Jack and Freeman's Spot

Last Little While, Part 2

2009-08-03T21:21:00.007-04:00

Yep. It's the same day as part 1, but I seem to have the big mo- on my side, so here's some more highlights.

After the trip to Amelia Island, we enjoyed some time at home, but wanderlust caught up on Memorial day. Jack took in the simple pleasures and we also got to experiment (for one night) with having *four* kids. We babysat for our friends Julie and Brian after they had done the same for us the weekend before. So Ruby and I squeezed in a night out.

Jack also discovered the wonders of legos. In supervised play, we rigged up a fascimile of the tractor and pick up set our neighbor, Mike Birch, uses in his landscaping business.

Ruby also discovered a new passion. She is now making and marketing (with the help of Full Bloom Mother's Center (http://fullbloomparent.com/), wet bags -- these cool little bags for wet cloth diapers. She's having some real success and I'm very proud of her.

Freeman and Jack also had some good times in the Thomas the Train tent Uncle Tony gave jack a while ago.When we did decide to hit the road again, for my day off on Memorial Day, we went to Washington, GA, east of Athens, had a nice lunch in the historic Washington Square, and then visited the Robert Toombs House, a Georgia State Park. Ruby and the kids were *very* good sports about this one, especially since they spent most of the time in the yard (Ruby and Freeman watching -- Jack running off pent up energy) while I heard the historic lecture.

And finally, I just had to put in some more of the great pictures Ruby took at Amelia.

Last Little While, Part 1

2009-08-03T17:42:00.009-04:00

Dad writing here. So, it's been a while since we last posted. A lot has happened, as most of you know, and things have been pretty hard, with a lot of ups and downs. But I thought I'd take this chance to highlight the ups and put up some pictures that capture our good times together, as we are grateful to have them. Included are trips to the beach, trips to the mountains, and a trip to a boring old Civil War-era historic site (also, there was some sittin' around at home). Is there a theme? Well, not so much, except that we roam around a lot and seem find joy in doing so!

This will probably take a few days, so I'll do it installments. In addition, I should also note that we've found the picture uploading features on Facebook pretty nifty and easy to use. So if you aren't Facebook Friends with Ruby and I, you might consider giving it a whirl.

In May, we went down to Amelia Island. It was our first trip since Papaw passed away, but we made the most of it. All in all, a good start at healing. Jack particularly enjoyed the water slide down by the beach and could scarcely be torn away from it to do, well, much of anything else. Maemae managed to lure him with quite a few options, though, including a sleepover! Recently, he's made mention of wanting to go have lunch on Club at the Ritz. This is not a good sign, as far as Dad is concerned (tho' Maemae is delighted).

In the beginning, Freeman was not at all sure about the ocean. He was cool as long as he was hanging out with Maemae or Mama, but eventually.....

He was a little worn out by all the excitement.

Whatever his misgivings about the ocean, however, Freeman was pretty fond of the beach and, among all of us, was the least insensible to sand in his pants (good thing, too).

At the end, I don't think anyone was completely ready to come home and we were (and are) so grateful to Mamae for having set up the trip. Even so, we were on the road again soon after, as I'll mention in my next installment.

A lesson learned

2009-04-30T22:10:00.003-04:00

I am ever so proud of Jack for overcoming his social anxieties and jumping right into the childcare at the local YMCA. He has been having a great time playing ball in a walled off area of the childcare area where he and the other kids are allowed to let things ricochet to their hearts' delight. Meanwhile, I've been training for a 10K in July.

Today Jack was having so much fun that he neglected to eat the animal crackers I had sent with him. On the way home I figured he had to be starving from all the play, so I handed him the whole bag (which held about 3 days worth of snackitude) so he could eat some in the car. I figured that he'd only have time to eat a few by the time we got home. I even congratulated myself for a moment because it feels so nice to be able to hand a bigger kid a baggy of snacks rather than the snack traps you schlepp for younger ones.

I did not account for traffic. It took us about 25 to 30 minutes to get home rather than the normal 10 to 15. After about 20 minutes it occurred to me that I wasn't getting the running commentary on what cars could be seen from the back seat. Still driving, I awkwardly reached from the driver's seat towards the back and asked Jack to hand me the bag of animal crackers. As crumbs audibly fell from his mouth, he barely managed to say, "I caaayunt!" Imagine Scarlett O'Hara saying "I can't!" with about 15 animal crackers jammed in her mouth. Then imagine the victory in Scarlett's voice as she sputters "I haaayuv to haaayuv the animal crackers!" -- knowing full well that you have no power to wrest them from her. You get the idea.

I am such a good mom.

Various and Sundry Things

2009-02-24T13:38:00.005-05:00

Things around here have settled into something pretty manageable (on most days anyway).

Jack is spending most of his afternoons naked from the waist down. I spend a lot of time spot cleaning. Stickers and M&Ms are instruments of bribery.

Freeman is a wonderfully giggly boy, given to taking mere catnaps during the day. At least he's not usually very crabby about the daily sleep deprivation. Jack just won't leave me and Freeman along long enough for me to get the baby down for a decent nap. As soon the little one nods off, the big one comes tearing through to announce loudly that the baby is not asleep. "Really?" I respond, through gritted teeth.

In my graduate studies, I read woefully little about child language. Jack's big thing now is messing with voiced/voiceless distinctions. He loves to switch voiced/voiceless sounds for their voiced/voiceless counterparts (e.g. [d] for [t], [b] for [p], [g] for [k] and vice versa). It's so cool to watch phonology happening right in front of my eyes.

Both boys are sweet to each other. They are not always sweet to their very tired parents, but the good outweighs the bad (I write as Jack crowds into the desk chair and screams at the top of his lungs in my ear, "I'm not talking loudly!"

Here are some recent pics:

Jack with his 'hummus beard'.

Freeman sporting some super cute flipper slippers.

A couple of very typical Freeman faces (he's now a little over 5 months old)...

Happy Birthday Again Jack!

2009-01-17T17:12:00.005-05:00

We are all finally over the various ailments that assailed us, so Papaw and Mae Mae came over to more officially celebrate Jack's Big 3 point 0. Mama's addiction to Food Network shows in Jack's birthday cake, a tribute to his LOVE of monster trucks. The boy was well pleased, but hesitant to let us eat it. Eventually, though, he was happy to pull off a tire (in reality a Hostess DingDong) and chow down.

Happy Birthday, Big Jack! We love you, Kiddo!

Freeman Gives Jack a Run for his Money

2009-01-08T19:20:00.003-05:00

I just saw a Christmas Pic that Aunt Katie snapped of Freeman. I'm not so sure that Jack retains the title of Cutest Basham Chamblee Boy in a Christmas Pic. What do you think?

Happy Birthday Jack!

2009-01-08T17:22:00.003-05:00

Jack's actual birthday (January 6 or 'Janjuary 6' according to him) was a pretty low key affair. Everybody but him was at least a little sick (Mama and Lola were a lot sick, Papaw just got out of the hospital, plus it was the middle of the week), so we couldn't do much more than a few hurriedly wrapped matchbox cars and a recipe for "Emergency Chocolate Cake" from America's Test Kitchen. I thought the recipe name was pretty apt given our recent run of bad luck on the health front. Interestingly, it has mayonaise in it rather than butter and eggs.

We hope to have a bit more of a festive occasion this weekend, but Jack seemed to really appreciate what little we did do to celebrate his birthday so far.

Best Christmas Pic

2009-01-08T17:06:00.005-05:00

The award goes to Jack, at least based on the few pics that were actually taken by our camera. We were insanely busy with travel and kid juggling and baking baking baking and then Jack got pneumonia and then the rest of us got sick too. Unfortunately, we kept forgetting to take pictures. I know that Uncle Tony and Aunt Katie snapped a few so maybe they'll submit another nomination. After finally reviewing the Christmas time pics on our camera Mama votes for this one of Jack helping us decorate the Christmas tree before the craziness of the holidays really began. I love the look on his face. Almost every night since the tree went up he has spent at least a few minutes on the couch with Mama and/or Daddy just gazing at the tree. It was a real sanity-saver when he was so needy with the pneumonia and restless with the prednisone.

This is my favorite recent pic of Freeman. With the shirt from Maemae, the leggings from Aunt Kathy, and Jack's old sock rattles, he looks like a lot of his toys. This shot reminds me of the Where's Waldo books.

Holiday Haiku

2008-12-31T09:44:00.004-05:00

Honey Optional
Nonfat dry milk and
Peanut butter. Mix and roll.
Save me from myself.

