Jack and I have been getting along really well lately, and I
love it. He finally became fully potty trained in January, eleven months after
I started training him. That was one of the longest years of my life, trying
everything to get him to poop, but nothing worked. It was really only when he
was ready he figured it out. One of the bargaining chips we tried to use was
that he could stop taking naps when he went in the toilet. For a while after he
was trained I would find him asleep in various places since he stopped having
his quiet time. The potty training seemed to be the real transition to his
pleasant self. He is so much better behaved and more enjoyable to be around, I
am so grateful to have finally turned that corner.
One of his 'potty presents'. We had a bunch of things sitting on a self waiting for him and he knew they were there, and then he finally got them. And now the may ways I found him sleeping.
This was during our cold, long winter. All I could see was his nose.
A couple of the sleeping pictures occurred while Jack was listening to CDs. He is really into music and will ask for a CD and just sit and listen. He can work it himself and will often rewind certain songs over and over again, just to hear the parts that he likes. He is also well aware of songs on the radio and can often tell you the name and artist.
He is really liking his father these days. He will tell Chris, 'I just love boys, I just love you... and my grandpas.' Chris will ask if he loves his mom, and Jack will glare at me and say 'sometimes'.
He is still into his cars. Now they have races all over the house where he drives them in herds across the carpet. He always assembles the one that don’t drive very well in a separate clump and call them his ‘prisoners’. The other day we saw a new Mustang parked on the street and Jack stopped in awe and said ‘what is THAT car?’
The cars racing are on the floor, and the 'prisoners' are on the couch.
This summer I’m working on his writing skills. With our little preschool group it became apparent that Jack's writing ability was behind his peers. He can do straight lines and circles, and that's it. He doesn’t ever draw pictures of anything, it's all just scribbles. Before he would get frustrated because he knew that he couldn't do it well, and so he wouldn't even try. Now I bribe him with treats to practice and I think it is helping.
Jack has his fourth birthday in April, but due to phone malfunctions I’ve lost all April pictures. Which is fine because I didn’t do a fancy cake.
Jack is really into bugs. In the spring when there were caterpillars all over he would always find them and make them his pets. He would wear them on his shirt or put them in the stroller to take with us on our walks, and always check on them. He also has always been fascinated by ants. Lately he has started to blow them off the sidewalks. Other times he draws circles around them (drawing!) with chalk. It seems to be his favorite pastime now, he'll often say “I'm going outside to blow ants!” and head out the door, not minding the 90 degree heat and high humidity.
Despite the weather, we go outside a lot, mostly walking to the library and back and exploring all the parks and bridges in between. I was taking a picture of the kids playing when happen to catch this great shot right as Jack was taking a dramatic fall on the concrete. It was very slippery and slimy and gross and he bonked his head and scraped his elbows. He decided it wasn't such a good idea to play there after all.
When I just have the single stroller and they both want to sit.
Now for some more random pictures.
The marbleworks in the background is the favorite inside activity.
He likes looking for treasure under couch, but the reason I took this picture because he told me he 'cleaned up', but really shoved all the toys into a big pile.
