From Wit’s End

I poured all the bags and drawers of my legos, sorted meticulously by color and shape years ago and left in the closet, all into one big plastic box for Jack. It will help spark some creativity probably, but alas for the entropy! Rachel said, “Don’t worry, he’ll probably want to organize them when he’s seven or eight.” Ouch! Five or six years of utter Lego disorganization. The things I do for my son…

…or a “ca-pitter”, as he calls it.

We went to the local Chinese buffet with Rachel’s sister Jennifer and visiting sister Emily and cousin Taylor. They wanted me to take picture of the messy post-ice-cream toddlers, so I did.

(Taken with Grandpa’s cellphone.)

…slowly but surely. It seems like everytime Jack wakes up from being asleep, he’s a little more reconciled to the idea of having a little sister around. The first morning at home was the most harrowing: he threw such a crazy tantrum that he fell into his toy cradle in his room, which is how he got that bruise on the side of his face. But he’s getting better: he likes to give Nora kisses, and he’ll get one of the baby shower gift bags from Nora’s room and bring it over to “give Nora a present.”

Another funny thing that has happened is that all of a sudden he plays by himself a LOT more easily. Something about a baby coming home has sparked his imagination in all kinds of ways, apparently. It’s kind of cool.

Click on the links to see the short videos that my Mom sent us from her phone (on Jack’s behalf, of course):

“Happy Birthday, Baby Nora!”

“I love you, Mommy!”

[I'm pretty sure that there's a way to embed the videos on this page directly, but I will have to read up on that before I can do it.]

Jack’s Mama set up a chore chart for him today. Apparently, Rachel got him to do three tasks and gave him stickers for each one. He seemed to get the idea, and wanted to do the fourth task, too. Rachel told him that he had to wait to brush his teeth until he had his bath in the evening, and she thought that was that. A few minutes later, Jack ran down the hall with a little bit of toothpaste at the corners of his mouth, asking for another sticker. Rachel checked in the bathroom, and sure enough, there was blue foam on Jack’s toothbrush. This is quite a contrast from before, where Jack had to be practically put in a headlock at bathtime when it was time to brush his teeth.

Just like with Jack’s birth, time sure seems to be slowing down right before Nora’s upcoming delivery.

Added to the familial anticipation is the fact that my search for a new job can only be peripheral and can’t really begin in earnest until after Nora is born. That makes the time pass even slower, I think.

The one mitigating factor is Jack, believe it or not. He is a definite time accelerator of some kind in the hours when I am home. But even his effect works uphill before the looming event horizon of Baby Nora’s Birthday.

It’s called “the Bandit Song”:

Bandit climbed the tree
Bandit swam up the tree
Washed the buses
Washed the cars

(The rest is incomprehensible)

Taken at a friend’s house during a party. Jack made his way into the office/school room, and found this most aptly-named board game.

Every morning, Jack has peanut butter toast (“toast an’ bubber”) for breakfast. I spread peanut butter on the toast, then cut it in half and fold it over into a sandwich. Then I put it in front of him and ask him what shapes he wants it cut into. Until today, he has asked for squares, triangles, or rectangles, and usually there’s also a “moon” shape from the rounded top of the bread. Today, though, he asked for something different, and I did my best:

Jack thumped down the hall at about one in the morning last night, which might have been annoying, but it was made smile-worthy by the following cuteness: for some reason he was carrying his small bead maze down the hall with him!

When he invited me to play Legos with him up at the farm this weekend, this is what he wanted me to build:

Here’s what this picture sounds like

Jack likes to sit down at the computer and “bype” different letters out. Today he freaked us out a little bit by typing “TAC” and saying “cat!” Whoa.

While Rachel and I were out watching a movie this evening, Jack apparently made his first pun — at the age of two and a quarter, no less:

My folks were watching him this evening, and they were playing in the backyard with Jack’s favorite ball. Everytime it was kicked or thrown, Jack would squeal delightedly. My mom told him that he was screaming, and that of course that was okay to do outside. After some more ball-playing, Jack would squeal and then yell, “Ah! SCREAM!” everytime the ball was kicked.