Oh, Prednisone
You help heal my poor
boy's pneumonia but how mean
he is now. 'Roid rage

Fried Rice
Pretty good made from
leftover turkey, ham, eggs,
garlic, celery.

The Plague
Jack is well, Freeman
dodges the worst of it but
head colds rule my house.

Three Months Old

2008-12-12T22:49:00.004-05:00

I'll say it again: Time does fly.

Check out kiddo in the traditional overalls gifted by Big Dad.

At the mothers group I attend, I think I've become that lady whose kid always wears leggings. I hear a siren song emanate from the women's sock department at Target every time I'm on that side of town.

Little Bit loves to laugh and coo at faces. His laughs aren't sustained giggles yet, but they're getting there. He's about 14 pounds worth of silly baby.

He's also starting to unclench those tiny fists and hold on to toys and stroke the boobs as he nurses.

See the Brothers!

2008-12-12T22:21:00.006-05:00

That's what we say (ever so brightly) when Jack loves on Freeman.
Of course, it's not all sunshine between the brothers all the time. There's a reason none of you will be receiving holiday cards that show the two boys smiling at the same time.

Or looking at the camera at the same time for that matter. I might have used this one anyway if someone had said, "Hey, Lady. Lose the burp rag." At least it was free.

Jackisms

2008-11-12T14:14:00.005-05:00

We are frequently driving home when NPR's News and Notes is on the radio. Yesterday Jack heard talk about Barack Obama. He has no idea who (or what) that is. His contribution to the political discussion: "I like Barack-oli."

Sometimes Jack can be difficult with his toddler mood swings, but sometimes he completely cracks us up. This picture is from this morning. He kept saying, "This is a very nice hat I'm wearing me." His 'hat' is one of the Lincoln Logs tubs from his daddy's youth. He was pretty unconcerned about not being able to see where he was going.

Two Months Old

2008-11-12T13:52:00.003-05:00

Big Bit continues to chunkify. He's become quick to grin, though I didn't get that in these pics.

Favorite pastimes include boobs, pushing himself to a standing position in our laps, and laughing when Mama yawns (which is quite frequently). He also finds the mobile over his crib pretty entertaining.

Building and Growing

2008-11-12T13:40:00.003-05:00

...Or 'If I had a hammer'.

Daddy took Jack to one of those little Saturday kids workshops at Lowe's.

One upon a time when Melanie Glover and I were chemistry lab partners, we would pass the time making each other laugh by saying "I'm crazy goggle head...Give me some candy!" You really had to be there.

But you didn't have to be there to appreciate how cute Jack looks...

Halloween

2008-11-12T13:31:00.004-05:00

I still have to take good daylight pics of the boys in their costumes, but for now I'll hurriedly post the pics we did get. (Is there anything I don't do hurriedly now?)

Jack wore the clown outfit that Daddy wore when he was about that age. Mae Mae sewed that one and a new one for little Freeman. They sure were a cute pair!

Freeman pretty much slept through Halloween, but Jack had a lot of fun. We went to a nearby carnival where Jack didn't much get into the games. Instead, he ran himself silly in great circles. Also, he refused to trick-o-treat at other houses, insisting instead that he'd rather trick-or-treat at his own house.

Freeman wants to PUMP you up!

2008-11-08T17:42:00.013-05:00

So how long do you think he'll be able to pull off this kind of look??

2008-11-03T11:41:00.005-05:00

Funny how awfully this outfit would probably go over if he were fifteen or twenty.

The shirt -- compliments of Aunt Lucinda

The leggings -- Mama's crafty stab at the pricey BabyLegs that are so popular now. These are made from a pair of socks that cost a buck. I don't always fall for the latest fad, but I must say that leggings beat the pants off of pants when you have to change as many diapers as we do.

Notice that Little Bit is starting to model with a smile.

In other news...I made John take a picture of me doing something that I hope is part of an extraordinary moment in history. He voted early to dodge super long lines. I went for absentee so that I wouldn't have to worry about Freeman.

Out, damn'd Desitin! out, I say!

2008-10-17T18:37:00.006-04:00

I'm paraphrasing Lady Macbeth to tell my faithful reader(s?) about that which occupies about 60 percent of my mind...diapers and diaper rash. Freeman has the phenomenally sensitive butt that his brother had at this age. Moreover, his little pooper soils his diapers with at least a dozen itty bitty squirts a day rather than a few substantial ones. Since we're using cloth, we also change quite a few extra peepee diapers. To keep his bottom shiny and happy, we use gobs of Desitin. Gobs. We put it on and then make an even thicker masque by adding in some cornstarch powder.

For the time being, Freeman's butt is beautiful, but the little grooves on my right index finger seem to be permanently stained white with Desitin...a parental twist on the yellow fingers characteristic of some smokers. I wash my hands dozens of times a day to no avail -- with a scrub brush even. Ah well...at least Sweetpea's butt is smooth as...well...a baby's butt. And seemingly more Desitin-stain resistant than my finger.

If cloth diapers bore you, read no further. Here's a review. We use a mix of disposable and cloth, but on the cloth front, I just gotta say that I am LOVE LOVE LOVING the bumGenius all-in-one cloth diapers. The materials in them don't take kindly to ointments, so I've actually been using them on Jack (who outgrew his tendency to rash). It is soooo cool that they adjust to fit both him and Freeman. Plus, the material really does wick moisture away almost as well as Huggies and Pampers. It's shocking to pull the inserts out after a heavy wetting night. They are soaked and super-heavy, but the moisture in the material against Jack's skin is barely perceptible. They seem like the perfect diaper for people who don't relish the idea of poopy diaper laundry, but whose kids have predictable poops. You could keep those types of kids in disposables around poop time, and cloth the rest of the time without your life changing that much. What a money saver. And they are super cute to boot. Jack thinks of them as his 'underwear', which I hope is a step towards the potty training against which he had been completely rebelling.

On Freeman we're using Kissaluvs, my favorite fitted, not-all-in-one cloth diaper. I use disposable diaper liners (which look much like a dryer sheet) to minimize their exposure to Desitin and to make for less poopy laundry. I don't trust the liners enough to keep the Desitin away from my more pricey bumGenius diapers, but they do a fine job with the Kissaluvs, which aren't as finicky about ointments in the first place. The Kissaluvs don't have a moisture wicking material, so that means changing with almost every pee, but with Freeman you pretty much get a poop with most pees anyway. What with my initial investment with Jack, some eBay and consignment finds over the last couple of years, and the kindness of family, I accumulated quite a stash of Kissaluvs. That means I don't have to do diaper laundry every day, which sure makes all the difference compared to our early days of doing cloth with Jack.

Back to Jack and underwear...a favorite game lately is dancing around in his 'yellow square underwears'. He pulls the zero and eight foam squares up around his waist and twirls around the house.

'One Month Years Old' ...

2008-10-17T18:35:00.004-04:00

...is Freeman's age if you ask Jack. I'm late in posting these recent pics of Little Bit. I'm late in everything these days. The light reflecting off the blue blanket makes him look a little smurfy. He's really a lovely shade of considerably-paler-than-Mama.

Touch a Truck Day

2008-10-15T18:05:00.004-04:00

So, if you know Jack, you know he has a thing for vehicles. A couple of weekends back the county sponsored a Touch a Truck day at a nearby park that featured emergency, law enforcement, construction, and other county vehicles . Jack was terribly excited before we even got there. At first, he took 'Touch a Truck' quite literally. He'd walk up to each vehicle (index finger extended) and give it a good poke. He acted distressed every time we suggested that he could actually climb into the trucks. After about an hour, though, he announced that he was ready to drive the fire truck. Once he conquered that, he got brave enough to try out a number of vehicles.

A Southern Boy

2008-09-30T13:39:00.003-04:00

This is Jack going to town on some collard greens. He does his Daddy proud.

More Freeman Pics

2008-09-21T13:16:00.004-04:00

As babies go, Freeman has been an easy one so far. We've enjoyed two nights in a row with sleep shifts lasting 3+ hours. Seems like it took weeks and weeks for Jack to get his nights and days on track with those of us who are long time residents of the ex-utero world.

We had one rather rough night. Freeman slept all day his second day home, waking only to eat for 15 minutes at a time. At one point, John and I found ourselves with one kid at school and the other one snoozing hard. Instead of taking naps ourselves, we ate chocolates in front of the bazillionth episode of Law & Order that we've seen since getting satellite two years ago. I said, "Well, Dear. Welcome to parenthood of two. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Drop it did. From about 10 pm to 3 am. Freeman wasn't fussy, mind you. He just needed company and approximately 300 diaper changes.

