Backsliding In Communication

I think Jack is starting to backslide with his communication abilities, SOMETIMES. The kid is amazing and creative with the ideas he has for conveying a message. For example, Cara tells me he's running around the living room playing with a ball. She hears a noise, one of those noises that goes along with something bad. Before she could check what happened, Jack comes around the corner saying "Ooopity, flower"! It was obvious that his ball knocked over the vase with the flowers Leesha got for Cara. That's amazing.

However, I think he's collecting so many words in such a short period of time that he's simply overwhelmed by them and can't keep them strait. He used to point at the staircase and say something like "David, Gnome!" which was his translation for David the Gnome which is an animated television show I was showing him for a while. Or he'd say "Dolphins!" meaning the stain-glass mobile that hangs down by the bottom of the stairs. Jack and I often count all three of them when we get down there.

But lately when he tries to say something it is often babbling noise.

Just an interesting observation. He's sleeping at the moment of writing this blog entry, no doubt his little mind is sorting all the new words and images his eyes and ears took in today.

Little People need to eat too

Jack is playing with his Little People toys. He's got one of his snowmen in the high chair. He just told me; "'No-man nummies." (translated - the snowman is eating) Then he started saying; "'No-man wader." I asked if he wanted to give the snowman some water. He said; "Yeth." So, I pulled one of "his" cups out of "his" drawer in the kitchen and gave it to him. He went over and gave the snowman wader. Another phrase I heard during this; "Good boy. Listener."

Leesha gave me a pink and a red carnation for Valentines day. They were sitting on the table in their vase. Jack was playing with a ball. I heard something in the dining room and Jack came in saying; "Uh oh (or was it "upadee"?) f'ower."

We also hear:
"Big guck" = big truck
"Mail guck"
"'Cool bus" = school bus
"Oh my guinness" = (to get the full effect of that one, put a period between each word)

Engaging Your Eyes

A remarkable thing about Jack, lately, with his ever-expanding vocabulary is this demand for your attention. I don't mean that in the way its often used with children where he misbehaves so you yell at him or anything like that. What I mean is if he is on your lap, if you're holding him, or he's very near you Jack will lock onto your eyes and repeat his point until you look. He has a pull where if you detect him looking at your eyes, you HAVE to return the look. Its only then, when he has your eyes, that he will continue with whatever he's saying. It's slightly intimidating. How did he develop this ability? Somehow he's mastered this engagement where he demands that kind of response. It has to be instinctual, because where else did he pick that up?

Oh no!

Leesha got her first pair of glasses on Thursday. She's very proud of them and keeps us posted on what she's thinking or realizing about them. Kinda cute.

Jack now tests his bathwater like I do - with my wrist.

Jack is now able to climb out of his crib. What do we do now? We're planning to keep him in the pack-n-play (1/2 inch higher side, and shorter distance to fall) until we get an idea of what "flavor" "Toto" is. We'll go from there. I suppose our choices are; toddler bed, mattress on the floor, covering over the crib or continuing with the pack-n-play. A dilema needless to say.

This afternoon, I was drying my hair, then putting it up in rollers. Jack likes curlers, so he was pulling them out of the bag and trying to hand them to me when he discovered that they stuck to the fleece I was wearing. I had several on my shirt as I worked.

Getting Jack out of bed the other morning, I asked him if he wanted to go see Grandma "Darling" (how my nephew Aaron said "Darlene"). He said; "David Bowie". I replied; "I'm not sure if he's free today."

"Goat-chee tore" = grocery store

counting ala Jack

One, two, four, sik, eight, nine

Snaggle and Cousins

Phrase for the last couple of days; "Kake you ... (Mommy, Daddy)" How sweet. We don't even know what we do most of the time. Perhaps he's just realizing how much we do for him that we don't take notice of anymore.

I went to the chiropractor this morning, then planned to go to the library on the way home. I suggested we try to find the "Baby Belugah" CD while there. Jack was so thoroughly disappointed when the library was closed and I had to put him back in his carseat. Poor little guy.

Later that day, he said something to Jeffry about "dawa" (Kiswahili for medicine, what we call his tylenol), but we just let it go. Then he refused to take a nap - bounced around and chattered in his crib for well over an hour. When we got him up, his cheeks were bright red. Since that's not too unusual for him, and he didn't seem to have a fever, we didn't think anything of it. He also had a diaper rash. As we were getting him ready for bed by brushing his teeth, we noticed what I'll call a "wonky" tooth coming in. I thought he'd cut everything through his first year molars, but he still had a space for one of his incisors. That's where the new one is coming in, and it doesn't look like an incisor. We'll see what grows out.

