Spelling Bee Champion?

 

So, before I present the video below, in all it's glory, I just have to say how inherently ridiculous baby blogs are. (or is this now a kid blog? whatever.) I mean, even if you try to avoid bragging about your kid, you end up doing it anyways. That's because you tend to post cute pictures of your kid as opposed to ugly ones. And you're also blinded and constantly amazed at their development because it's the first time you've ever seen something go from zero to 100. I mean, seriously, to watch something go from a blob who doesn't know it has hands to a little kid who can count to 20 is amazing.

 Anyways, this is all because I have this video below of Jack spelling some words which I think is awesome. He is so good at letters and spelling and it just seems to come easy to him. Which, as I'm typing it sounds like such a jerky thing to say. But it's just his strength. In the interest of fairness and to temper the bragging, Jack's got plenty of weaknesses. Mainly anything social. He is so quiet around strangers and in big groups. And when we go to new places he usually spends the first hour clinging to mommy. Ahh, he's just like his mom in so many ways.

 Okay, enough talk. Here's my super brilliant adorable genius future spelling champ:

 

Leaps and Bounds

This post has been a long time coming and, truthfully, writing it is more of a record for me than anything.

Jack is over 19 months now and, at 17 months, we were worried about his lack of talking.  He hadn't said much of anything other than the occasional "pop" and "mama".  Then all of a sudden at 18 months his vocabulary exploded.  It's like he knew all the words (which, logically, I knew) but he decided it was time to show mom and dad what he could do before they threw him in speech therapy. Amazingly, he almost immediately, in probably the span of a week, went from saying one letter to all 26.  Actually, strike that...25.  He still can't say W but he can say the rest of them.  He points them out in street signs, he spells out every letter on the cover of books, and he loves writing them in chalk on the ground.  And he's working on being able to sign the whole alphabet.  The middle is still a little muddled but he's working on it...

The nerd alphabet kid also loves his numbers.  He's got 1 through 10 down pat and just today he seemed to have 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 down too.  

More than anything I'm just amazing at how much he LOVES books.  Like I am not exaggerating when I saw we spend hours every day reading books.  And he doesn't flip the pages impatiently or get bored.  He sits still ("couch!" "sit!") and watches and listens intently as I read a book.  The books are getting way longer with a lot more text.  It's also amazing that he's starting to learn how to spell some words...or at least sight words.  Like zoo, farm, pets, moo, etc.  So cool.  Lately, if it's a book he knows really well, he'll point out every single thing on the page...each animal, each tree, each flower.  I almost fell out of my chair last week when we picked up his baby color book and he proceeded to "read" it to me by telling me each color on the page and what the colored object was.  ("blue fish", "orange flower", "purple snail")

He definitely has some opinions when it comes to books.  He'll make me go through an entire pile, pushing the ones he doesn't want out of the way until I get to the one I want.  And the other morning at 6am he kept crying "buh-ee, buh-ee!" and I couldn't figure out what he wanted.  I went through the enormous stack of books in our family room but wasn't successful.  Finally I was like, "Bunny?" "Yes."  "You want the book Bobby Bunny?" "No."  "You want the book Runaway Bunny?" "Yes."  So I went and retrieved it from his room.  Crazy stubborn child.

So, what can I say, he's a reading nerd.  Not surprising considering how many books I devoured as a child.  And, just because he knows his alphabet and letters better than the other kids his age, I am by no means calling him a genius.  He's good at that stuff and the other kids are good at other stuff.  Things he can't do at all yet.  Blow bubbles, eat really well with a spoon without making a gigantic mess, be super social and say hello using kids' names.  Clearly everyone has their strength and Jack's is more academic and less social.  Yay for passing down your personality to your children!

And for posterity's sake, a few more things that he can do at 19 months:

- get excited and tell me if the stop light is red or green or orange (oops...damn kid, I thought you were smart.)
- command the automatic store doors to "open!" or "close!"
- notify me when we are driving up a hill - "up!!" or "down!"
- started understanding plurals and now will add an S to some things "two Ds", "three snakes"
- is pretty good about saying please when he is asking me for something.  still working on thank you.  

And let's end with another ABC video because he's so darn cute when he's trying to sing.

Sickness Interruption

Sorry for the utter lack of posting. We were busy and then Jack got sick (still is) and then he made his parents sick. I haven't been this sick since before Jack's pregnancy. Though now I can kind of understand why he's so cranky and yucky. So am I! Here we are laying on the couch because that's all I can muster. Enjoy until we are healthy enough to resume normal posting!

