He Knows What's Important

My Jack is taking his time, choosing his first words carefully. I can tell he is really putting some thought into it and mentally weighing his options here - what he chooses will forever be remembered, right? I am please to announce that he officially has a "vocabulary" now. I bet you are dying to hear what it consists of, am I right? Get ready. His deliberation and thought has clearly paid off and he has chosen wisely:

Daddy

Doggy (or more precisely, Gog gog)

Bibi (his little blankie)

Shoe (pronounced "shooooo")

NO!

While he occasionally busts out with a new word here and there, these are the only four consistent ones. The rest of his communication is accomplished through a complex system of grunts, pointing, head nodding or shaking, and various levels and pitches of whiney noises.

I just have to say though, that his "no" should count for a few words. This kid clearly understands the meaning of the word. He has a firm "NO!" when Mitchell tries to take a toy from him. He has a whiney, drawn-out "noooooo" for when I try to feed him an undesirabl

e item. He has a playful "no no no!" when I snatch his "bibi" from him and hide it. He has a desperate "I don't have the words to tell you how frustrated and tired I am right now NO!" when I am just not doing what he wants me to do or can't figure out what in the world he wants.

Anyways, he's quite a tough little cookie who loves his dad, loves any and every dog perhaps even more, can't do without his precious blankie, is constantly putting on everyone's shoes, and somehow hasn't realized he even has a mommy yet.

I Can't Believe He Sleeps With That

Jack's newest obsession is faucets. I have stools in front of my bathroom sinks for my bigger boys to use for washing their hands and brushing their teeth. I have recently discovered that Jack is also getting plenty of use out of the stools. He climbs right up them, reaches up, turns the water on full blast, and proceeds to soak his sleeves up to his armpits, plus whatever item he has brought with him to the sink, be it a toy, a cup, a diaper, and most lately, his little blankie.

I am trying to remember to pull all the stools away from the sinks, but even when I remember, the boys forget so Jack soaks his little blankie at least once a day. Since Jack refuses to go down for a nap easily without that smelly thing, I just can't keep it dry and he ends up choosing to sleep with it all soggy! I have tried keeping it when it is wet like that, but he calls and calls for it. When I give it to him, he smashes it to his face, lays right down, curls up, and heads off to dream land.

When he wakes up, there is a giant wet spot in his crib and his hair is sticking straight up on one side from sleeping on a wet blanket, but he doesn't seem to mind at all!

Just a few minutes ago, I heard Mitchell shout at Jack from upstairs, "Oh, Jack! Not again! What are we going to do with you!?" Yep. Blankie is in a soggy heap with hot water running on it, clogging the sink. Mitchell had the right question: what are we going to do with this boy?

Part Puppy

I sometimes wonder if the stork brought me the wrong species of baby.  Based on his behavior, Jack often acts more like a puppy than a human.  For example: he LOVES to play fetch!  He even plays it all by himself!  He will throw a ball, then pounce after it on all fours, pick it up with his teeth, laugh a bit, then throw it again.  

And speaking of putting things in his mouth - the boy doesn't just hold things with his teeth or gnaw on a teething toy.  He puts ALL objects he can find into his mouth and really attempts to tear pieces off of it!  I have never observed him actually swallowing the chunks, but he really can rip things apart.  I have found bite marks in many toys and non-toys alike and even found completely shredded things, with a trail of pieces leading back to my little puppy.  

He also uses those magnificent teeth of his to bite me if he can and also uses them as an extra hand, since the two he has are used for getting around.  It is really so cute and quite puppyish when he comes crawling up to me with his little blankie in his mouth; big, round eyes looking up at me, begging me to pick him up.

He pees and poops about as much as a puppy as well and, just like with a puppy, I have to get up in the middle of the night every night to, well, not take him outside to poop (that's kind of a funny thought) but to change his poopie diaper.  

Ah, well.  Puppy or baby boy - he's pretty stinkin' cute and a constant source of laughter and happiness for the rest of us, despite his nightly middle-of-the-night-poops!

A Boy And His Blankie

Since my last few blogs have been without pictures of my handsome little boys, I have been searching my mind for some inspiration - what can I do a quick blog about that I can add a picture to?  It came to me as I was trying to play with my tired and fussy baby, but he did not seem interested in any of my great ideas.  When I handed him his little blankie (we call it "bibi" pronounced "bee-bee") he instantly stopped fussing, smiled, smashed it into his face and wiggled in happiness.  Knowing my Jack as I do, I knew this was his way of saying, "You may put me in my bed now, mom!"

That boy loves his bibi.  He comes by it naturally though.  Both his older brothers are huge fans of their blankies as well.  Ben's has a smell that only he can smell that is special to him.  He loves the rough side of it and will absentmindedly run his fingers across it while watching a movie.   Mitchell will wear his over his head, ghost-style, or bury Jack in it to play a full-body game of peek-a-boo, or just wrap himself in it at night.  Jack's smells a tad..."iffy" because I try not to wash it too often, but he must have that over his face in order to fall asleep peacefully.  I let him hold it while I feed him his bottle at night and he pulls it up over the bottle, burying both his face and the bottle until it is finished.  

Some parents have asked me why my kids all love blankies so much, sharing with me that none of their kids have ever shown any fondness for a particular blanket.  My answer to this is the guess that I must have had something to do with it.  For whatever reason, I wanted them to have a special blankie (probably because I did: my "pretty") so I consistently gave it to them at night until it caught on!  Will I wish I had not encouraged blankie usage?  I doubt it.  They don't try to take them to school with them or out to play and they really come in handy when they are sad or scared or in trouble or just need a good snuggle on their own.  

A Bad Case of Morning Breath

The first thing Mitchell said to me this morning, after groggily slumping his sleepy self downstairs and plopping down next to me on the couch (he ALWAYS gets himself up too early!) was "Pew mommy!  You smell stinky!"  I hadn't even talked to him yet, let alone made any smells of my own, so I had no idea what he was talking about.  I told him not to be rude and then he insisted that I smelled badly, so I sent him to sit somewhere else away from me.  When he sat down in his next choice of seat, he said the same thing, "It's stinky here too!"  He curled up on the floor next, buried under his blankie only to re-surface and complain of the smell in there too!

I smelled the places his complained of and since there was no smell whatsoever, I concluded that it was mearly his own morning breath grossing him out.  Putting a blankie close to your face or covering your head completely with it first thing in the morning is not recommended if you have a sensitive nose like Mitchell.