There is an extent to which I can't tell if Freeman is easier or if we are. Probably the latter. Jack was a good teacher, and experience has helped us avoid some of the things that were hard the first time around. To his credit, though, Freeman seems to be a pretty mellow kid.

On to the pics...

The shirt says it all.

Freeman's hair and face seem to come mostly from Daddy. It's not clear that he's got Mama's ears...it's only certain that he doesn't have Daddy and Jack's.

This is not Jack's first reaction to Freeman. Sadly, we didn't catch that on film. When they met, Freeman was sleeping peacefully in the hospital bassinet. Jack stood on a chair to view the baby. Freeman suddenly flailed his arms in his sleep, which caused Jack to pretty much leap out of skin in terror. It took a few days after that for Jack to really warm to the baby. Now (when he's not busy doing his own thing with his cars and Lincoln Logs) he's a most enthusiastic baby brother kisser.

Freeman's build is not at all like Jack's at birth. Jack was a big pot belly plus a big head with tentacles for limbs. Freeman is our more 'husky' son so far. Those may be Mama's nascent thighs. I'm sure it was a fluke, but right after this picture Big Bit managed to push himself from belly to back. He was a week old.

Freeman joins the Family

2008-09-12T15:32:00.007-04:00

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of Freeman James Basham Chamblee, who was born on September 11, 2008, at 11:53 p.m. He is 20.5 in. long and, at birth, he weighed a healthy 8 lbs., 6 oz. Mom and baby are doing fine and Dad is the doing the blogging. Below are some introductory pictures.

Hello! from FreemanFreeman and MommaFreeman and Daddy

Pictures of Freeman with the rest of the family, including Big Brother Jack, are coming soon!

Geographer Jack

2008-07-19T10:35:00.008-04:00

Dad writing here, for a change. Since Jack is only two and a half, we are never 100% sure what he knows and what he doesn't. However, we suspect that he knows more than he's letting on. What better way to get what you want, right? A few days ago, he surprised me with a little impromptu interactive geography lesson. The pictures below are of Jack (of course) with some foam houses I made for him. The houses aren't really as interesting as what they represent in terms of what he knows.....and what I don't.
When we got the blocks out, I asked Jack what he wanted to make. He said he wanted to make Carter's house. Carter is a little boy who lives next door in a white brick ranch-style home. So, I made Carter's house (which is in the top left of the picture) and then told Jack I would make Jack's house (shown in the top center). The next thing that happened is that Jack asked me to make "the brown house," which I took to mean the brown ranch-style house on the other side of our place. I built this house (shown on the bottom right) with some amazement since, as far as I can recall, he has never mentioned that house to me before.
Finally, just to see if he knew what I thought he knew, I built one more ranch house, shown on the bottom left and asked him whose house it was. He told me that it was Margie's house. Margie lives across the street and I was indeed trying to represent her house. Overcome with geographic emotion, I then started adding lots of detail. For example, it was I, not Jack, who cleverly parked the matchbox car in front of what would be our garage. I also put in lots of other round blocks to accurately portray the location of as many trees and shrubs as I could. Then, just to show me whose game this was supposed to be, Jack tore two contributions to my foam arboretum from the "ground" ..........and stuck them to his face (as above).

If there are any lessons to be had from our little reconstruction of the street's geography, they are:

1. Even at two, our kids have an inner world that is unknown to us and, as a result, know more than their parents realize.

2. No matter how hard we try to let them be themselves, we are still in danger of making a big fuss when our kids do things that remind us of ourselves (witness this entire post, for example).

3. MY KID'S A MAP GENIUS !!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!! In your FACE, MAAAAN!

4. See #2, above. Um, sorry about that.

Little Bit Goes to the Beach

2008-07-15T11:51:00.003-04:00

Daddy and Mama went back to the beach at Sanibel (the site of some of our all time favorite pics of Jack) to see if we could immortalize the belly that Mama is carrying around courtesy of Little Bit.

Scrolling through the dozens of pictures Daddy took (you gotta love digital SLR photography...it's so easy to click away until you get a good one), it might be time to start calling the new baby Big Bit.

This is us at a little over 31 weeks. I'm happy to say that we continue to be blessed with excellent health. We've experienced only mild to moderate levels of most of the normal pregnancy discomforts. A delivery that doesn't involve back labor would be icing on the cake.

I've started trying to picture life after Little Bit gets here. I imagine the first thing Big Brother Jack will say upon meeting his sibling is, "Noooo! I DON'T WANT it!" He's sweet like that. He's two like that.

Backtracking 5 - It Ain't All Sunshine

2008-07-15T11:10:00.005-04:00

For two straight weeks preceding the trip to Illinois, we all endured the longest cold of Jack's life. It skirted the edge of croupy for only one night, thank goodness. The buckets of post-nasal drip were not fun. Jack has his mother's touchiness about nasal discomfort, but he doesn't get how to really blow his nose.

He spent nearly the whole two weeks with this face. Every twenty seconds or so, he would pathetically screech, "I wanna blowyournose!"

Near the end, though, he finally started finding his Zen again...

Backtracking 4 - Two Little Monkeys

2008-07-15T11:05:00.002-04:00

This is as close to a focussed shot as I could get of the frenzy of movement that was the boys at play together. Jack knew the words to the song 'No More Monkeys' before our visit, but I would say that Maddux taught him the song's essence.

Backtracking 3 - Katie + Chalk + Boys = Aunt Katie Rules!

2008-07-15T10:56:00.004-04:00

Katie and the boys went to town with the sidewalk chalk. A month later, Jack is still talking about it.

Maddux is pretty into letters and math. Jack's more of a random scribbler. Katie had talent enough to entertain all.

Backtracking 2 - Maddux is a Kissing Machine

2008-07-15T10:48:00.003-04:00

Maddux likes to share the love...

Here's an oldie but a goodie. Maddux was almost Jack's age now when they first met. Hard to believe how much they've grown...

Backtracking 1 - Mel and Toby's Race Day

2008-07-15T10:39:00.002-04:00

I've been meaning to post pics from our June trip to Illinois where we supported Aunt Melanie and Uncle Toby at their 5K. By 'support', I mean that Lola, Mama, Daddy, and the boys had bagels, cookies, and smoothies in an air-conditioned cafe while Mel and Toby endured the summer heat.

Both finished first in their age groups. Maddux was very proud that both his parents took home Piston Cups (aka trophies).

Hopefully Jack's Mama and Daddy will be in shape enough to participate in next year's race.

Big Muscles

2008-07-11T21:38:00.003-04:00

Growth spurts are so strange to watch. This week he's been eating twice as much as normal and taking 3 hour naps. Every time we take him out of his crib, his limbs seem noticeably longer.

Of course, maybe some of those calories are being burned up by his incredible weight training regimen. See for yourself...

The Contortionist

2008-06-27T18:35:00.006-04:00

Yesterday we had ultrasound images taken of Little Bit at 29 weeks 5 days. Here are our favorite shots.

In the video, the cursor points to the baby's mouth. Notice the cute grins. The 'wall' against which the baby's face seems to be smushed is actually his/her legs. Kiddo presently prefers hanging out jack knife style...that is, head down with feet and hands by his/her ears and face. Maybe we have an Olympian poised to dive out of the womb?

From the ultrasound images, we found it really hard to convince ourselves that this baby looks like anyone in particular. The images are all pretty fuzzy, and often times limbs or placenta or whatever blend together. Also, these kinds of images don't show hair all that well. We walked away feeling like we still don't know what this baby looks like, but we weren't bothered by that at all. Mostly we were thrilled to see such sweetness.

One thing we did see is that Little Bit has Big Brother Jack's feet.

We're very happy to report that Little Sibling appears to be healthy. Mama, Big Bro, and Daddy are all well, too.

This and That

2008-05-18T21:20:00.007-04:00

Uncle Tony asked for more close up shots of Jack. It's hard to get Jack to sit still long enough to oblige, but hopefully these will do.

There's something intriguing to me about this shot of him and St. Francis staring off in the same direction...

Kiddo has only been going to daycare in the mornings for the last few weeks, so we spend almost all of the afternoons outside. The little red and yellow cozy coupe from Aunt Melanie sees a minimum of one hour of use (and usually more) on every day that weather permits.

