Skat Jack

I swear, I left him alone with the karaoke machine for just a MINUTE, and this is what I found him doing:

Again, genius.

My son is a freaking genius.

A musical genius.

Not a good sign.

They always say that the therapists and their families are the most messed up ones…

Day Care

Jack has mixed feelings about daycare, it seems. Some days he can’t seem to get there soon enough and cries when it’s time to leave. Other days, I leave him totally shattered and broken-hearted as I walk out the door to leave to for work. He attends with three other kids: Conner, Cameron and Dylan. Dylan and Jack are just a day apart in age which makes them very good playmates. The best part of the day: they’re mutual scream/squeal when Jack and I arrive each morning. “Eeeeeeh!” “Eeeeeeh!” “Eeeeeeeeh!”

I love that Cameron and Dylan (siblings and the children of the daycare provider, Crisy) both want to sit in my lap when I arrive to pick up or drop off Jack. Jack is real uneasy with this… he usually tolerates this sharing-of-mommy for about 10 seconds and then he starts to push the other kid off my lap. Conner is the lowest on the totem pole, being that he’s the youngest and just recently started walking. He’s already learned how to be sneaky and work around the relative strength and agility of his older playmates. This morning, he watched Jack playing with a truck for a good minute or so, waiting for his opportunity to snatch it away. It came a second later when Jack set it down to gain his balance up the stairs. Conner was gone with it in the other direction and Jack was left bewildered on the steps.

Here’s the crew:

Jack and Conner

(Pacifier buddies)

Dylan, Jack and Conner

Dylan, Cameron and Jack

Cameron

J

Phone Jack

Jack is in love with the phone. He just love love loves the phone. He has a total of FIVE toy cell phones, an old cell phone of mine that I charge nightly for him, and an old cordless phone that I also keep well charged for his talking pleasure. Sometimes, when he can’t find a phone, he’ll use anything he can find: a pen, a remote control, a lego. Still, he would rather have any phone that I am on. It’s as if the phone’s market value goes up by virtue of the fact that I’m using it.

This is not a new obsession. His love affair with phones goes way back. When he was still an infant, the phone was a surefire way to distract him out of a fussy mood. Jack’s crying? Hand him a phone and- voila! Of course, my cell phones have taken a beating because of it. They’ve been dropped and thrown and drooled on so much that I’ve had to replace four of them since his arrival less than two years ago. (This, by the way, was a surprise expense to me. It should be in What to Expect When You’re Expecting under Things to Save Money For: diapers, car seat, cell phones…)

Now watching Jack “talk” on the phone is one of my very favorite things in the world. I love it because he is simply mimicking what he sees me do and it is so DEAD ON. He walks around the house with the phone pressed to his ear, head cocked to his shoulder, squeezing the phone in place. He’ll chat for a moment and then pause, only to follow it up with a huge burst of laughter. It’s all so, so funny and so adorable that I can’t stop videoing it every time I see it. The result is a TON of footage of my Phone Jack. Here’s a few samples:

Bubbles

Bob-oh. This is what Jack calls “bubbles.” And these are just some really sweet pictures of Jack and his Aunt Melissa playing with Bob-ohs.

Grandma and Grandpa

Jack and I are both equally lucky to have my parents in our lives who love us even though we’re messy, often forget to do what we’re told, and require a lot of attention. But mostly I love there is such mutual delight and joy shared between Jack and his grandparents. As a kid who wasn’t raised around her grandparents, I didn’t get to enjoy them in the same way that Jack does and will. Whenever the idea of moving away from San Diego crosses my mind it is immediately shooed away by the reality that I cannot separate him from his beloved Amma and Gampa. Nor do I want to, given that they provide free and frequent childcare and meals.

We love you Grandma and Grandpa!

A gurly-man…

…or gay, or a cross dresser. Or all three!

This video captures the Sex in the City phenomenon… that is, this show is the only TV show that Jack will watch. It’s hysterical. Dora, Teletubbies and Scooby hold zero interest for Jack. But Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda he loveth.

Jack’s First Time Out

Well, it’s begun. Jack now has a time out chair that sits in the hallway ready for his little buns for those moments in which he chooses not to listen to his Berber. I had to take a picture to commemorate this awesome occasion: his first time out.

Another reason Jack will need therapy. And maybe me, too.

Today Jack was playing with my underwear.  Not only did I just let him continue to play with them (instead of directing him to another toy -or, I mean, an actual toy and not a piece of his mother’s lingerie) , I took a picture of it because I thought it was funny.  Please don’t call CPS on me.