 

A Tsunami of Development

Well, I've certainly been neglecting this blog.  I have about 2000 (no exaggeration) photos to go through from our travels back east and it's just too daunting to sit down and do at 9pm.  So I thought I'd just do a little post about what Jack's up to.

I swear, in the past 6 weeks he's aged light years in terms of development.  He hadn't really been saying much before that but now he says a lot!  Since I can't seem to write coherently right now, I'll just make a list of all the cool things he's doing:

1.  Saying about 15 of 26 letters of the alphabet.  And he can recognize all of them and pick them out.  Loves his fridge magnets!  And loves to yell out "O!" and "S!" and "D!" etc when he sees letters on signs, posters, and papers.

2.  Can say about four numbers (#8 is his favorite) and loves counting everything.

3.  Pretty much insists on feeding himself with a spoon rather than taking mommy's help

4.  Says new words every day much to his mother's shock.  We'll be reading a book and suddenly he'll yell out "tree!" or "cat!" or something he's never said before.  And I feel like he's understanding the books more.



5.  Loves the color blue (it's the one he can say) and only wants to wear blue shirts in the morning.

6.  Appropriately says "hi" and "bye" when people come and go.

7.  Since he rests his head on daddy's shoulder and daddy pats his back, he has started to do the same to daddy...pats his back to reassure him it's okay.  Pretty cute.  Combine that with his now perfect pronunciation of "dah-DEE" and it's just too much.

That's all I can think of now but I know there's a billion more things.  Oh well.

And, as a bonus, just because I think it's cute, he makes the funniest sound for his "where?" when we're reading a book. It's kind of fake because he usually knows where the animal or picture is, but he makes the noise anyways. So cute.

 

Videos for the grandmas

Honestly, who is interested in these videos?  I know Grandma and Grammy are and I definitely like catering to my most loyal readers so....  Here are a couple of very short videos of Jack saying a letter.  He can say probably about 1/3 of the letters but of course I never ever have my camera out when I'm doing it with him.  So you're stuck with the letter K basically.  And the word "blue".  Enjoy.

Week in Review - 6/28/12

(performing his favorite move...diving from the rocking chair to the couch)

I have to say, this kid is growing by leaps and bounds.  Developmentally I mean.  People warn you that it happens very fast but it's so cool to experience.  He says new words every day which is very thrilling.  Whether it's 'hot' or 'pool' or 'ball' or 'hat'...John and I get excited about every new word and sound. 

His favorite foods are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and mac n' cheese.  He just can't get enough of either.  And for spoon-fed food like yogurt and applesauce, he insists upon using his own spoon.  He gets approximately 1% of it in his mouth and the rest ends up on his shirt, hands, face, and hair.  I just step back though and let him explore.  I'm sure one day he won't be quite as messy.

One of his favorite toys remains his tool box.  He's very good at using the screwdriver to turn the big screws.  This week though he found a real screw on the back of the box and now he's confused as to why his screwdriver isn't unscrewing it.

Jack likes to run, no more walking.  One of the moms in our playgroup taught him this "ready, set, go" stance with arms back and he thinks it's awesome.  He throws his arms back and takes off.  Check out his speed!

 The lil' guy really seems to really like letters and numbers right now.  We spend a lot of time reading alphabet and number books.  And counting anything and everything.  And pointing out letters.  Wherever we may find them.

 

Now, don't get excited. My son isn't a genius who can spell already. But he is getting good at picking out letters in words when we ask him. And the one word I do think he can spell is ZOO just because it's in so many of his books.

 And now, (TONS) more pics from the week!

 

So excited to run out of his tent!

Herculean strength!

he's so casual about brushing his teeth

Maybe you wouldn't fall asleep in your stroller at 10am if you'd sleep past 5:30am!

giving his tough face

helping mommy clean

He loved climbing up these soft, round, "steps" and then sliding all the way down on his tummy

being a good sport for mommy


telling me how "hot" the concrete was

This post might as well be titled, "Jack is so awesome right now" because, well, he is.  Sixteen months seems like such an awesome age.  He is so much fun lately.  It's not unusual for him to giggle and squeal with delight all day.  He has figured out how to initiate peek-a-boo and says "boo" when he does it.  He's gotten so adept at climbing ladders and steps and going down slides that he does it for 30 minutes at a time all by himself.  And he seems to love that independence.  

He seems to be learning shapes and numbers and letters every day.  I think he now knows all the shapes and is almost always right with his colors.  The other day he kept saying "K, K, K, K" and I turned around and he was holding the "K" magnet.  Coincidence?  I don't know.  Because he was in the bath with his foam letters and held up the "K" and said it again.  Crazy.  I mean, I know he's not a genius or anything, but witnessing the way their little minds develop is so cool.  

