on the road, again

we hit the road for ohio on saturday and came back late sunday night. it was quite a trip ...



we'll have a full update after the holiday monday ...

happy columbus day.

worst night ever

we are headed off to god's country ... or at least buckeye country.



but our best-laid plans of an early departure and arrival to grandma-great's in time for lunch were derailed by what mommy and daddy agree was the worst night with jack in a year, if not ever.



poor jack first cried out at 1030pm and never really settled back down for the night. finally, at 3am we brought him into our bed and got 2.5 more hours of fitful sleep. it's like having the cats sleeping with you -- hogging the room and forcing you into various contorted positions around him. but, unlike the cats you can't just shove jack off the bed when you've had enough.



on the upside, he's already asleep, 20 minutes in to our 6 hour drive. let's hope he stays that way!

watching tv

jack doesn't watch too much tv yet. he's great at turning it on. this morning he actually used the remote to switch on the tv and then turn the channel to pbs -- curious george was on. but really, that was a fluke.

although there is a recommendation of no television for children under the age of 2, it just doesn't seem realistic in our life or in the lives of many families. and after all, to paraphrase, tv has been very, very good to me.

so, once in a while jack will get to watch a show, or part of a show. sometimes he's interested (for a while), sometimes he's not. sadly, he seemed to like a little bit of the barney mommy let him watch last sunday at 6 am. that purple dinosaur will not be allowed to become a favorite ... mommy's saccharine content is maxed out in the first two minutes. but here's one thing that jack's father has decided is "approved television for jack"



now we just have to wait for plaza sésamo to come out with the spanish-language version!

bubbly jack

no big story today. just cute pix (courtesy of nana). enjoy. i do.

mas y mas

since we reported on jack's words last week, he has gained a new one:

"more"

mooorrre???

>>insert bad cockney accent and oliver twist impressions here<<

we've been using it with him for months, particularly when it comes to food, and doing the asl sign for it. he adapted the sign (instead of fingers of both hands pointing toward each other, he just points at his open palm) but he hadn't figured out how to say it.

until this weekend.

and when he said it and mommy and daddy excitedly ran to get him more food, he realized, "hey, this is a pretty cool word." so he's kept using it.

i thought i had heard him previously say mas -- the spanish word for more. but he hadn't said it in a long time, so i chalked it up to a fluke or an overeager mommy.

but then, something pretty remarkable occurred monday morning. he asked for "more." mommy went to the kitchen to fetch a new bunch of grapes while roxana stayed with him at his high chair. while mommy was out of view, he started asking for "mas" from roxana. he continued switching off between the spanish with her and the english with mommy.

and he kept making his hand sign.

wow.

on other language fronts, his spanish counting continues to improve and he reliably responds "dos" when prompted with "uno."

¡que bueno!

whose shoes?

in addition to loving his new shoes (as opposed to nu shooz, which is only marginally tolerable, and then only if you have a serious affinity for bad '80s music) ... jack is very concerned, in general, about people's shoes.

whose shoes are these?

jack often likes to pick up shoes in mommy & daddy's room and then attempt to place them on your feet. he often does this while you're lying in bed, trying to ignore him, praying the other parent will just take him outside for a while ...

he's pretty successful with flip flops ... lace-up shoes are another story ...

just this morning, he found the shoes that mommy took off and left near the couch last night, and very helpfully brought them to mommy in the kitchen and forced her to wear them while she made breakfast. it was a sight to behold -- tan-trimmed black pumps and penguin pajamas. a true fashion statement.

he also likes to put mommy and daddy's shoes on his own feet. it is pretty comical to see him clomping around in daddy's wingtips or mommy's slingbacks! and his foot is still small enough (size 5XW we just found out) that he sometimes gets them on backward ... with the long part of the shoe coming out behind him. he doesn't stay upright in this arrangement for very long, but while he does it's hilarious!

and mommy thought we'd avoid the shoe obsession with a boy!

weekend update

a weekend so busy that it required a lot of planning. as daddy says, "when you receive an email with the weekend schedule broken down hour-by-hour, you know you're in trouble." but we had a lot to get to this weekend!

we headed back to the doctor on saturday to have jack's tuberculosis test read. the verdict: jack does not have tb. huzzah. neither a typhoid mary nor a tb terry! jack also got his flu shot. he recognized the alcohol prep pad and starting crying as soon as the nurse started rubbing his arm with it. but our tough guy was feeling good enough before we left that he flirted shamelessly with the receptionists in the front.

many errands later, and we headed out to buy jack his first *real* pair of shoes. maybe a little on the late side, considering he's been walking for 5 months ... but he was fine for the summer in his other shoes. and now with the colder weather coming, it was time for stride rites!

jack's nana came along to serve as the official photographer:

after a very successful shoe purchase, we headed to a wonderful old-time amusement park to ride the historic carousel for the last time of the season. jack had fun, and we ran into our friend alex from playgroup, people from our hospital birthing class, mommy's colleague who was moments from being married at the park, and a scary black fox (well, a man in a black fox costume, which jack's biologist aunt points out is not a real mammal and so jack is a genius to be wary of such a biological anomaly).

sunday provided more opportunities for fun -- the "beach friends" came over for a happy hour and jack enjoyed showing off his new shoes to the group by running all over the playground!

a busy weekend, but lots of fun. we'll rest up this week before next weekend's excursion to buckeye country!