and we went to Sawyer Camp Trail, at Crystal Springs Reservoir.  While there, we heard bagpipes playing, and found a man playing them in the parking lot.  We stopped to listen for a bit, so Jack could soak in some of his Scottish heritage.

I have slowly, slowly been building up my running again, now that my knee’s healed.  It gets sore sometimes, but it’s held up well.  Today I did 5 minutes of walking, then two rounds of 90 seconds running/90 seconds walking, 3 minutes running/3 minutes walking.  Not much, but I was doing less than that when the stress fracture occurred.

Our jog stroller is a hand-me-down from my sister, and I am so grateful to have it, but it’s one of the original models and a bit of a pain to cart around.  You have to take off the side wheels and a bunch of other pins to get it to fold up small enough to go in the back of the car.  But it does the job.

The trail is very popular, and we saw lots of joggers, walkers, cyclists, kids on scooters, and even a guy on a unicycle.

Jack had a great night of sleep last night; I didn’t hear a peep.  He had a good breakfast this morning.  I think he’s definitely on the mend.