Joy in the Journey: Six Months Later...

I cannot believe it has been almost 6 months since my last post!!! Once I fell behind, I thought I would do a three month update (like I did last time), but then my computer died! It took us a few months to find another computer and then get all my files transferred over, so that is why it's been so long. I've had several emails asking how we were doing and what the latest was, so that has definitely encouraged me to write again. So, for that, I am grateful for your emails of encouragement and I apologize for not updating in so long.

First of all, let me start everything off with, we are doing GREAT! The last few months, Jack continues to make major strides. He is slowly starting to communicate better. Although he isn't using sentences, he is starting to put several words together to form one. He'll say things like, "Dada...Car...Work." He uses "ah na" as filler words. For example, when he sings Jesus Loves Me, he'll say, "Yes, ah na loves me." "Ah Bible ah na so." :) He can count pretty good, but gets a little mixed up after 14. He'll make up numbers like "oneteen." He knows his colors and starting to learn his shapes now. He still loves music and impresses us that he picks up on melodies really quickly. He identifies many musical instruments and can even recognize their sounds. Once he heard a trumpet solo on the radio and immediately says, "Trumpet" and pretends to play it. He will get his guitar sometimes and strum it and sing, Oh My Soul. This Mama knows he's going to be a singer or involved with music somehow. That or a chef. ;) He has always loved his play food, but recently he has become more interested in pretending to cook food. We have a stool beside our bar where I cook, and every meal I prepare, he is up on that stool watching me. If I use a knife, he will go run and grab his play knife and pretend to do what I'm doing. He helps me add things to mixtures. He always wants me to add "garlit" (garlic) to everything. If is sees a cooking show on tv, he will imitate what they are doing. One time I caught him zesting his orange over his bowl! ;) I love seeing his personality come through.

Jack is a commercial junkie! He doesn't watch much tv, but I leave the tv on most of the day and he loves to watch the commercials. He can tell you all kinds of slogans, like "Eat Fresh" and "Star, Star, Sink" (local commercial). He surprised his mommy and daddy one day when he finished his chicken sandwich and shouted "Ate da bones! Ate da bones!" (the latest KFC commercial). He knows the names of shows like "Chew" "Taste" "Voice" "Stars" (Dancing with the Stars), "Street Street" (Sesame Street) and of course, "Jep...dy" (Jeopardy) and "Forchan" (Wheel of Fortune). Some of those we don't even watch, he just recognizes them from the commercials. ;)

He has recently developed a new laugh Bryan and I have enjoyed hearing. It is a low, hardy laugh that we like to imitate. We have worked really hard at trying to get Jack to stop screaming his high pitched squeal when he gets excited. This new laugh has replaced much of the screaming, but it is hard to break the habit completely. ;)

Jack likes to imitate everything he sees us or others do. He wants to dance if he sees others dancing. He wants to put on his apron when Mama puts on hers to paint. If he sees golf on TV, he asks for his "glop cub." He is getting better with his sport recognition and skills, but he still seems to be more interested in his books, music, and cars.

The new year brought on some "fun" family sickness. We visited family one weekend, and out of the 16 of us there, 13 of us were infected with the dreaded stomach flu! :( Bry and I were both sick for days and we just waited for Jack to get it any day, but luckily he never did! It sure was a tough few days, but it could have been a lot worse if Jack had gotten it!

Jack actually hasn't been sick since Christmas! He has been so good about eating everything we give him too. We may have to bribe him with fruit every once and a while, but he definitely has been getting a well balanced diet. So much so, this Mama has been letting him have some sugar every now and then. :)

But even though we have become successful in the food area, we had an epic fail in the potty training area! I knew it was early to start, especially for a boy, but Bry and I had thought since Jack as been so successful with other areas and had expressed an interest in the potty, we thought we would give it a shot. We got the videos and books at the library. I read tons of articles and blog posts, and we came up with a plan. Jack did amazingly well...at first. He sat on the potty all morning, and peed in the potty four or five times. He never had an accident and got a M&M each time he went potty. After his nap though, we put him on the potty again, but this time he started crying once he went pee pee. This continued to escalate the rest of the day until he started holding it. He would start to scream each time he felt he had to go pee. We continued to praise him and even encouraged him to go on the floor (in case he was worried about making a mess.), but nothing helped. By the end of the night, we were exhausted and couldn't figure out what had happened. Bryan and I prayed that night for guidance to see if we should continue our potty training weekend, and quickly felt led to wait. Jack's language skills were still not advanced enough for us to explain to him what was going on and that everything was okay. I decided to wait until he turned three and just pay for another year of diapers.

So after our potty training experience, poor Jack developed a sudden fear of the bathtub that has continued until this day. We think he had developed this fear from associating it with being naked during his potty training, because as soon as we take his diaper off to get in the bathtub, he screams. So bath time has officially become something we all dread! Hopefully this will be a memory soon.

Other than that small issue though, Jack is a very easy going, mostly obedient, happy and content little boy! Jack had a few play dates and family visits during the winter, but mostly we stayed indoors, to continue to encourage bonding and also to stay warm! ;) Jack quickly became my buddy helping me around the house with various paintings and projects. We had a great winter but we were definitely ready for spring once it came! :)

Although Easter is technically in the spring, it was still a little chilly. But we still managed to have fun because Gigi, Pop, Aunt Coco, and Adam came to visit us in Charleston! Jack was so handsome in his bow tie and loved his cinnabunnies for breakfast, new Easter book, and of course, the Easter candy! But by far, Jack enjoyed his Easter egg hunts (one at the church and one at home) the most. That was right up his ally. He talked about his eggs for weeks! He really enjoyed playing with and getting attention from his new cousins to be, Keldon and Clayton. He also talked about them for weeks after. :) It was a great first Easter with Jack!

Other things Jack does or says now...

-He asks, "dat?" (what's that?) all the time.

-He still lines all his cars or toys up. He will organize them by color, shape or size.

-He has recently become camera shy or should I say, he simply HATES the camera now and refuses to look at it! :P

-He will put a "t" at the end of words that end with the "n" sound. Example, "ont" (one) or "phont" (phone).

-When we put him down for his nap/bedtime, he'll say, "night night, sus you (love you), keyful (careful)." Careful is what we usually say to daddy when he leaves for work, so he just thought it was another goodbye word. ;)

-He likes to pretend to leave and will say, "Oh, c-ya. Bye. C-ya."

-He will make a wink face and say, "wink...wink...wink"

-He will bump his head and say, "ouch!" and then laugh. In fact, he just laughs at the word "ouch" period.

-Other words he will say, "isome" (awesome) "sheesh" "hold jew" (hold you) "nacks" (snacks) "opes" (oops) "ellow" (yellow) "greem" (green) "prepump" (purple) "Js" (PJs) "Quackquers" (Crackers) "heaby" (heavy).

-He has hid in the closet and said, "Gak, r u?" Then I will say, "Jack, where are you?" and then he just giggles loudly behind the door.

-He also says, "see it?" a lot. One time he tooted and said, "Toot. See it?"

-One cute thing he did recently was put his Mater truck and McQueen car inside his even larger police car and pushed them around (as if they need a car to get anywhere.) :)

-He will say "cheers" as we click our cups together. But he will also use it with his food too. We can usually get him to try a vegetable by using our "cheers" technique.

-He is starting to call Mama and Dada's cars, "Honda" All of the sudden, he has an interest in car brands and likes to ask "dat?" when we go by a car.

Here are some of Jack's photos from this past winter....