Jack has such a larger-than-average noggin that he's outgrown every sun hat that he has, and I couldn't find any in any that fit in the bigger kids departments around town. I ended up buying an adult hat from a camping store. It adjusts down, so hopefully this hat will last until he graduates college.

We just installed a swing from one of our backyard trees, so another significant part of a day in the life of the young master of the house includes that. Says Jack daily, "I want my ssssfing!" Because it's in the shade, he's happy there for an hour as well. His favorite swinging songs include 'On Top of Spaghetti', 'London Bridge', and 'This Old Man'. These YouTube videos did a lot to push 'On Top of Spaghetti' and 'London Bridge' to his top five. I don't know why, but I find the the 'On Top of Spaghetti' video almost as hilarious as he does.

Click here for London Bridge.

A note about 'ssssfinging': We've been helping him with his consonant clusters that start with s (he was always omitting the s) -- as a result most words that have such a cluster are now pronounced with a little more keenness and spittle than we anticipated. In each of the following examples, the ssss is its own syllable: ssssss-ger-etti (spaghetti), up-sssss-tairs, sssss-chool, ssssss-tar, sssss-poon. Part of me laments that it's been so easy to help him correct those pronunciations. It highlights that he really is so much more a little boy than he is a baby. Before I know it, he'll be a teenager and I'll get misty when I remember the days when he shouted/sang 'Lit-tle Tar! Lit-tle Tar!' (what we refer to as the baby metalhead version of Twinkle Twinkle.)

On the pregnancy front, we are doing well. 24 weeks and change with lots of movement. It took a bit longer to feel this baby stirring because of a somewhat anterior placenta, but now Little Bit seems to kick and stretch with much more strength than I felt with Jack at the same stage. No little flutters of butterfly wings with this one. It was nothing for weeks and weeks and weeks, and then one day it was ninja time.

Sometimes it seems like Jack has a bit of a clue about the entrance of Little Bit into the world. When he's cautioned about rough-housing too much with Mama, he volunteers that Mama has a baby napping inside. He's also getting a bit more big brotherly to his doll, JJ. In addition to feeding him and helping him go down for naps, Jack has started talking about some of the things that JJ is too little to do. Still, the phrase 'big brother' seems to elicit no reaction at all from him, and any old bright shiny object can distract him from discussions of the new baby. We don't worry about it, though. We hope we can make as smooth a transition for him as possible by talking about it as much as he is willing and able, but we're not putting any pressure on him to go ahead and accept something so abstract as a future little sibling.

If Jack knew how to post his favorite links...

2008-04-13T09:24:00.003-04:00

...he'd definitely post these.

We don't let him watch much TV, but somehow we've gone and developed an almost daily YouTube ritual that includes (in Jack's usual order of preference):

The trailer for a DVD from the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee...

A Cadbury commercial...

A Firetruck parade...

Perhaps YouTube provides a glimpse into the inner squirrel (how he says 'world') of our growing boy?

Four Generations

2008-03-27T22:53:00.001-04:00

A family Easter pic...

Easter at Nana's

2008-03-27T22:43:00.003-04:00

Highlights of Easter at Nana's house included

The hunt...
MORE bubble fun...
We weren't sure who was into the bubbles more...Nana or Jack?
He pretty quickly figured out how to use the giant bubble wand, but it was pretty cute when he tried to use it to blow bubbles the regular way.

Jack also thoroughly enjoyed 'playing go' with Papaw. This was somewhere around their 80th lap.

The Egg Drop

2008-03-27T22:37:00.002-04:00

On Easter Eve, we took Jack to the Y here in Athens where a helicopter dropped several thousand plastic eggs on throngs of children. Jack was too young to participate, but we went anyway so that he could see a real helicopter somewhat close. We had to wait in line for an hour. (Because some of the prizes included Wii's and the like, hundreds more people than anticipated showed up.) It was worth it, though. He got a real kick out of seeing the helicopter.

The Sleepiest Baby in the World

2008-03-27T22:03:00.007-04:00

Seriously, tell me you can get through this clip without yawning. With no nap and a late bath today, the kid was more than a little spent.

And below, we conclude with a sweet scene with Daddy...

Big Brother Practice

2008-03-27T21:57:00.004-04:00

An alternate title of this clip could be 'We Trade Life Lessons'.

They pray before every meal at school, and he has recently moved beyond jumping in at only the Amen. I like how saying 'wise', reminded him suddenly of rice, another food of which he is inordinately fond. (Or could he be saying, 'God is rice'?...certainly a possibility. When he sings the song to Elmo's World, he says, 'La La La La, Elmo's Squirrel.')

His little blue friend, by the way, is a prize he won at the Hancock County Fair when he was 6 months old. It is affectionately known as Alien Baby.

Spaghetti Bath Time

2008-03-27T21:53:00.004-04:00

He ate 3 bowls of spaghetti and meatballs tonight...the kid has a serious passion.

MY Bubbles, MY Basket, MY pjs

2008-03-20T16:30:00.004-04:00

I guess it goes with the age. For a few months Jack designated everything by its appropriate noun and by its color. Now everything is emphatically possessed. MY mama's sooz (shoes). MY red daddy's car. MY waffle.

Here is more bubble play...something we've been into in the afternoons.

He's really gotten into imaginative play, as well. A few months ago it wouldn't have made sense to him to put together blocks and pretend it was Papaw's car or merely to pretend to enter a tiny house made of blocks (in lieu of actually entering and crushing it in the process.) Now it does, and it's pretty amazing to watch a kid make that mental leap. I remember his friend E doing it when she visited last summer (she's seven months older), and I couldn't imagine Jack starting to do it himself anytime soon.

I asked Jack what he was doing when I took the pictures below. He said, taking a bubble bath making noodles. At other times, he runs around with the blue basket on his head saying that he is a robot. Maybe the caption on his PJs says it best. Thanks Aunt Katie for the cute sleepwear!

Zoo Atlanta

2008-03-03T14:49:00.004-05:00

We had a little family day at Zoo Atlanta this weekend. If Baby Layne moves down to Atlanta soon, maybe she can join us there sometime.

It's a nicely sized zoo; a toddler can walk almost the whole thing (with snack breaks), but it's not so small that anyone feels like there's something missing from a visit.

*****

Jack likes the 'mingos' right after you enter the park. The first time I brought him to Zoo Atlanta, he refused to leave the flamingos, apparently believing that they were the one and only attraction.

If asked, Jack will say, 'Elephant says RAAAAARRR! Lion says raya.' He whispers what the lion says. You should see his gorilla imitation. It includes chest thumping.

Giraffes, of course, are another zoo favorite.

They had a little kiddie dance party going on at the zoo that included a bubble machine. Big hit with the The Boy.

Of course, the train rated highly, too.

As did the carousel.

I know we are always saying that Jack is a very sweetly disposed little boy. Yes, he's quick to smile and laugh, but he certainly has his share of not-so-sweet moments, too. Here we are getting ready leave after a full day. He's knows better than to throw himself face first into the concrete. He's a bigger fan of going limp and screeching. When he pulls this stuff, I usually ask, 'Would you like to thank the Academy (for best drama performance)?'

Big Brother is watching...

2008-02-22T09:44:00.008-05:00

...he just doesn't quite get it yet. And who can blame him?

We rewatched the videotape from our 9 week ultrasound today. Jack very cutely repeated after us, "There's a baby. Do you know where that baby is?" His response was, "I wanna 'punon' (put on) Daddy's 'sooz' (shoes)."

I regularly read a popular blog by a woman who really struggled to get pregnant. She's now expecting her second child, and she recently polled her readers asking when they told the older siblings about the arrival of the new baby. Of course, there were some who told the older child as soon as they peed on a stick. And then there were others (especially among her large readership of women coping with infertility) who waited much longer because they did not want to have explain what it meant if their pregnancies ended badly. My favorite response was from a woman who quipped that they had brought the new baby home 3 weeks ago, and they still hadn't told the older sibling.

I think I like that mom's plan. Jack's got plenty of time to learn to be a brother. It's on our minds a lot, but for now it's just a boring topic of conversation to him.

We're through the first trimester. Mama's gained a pound on top of the holiday weight. The nausea and the fatigue are waning. The Basham Chamblee household eagerly awaits its new addition, due around the first week of September.

Here are some clips from 3 weeks ago...at the time the baby was just under an inch long and shaped pretty much like a kidney bean with buds. In the first video, you can see Kiddo shaking his/her budding shimmy a little.

