Jack's Answers to All Questions

Jack's vocabulary has exploded here recently. He says too many new words every day to even remember what half of them are. It's like he's known what all these every day objects are called, but he's just now finding words for them. The other day he said "Mama, wall" as he was patting the wall. Tonight when getting out of the bathtub he pointed to the shower and said "Shower". He narrates all carrides and can't stand for me to talk on my cell while driving. He'll say "Mama, neighs" or "Mama, bock bock chicks" or "Mama, truck" or "Mama, bus". One day it was "Mama, bear". If I don't answer or if I'm talking on the phone, he'll continue to say "Mama" louder and louder until I do answer him. I'm starting to realize what my childhood was like for my parents. In college, I was nicknamed Jabberjaw after the shark cartoon because I talked so much and Jack is well on his way to being Jabberjaw Jr.

He has an answer for everything. It might not be the right answer, but he has an answer. His answer to all things color-related is "boo" (blue). I can ask him what color just about anything is and he'll say "boo". The other day I was talking on the cell with my grandfather and Jack was trying to get my attention. "Mama, neighs" he said and I asked if he saw horses. He said "Ses" (yes). I whispered to Granddaddy that he didn't really see horses because we were nowhere near any horses and Granddaddy said "I bet he did. Ask him what color they were.", so I asked Jack what color the horses were and he said "boo".

Every morning I ask Jack what he wants for breakfast and he always has the same answer - cheese. We're going to the zoo tomorrow with some friends and I asked him what he wants to see at the zoo. His answer? Cheese. I guess we should save our money on zoo passes this year and just take the kid to the grocery store.

Six is his favorite number apparantly because if you ask him how old he is he says six. If he sees any number, he says six. The only place I can think of that he got this from is Sesame Street. He watches it every day I'm home with him, but the day they were studying six he must have paid extra attention. All letters are "c". He sees a letter, points to it and says "c". I honestly have no idea where this came from.

The dinnertime act has almost become a ritual. It starts out good with him eating, but as he fills up he starts throwing food and stuffing it down in this little hole in his booster seat. Tonight I wasn't paying attention and barely caught him stuffing an apple slice down the hole. Before I could say or do anything, he smacked his own hand and said "No no, Jack, no no!". A few minutes later he did something else and I took his plate away and got him out of his seat. He immediately went to the timeout chair, climbed in, and started saying "No no, Jack" over and over.

Jack is on spring break this week, so I opted to stay home with him and do some work from here. The weather was beautiful today, so after his nap we headed to the park where Liz, Kate and Maddie met us. Try as I might, this is the only shot I could get of Jack and Kate together.

Seeing him at the playground made me realize just how much he's grown. The last time we were there in the fall, I had to help him get up the steps, slide down the slide, etc. and today he was doing it all by himself and it was so much fun to watch!

He was thrilled to have Kate join us. He pointed at her and said "Mama, Tate!".

Jack was peeking at Maddie and calling her. Imagine saying Maddie without the d's and that's what it sounds like. It's adorable! You don't really realize how much he's taking in until he blurts something out. Obviously with Maddie being a baby that's mostly napping when we're around, he hasn't had much interaction with her. The other day we were on Liz's blog watching a video of Maddie and Jack pointed at it and said "Maddie" without the d's of course.

The great thing about having Liz and Craig so close is they're just a stroll away. Tonight after dinner, the whole Jostes family came over. It was just like old times. We used to joke that Jack the dog was Max's and Marley's only friend and they were thrilled to see their old pal tonight. Jack invited Kate into his tent to watch a movie. How many tents do you know with a "tt" (tv)? Yesterday when it finally warmed up, I took Jack outside to play and all he wanted to do was sit in my car and watch his DVD player. I talked him into taking it inside and set it up in his tent. Poor Kate really wanted to watch The Jumgle Book, but Jack was just elated over having a friend over and kept trying to sit in her lap. When we got them out of the tent, Kate said that Jack was being a pest when she was trying to watch the movie. She cracks me up! She's like an adult in a child's body.

This is just a random picture from the other day when Jack helped me cook mac 'n cheese. It makes a mess, but he loves helping, so I try to let him when I can.