He still doesn't say much but the one word he loves and can say really well is "pop".  It comes from the song we sing while he's in his swing outside, "Pop Goes the Weasel".  Now when I sing it I pause at the right time and he says "POP!" Such a small thing but so cool.  I can't wait to see what he does next.  

Week in Review - 6/30/12

 

 Another week where Jack seemed to learn all sorts of new things. He's finally holding his sippy cup all by himself all of the time and is also holding his squeeze-y snacks and the like. One funny thing he likes to do all the time now is make a questioning "huh" sound accompanied by an upturned hand...like "where is it?" Where is anything? If we come out of the store, where is the car? Where is his toy?  Where is dada? So cute.

   

 Let's see...he also started saying "pop" this week which is exciting. He got it from me singing "Pop Goes The Weasel" all the time. But he also uses it when he pops bubbles. But his favorite activity this week? Screws!! He loves loves loves using his screwdriver to turn the screws in his toolbox. And when we found another tool bench at our mommy and me class? He beelined right for it.

 

 

 At that same class I also saw him do something I've never seen him do...feed baby dolls. Maybe because we don't have any dolls in the house. But it was cute.

   

 Mark down this week as the week he also became OBSESSED with chairs. Oh man. The more rockin', tippy, and dangerous the better. He'll climb right up and rock the heck out of every rocking chair we find.

 

 

 Okay, enough talk. Here are more pics from the week!

 

Hooray for water!

Picnic with daddy

He loves laying down nowadays

look at those long legs!

getting pulled around by his friend Diego

three's a crowd in the wagon

he loves the front yard and he loves watching the cars go by

music time in class

signature squat position

boxes never get old

me and my boy at the picnic

enjoying his rocking chair seat with his Syracuse pillow

15 Month Doctor's Visit

 

 Another pretty standard doctor check-up. Two shots this time and, apparently, once he's a year old they stop sticking him in his legs and move on to his arms. Poor guy. To make it up to him I let him run through the sprinklers with his band-aids on his arms. 

 The little guy is growing like a weed...or a sumo wrestler. I expressed worry that he has gained a good bit of weight probably because he only eats bread and cheese. But she assured me that he had grown a lot in length so not to worry. His weight jumped from the 25th to the 50th percentile and his height from the 50th to the 75th. 

 The main topic of the day was his speech...or lack thereof. We went over the fact that he babbles all day and that he seems to understand what I'm saying (follows simple directions, points out things in books, etc.) She said she's happy with his eye contact and smiles and that, basically, there is nothing to worry about. Looks like he may just be a late talker. And while he's definitely way behind the norm, there are plenty of stories of toddlers who don't talk until after they turn 2. So, here we are. I can't really do anything besides what I'm doing. I'm sure eventually he'll start saying some coherent words. He definitely thinks he's talking to me all day, I just don't understand him. One day he'll focus all the energy he puts into throwing dirt and climbing and running into his verbal skills. 

 And here are his stats: 

 Height - 32 inches (75th percentile) 

Weight - 24 lbs. 6 oz. (50th percentile)

"Mama"

So, I know that every other mom with a 13 month-old had this moment about five months ago, but, nonetheless, I'm excited. As you know, Jack is a late talker. He doesn't say much. But a few days ago he said "mama" for the first time. Of course he did it in sort of distress so I don't know if it'll happen again for like 4 months, but I'll take it. He was in the bath and overtired at the end of the day. He had tried to get up and slipped in the bath and was just over it and crying and whining. So he reached out his arms and said "mama!" It was awesome. At first I couldn't believe he had said it because he hadn't even said the "ma" consonant before. But there it was. Of course, he hasn't said it again since then so it's a good thing I can remember it so clearly. :)

Testing vocal chords

He may have a little sore throat, but that doesn't mean I can't secretly record him babbling away.

Where's Elmer?

Jack has these series of books about Elmer, the most colorful elephant in the world. He reads them every day. I only tell you this because he's getting so good at recognizing words. When we get to this page about Elmer playing hide and seek, I can ask him where Elmer is and he finds him!

Just a tiny bit of his colorful trunk sitting out of the bush and he finds him. So cool! All day I ask him where things are and he can point them out. We find the fridge, toaster, microwave, bedroom, shower, bathroom, dinosaur, TV, curtains, and pool. John is particularly happy that Jack can march us over and point to the Pavement/Sonic Youth poster as well as hightail it across the entire house to his guitar when we tell him to. So, while he can't say a darn word, he's getting good at understanding them.