In the second video, the little blip at the center of the screen is a heartbeat.

p.s. Dear Aunt Melanie, New Baby is sorry that Mama can't run with Team Basham in the big Peoria race this summer, but she will happily come and hand you Gatorade from the sidelines. Go Team Basham!

A mind of his own

2008-02-19T21:07:00.000-05:00

When we had Jack we aspired to teach him rudimentary American Sign Language so that we could avoid some of the youthful tantrums that come from a child not being able to make himself understood. The thing is, we have hardly ever had any trouble understanding him. Before he had words, he had body language. If, on occasion, you couldn't wrap your head around that, the list of stuff he might want when he complained was short enough that it didn't take long to try all your options. Sign language quickly fell by the wayside because we just didn't ever seem to need it.

Nowadays Jack is just full of words. It's harder to think of what is not in his vocabulary than what is in it. We will grant that he can't give a lecture in rocket science, but he can pretty aptly express anything that he feels is worth discussion. (It occurs to me now that he doesn't ever describe himself has 'happy', 'sad', 'mad', etc. He's more inclined to say that he 'likes', 'loves', or 'doesn't like' X.)

More than anything, Jack's a little observer. If he were a grownup, I guess some would say he has an incredibly annoying gift for stating the obvious. But you don't really get sick of hearing a toddler make sense of his world (unless said toddler is trying to dodge nap time). Approximately 85 percent of his observations involve vehicles. Our best rudimentary measure of how much his vocabulary is growing is how elaborate his descriptions of vehicles are getting.

Even though Jack is a fairly verbally precocious little boy, some of my favorite things that he says are a little off. I love the way the he says zero ('zebo'), and every morning he asks for a 'vitaminit peas' (vitamin please).

And then there are the things he says which make grammatical sense, but which have a comically limited context...for instance the 'I don't eat bubbles. Bubbles taste baaaad' mantra we have. This is what we say in the bath every other night. We parents say it in a manner that we hope conveys the soundness of our advice. He says it in a mischievous, gleamy-eyed manner that suggests, 'I'm 12 nano-seconds from stuffing my mouth full of these bubbles, and I think you should be delighted.'

Fire-Mom

2008-01-09T21:37:00.000-05:00

Jack's hearing is so much more keen than ours that he sometimes seems to have a Radar O'Reilly-ish sixth sense. He'll say, "I hear a bus." Many minutes later, long past your deciding that he's said just another random Jack-ism, a school bus will drive by.

And then there was the time when we were getting ready to leave a parking lot and he remarked, "I see dogs drivin' a red truckkkk." We began to playfully dismiss his comment, but then we looked at the next spot over. Of course, there was a red truck with two dogs in the cab, one in the passenger's seat and one in the driver's. So yeah...dogs drivin' a red truck.

Last night, he paused at his play, and said, "I hear a fire-mom." It took a moment to realize that he was referring to a fire alarm, and not one in our house. We never figured out if he was being random or if there really was some beeping somewhere far away that only he and the cats could hear.

I fancy that Fire-Mom might be my cool super hero alter ego if I were to have one.

Now if we could just figure out what in the world he means when he runs around the house squealing, "Its-a-big-o-bawa!"

Jack hits the big 2.0

2008-01-09T08:29:00.000-05:00

Mama made a German Chocolate cake for this year's festivities. Our stove is a little off-level so the layers came out a bit crooked. Nevertheless, the cake may have had the best texture of any made in the B-C household in recent memory. Thanks Cindi for the recipe! Jack's grinning commentary: "There's caaaaake." Hard to believe how grown up he's starting to look...

At our several Christmas celebrations, Jack was fairly inundated with presents. We kept his birthday small in scale. One of his favorite new acquisitions was a motorcycle....

Jack was also gifted with JJ, the doll that Daddy had when he was a little boy. Jack has shown a remarkable amount of affection for JJ, even going so far as to share some of his toy cars and trains with him. (We haven't seen him do as much with a live kid. We theorize that he recognizes all of his own gotta-look-out-for-number-one tendencies in other young children so he refuses to try very hard at collaborative play.)

This weekend we'll have to get pictures of him in the kiddie coup from Aunt Melanie.

Merry Christmas to all...

2007-12-26T16:47:00.000-05:00

Christmas was quite an affair this year in the Chamblee Basham household. The tree was up more than 2 weeks before Christmas (probably a new record for us). We went to a night service on Christmas Eve at our church, and Jack got through the whole thing with nary a peep. As a matter of fact, he seemed to be stunned speechless by the music and the number of people. He stayed in Mama's lap the whole time pretty much just taking in all the new sights and sounds.

We celebrated Christmas Day in the morning at home (with Mae Mae and Papaw) and in the afternoon at Silly Goose Ann's house.

We haven't tried to make Jack into your guy's guy type of kid, but he is more than a little fond of cars and choo choos. Such is his love for vehicles, that he often falls asleep at night clutching one. He was thrilled to get a small fleet of matchbox cars and Thomas friends to add to his collection.

Ann hosted the big extended family Christmas party this year. When we arrived, Jack was hungry and feeling somewhat intimidated by the large crowd. An hour later you'd have never known he ever had a lick of shyness in him. The pictures may say it best...

Planes, trains and automobiles...

Jack does the hokey pokey with Elmo...

Silly Goose Ann teaches Jack how to bowl...

Aunt Mimi introduces Jack to Frankie the race horse...

Daddy loves this picture because everything that isn't moving and everything that is moving seems to be reversed...

Jack gives a smooch to sleeping Baby Layne...

Baby Layne breaks in her rocking lamb...

Where the time went...

2007-12-26T07:22:00.000-05:00

For the last 2 months I've almost daily told myself that this would be the day that I finally update Jack's blog. Most folks know how that goes. Finally, Mama's blogless streak ends. Ahhh...but I hear Jack stirring on the baby monitor now...so maybe not.

On a side note, Jack usually says these two sentences in varying order as he first wakes in the morning: 1. Time-a-find Mama 2. Time-a-eat sausage. You have to have priorities in life, you know.

* * * * * *

(Jack just went down for his afternoon nap, so now I can finish this post.)

I thought I'd post some pre-Christmas catch up pics before I chronicle the swirly whirly yuletide celebrations. In a nutshell...

A) We finally got some studio portraits made. Here are my favorite digital proofs. It's strange how the mood seems so still in the photos...the session was really quite kinetic. The photographer's wife was practically doing handstands with her tongue and eyes wagging out to get Jack to look up and stay put. Jack also spent all of the next day at the doctor's office and hospital getting breathing treatments for croup that took an overnight turn for the worse. Hard to believe from the photos...

B) Jack has developed intermittent empathy. MA and I saw a glimpse of it in October as Jack initiated a hug for the first time. I think E. said something about love, which Jack (apparently) took to mean that she needed some. He reached to hug her, and she recoiled in surprise. I didn't see him do much loving again until recently. For the last few weeks, he's been occasionally given to caring for Kermit. He feeds him pretend oatmeal, puts him down for naps, walks him in a stroller, and gives him pretend milk. The milk part is pretty weird to watch at times. Kermit's quite floppy, so Jack will hold his mouth open and jam the sippy cup down his throat (the kiddy equivalent of a frat boy hazing, I guess).

C) We did Thanksgiving at Mae Mae and Papaw's house, but we didn't get the camera out enough. Jack ate copious quantities of pumpkin pie and butternut squash, so we saw orange in his diapers for at least 2 or 3 days after that. Photographed highlights included walking around in Papaw's shoes and throwing rocks in the fish pond with Lola.

D) Jack seems to be cutting the last of his baby teeth...he hasn't complained much, but he's back to having his fingers in his mouth a lot. Here we admired our miniature nativity scene as Mama guarded the holy family from excessive drool from on high.

Not a whole lot of newsworthy stuff happened prior to Christmas. Historically December has been a crumby work month for me, but this year there were no deadlines. I decided to enjoy of the time leading up to Christmas as much as possible since I've missed out on much of it in the last decade or so. I did a good bit more sewing, knitting, shopping, housekeeping and cooking than in holiday seasons past (my excuse for not getting any paper Christmas cards out).

Soon it'll be nose to the grindstone again. But first, I'll do another post on the Christmas festivities.

Another aside: People who know me know that I am really bad at remembering the precise wording of 'stock' phrases...here's a Rube moment for you : in expressing this sentiment to John, I actually said, in wistful tones, "It'll be back to the old bump and grind."