He's working on sounding out butterfly
buttin = button
woof = wolf
noo-doze = noodles
Ca-pean = Caspian
Ceelyn = Caelyn
Awen = Aaron
Nafin = Nathan
Thimon = Simon
Miff = Smith

2008 Newsletter

2008 Newsletter

Jeffry, Cara, Leesha and Jack
473 Granada Ave. N.
Oakdale, MN 55128
651-484-0592

jeffrywith1e@gmail.com, carawillis@gmail.com, leeshamoreno@gmail.com

Check out our online photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/carawillis
and blog at: http://williseast.blogspot.com/

January

• Sledding with some members of our Small Group on New Year's Day
• Jeffry got a new desktop computer
  
• Celebrated David's birthday
• Leesha turned 10 with more celebrations than ever before, including a trip to Underwater World
• Got an elliptical
• At 6 months, Jack got his first haircut, then he became mobile!

February

• Simon's dedication
• Cara got her first laptop
• Leesha's best friend changed schools : >(
• Time with our friends the Browns and their kids
• Leesha had her first piano lesson, and got a half day off of school due to the water main breaking
• Modifications to the kitchen so Cara has an "office"
• Jeffry and Cara got to go out for a Valentine's Day date
• Jeffry's work party at a bowling alley
• arrivals of Tate to the family, and Aria to our friends
• Cara took Leesha shopping for a new outfit

March

• Jeffry fixed the door to our garage
• Leesha had her friend Ashley over
• Cara chaperoned Leesha's class' overnight to the MN Zoo during which Jeffry got sick :>(
• Watched the first two Indiana Jones movies as a family
  
• Visit from Steve and Holly
• Baby shower for Tate

April

• Took Leesha and a friend to the Broadway show of High School Musical
• Finished up the Indiana Jones trilogy

• Repaired Cara's wedding ring
• Time biking as a family

May

• Jeffry saw Iron Man with a friend
• Celebrated Mother's Day at Red Lobster
• Went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Jeffry and Cara went to see comedian Eddie Izzard
• Enjoyed celebrating Memorial Day with friends

June

• Leesha's school picnic
• Garage sale
• Leesha got another fish and went to Feed My Starving Children
• Jack went from crawling to walking
• Jeffry and Cara celebrated their 3rd anniversary with a date and new digital camera
• Saw Hulk
• Outings to Como Zoo, Grand Avenue and the Swedish American Institute
• Cara worked in lawn care
• Arrival of Josiah to friends

July

• Enjoyed an evening in a tree house with our Small Group
• Celebrated the 4th of July with friends and family
• Celebrated our nephew Simon's first birthday during a visit from Steve and Holly
• Leesha went to see Kit Kitterege, and attained a height of 5 feet, 1 inch (growing 6.5 inches in the two years since we moved)
• Jeffry and Greg got o go see Ween in concert
• Cara turned 33
• Jack turned 1, celebrating with some in-State friends and family

August

• Trip to St. Louis, taking in sights like Magic House and the Zoo as well as lots of time with Great Grandparents
• Celebrated a wedding, another 1st birthday and becoming Godparents
• Jeffry and Leesha went to see Journey to the Center of the Earth
• Cara had an accident :>(
• Toured Grandma Darlene's childhood house in Minneapolis
• Leesha started 5th grade and joined volleyball, scoring on her first rotation in as server
• Jeffry started his 3rd year at Monarch, and turned 34 on the same day
• Jack started saying "Mommy" and "Daddy"
• Cara demolished the half wall by our front door

October

• Leesha got a haircut and her volleyball team took 1st place in their tournament
• Honda rolled to 100K miles
• Painted our basement
• Cara attended the ACSI teacher's conference and worked on the Auction at Leesha's school
• Jack was dressed up as the Jack of Hearts for Halloween

November

• NHCA Auction
• Leesha's dad moved to a house so she has her own room now
• Learned that friends in our Small Group are expecting
• Leesha got to go to High School Musical 3
• Jeffry got a Eee webbook
• Jeffry and Cara went to see Quantum of Solace
• Darlene had a kidney stone that took more to deliver than an 8lb. baby
• Celebrated Thanksgiving with Cara's parents
• Cara and Leesha finished reading Prince Caspian
• Jack got his first pair of "schews" and fell asleep holding one

December

• Leesha got to attend Bethel's Festival of Christmas and The Best Christmas Pagent Ever
• Time with family to celebrate Christmas
• Surprised Laura Beth from our Small Group by taking her out for her birthday instead of studying Acts
• Cara had an ultrasound showing that "Toto" looks nice and healthy, shared our impending arrival with friends and family
• Jeffry got a haircut
• Cara got to see her friend Anu
• Jack had an afternoon of vomiting, so we took him to Children's Hospital for the night, then others in the house proceeded to get ill with various illnesses

Phrase for Thursday afternoon: "Naughty boy" - no idea where he got that idea because he really isn't naughty at all.

