Mom, I'm Not A Baby Anymore!

Jack seems to have grown up so much recently. He's suddenly able to crawl on and off of the couch all by himself ... and the coffee table. His new thing is to pull himself onto the coffee table, and stand there yelling at nothing in particular until someone notices him. One of his favorite games is to climb onto his chair and turn the ceiling fan on and off. He can also reach the candles and key dish (a gift from Israel I might add) that we purposely moved to a higher location several months ago after he cracked it in three places. He's able to get Monkey and the paci out of his crib even when I move them to the wayyyy back. And he's started pulling food off the counters.

So he has definitely gotten taller. But he also seems to have gotten a little heavier too. He still manages to outgrow several pieces of clothing a week. I always thought kids thinned out after they started walking, I mean he has to be burning A LOT of calories with the way he runs around he house all day. But Jack's thighs are as big as ever and, with my growing belly, carrying him around is harder than ever! By the time I carry him upstairs for bed I'm gasping for air and have to sit down in the rocking chair. People like to suggest that I stop carrying him but that's just not possible. (A) he likes it when Mommy holds him and (B) Mommy likes it when Jack lets her hold him. :) I only have a few more weeks left with "just the two of us", I want to get as many snuggles in as I can!

Tank's still not saying much. Mainly "uh-oh," "more," "Momma," "me," and "ball." Although it's been rumored that he's said "book" and "duck", I'm still waiting for confirmation on these. He still manages to communicate fairly well without words though. Thanks to Daddy's purchase of the mini-leather chair, Jack seems to have discovered a new love for TV. Several times a day he points to it and says "moov" (I'm guessing this means movie???) And several times a day Mommy has to say no. But when I do say yes, he still only watches maybe 10-15 minutes of a show. Maybe he just likes it on as background noise.

Just last weekend Jack started telling us when he poops. He points to his diaper and says "mee!" and then runs to the stairs to go get changed. I'm pretty excited about this. Which makes it even clearer to me that I am very much a mom.

And finally, Jack's favorite activity of the day is "helping" me in the kitchen. I got so tired of trying to juggle a clinging, whining baby while cooking dinner or washing dishes that I finally figured out a solution - the step ladder. All this time I thought Jack wanted me to hold him. Apparently, he just wanted to see what was going on... and to be involved in the process. He's a very participatory kind of kid! The step ladder is his new very favorite "toy," he points to it several times a day and says "meee" and doesn't stop, even if I say "no, not now," try to ignore him, turn off the kitchen lights and leave the room, etc. The poor kid will continue to stand there, tapping the ladder with his finger, "meee??"

This is Jack washing dishes, i.e. Jack takes the clean dishes off the drying rack and puts them back in the sink, or Jack fills cups and bowls with water from the sink and then dumps the water down the side of the cabinets.

This is Jack helping Mommy make biscuits, i.e. Jack takes utensils out of the canister such as tongs, and uses them to crush egg shells into sauce cups. Fortunately, I stopped him before he added the egg shells to the dough.

And this is Jack doing what he does best - licking icing off the beaters!

But we all know growing up isn't easy, especially if you're the mom. Jack's nap routine has really been throwing me for a few loops lately. He's at the age where most kids are beginning to drop the morning nap. I really wanted to hang onto that baby for as long as I could, but his nap cues have been harder and harder to read, and it didn't help that Christmas traveling, cutting two teeth, and our trip our West all occurred in the last 8 weeks. Some mornings he refuses to nap and is cranky for the better part of the day, other days he'll sleep 2 hours in the morning and then not at all the rest of the day, and then some days he'll take a fantastic nap in the morning and in the afternoon and these are the days that make Mommy very happy! It's been a little tough, but here's hoping this is just a temporary transitional period... one that will end within the next 8 weeks!!

So here we are in this awkward in-between stage, where my baby isn't quite a baby anymore, where my almost-toddler thinks it's fun to crawl on his new big-boy-bed but isn't nearly ready to spend the night in it, where I'm just realizing that my Tank's head and legs are hanging off the edges of the changing table and that he doesn't really fit in his highchair. And where Mommy isn't quite as sad as she used to be about how big her boy is getting because she knows that in a few weeks she gets to do it all over again! It's hard to believe he really won't be the baby of the family after then!