Trick or Treat

2007-10-31T21:48:00.000-04:00

We considered dressing Jack up as Elvis (he's got the hair for it), but we decided to stick with something he could relate to. The boy has an abiding love for choochoos. In a rare show of artistic and engineering fervor, Daddy constructed Thomas the Tank Engine by mounting one of our old moving boxes onto the very same Radio Flyer wagon he had when he was a little guy 30 years ago. Daddy was just as surprised as Mama that it came out so well. After Mama acquired a conductor outfit, Jack was pretty much a happy boy. We suspect that this is one costume that will outlast Halloween by quite a bit.

Jack trick-or-treated at a grand total of 4 houses and had a fine time. He even said "thank you" -- which is something we've been working on recently with less than complete success. Once we got back home, he had great fun moving our give-away candy back and forth from vessel to vessel. (There were over 300 pieces of candy to move, so this game kept him busy a good long time.) Occasionally he would stop to say, "Happy Halloween!" or "Bye Bye Superman!"

Kudos to Mom for the well-rendered Thomas face!
Jack loves his train/wagon........

....but does he love it more than Daddy?

thanks to our neighbor for giving Jack his very first Halloween candy.

At the going rate of 40 cents a pound...

2007-10-31T10:11:00.000-04:00

...Jack is about a ten dollar pumpkin.

Last weekend we took him to the pumpkin patch in the costume he wore for his first Halloween. Surprisingly, we were the only ones that day who dressed our kid up like a pumpkin. Many times we heard "Aaaaww! I'll take that one!" or "What a cuuuuute little pumpkin girl!" (We don't take offense to the little girl comments; he is pretty cute after all.)

Jack really enjoyed himself (as did Mama, Daddy, Papaw, and Mae Mae). He doesn't 'get' Halloween, but he has noticed that pumpkins seem to be everywhere lately. He also recently starting getting his colors straight, so every chance to point out 'orange pumpkin' is pretty cool in his book. Jack got to ride a cow train, follow a tractor on a hay ride, and sit on many different pumpkins.

The fun of the last might merit a little explanation: Jack does two maybe-more-weird-than-average things: 1) recently he has been experimenting with carrying various things with his neck, and 2) for a long time now he has enjoyed experimenting with whether or not something can be sat upon. The pumpkin patch was evidently a place where Number 2 was a fine, fine game.

Here are several pics...our faves from both last year (pre-blog and MONTHS pre-first-haircut) and this year so you can see how much he's changed. It's strange to look at the older pictures...in my mind's eye he never had that chubby a baby face. He's certainly a skinny kid now. He's got the baby belly, but his waist keeps him in 9-12 month pants. As a matter of fact, he still wears the pants he wore in last year's pumpkin patch pictures. They're like baby capris now, but we just can't keep much bigger pants on him!

Florida in his blood?

2007-09-10T09:50:00.000-04:00

We just got back from a week's vacation in Cape Coral where we celebrated Papaw's 70th birthday. Most of that time was spent in the pool at Mae Mae and Papaw's rental or in the pool at Aunt Mimi's. Aunt Mimi's pool is his favorite. It has a good sized plateau of sorts where the water is about 10 inches deep. This part of the pool is known as "Jack's Beach". He spent so much time on Jack's beach that he actually only got one tub bath the entire week we were gone!

Mae Mae put some water wings on the boy to see what would happen and lo and behold, the kid swims like a fish. Sort of. It takes about a hundred kicks for him to get one inch of forward momentum. Not bad for a 20-month-old, though! When he has his wings on, he loves to stand on the edge of Jack's beach and fall forward into the deep part.

Mama and Daddy also took Jack to the real beach at Sanibel. It's a beautiful spot...there aren't a lot of people and you can walk 30 yards out before the water gets above your knees. Jack seemed a little perplexed by the saltiness of the water, but he loved the freedom of getting in and out at his leisure. (This is in contrast to the tight leash we keep on him at swimming pools as he attempts to run around the edges and scale their concrete steps and hop in at random depths.)

This was one of the best vacations we've had, but such fine times do have their drawbacks. We came back on Saturday, and our little Florida boy has made it clear that we are boring because we can't hop into pool or watch boats on a daily basis. Aaah the fickle nature of toddlers...sometimes a house full of toys and books and outings to the park and undivided parental attention just aren't enough. This was just the vacation we all needed, but Mama and Daddy caught themselves praying for Monday so that Jack could enjoy the much loved distractions provided by his daycare teachers and playmates!

Loving on the Grandmothers

2007-08-06T15:06:00.000-04:00

Our cuddle bug has returned! Jack hasn't been willing to be still long enough for displays of affection since he was a few months old. Now you can cuddle him for a few minutes at a time, and if he's in the mood, the kisses just keep on coming. Here he is sharing some special moments with Maemae and Lola.

Kiddo has a lot to say. He's making sentences now. An example of his most complex construction is probably 'I see a big truck!' The night-night ritual has become pretty cute, too. Instead of nursing, we say 'Night Night' to practically his entire lexicon and every person he knows. It's pretty endearing to see him bid all his stuffed animals good night and then give them kisses. Later, he drops off while whispering such things as 'Night Night Mo-Ka-Koo (motorcycle)'.

Amen!

2007-08-05T14:29:00.001-04:00

Jack's baptism was last Sunday, and we were fortunate to have a lot of family to share the moment. For those who are curious, there was no dunkin' of the punkin'. Water was dribbled upon his forehead.

The day before, Jack had learned the phrase 'Oh yeah, baby!' from Aunt Ann and Uncle Mike. He says this quite often now (most notably just before latching on to nurse), so we thought he might say this during the sacrament. Instead, he picked up on 'Amen' and said this about a dozen times throughout. This elicited quite a few giggles from us and the congregation. The Basham Chamblee cup of cuteness overfloweth, indeed.

On your mark...

2007-07-06T12:56:00.000-04:00

I just couldn't decide which of the videos that Kristian took was cuter so they are both going up, as well as one of the pics he took. These movies aren't compressed, so don't try them if you don't have a high speed connection.

Mamas and Babies

2007-07-06T12:23:00.000-04:00

We all missed our recent ten year college reunion, but I think we got something much better. I just can't believe these are our lives now.

Ten years ago we lived in a small dorm. It was half the price of the other dorms on campus because it was the only one on the academic side of Broadway, and it should probably have been condemned. But it was a home where we each had our own rooms as well as all the intellectual and emotional space we needed to be ourselves. And everything was in front us and exciting.

Now we are moms and professionals. You should see all of us yawning by the early afternoon everyday. And we could talk for hours about breast pumps.

Despite the darkening circles under my eyes, somehow I am even more of a wide-eyed optimist than I was back then. I don't know exactly what else I will have been in my life before the song ends, but I feel safe knowing that I've got great friends and family with whom to share what's to come.

Having picked up a few more PRACTICAL SKILLS doesn't hurt either...

Winken, Blinken, and Nod

2007-07-06T12:07:00.000-04:00

Mama's friends from her Transy days came with their families for a little reunion last weekend at Reynold's Plantation. The munchkins enjoyed a little bath time together in a shmancy clawfoot tub. Pictured are Elsa (just turned 2), Ella (coming up on 20 months) and Jack (18 months today).

Sure wish Ella's older brother Pierce could have been there, but we hear he was enjoying 'all the parts' of a water slide at Vacation Bible School. We also missed little Daniel. He just turned a year old, and we imagine that he might have taken his first run before his first walk in order to keep up with this bunch. We hope he and his mama and papa can join us next time. We look forward to Annabelle and her folks coming, too. It'll be like clown car bathtub.

The Little Kahuna

2007-06-25T20:35:00.000-04:00

Jack had a great time during the weekend before last at the beach at Amelia Island (his first visit to an ocean as a toddler). He would point at the vastness of the sea and say, ever so keenly, 'Muh!' (his word for all liquids).

His vocabulary is growing exponentially now. Of course, 'beach' and 'pool' entered his lexicon at Amelia. It was also there that he finally started calling Hope something other than 'Papaw'... she is now 'Mehmeh' to Jack. Daddy and Mama are still probably going to address cards to her with 'YoNanaMamawMehmeh'.

At home we read a lot of books and magazines with Jack. His current favorites are Railways and Rhymes (a Thomas and friends book) and Wired magazine (his potty read). We can't believe the number of things he can name now. Nowadays you often only have to say a noun a couple of times for him to remember it. He's not really there yet with adjectives...sometimes he'll mimic ones he hears, but he doesn't tend to use them on his own. His verbs are pretty much 'EatEat', 'Go', 'Ride', 'PeePee', and 'PooPoo'. (Are there many more verbs needed to describe a day in the life of a todder?)