Leesha likes to lead Jack in singing "Jesus Loves Me". He's actually not half bad. I'll see if I can get a video of it for Posterities Sake.

Moments ago, Jeffry was on Jack duty and started heading downstairs. I said; "Don't take too long, because we need to get him to bed." Jeffry said we could get Jack off to bed at that point and made to stay upstairs. Jack realized he wasn't going "dow tares" and started to fuss, so Jeffry relented. As they disappeared down the stairs, Jack said; "Kake you Daddy."

We took Jack to the nursery this morning and must not have adjusted him to the idea well enough, because he cried for the first time we can remember. Poor little fellow.

Keeping up with his vocabulary is becoming quite the task ...
Tiger is actually "gi-ger"
"ha gog" = hot dog
watch
"ca-lok" = clock (sounds a lot like "truck")
Nairobi
Moi - the former president of Kenya
Kenya

I realized earlier this evening that Jeffry set up this blog, yet I'm the one blogging. Hmmmm.

Jack has finally learned the word "frog"! Unfortunately, it's coming out as "fog" or another word I shouldn't type ....

The other day, I made him apologize to Leesha for hurting her. Yesterday, the sinus pain got the best of me for a moment and I cried. Jack's response; "Sorry Leesha."

Later, we were at the clinic for an appointment and went in to the bathroom. There was a changing station with the brand name Koala Bear Care. Jack saw it and said; "Koala." And pointed out that the Koala was wearing a "diaper".

He has a Baby Belugah book over at Mom and Dads, so the other day, we found the song on YouTube. Now he wants it sung all the time and is even trying to sing it himself.

Leesha's school has started their Read-A-Thon. Anyone want to sponsor her?

Tonight, Leesha was upset about having to take a bag of garbage out that she'd forgotten. I mentioned that if she had to take that out, she could also take the small bag of plastic bags out to the garage for recycling. She balked about the whole deal, but did it anyway. When she came back inside, she slammed the door shut. I don't know if it didn't close all the way, or what, but she felt it necessary to hit it a second time and broke the glass. I was right nearby at my computer and burst out laughing. Probably less than two hours later I was back at home with a new door. Now we'll have to see if it fits so our house won't be entirely unsecure tomorrow.

Jack just burped and said; "'cue me".

Other Vocab:
"diff'n" = different
"ca-wittews" = critters (stuffed animals)
"'s 'a' noise?" = what's that noise?
Good morning
skylight
kitty cat
"punny boy" = funny boy
"Hey-so" = Hazel, our friend's dog
cute
fish
muckers = family word for poop
"wight now" = right now
"e-fin" = elephant

Snippets from the depths of the infirm

Jack went and pulled a sweater out of his drawer. I asked him if he wanted to put it on. Once he was wearing it, he went to the side door, then came back to me and said; "Go 'thide" (go outside). I said; "Do you want to go outside?" He said; "Yeth" (his "s's" have a slight lisp to them), so I asked; "Why?" He replied "Rainin'."

After throwing his "Dizzy button" (Staple's Easy Button) at Leesha's head, I told him he needed to go say he was sorry to her. He went to her and said; "Sawwy Leesha." Not that he understood it, but it was cute anyway.

As of today (February 6th) we may have entered the "Age of NO".

Other recent sayings of Jack that are worth mentioning;
"Watch tv?"
"Get you" or "Got you"
"Daddy's shoes on"


Vocab:
"Bulture" = vulture
socks
"t'ash can"
"ga-wuck" = truck
tissue - although yesterday I thought he was calling them "Bless you's"
peanut

This -n- that

Jack has his toys spread out on the bench by the door and he's taking a few steps back from them then saying, "Weady, go" and stepping back towards them.

His "chore" is to put stuff in the trash can. He can even take care of putting some things in the recycling.

This afternoon, I went in to the clinic to make sure "Toto" still had a heartbeat since the little being had been rather motionless (to my nerves, at least) for the last 24 hours. While there, my blood pressure was taken. It took a bit of coaxing, but I did get Jack to say; "blood pressure".

More Vocab .....
"mo" = more
peas
"fr-ge" = fridge
"'weepin'" = sweeping
"di-per" = diaper
"tash" = trash
"chirch" = church
"Gover" = Grover
leg
"Mom-ba-tha" = Mombasa (a town in Kenya)
ba-boon = baboon
wipe
"bluga" = belugah
light
beep
"Dinosaur's Binkit" and "Goodnight Gorilla" - titles of some of his books