Jack's 22 Month Update

Can we please hit the rewind button and go back to a time when my son wasn't going to be two years old in less than 2 months!? Just saying that makes my heart feel heavy. Today one of my friends on Facebook, who just recently had a baby made a post asking when she will get to sleep again and though I will admit that I do love getting a decent nights rest, I would give anything to go back in time and have the chance to hold Jack in my arms and watch him sleep. I wish I knew then what I know now. That every minute spent with your child is something to be cherished, not endured. I wish I didn't complain to Matt about how lucky he was that he didn't have to wake up and nurse the baby 3 times a night, because the truth is, I was lucky one. I had something to offer Jack that no one else could. Knowing how this feels, I will spend our future time together cherishing all of the little things and ensuring that every day is a memory in the making.

At 22 months Jack is...

- repeating a lot of what we say. If I ask him to say something, he usually will attempt to repeat the word without hesitation and gets really proud of himself when it actually sounds like what I asked him to say. For example, the other day when we were reading a book about animals and I asked him to say the word "horse," not only did he repeat it, but he used the "s" sound as well, something that I had never heard until then. There are still a lot of times where we have no clue what he is trying to tell us, but I have noticed a significant improvement this past month. I have recently become a little concerned by the fact that Jack is not yet using 2-word sentences, something that he should be able to do by age 2. With that said, I am aware that boys are a little slower to catch on to speech than girls and also that a lot can happen in 2 months in the world of a toddler. Now that I think of it, He has said a few phrases that I would consider two-word sentences, including "check-out," "Love You" and "Hair cut."

- fascinated by how things work. He loves taking things apart and putting them back together, such as blocks, stacking cups and container lids. He also loves to pour things from one container to another such as water in the bath tub and matchbox cars, food, I even saw him doing this with forks and spoons the other night at dinner.

- on the verge of jumping. In fact, just tonight when Jack was on Skype with Matt's parents, doing the actions to "Wheels on the Bus" his feet were actually off the floor and slightly elevated. It was pretty cool to see.

- only using a "Gaga" at nap time and bed time. Immediately upon waking up, I have him put it in a porcelain jar that we call "the boot," because it resembles a pair of baby booties. At first he didn;t like the idea, but now it has become a game to put it in the jar and he actually looks forward to getting to wave and say "good bye" to his "Gaga."

- able to distinguish and point to all of the colors of the rainbow, as well as clearly naming most of them, especially blue, yellow and purple.

- doing chunky puzzles and sorting shapes with ease. His favorite shape is a circle and gets excited every time he sees one in real life, such as, the icons on my phone. He also loves stars and loves to point them out when we are reading. Every time he points to a star, he follows up by signing "more," in reference to me singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Sleep Habits...

- Recently we decided that Jack was showing signs that he was ready to have a later bedtime. He now goes to bed at 8 and will usually sleep until at least 7:30 and lately has even gone as late as 8:45.

- I usually put him down for a nap at 12:30 and he usually wakes up around 3.

Favorite Foods...

-Apples
- homemade green smoothies

Stats...

- Jack weighs about 36 lbs, if not more. We will know for sure when we go in for his 2 year check-up.
- Size 7 1/2-8 Shoe
-3T in tops and 2T bottoms


Extra Curricular...

-Little Gym on Fridays with Dad. Matt reports that he prefers to sit on Ms. Kristin's lap during circle time, rather than sitting next to him.

- The Y Child-Watch Program 3 times a week for 1 hour. He is been doing significantly better this month, and even when he fusses a little at drop off, the teachers tell us that he stops crying immediately after we leave. Whenever we pick him up, we stand and observe him for a few seconds before we run in and scoop him up and he appears to be having a good time. It's obvious that he is a teachers pet, because he's always at their feet rather than playing with the other kids. Though they don't seem to mind and they find jack's antics to be very cute and entertaining.

Ta-Da!