Then Grandpa kicked the ball and Jack squealed and yelled, “Ah! Scream!” and then he rolled his eyes and grinned real wide like Groucho Marx and said, “…AND CAKE!”

Jack definitely has a musical talent. If a melody is repeated to him over the course of about a week, he’ll pick it up and hum it himself. If he likes the melody in particular, he will make it his “happy song”: he’ll hum it at the fastest tempo he can when he is in a good mood.

This month, his newest happy song is “Come, Thou Fount of every Blessing“. Next month, we might see if he likes “Immortal, Invisible, God Only-Wise“.

I didn’t think it would start happening this soon. In the middle of the night last night, I feel something bump me on my other side while I’m in bed. I turned over and was boggled to see Jack standing there next to our bed.

We put a “big boy” twin bed right up next to one end of Jack’s crib a few weeks ago, intending to get him used to it slowly by putting him on it for his daytime naps and such. We had seen him use it to tumble in to and out of his crib right before his bedtime, but this was the first time that he had figured out that he could get out of his crib and come see us in the middle of the night.

Well, we put him between us for a little while, and none of us slept very well, and then Rachel went to be with him in his room. Having a twin bed in his room is good for staying with him at night, too.

We were almost home from Beka’s wedding, and Jack was getting restless in his car seat. So Rachel and I started talking to him and asking his regular questions: “What does a dog say?” “What does a lion say?” etc.

Somewhere along the line, I heard him say “Weee – gulll”. “Jack said ‘Wiggle’!” I told Rachel. We reinforced it all the way home, and he seemed quite pleased with himself, saying it over and over again: “Wiggle, wiggle, waigle, waygle, wig-giggle, wig-gaggle…”

Ever since Jack was born, he did things in his sleep before he ever could do them when he was awake. He smiled and laughed in his sleep before he did these things consciously. He first did the “fan” sign while cuddling in his Mama’s arms after his milk and before he went to bed.

And tonight, as his Mama was carrying him off to bed, he said his name for the first time. Rachel said, “Jack-Jack,” and then he said “Zhaa-Zhaa” (that’s as close as I can spell it anyway). Overhearing this, I had to try it too, and he said it a few more times in both of our hearing. And then he clapped his hands. He seems to have figured out how to say his own name — at least in the semi-delirium of pre-sleep, anyway.

…or as he calls them, “FSSSHHHH!”. For more pictures, go here.

We were sitting around our kitchen/den watches the pictures float by on the computer screen after dinner. A picture of Kat-Dog came up on the screen, and Jack did his staccato grunt and slapped his thigh indicating that he is seeing (or hearing) a dog (or any other animal really). Then a picture of Jack and Rachel in the boat from the past weekend came up (Similar to this one, but more windy.) When the picture came up, Jack said “Ba-ba”. Rachel and I both said, “Yeah, Mama!” Jack responded by correcting himself, and said, “Ma Ma! Ma Ma Ma!” Hooray, Jack! Now all he has to do is figure out who I am….

A little while after dinner, Jack wanted a graham cracker. I gave him one, and he happily walked off, munching on it. A few minutes later, he came by again. He started pointing up at the cabinet and saying, “MMMMM”. I asked if he wanted more and used the sign for more. He looked down at his hands and very carefully touched his two pointer fingers together. “Yay! that’s right! More!” I said, and I gave him another graham cracker. He actually came back for “more” graham crackers three or four more times this evening, so I think he’s got the right idea on this sign, finally.

Sometime this month, Jack came up with his second word. It’s what he has for breakfast every morning after a sippy-cup of milk: “Banana”. Except he says it “Ba-la-la”, sticking out his tongue with every “L”. And sometimes he doesn’t know or care when he has to stop the word, so it usually comes out as something like “Ba-la-la-la-la-la…”

“Daddy got some new sandals, and he gave me the box to play in.”

… or “See my mess and fear me!”