Saturday, November 08, 2014

Chat with Jack ⎮ October, 2014


Jack turns three on Tuesday. The years are flying by. I will continue to write about life with Jack but it probably won't be on a monthly basis.



Over the last month, Jack has been really fixated on being a big kid. He constantly talks about big kids and being a big kid. 
I'm a big kid... I'm a Patrick. (Patrick is one of the older boys in our small group from church).
I'm a grown up now.
 

I'm a grown up like my teachers.
 

When I'm a grown up, I'm going to be Spider-Man.
 

I'm big enough to drive the car by myself now.
 

You can stay upstairs, mommy, and we guys will go down and paint by ourselves. I'm a big kid so I can paint without mommy.
 

We are also having interesting conversations about the baby. I don't know that he really understands what is coming, but he likes to talk about the baby a lot.
There is a baby in mommy's tummy and it's coming out today.
Us: Where's the baby?
Jack: At the grocery store. We're going to get it tomorrow.
Us: The baby is in mommy's tummy.
Jack: In here? (looking down my shirt) No, the baby is in my tummy.
Us: The baby is in your tummy?
Jack: No, tools are in my tummy.


The baby is still in there? Pointing to my stomach. He's going to sleep with you?
Jack also likes to lay on my stomach and tell me that he is squishing the baby.


Since potty training, we have random conversations about going potty. Like the following:

Water goes through my body and I poop it out.
 
Jack: Why does Sophie go outside? Me: Because she needs to go potty.
Jack: She needs to go potty because doesn't have a diaper on?
Me: Something like that.

Here is an example of imaginative play with Jack:
He likes to climbs a ladder at the playground and then will ask me to hand him various tools (hammer, wrench, ect.). I pretend to hand him a tool, then he will pretend to fix something and then pretend to hand the tool back to me.

Another thing he likes to do is set up ramps to ride his four wheeler or bike on:  
Can you please set the ramps up so I can ride my bike on them, daddy?

Dress up currently involves bad guys, scary dragons and Spiderman or Transformers...
Jack wants to dress up like the bad guys, with a bad guys cape and sword (he picked this up from Mickey Mouse and the 3 Musketeers).
 
He is currently obsessed with Spider-Man and Transformers. We have introduced him to the 1980s cartoons via Netflix and he can't get enough.


He is also very interested in bad guys and scary monsters -- this is typically the type of role he wants to play.

Or pirates: When I grow up like a pirate, I can row a ship.

 

Leading up to Halloween, this was our ongoing conversation:
Me: What do you want to be for Halloween? 
Jack: A robot.
Another time...

Me: What do you want to be for Halloween? 
Jack: A scary monster.
A third time...

Jack: A scary monster-robot.
And finally...

Jack: A scary monster-robot-witch.
In the end he was a Transformer (that's kind of a robot, right?).


Here are some other memorable conversations we have had with our boy...
One day Jack explained to me how Camelbak water bottles worked: The water comes up the pipe and into your mouth?

It's a hot dog on a stick! He was so excited about his first corn dog.
Bye bye wink holders. He said this while pulling weeds. I have no idea where this phrase came from.
 
Jack: Do you feel better mommy?
Me: No.
Jack: Will you feel better soon? Do you want to eat? Food will make you feel better.
Me: Sweet boy.
Jack: Daddy, can we watched a video?
Daniel: Yes buddy, what do you want to watch?
Jack: The human powered flying machine. (YouTube video)
Me: Hey Jack, I haven't got my hug from you today...
Jack: I've already give you THREE hugs today.
When asked to do something he doesn't want to do, he says, "No, not yet."
Me: Whose stinky?
Jack: Daddy is stinky... on his feet.
If you ask him what he wants to eat for dinner if we are going out, the answer is always "burritos!"

As part of our bedtime routine, we always read two books to him (Daniel reads one and I read one). Now Jack picks out his two books, but grabs an extra one for Jack to read. There are a couple of books he has memorized and he will go through it with us at bedtime.


In the mornings, Jack now comes down fully clothed. This means he removes his footed pajamas and diaper and then dresses himself for the day. I'm not gonna lie, there are days that underwear, shirts or pants are on backwards or shoes are on the wrong feet. I always inform him if something is wrong, but I never make him change unless he wants to. I'm just glad he does these things for himself.



In terms of potty training, Jack is mostly there. We have some some days where he still gets distracted with playing and will have accidents. But being out of diapers is totally worth the occasional accident. It helps when I talk to other moms on the playground who are experiencing similar things with their kids.



Naps have been another interesting thing lately. If I let him nap he will stay awake until 10 or 11pm at night. Thankfully he knows not to leave his room once we tuck him in, but he ends up exhausted the next day. Some days, he just can't keep his eyes open and falls asleep in the most random ways. 



While Jack loves sword fighting and working on projects with his daddy, I am still the go to person if something is wrong. He also enjoys cooking with me and running errands and going to the Y with me. He is such a sweet little boy, I hope he always enjoys hanging out with me and Daniel.



In the month of October we went camping, visited a farm, brought some joy to a nursing home, and went trick-or-treating for the first time. It was a great month.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Word for the Year: Reframe

For fifteen years now, I have been starting my year with intention. Last year I hoped to find contentment in my life, and I believe I did. T...