Sproinngnnnnng, sproooooigniinnnng

Jack's fine motor skills are really moving along. I put some broken up cheerios on his high chair tray (broken really small so they weren't a choking hazard, and I stayed right with him in any event). He was soooooo intent on picking them up, working his little hands and fingers. He managed to get some of them into his fist, but can't quite manage the finger pickup yet...but is trying so hard. Once he had the fragment in his hand, he brought it to his mouth and made eating motions with his mouth. No food got from fist to mouth of course, but the little genius has the right idea. I was feeding him his lunch in any event. Jack spent some time this morning in his jolly jumper, and was loving it. Sproinngnnnnng, sproooooigniinnnng away. Also loves to sit on the floor and torment Dancer. too funny the two of them. Sometimes Jack pulls her hair and she just crouches down until he lets go and then takes off. Of course she comes back on her own five minutes later, so it can't be that bad. I also swear he said DADA today. In closing, we had a wonderful time, and I can really see you in him these days. Yes he looks like Dad, but that is partly the man thing, and I can definitely see your face in his.

p.s. I forgot to tell you this one.... in the afternoon around 1:30 he was having his bottle in our favorite rocking chair. Swilled it down contentedly, with eyes falling shut. But when he was done, he started squirming around and getting ready to cry, like he didn't want to fall asleep just yet. Started a loud howl, and fell asleep right in the middle of it! I laughed all afternoon about that one.
[Joan]

Email from Kiva

Dear mommie,
i'm playing with Dancer. I love Dancer. I'm a beast. Have a good day.
Love,
Kiva

Don't ask me, I'm just the secretary.
Love,
Joan

Fat little fingers

Jack's fine motor skills are really picking up too. He is paying attention to little details like small buttons on my shirt, and trying to touch them individually. Very cute with those fat little fingers. Jack is now calling Dancer over to him when he sees her. She comes right over, stands on her back feet and lets him pull her hair and touch her face, while she licks his fingers. [Joan]

An amazing conversationalist

Jack and I have spent a lot of time today "talking". he is an amazing conversationalist, and always waits until I am finished before he responds. Very attentive, gazes intently into my eyes while I am talking. It's clear he thinks I have extraordinary things to tell him. ;-) Jack makes a huge variety of sounds, and talks directly too me. I wish I could understand exactly what he was trying to say.
I saw some of the temper today. I had to put him down in his crib to take the phone to Ken, just for 2 minutes but he didn't know that, wow! he was howling. then in the afternoon, I gave him the rest of the peas and brown rice. He hadn't been to keen on it in the morning, but did eat half the jar. In the afternoon he took one bite and was off his head with rage. Tears, red face. I hastily heated the carrots and he inhaled them as fast as he could. Was in a great mood as soon as I started spooning in the carrots. No other symptoms of temper tantrums, so I'm not worried that our little mellow man has turned into the raging monster. But what a shock to see the sweetheart have a howling fit. He loved his bath again today, was deliberately splashing in the water with his hands and feet. Also sitting up very well. Also, we were up in my room playing and talking on my bed when Jim got here. I was making bee buzz sounds with my big stuffed bee and he was laughing really hard. As soon as the front door opened, he looked toward the bedroom door and didn't look back at me until after Jim came up the stairs and into the bedroom. I swear he knew his daddy had arrived, way before he saw him. Ken had come in the front door maybe 15 minutes earlier and Jack didn't pay any attention to it at all. The kid is another genius.

I want my daddy!!

Jack is too funny when Jim comes to pick him up. He will either push me away with one arm, or just lean toward Jim batting his eyes and smiling. Either way, the meaning is clear...."I want my daddy!!" Jack doesn't fuss or cry, just does whatever it takes to charm pop into picking him up. Kiva doing great, we've played on the computer, shopped for flowers for the front door pots and planted them, took coins to the coin machine at the bank (can you imagine I can carry over $100.00 in coins on my old purse??), had breakfast and lunch with granpa, and she is now down for a nap. We'll go to fair oaks park after nap so we can play with the scooter and go to the library. Kiva much in love with granpa today. After breakfast he left the room and she called out "where are you going"? When he said he was going to brush his teeth, she scooted into "her" bathroom, grabbed her brush and toothpaste and was up the stairs after him like a flash. Very cute. Good appetite today. It is soooo good to see that girl eat. She does love her macaroni and cheese.

HAHAHAing

Jack funny with his bottle today. Lots of very LOUD appreciative noise while eating...a kind of loud aaaaaaaa hum sound. Also I hear MMMM sounds as well as DADADADA and HAHAHAHA. we had quite an exchange today with the HAHAHAing at each other. He was laughing himself silly as was I. [Joan]

Big Carrot Smile

When Jack was eating his carrots this afternoon, he got a brief coughing attack, and every time he would cough he would also fart, and then smile this big carrot smile. I was laughing so hard I was almost crying. [Joan]

there goes santa

Too funny, we heard a fire truck go by and Kiva said "there goes santa".

Gram

Kiva doing just great, we went to IKEA with grampa. Kiva is so funny with Grampa, I wanted to go to IKEA today, but again I got the "no, I don't want to go, you go, I'll just stay here with grampa" from Kiva. I tried to tempt her by telling her IKEA had toys, no dice. Then Grampa said he would go with us, and voila, she wanted to go. We had lunch there and she had a good appetite (meat balls and macaroni and cheese) and a vanilla ice cream cone for the ride home. Now all down for naps. Kiva is now calling me "gram" instead of grammie, very grown up. She completely set the table for our breakfast this morning and the three of us love making our monday breakfasts an occasion. She also is getting pretty comfortable with sweetie pie, fed her, gave her treats and threw her ball for her to retrieve. [Joan]

Helping Grammie

I forgot to tell you how much Kiva was helping yesterday. She set the table for breakfast and lunch, cleared the table when we were done, volunteered to unload the dishwasher and volunteered to help me sweep. What a sweetie she is. [Joan]