We're all ok...really

After some concern from some family members, we thought we better update sooner rather than later to clarify a few things. We are doing ok! I’m trying to do these posts chronologically so the last post was about the state of things for the first 20 weeks of my pregnancy. It was a really rough and depressing time for everyone. Now things still aren't easy, but it is definitely a lot more manageable and so things are less sad for Jack. 

Now some up-to-date things about Jack:

He climbed out of his crib about a week ago! It was the strangest thing. It was the first night he went to bed without asking for his pacifier. We just put it in his crib because we knew he would want it and hoped he'd be able to find it. About an hour after putting him down, Chris and I are watching tv and I keep thinking I'm hearing some extra breathing, so I get up and find Jack standing in the middle of the stairs watching tv. Freaked us out! There was no thud or crash or anything (we would hear it if it happened) so we have no idea how he got out. It is a pretty high crib too, not one that is low to the floor. He still talks about getting out  and watching mommy and daddy's show, but luckily hasn't ever escaped again. 

Speaking of pacifiers, Jack is finally done with them. He likes to chew on them so they get holes in them but he will still use them. I've been able to get him to throw away the bad ones and we made it down to one remaining pacifier. It finally died the other night as he was bitting and pulling on it and broke it into to. It was really sad for me because he didn't seem to quite register what had happened, but tried to suck on the two pieces without any luck and kept trying to put them back together. He never cried about it but kept trying to make something work. So now he goes without, but still asks for it at bedtime and naptime and we just have to remind him that it is broken. 

Everyday (when I remember) I give him a gummy vitamin bear. Everytime he gets it he does the same thing and says "Oh hi bear! It's ok bear. Lets go play!" 

He has this calculator that he uses as a cell phone. He'll pick it up and say "Oh hi Marel!" (his aunt). He will also call his cousins and one time he called our bishop. 

I gave him his juice this morning and he was drinking it and stopped and said to himself "I love juice."

While I was cooking dinner tonight Jack was in the kitchen playing with two mismatched shoes that he named bob and larry, a tupperware lid named lid and a spoon named spoon. He had the spoon and lid in his hand and they were having this conversation:

Spoon: "Hi lid, this is my friend bob." 

Lid: "bob?" 

Spoon: "yes. this is my friend larry." 

Lid: "larry?" 

Spoon: "yes, this is my friend Jack" 

Lid: "Jack?" 

Spoon: "yes."

Later he moved onto the other things in the kitchen, my favorite was "this is my sister rice."

If I ask him to do something and he doesn't want to he will say he is busy. 

If we catch him doing something he isn't supposed to be doing he will tell us to go away. Not in a mean way, but he wants us to go back to not paying him any attention. "Go away mommy" or "Go to the kitchen mommy"

When I ask him if he has a poopy diaper he used to say "no it's clean" but now he says "no just farting"

One day we were laying on the couch and his head was on my stomach. The baby was moving and I told Jack "oh the baby's kicking you!" Jack got all serious and said "say no. feet are not for kicking" (he really took that library book to heart)

  

Since I've been sick...

Jack has had fewer enforced boundaries. There is a significant decrease in the number of pictures that I have taken in the months that have been the worst so here are some of the few, all of Jack of course.

Anytime it would rain, Jack would go outside with his umbrella and boots and enjoy himself, sometimes sitting down in the puddle of the down spout of the gutter. 

He was mostly always supervised, but sometimes tried to run away from our house (I since have had to tie the fence shut so he wouldn't get out.) Sometimes he sneaks into the azaleas with his milk.

Another favorite place Jack liked to go while I was laying on the couch is upstairs. Kleenex boxes are so much better than blocks. (Also notice how often his is in pajamas- I didn't always get around to changing his clothes.)

I do feel bad for this poor kid though, since he was getting less attention/love/interaction/comfort from me, he turned to his blankie and pacifier so much more for comfort. Often he would go upstairs and I wouldn't hear from him for a long time. I would go and check on him and he would be just sitting in his closet not doing anything. I hope he isn't too messed up...

He also now has this strange compulsion to hide/stash all his toys instead of playing with them. Below is him putting every loose object in his room into the pack-n-play. Shortly after Levi left He started doing this shortly after Levi left, so the pack-n-play was still up. Taking it down didn't solve the problem, he now piles up his toys in any confined space. Mainly behind things like his crib, piano, couch, and food storage. I've stopped cleaning it up because it is a pain and now he pretty much doesn't have any toys in sight.  

And of course, no childhood is complete without writing on the walls. The worst time was when I was upstairs having one of my frequent dates with the toilet. After composing myself enough I come downstairs and look for Jack. In the kitchen I see white board marker all over the fridge and cabinets, then I see some on the carpet and on the wall by the door. Then I find him outside drawing on the porch (he can open the door), after scribbling on the outside doors. I was able to clean most of it off, except for the marker on our little trash closet door. If you come and visit you can still see it.

Another time when I came back downstairs I found Jack smelling the flowers. That was more pleasant.

Jack did seem to enjoy eating the foods that I was eating. His favorite was popsicles. 

Another bonus for Jack was the increase of daddy bonding time. Chris was so awesome at watching Jack when he came home from school and on the weekends. You can't tell from the picture but one of the favorite activities was bike rides. Then in a tragic turn of events, the bike was stolen one day when Chris took it to campus. It was locked up and everything too. Luckily campus security caught the event on video so they know who did it and the guy is now in prison for a different offense, but it seems like he sold the bike before getting caught so we are probably not going to get the bike back. Sad sad day.