He's become quite the parrot with words that he doesn't understand. When he gets upset, Mama often consoles him by murmuring, 'I know...I know, Poor Baby.' Lately when he gets fired up and fussy, he sobs and screeches 'I know! I know!'

Kiddo also seems to have made up his own word game. One person says 'Beebah'. The next person says 'Kookah'. Repeat. We don't know if this is his take on a game he overheard at daycare if he just decided on his own that these syllables just sound good together.

Except for a struggle with napping, Jack's at an immensely fun age. He loves to be tickled. He's only gotten more quick to laugh, and he can entertain himself for a very long time with toys and books. You just have to keep an eye out for stunts that tempt fate and gravity a little too much. He takes great delight in balancing precariously and throwing himself backwards into things. (We wonder if he might be an Xtreme sport kind of guy when he gets older...Mama inwardly makes the Marge Simpson noise at that prospect.)

Crocodile Jack

2007-06-06T12:17:00.000-04:00

The other day there were only two kids on the playground - one dressed as a pirate and Crocodile Jack here. The other kid (who was maybe 3) asked, "Is that little boy wearing a cowboy hat?" I said, "I guess he is." The pirate wistfully said, "I don't have one of those." He then happily showed me all his pirate gear including his 'periscope' .

El Primo Gigante

2007-06-06T11:39:00.000-04:00

Back in Tucson we only had local TV channels. We'd often watch Univision, a Spanish language channel whose programming announcements were usually the most entertaining parts...everything seemed to be announced with a comically booming voice, no matter how mundane the television lineup. We always liked the announcements for Sabado Gigante (Gigantic Saturday), a rather kooky and colorful variety show. We used to entertain Jack and each other by speaking in the Sabado Gigante announcement voice. When I think of Jack's cousin Maddux these days, in my head I say "El Primo GiGANTEEEE!" (The Gigantic Cousin) As I mentioned in the Mother's Day Weekend post, Dude is a big kid. At 3 years 8 months and some change, he is about as tall as I was when I was 9 or something. Here are some Madman Maddux pics and a link to all the photos that Uncle Tony and Aunt Katie took that weekend.

You Say Potato...

2007-06-04T15:49:00.000-04:00

Mama is no sound engineer but she can do a cute remix. Click the play button to hear a sample.

Kiddo is talking up a storm. No sentences yet, but we're shocked at how well he can express himself.

For instance, there is just not a lot of ambiguity when he's pleading "Nee! Nee!" and pointing at Mama's boobs.

He's also become quite the little fetcher. You tell him to go get a book. He brings back a book. You tell him to bring you your shoes. Okay so it's anybody's guess just whose shoes he will bring, BUT you are pretty much guaranteed at least one shoe. Unless, of course, he gets sidetracked along the way by choo choos. He can't get enough of cars and choo choos.

Mother's Day Weekend

2007-05-23T10:31:00.000-04:00

This post is a little late in coming, but ah well.

We spent Mother's Day Weekend in Louisville, where Papaw Basham and Sunshine live. Lola also joined us, as well as Uncle Tony, Aunt Katie, Aunt Melanie, Uncle Toby, and, of course, little Cousin Maddux who is anything but little now. Papaw Basham's genes have activated, and at a bit over age 3.5, Maddux is practically my height.

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jeff even drove in for the fun.

Instead of going to a restaurant for Mother's Day Brunch, we decided to do a fried chicken picnic at a park near downtown Louisville. The weather was great. We had a picnic table, some blankets, and a fine shade tree. Instead of being imprisoned in chairs through the meal, the boys could run themselves ragged on the playground. (as you can see, both Lola and Jack really did wear themselves out).

The grownups could sit around and talk without feeling rushed. I think it was the most relaxing get together we've had in a number of years.

Some of us got to relax even more after the picnic. We hit the pool and the hot tub at the hotel with Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jeff...a very nice way to top things off. In a surprise move, Jack actually seemed to try to move his arms and legs in a swimming-type way...something he never did through all his weeks of swim lessons. Go figure.

Among us, we had approximately 1.4 billion megapixels worth of digital camera power, but unfortunately I don't think any of us took as many pictures as we meant to. I don't have a single one of Maddux, Melanie and Toby. And I've mostly got shots of Tony and Katie's feet. (See the picture of Jack playing with the Bicycle Man they gave him...Jack calls it 'Ride' and runs it up and down the driveway nearly every day.)

If any Aunts and Uncles out there remembered to snap away, do send pics and I'll post.

We also spent a fair bit of time at Papaw Basham and Sunshine's house. As you know, Jack loves to be outside (especially if there are hills to climb), and he loves to point out cars. His head nearly popped off when he reached the top of the hill by their place and discovered that he had a breath-taking view of traffic on I-65. He also enjoyed being walked by Papaw and Sunshine's brute of a dog, Rambo. (By the way, we took Jack for a walk yesterday and ended up trailing a woman and her dog for about a quarter mile. Jack thought it was funny to maniacally scream 'Doggy DoGGY DOGGEEEE!' at the the top of his lungs the whole time.)

All in all, it was a great vacation weekend. It was too short (somehow we were busy the whole time but we never made it to the Art Museum or the Science Center or the Filipino restaurant). Still it was nice.

Cherub Knieval

2007-05-04T14:22:00.000-04:00

So the morning routine is:

We get up.

Jack says 'car' a few dozen times (especially when he has slept in his car-printed jammies), and he points brightly at the ceiling fan.

Mama strips Jack down, and he uses the potty in the master bath.

All the while, he plays with a toy car, reads a book, and/or indicates each of the individual cars on the jammies he has shed.

Mama cleans Jack up and then opens the bathroom door signaling that cleanup is done.

Jack HAULS NAKED @$$ to his room and leaps up onto his little tricycle thingy to impress any one who will watch him defy gravity.

What must it be like to be in that noggin of his??

Like Father Like Son

2007-04-18T20:49:00.000-04:00

So Jack has been trying to pick up one of Daddy's super powers. The little guy is getting quite good, don't you think?...

Happy Birthday Papaw Basham

2007-04-16T20:40:00.000-04:00

Jack (and his mama and daddy) send their best wishes from the depths of the tupperware cabinet. We hope you had a great one!

Hiking at Sandy Creek

2007-04-14T14:39:00.000-04:00

We all share a love for being outside, so the three of us went to a local nature preserve that's very toddler-friendly. Check out Daddy's very cool JackPack.

Jack's Ipod

2007-04-14T14:34:00.000-04:00

Jack's been very into the Glow Worm that Papaw Basham and Sunshine gave him for Christmas.

In addition to dancing, he's been working on spinning himself around and walking backwards. Footage to come soon, if we can catch him.

Easter - The Directors' Cut

2007-04-14T14:03:00.000-04:00

Here's a Quicktime video of the Easter Egg Hunt for your viewing pleasure.

On Easter Sunday just about all the Chamblees and Cleggs in the region came over for a very festive dinner. We haven't had that many people in the house ever. We can't say how wonderful it feels to live near family again...our era in the desert had its good points, but the holidays often made us lonely for the Southeast. (Unfortunately, we forgot to get out the camera for a family picture.)

The Hunt

2007-04-09T16:03:00.000-04:00

Like most kids his age, Jack doesn't quite 'get' hunting for Easter Eggs. We put him on the ground, and the first thing he did was start grabbing at leaves. After a little coaching, he became interested in the eggs. He repeatedly picked up and threw down the same one, each time proclaiming, 'Ball'. Eventually, YoNanaMamaw did succeed in getting him to place a couple in his Easter Basket. Then he seemed to wonder why we were lingering outside when it was so bitterly cold.

Just Add Water

2007-04-06T09:35:00.000-04:00

Ordinarily, Jack is the gentle, contemplative type. If you were to observe Outdoors Time at daycare, you would see that he's the kid who quietly examines leaves and wood chips while the other kids play chase. Or, you might see him in the arms of one of his teachers pointing out all the trees to her. Or, you might see the little guy tagging along behind a wise-beyond-her-years 3-year-old who has taken him under her nurturing wing.

But put Kiddo in the water, and something happens...

Yesterday, Mama and Jack started swim lessons at the local Y. It's a class for wee ones, aged roughly 6 months to two-and-a-half. Mama always expects Jack to be the slightly shy one in a crowd of kids. Not so in the water.