Sorry I didn't write last night. I was watching game 6 of the playoffs (Wild vs. Avalanche) with my hockey addicted husband. I'm so glad I decided to tune in because it was a great game to watch and it actually managed to hold my attention from start to finish. Well that and the fact that Matt was rubbing my back most of the time. I'm so happy the wild won and believe it or not, I am looking forward to game 7 tomorrow night.

I guess I will start with The Tomorrow Fund Stroll, which took place this past Sunday. (I posted photos in that days entry.) With the money that we personally donated, our grand total came to a whopping $1060.00! It felt so good to be able to give back to a fund that helped us so much in the past.  It is a wonderful organization that was crucial to our family in such a difficult time. They did so much for us including, but not limited to, bringing various toys to our hospital room to keep our sick and fussy baby entertained, bringing up a swing to help him sleep better at night, giving us a parking pass, since we were in and out of the hospital so much, providing us with food vouchers for the hospital cafeteria, paying some of our expensive co-pays, and even a month of our mortgage during a particularly hard month, and they also tracked down a counselor for me to talk to once a week, since I was having a hard time coping with the situation. They made every effort to take away as much outside stress as possible, so we could focus on more important things, like taking care of our sick son, while he worked hard to kick cancers butt. Words can not express how thankful I am for them, as well as all the people who helped make it possible for us to give back and show our appreciation. It's comforting to know that other families will be receiving the same assistance, if not more depending on their situation, as we did, because of the generosity of others. The day itself was absolutely amazing. I cannot even begin to describe the energy of the crowd and the high you get from being part of such a wonderful cause. Jack's favorite part of the day was sitting in an old fire truck that had been transformed into a cancer awareness truck for patients with cancer to sign. He also enjoyed the live music, where he busted out a few of his own moves. A lot of families brought their dogs and every time he saw one he got super giddy. We will definitely continue to participate in the stroll as long as we are living here.

In other news, after his 2 month hiatus, Jack finally went potty in his potty chair again! He actually did this the same day as the stroll. It just goes to show what a great day it was. He really had no interest in going, until I plopped the seat on the living room floor and let him play with his blocks while he sat on it. When the pee started to pour out, he instantly stopped what he was doing and watched it pour out in amazement. When he was done, he proudly brought the bowl that held his urine to the bathroom, poured it in the toilet, and flushed it down. After we finsihed washing hands, he ran to the pantry closet, remembering past time when he successfully used the potty, I would reward him with 1 chocolate chip. Although, I was only planning on rewarding him with praise this time around, I just couldn't deny him in such an exciting moment.

Enjoying an apple after nap time.

I finally got around to taking him in for a trim.

Ta-da!

12th Annual Tomorrow Fund Stroll

Can you spot Jack's name?

Tar-J Boutique

Jack and I had to make a big grocery shopping trip to target today. If I had the choice, I would have waited for a day that Jack could stay home with Matt, while I shopped, but unfortunately we were out of all of the essentials (bread, milk, cheese, veggies, and dinner ingredients) and it couldn't wait another day. He actually did really well, considering that we were there for well over an hour. He only got noticeably fussy the last 10 minutes of our trip. It would have been sooner if I didn't have snacks to distract him with. The main issue that we face when shopping together is that he wants to eat everything that I put in the cart, as well as the things that are on the shelves, especially when we are in the produce department and he sees the apples. I will usually give in and let him munch on one while we shop when we go to our local grocery store that carries organic, but our Target doesn't carry organic, so today I improvised and opened a bag of pre-washed and cut apples in a bag to hold him over so I could finish the rest of my shopping without a meltdown.

After dinner he kept say "poo poo," so after some persuading I got him to sit on his portable potty. Unfortenly, by the time I convinced him to give it a go, he already went in his diaper. Oh well. At least he tried, right? That's better than his usual reaction of not wanting to sit on the potty at all.

"Oow, oow!" (in reference to where the pee and poop goes.)

Suckers in the Dirt

"Sunday" Funday!

I finally got around to cleaning my car today.

