Letters and Reading

It's no secret that Jack is obsessed with letters.  In his bath every night he lines up all his letters in order and spells words and sings the alphabet song.  Not sure if, based on the photo above, he's a genius Type A nerd or a serial killer.  :)

What's really great though is that he's sort of starting to "read".  I mean, I put it in quotes because it's really just memorizing sight words at this point.  But he certainly seems to be able to read a lot of words.  I write them on his magna-doodle and he reads them to me.  

Or when we are reading a book, he will point out the words he knows.  For posterity's sake, I figured I'd list all the ones he can read right now so that when he's 10, I can look back and see how he was doing at 22 months.  :)  So far he can read:

Jack

hello

hi

bye

go

stop

up

no

on

in

zoo

fox

dog

cat

frog

sun

fun

book

hat

you

Pepe

pasta

And I think he's pretty much got:

owl

cow

bus

pig

tree

duck

It's all pretty exciting.  So proud of my little guy!

What Jack's been up to...

The kiddo is sick (again) so I am going to take this opportunity to post some more pictures.  The sickness has definitely slowed us down some and caused us to miss classes and play dates, but that's okay.  There are still some cute pics...

happy to be on the top of the step stool

mommy and son time

taking a break on the playground

oranges, oranges, and more oranges

getting dark and it's freezing but he doesn't care

he thinks it's hysterical that he's messing with the outlet that he's not supposed to

proud of his numbers

laughing with daddy

Counting to 50

Here are a few videos that John took.  In the first, Jack shows you what he does most of the day...counts numbers.  It's fun times.

In the second video, Jack enjoys one of the few videos we let him watch on YouTube.  He sounds almost as good as India Arie.

Catching up...

The holidays are over and I've fallen so behind in blogging.  I have loads of photos that I've been meaning to share so I think I'll just post them all without much fanfare.  Sorry there are so many but enjoy!

Enjoying a visit from cousins Gina and Christy

"1, 2, 3, Weee!"

Enjoying his new bathtub basketball hoop

Riding the carousel at the zoo

fun times!

"say cheese!!"

practicing his jumping again

exploring the new world of couch forts

reading a book by himself

counting, counting...always counting

playing with his best buddy Pepe

time with daddy

playing the piano at the fancy toddler new year's eve party we attended

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1...happy new year!!"

(Jack not pictured because he was the only toddler that couldn't make it to 9pm...like mother like son.)

Jack practicing his J's...pretty awesome.

Intently watching the monkeys at the zoo

Jack and his friend Molly...looked upset that the car won't start

Bouncy house!!

Reading with Grandpa during a San Diego visit

Nap time with Aunt Leslie (and Pepe)

So so excited about being in the freezing driving rain up at the cabin

Tickling time with Aunt Julie

It's Christmas!

 

Christmas finally arrived after 25 days of counting down. (Each morning in December he would look at our little countdown Santa display and say "how many days til Christmas?" and yell "9!" or whatever.) Anyways, Jack came out in his reindeer PJs and was excited by all the presents under the tree and in his stocking. He eyed up his stocking suspiciously before he dove in.

   

 He excitedly showed his daddy a few of his new toys.

 

 

John was also excited about his own presents...

   

 Aunt Julie got Jack a cool Italian book that he loved reading with her.

   

 One of his favorite gifts from Santa was his new numbers poster. Simply numbers 1 through 100, it still completely wow'ed him and he spent a lot of time laying on the floor and counting.

   

 Jack's favorite present though had to be the one from Grandpa and Grandma. When Grandpa brought out the trampoline, he went into his excited pose which is sort of bent over, hands tensed, and jaw jutting. That's when you know he's excited. And he ran after Grandpa as he went to put it in the family room.

 

 

 I'm pretty sure he liked it.

 

 

 Just too cute. It was a really wonderful day and so fun to see the huge difference in Jack from last year's Christmas. He was totally excited about Santa and the Christmas tree and gifts and stockings. And, it was really lovely that he was even more excited about having Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Julie, Aunt Leslie, and Pepe at the house. I have lots of pictures from the big day but here are just a few more.

 

playing with his new rain stick

Julie skyping with her Italian host family

playing with his new stuffed animal dog from Aunt Leslie

showing his love by smothering the dog

finally dressed for the day

playing with another toy...his Thomas the Train toothbrush

Jack and his new ornament

Jack giving a gift to his buddy, Pepe

ready for a walk

"Let's eat!"

So much joy.  So adorable.