It quickly became apparent that he is to be the class hellion. He's not bad, mind you, but his excitement quickly unnerves the other moms and babies. They are trying to ease ever so gently into the experience. Sea Monkey has decided that shall not be his way. He wants to flail and splash and squeal and wiggle with all his might into the experience.

After mere minutes, Mama was tired. Holding him in the water is like holding a sea otter on speed.

If, based on this photo, you are wondering how bad Mama can look on film, it gets worse. It's hard to keep both eyes open when the water is flying.

The Goose Egg

2007-04-06T09:17:00.000-04:00

So all three of us had a stomach virus for a few days. Poor Jack was the first to get it and the last to be done with it.

On Tuesday night he had his first burst of normal play energy. A rousing game of chase ensued. Sweet Pea was running down the hall in hot pursuit of Mama when he smacked into one of the door mouldings.

It was quickly clear to us that Jack was okay, so of course we decided to immortalize the resulting goose egg, which took less than a minute to spring forth from his noggin. We couldn't get a good profile shot for you to appreciate just how big this thing got. Kids' heads are amazing. We applied a little arnica gel and a few minutes of ice. Twenty-five minutes later it was already nearly flat and fading.

Jack Hearts The Great Outdoors

2007-03-26T15:06:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics from playing outside at home and at the park nearby. Jack could spend all day outdoors. At the park, the main attractions are the woodchips and anything he can climb.

At home, his favorite activities are pushing his popper up and down the driveway and picking up pine cones, pine straw, and flowers. He also loves to point at everything and brightly say, 'See?' (which actually sounds more like 'Tee?') Lately he's been very into picking up and throwing balls. In anticipation of picking up a ball, he walks like Frankenstein towards it (i.e. both arms are out to grasp it even if he's 1o feet away from it). Once he has it, he turns to you and says 'Ball.' Then he makes his granny shot.

Croup de grâce

2007-03-23T11:35:00.000-04:00

Here is Kiddo giggling it up with Aunt Kathy last week. Poor kid had just been diagnosed with croup, but he could still find it in himself to laugh. For those who don't know, croup comes with that kind of dry cough that sounds like a seal barking...wholly unnatural and sad when it comes out of your little baby. The days weren't so bad, but we had a few nights of very poor sleep, including one where he never slept more than half an hour at a time. Mama hasn't done that kind of night duty since he was a few weeks old. This was harder. Jack was happy when he was awake at night those many moons ago. This time, he wanted desperately to sleep but he just couldn't.

Anyway, all is well now, save for a slightly stuffy nose. The weather's been great here, so everyday we spend the space between day care and dinner playing outside in the yard. Daddy taught Sweet Pea how to throw a ball. He prefers 'granny' throws. Hopefully we'll catch that on film soon...

The Cape Escape

2007-03-06T12:45:00.000-05:00

Click the image to see a brief slideshow of our trip with Papaw and YoNanaManaw to Aunt Mimi's and Uncle David's Florida home. It was a fantastic long weekend...I can almost taste the strawberry pie and freshly-picked grapefruit as I type this.

Not only did Mama and Daddy actually relax for several days in a row (no one could believe we showed up sans laptops), but Jack may have had some of the best play time in his life.

The boy lives to be outside. Instead of spending perhaps 3 to 5 percent of his day outside like he does here in Georgia (which is up from the 1 or 2 percent we could manage in the Tucson heat) he spent practically all of his awake time outside. He even got to enjoy some outdoor sleepy time, as shown by the pic of nap time in the hammock with YoNanaMamaw.

What a lot of adventures for the boy...he spent hours playing with grass, shells, rocks, woodchips, and pods from the mahogany tree. Of course, the pool was a big hit. And he got to 'drive' the boat. He even managed to make friends with his four-legged cousin, Bo D, whose excitement used to make him a little nervous.

Playtime in the pool showed us that Jack has absolutely no fear of the water. He just doesn't yet know that he can't breathe it. The next adventure...probably swim lessons.

Thanks Aunt Mimi, Uncle David, Papaw, and YoNanaMamaw for one of the best vacations ever!

Taking up the Veil

2007-02-25T19:23:00.000-05:00

For Christmas Aunt Mimi and Uncle David gave Jack a little music kit that came with this red scarf. We made many a joke that day about how the scarf only seemed to have a place in the rainbow-themed kit if the kit were meant to turn little Jack into a musical drag queen.

Jack never paid much attention to the scarf until tonight when he re-discovered it in his toy basket and insisted on running up and down the hallway squealing with delight. It just happened to be a night when we had him in his pink cloth diaper cover. (His fashionable Papaw wears manly pink button downs, so we figured we shouldn't care that a quality diaper cover at a clearance price only came in pink.)

We just love the boy, so even if he insists on red scarves and pink underwear for the rest of his life, it will not bother us as long as he remains the beautiful, happy little soul that he is.

Little Boy, Big Noggin

2007-02-23T11:57:00.000-05:00

Click the image to see a Quicktime video of Jack walking a week or two after he became a toddler (you will note that this was before his haircut).

Every night before his bath, we have Naked Baby Playtime at the Basham Chamblee home (the last hurrah before he goes Night Night). Jack runs around in his underwear like a maniac while we chase him. Usually he gets a lot crazier (and far more giggly) than shown in this video, but it's still pretty illustrative of the cute and happy kid that is Jack.

Jack the Artist

2007-02-19T12:32:00.000-05:00

Mama helped Jack make this Valentine for Daddy, featuring Sweet Pea's first ever artwork.

bbbbbbbbbbbb....

2007-02-17T22:26:00.000-05:00

Lately Jack often entertains himself (and us) by wiggling his fingers against his lip to make the cutest little bbbbbbb... noise.

So if you are ever stuck at Logan International Airport...

2007-02-17T22:18:00.000-05:00

...check out the Kidport near the A-gates. Jack especially loved the kiddie airplane.

Remember that bundled up kid in a Christmas Story?

2007-02-17T22:09:00.000-05:00

Jack didn't really get to play in the New England snow. He and Daniel napped through when it was fluffy and pretty. By the next day, what looked like snow was really a sheet of ice. We borrowed Daniel's snowsuit, took the requisite picture, and then went back inside where it was warm.

Jack's like Daddy, though. He loves the cold.

Mamas and Babies

2007-02-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

Mama and Jack had a great time in Salem, MA, with Auntie Kim, Uncle Pedro, and little Daniel. Jack got a little jealous whenever Mama cuddled Daniel, so he made sure to demand lots of short bouts of nursing. He seemed to think he should assert himself as the master and commander of Mama's love (and her bosom).

Yes, in the first shot he is about to smack Danielito in the back of the head. Thankfully, his smack doesn't pack much punch.

Jack Stomps the Yard

2007-02-11T18:36:00.000-05:00

On both Saturday and Sunday we went to the playground near our house. We haven't gone there since before Jack officially became a toddler, so it was great fun to see him really hit the ground running. Jack plays fleeting favorites. For a little while, the slide is all he can think about. Then the tunnel. Then the bouncy bridge. Then the woodchips. He wasn't all that jazzed about the sandbox.

I'm not a huge Disney fan, but the Nemo hat sure doesn't hurt his looks. It has little fins and a tail.

This week Mama and Jack are off to Salem, MA, to see Aunt Kim and little Daniel. When we get back I'll post some pics of our little jaunt to the cold, cold Northeast.

At The Rocket Salon

2007-02-04T15:30:00.000-05:00

At this stage, what we think is that dear Jack has inherited some of our curiosity. What we know is that he has inherited our capacity to grow hair. In fact, Grasshopper may have surpassed his elders, for he can excrete keratin like it's an Olympic sport. Mama presents a coiffure progression beginning from a few weeks before his birth to recent weeks when we became fond of the o-ichou, i.e. a sumo wrestler(ish) topknot.

On Friday we took him to The Rocket Salon here in Athens. Sure, we could have gotten his first tattoo but after some thought we opted for a first haircut instead. We did have to break out the Cheerios before it was over, but he was mostly an angel throughout. Now a Cheerio tattoo, there's a thought...(surprisingly, we could not find a link to a cheerio tattoo on the web).

Mama and Daddy kinda miss Sweet Pea's long and lovely locks. Mama won't claim that she heard the not-entirely-welcome sound of infancy's end as every snip fell to the floor. But she will say that she wishes he didn't have to grow up quite so fast.

Mamas, why do we have to let our babies grow up to be grown ups...?

ps. Click on the individual pics to enlarge.