I also restocked Jack's emergency kit (this stays in the car) which included the following: 1. Restaurant distractions (Playdoh, Stickers, Pad of paper, Crayons) 2. Small First Aid Kit + Sunscreen 3. Gaga  4. Cup 5. Wipes 6. 2 Diapers 7. Wet Ones 8. Spare Clothes 9. Snacks 10. Spare Blankie 11. Bib

Jack doing his office work. This is Matt's college computer that no longer works.

Every time we have loose change we give it to Jack to put in his puppy bank.

The bath crayons that he got from the Easter Bunny are a hit!

It's a puppy party! In celebration of Muffy's 5th birthday today.

Reading "Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?" to my boy.

Perfect end to the weekend. :)

I'M ALIVE!

Being that I am 5 days behind, I think the easiest way to get back into the swing of things is to post pictures and explain them as I go.

Grandma Patty sent Jack these cute books and a box of cheerios for Easter. Although, he was mostly just interested in eating them, he still had fun putting the occasional cheerio into a "Kirkle."

This was his favorite page. Not a big surprise, since he is obsessed with glasses.

Watercolors!

He got more paint on his hands than the paper. This is because we did a hand-print painting activity for Easter and it was still fresh in his memory.

"Whatcha lookin' at Mom?"

Sticks and books are all this kid needs.

I love simple, engaging activities like this. He would go find a stick, put it in the bowl and repeat. It kept his attention for a solid 5 minutes.

I contemplated putting this on here because I know other parents read this and I wanted to avoid being labeled or judged as a "bad parent." But the truth is, I know that I am good parent and I also know that Jack is the busiest, most curious hands on toddler I know and seeing as the purpose of this blog is to document events that happen in our day to day life, I couldn't leave something this big out. Jack went to the ER again. This time it was because he got a hold of a miniature Christmas tree bulb that had been in Matt's coat pocket. By the time I noticed, he was chewing on the glass. I was able to retrieve the base of  the bulb, which held the wires and light filament. Despite all my efforts to get as much out of his mouth as possible, he did unfortunately end up swallowing some of the glass. Afterwards, My first instinct was to hysterically call Matt at work and when I got off the phone with him, I made a call to his pediatrician. Since it was a Saturday, I had to wait for the on-call doctor to call me back. When she finally called back, she told me that even though she didn't think that small amount of glass would do anything, for my peace of mind, I should go get him checked out. Long story short, they did an x-ray and they checked his mouth for cuts and stuck glass. Lucky for us, he was just fine. Thank god.

Jack digging into his Easter basket. I placed it in his room while he ate breakfast in the morning. After breakfast, I changed his diaper and when I was finished, I set him down on the floor and he immediately discovered it.

He was feeding his Bunny and it was adorable.

Lookin' snazzy in his Sunday Best.

Jack and daddy washing dishes. We sure know how to have a good time on Easter. PS... Holidays always illustrate how much we miss living near our families. They are truly the toughest time of year.

Time for an Easter Egg Hunt!

Every time he found an egg, he took it to his slide and ate the Jelly beans. It was hilarious.

He was so proud of himself every time he found an egg. He was also really excited to dig into the treasure that was inside.

This also happened on Easter. I ended up getting extremely sick midway through the day. Warning: Here comes a TMI moment. It was coming out both ends. IT. WAS. HORRIBLE. I had Matt make a run to the pharmacy, to see if there was anything I could take in an effort to feel better by 3:00, when Matt had to leave for work. This was the best he could do. Unfortunately, It did absolutely nothing and Matt ended up having to take the day off.

My appearance says it all.

He spent the longest time attempting to climb this tree. It was quite amusing to watch.

Sorting bears by colors. At first, he seemed like he didn't really get the concept, but after a while I realized he did in fact understand what to do, but it was way more fun to pour the bears from one container to the other instead.

Daddy and Jack having some guy time. Baking.

He was pretty proud of the fact that I let him drink his milk from a big boy cup.