The only thing to fear is the bug itself

There are lots of lessons that Brian and I teach Jack. Be nice, say thank you, say Please.

I made a pact to myself that I would never instill any fear that I have on to my child. By that I mean, that any phobia I have, I would never project that to Jack. Anyone that knows me, knows that I have a phobia of bugs. The occasional spider that happens to be on our wall disgusts me to no end. Before child, I would freak out at the sight of seeing a bug at home. Poor Brian would hear cries of " Oh my god!!! Get that thing out of here. Get it! GET IT!!! How I would love to still do that now.
However, we do have a kid. And I think there is nothing more frightening for your child to see than your mom jumping up and down and have the look of death on her face. With this, comes Sunday's early evening story;

Dinnertime, and I went to the kitchen. Brian and Jack were in the living room eating dinner. I went to open the fridge, when I saw some creature the size of Mount Everest on the fridge door. I didn't want to look at it, I didn't want to see what it was. A Cricket? A grasshopper? It looked weird, and it looked foreign. My first instinct was to do the usual song and dance of "Oh my god, get it GET IT!!" But I very calmly said ,

Brian, can you come into the kitchen please? I am being very calm about this because there is some sort of bug on the refridgerator.

My feet didn't move and Brian, the man of the house, went up close to it ( he really is a brave man cause that thing could have jumped on his face) swatted it and threw it away.

What would have happened if this bug was here when Brian was not? And what if Jack walked into the kitchen and saw me with the zombie look staring at the bug? I would want to think that I am braver than I think. And that I can handle something as small as a stupid bug. Perhaps the next thing to teach Jack is this :

Take this shoe, swat the bug, scoop it up and put it in the garbage.

I'll let you know how the lesson goes.

The Dialect and the Words

The baby babbles have left a long time ago. Before, if Jack said something that sounded like a word, but if we didn’t understand it, we would just nod our head, say “Uh huh, that’s right” and Jack would be content with that.
Now when Jack says something, and we do not understand what he says, he will repeat the word. Again. And again. And again. Til we finally say the word correctly that he has been trying to say, and then Jack will be content.

It is amazing to see your child’s thought process right before your eyes. His eyes get so wide eyed, and he looks so earnestly at you, like” Pleeeeaaase, understand on what I am trying to say to you!"
There are times when I don’t know what he is saying. It's true. And I apologize to Jack that I don’t understand him. And he gets it. He gets that we don’t understand his words sometimes. And he will give up. And try again later. Which at that point, makes me sad and I rack my brain for the rest of the day on what he was trying to say. 8 times out of 10, it will come to me.

My parents will give me some updates on what he has been saying when they take care of him. It is pretty cute when they say “What is this word? What does he mean when he says this?”

Like all great memories, these misunderstandings are becoming few and far between now. Jack’s words are getting a lot clearer now. And, we have to admit that he is growing up with a bit of a British dialect.
Why? Thomas the Tank Engine sing along songs. Those songs have little British kids singing the songs and he LOVES listening to those them. I have to admit that they are cute songs. Because singing about strength and determination is not a bad way at all to encourage your child's self esteem. And I love how Jack sings "Don't give up, show determination."
Now, not all words are spoken with a British tone, but it comes out when he says his r’s. It is the cutest thing to hear Jack say “Look at the bird!” in a form similar to John Lennon in “A Hard Day’s Night.” Check out the :20 second mark to hear that phrase from the clip below. And by the way, if you have not seen A Hard Day’s Night yet, make that your plan for tonight.

Easter

Brian's Marscapone Pears are quickly becoming a family favorite.

Jack's hair swishing every jump

This is I holding the Easter bunny- our niece Frances.

Hunting for the eggs.

The dance that started the day.

These past two weeks have been a bit taxing for me. Losing a childhood friend just gives you that jolt that you need every once in a while. All the little things that you complain about every day. It's just little things. It is no big deal, cause in the end of the day, you come home to a child that is starting to converse with you, you come home to a husband that wants to cook. I can complain all I want about work, but in the end it is just wasted energy. I have been mentally and emotionally exhausted these past two weeks, that I feel that it is time to get back to life. And then came Easter.
It was what I needed. A lot of family, from Brian's side and then off to my familyfor dinner at night. It felt good to just be with a bunch of people, and talk about the food that you just ate, or the trip you may take in the summer. It was a good Easter. Jack experienced his first confetti spray can. He got a big kick out of throwing the can on the floor, watching the cap pop off, and saying "IT BROKE!" over and over again. Jack understood what to do when you searched for eggs. He especially liked that the Easter bunny placed chocolate covered marshmallows in every egg. Score one for Jack.

Two great sentences

Saturday
That night was supposed to be a great girls night. And as always, you put too much thought and emphasis on an event, and that will probably be cancelled on you. It was cancelled. So to do something great, I decided to make cookie dough, and eat it raw. Alright, so maybe I made some cookies, but my main intention was to just eat a big bowl of it.
Jack stood on a chair and was helping me here and there with making the cookies. Since he is repeating every word we say ( yes, every word) I announced what I was doing to him.

So we are going to take the flour - Me

We take the fower - Jack

And we just take some salt - Me

We take salt - Jack

Then he said something great - Can I help you?

Just like that. Our son turned from a toddler who could only say a word here and there to a little boy. I looked at Brian and gave him the pouty lip look. Brian knows what that means. It means
" Our little boy is the best. " Jack did help, by pouring the flour in the bowl, the sugar and eating the cookies.

Sunday
Easter Sunday morning was at my mother in law's. We have Jack's Radio Flyer wagon at her house, so Jack and I took that with us as we went for a walk around the neighborhood. He ran ahead of me, I took the wagon. He turned around and said great sentence # 2

"I can do it."

And he took the handle of the wagon and pulled it himself. If you have seen this wagon, it's a pretty big monster of a thing, and here was my kid, pulling it all by himself. That happy feeling soon turned into a race, as Jack ran away with the wagon and I literally ran as an Olympic athlete to try to catch up to him.

Word to anyone taking care of Jack- he runs, he is FAST and you will need some training of some sort to catch up to him.