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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.
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.)
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' .
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.
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.
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.
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??
