Manners

Ah, family meal time - sort of. During the week Jett eats breakfast with Charlie, lunch with our nanny, and dinner with me. He takes breakfast and lunch in his highchair, but he prefers to eat dinner at the table. I don't mind sitting with him at the table, except the chairs are too small and the table is too short, and there's permanent trail of crumbs leading from the kitchen to the table.

Still, mealtimes are slowly becoming a little less work, except for the fact that they last for so long. Jett and I generally sit at the table together for an hour and a half. After more than an hour of eating dinner tonight I finally cleared away his plate and brought out the ice cream, knowing that he would eat that up quickly and we could get on to playing.

Even though I end up sitting in a cramped toddler seat for 90 minutes every night, at least I don't have to get up out of the chair very often any more. Thankfully he's finally stopped walking away from the table while he's eating and he doesn't slide off of his chair too often any more either. I've started bringing a washcloth to the table because he likes his hands to be clean while he eats now, although this is pretty difficult since he also prefers to eat with his hands. I might not have to get out of the chair at all if I remember to turn on music before I sit down (he usually requests a little dinner music while he eats).

Clean up isn't so bad either. When he has finished eating he wipes down the table and floor and then pushes our kitchen stool into the bathroom so he can play in the water in the bathroom sink - I mean so he can wash his hands.

The most demanding part of the meal? He almost always requests that I place a napkin in his lap - and replace it every time it falls off. I think you can see it in the picture below.

Gym-gym-boree

More Bedtime Sillies

We've gotten in to the habit of reading Calvin and Hobbes before bed. Honestly, I don't know why Jett likes it so much. It's a difficult book to follow along with, and I don't think he gets all the jokes. But Jett loves it, and sometimes we let him take the book to bed. The other morning we woke up and he was reading the book to his stuffed animals. We put the rest in his crib with him, to give him the proper audience. (Yes, he requested that we put the Cubs hat on his head, and yes, he often likes to wear the sleeve of my pajamas around his neck like that).

What Jett Took To Bed Tonight

The cut off sleeve of my pajama top, which he has been sleeping with for months.
His Cubs hat.
His blue scarf.
His yellow scarf.
Charlie's Calvin and Hobbes comic book.
A sippy cup with about two swallows worth of water in it.

Museum

I found out from my friend Katie that the Museum of Science and Industry is free right now. So today, on one of the coldest days of the year, Jett and I ventured out. Charlie was home sick, so it was just Jett and me. It was a last-minute decision to go, and as we drove there I felt strangely proud getting out of the house and navigating my way to the museum just to give Jett an outing.

driving the tractor

Anyway, the museum was a hit. First of all, there are a ton of stairs in that place, which is awesome if one of your goals is to wear out your toddler. Secondly, there are live baby chicks there, which you might find incredibly sweet even though your toddler prefers the drawings of the chicks to the real thing. But best of all, the museum is full of buttons that you are supposed to push. In fact, if you are a toddler, it is your duty to push those buttons. As usual, Jett shouldered his responsibilities well.

Nineteen Months

Happy Birthday, Jett! You are days past your nineteen month birthday.



What can I say? This has been an exhausting month. You've had a runny nose and cough for every single day of your eighteenth month, and it hasn't stopped yet. You wake up at night coughing, so we wake up to listen to you cough. You've developed a gorgeous habit of wiping your nose with your finger even when it doesn't need wiping. It's like you've forgotten what a nose feels like without snot running down it, so you think every nose sensation, or non-sensation, is by default, the sensation of running snot. On the upside, you now blow your own nose and throw away the used tissue when you are finished.

Look at those watery eyes and that 'already been wiped a million times today' nose.

We've also had a lovely encounter with the word "no". Before you turned nineteen months you rarely said "no". Instead, you simply shook your head from side to side, and honestly, no matter how vehemently you would shake your head, the effect was quite charming. But somehow the actual word "no" entered your vocabulary this month and now we hear it one hundred and ninety two times a day. I have to admit though, you don't always say it with a grump. Sometimes you actually stop to consider my proposal, and end with an "mmmmm-no". Sometimes you think I must be joking, and you pshaw me with a laughing no. Sometimes you say "no" in the same friendly tone of voice I use the greet our faithful mailman. But no matter how you say it, you mean it, and you aren't budging.

Cousins Megan and Justin

Actually, sometimes you do budge, and those are miraculous moments of victory for me. For example, today I told you to put the broom away, and you said, "No". We faced each other like a duel - hands on hips, broom in your hand (nothing in my hand except my surrender, which I was about to reveal) - when suddenly you turned around and walked the broom to the closet, like it was your idea all along.

Things like that happen on my days of great patience. Thankfully I have a lot of days of great patience - but probably because four days of the week we pay your nanny for her patience.

But oh, the sweet dependability of you. Every time you finish a meal and I lift you out of your highchair, you give me a kiss. At night you cry for exactly two minutes before falling asleep. You wear your MPJ (what everyone else would call a "blankie") around your neck like a boxer so you can carry it with you while your hands stay free. You ask me to turn on the CD player during every meal. And every time we walk down the three flights of stairs to the front door of our building, you count the steps ("Two, two, two, two, two).

Sitting with Ellie

You are entirely sweet when you want to be and we love you all the time anyway. Happy Birthday, Sweetie Pie.

Catching Up...

...on the photo sharing. These pictures are from our time at the retreat center with the Johnsons.

First up? Flying from one tio to the other, in the chapel, where all good angels fly.



The game room. An endless source of amazement.



His second cousin Megan (or is that first cousin once removed?) played ping-pong with Jett for 10 minutes, and became his BFF for the rest of our time there. Every time he saw her he tried to give her a hug, hold her hand, and tug at her sleeve until she would walk around with him. At one point, when all of the kids were sitting in a group, cross-legged on the floor, Jett walked from one girl to the next, sitting in each of their laps. He was like Goldilocks trying to find the perfect fit. He would start out by standing a few feet in front of the chosen girl, then turn around and walk backwards towards her lap, until he was close enough to plop down in it. He did this to girls he had never met. At first they were startled, but they all took it in stride. Soon enough they were all clamoring for his attention. But he always went back to Megan.




Finally, sledding! I took a ton of pictures of Jett sledding with Charlie, Chris, Dave, and Jennie, but they were all going so fast down the hill that the photos are a blur. Except for one picture, were Jett looks horrified at the speed he is traveling, what with all of the snow blowing up around him. But every time he got to the bottom of the hill he jumped up out of the sled and signed "More!" Still, I think his favorite activity was walking up the hill. We were out until dark.

Snow Day

One of these days I'll catch up on this blog and write about our current happenings. For now though, I'm still reliving the holidays...

We had one full day at home between Christmas and New Year's. It was a lovely day - gray, wet, and full of snow. The kind of day that makes you stay inside and be glad you're there. But we were afraid that Jett was going to go stir crazy after sitting in the car for so long the day before, so we all bundled up and headed outside to see where Jett would lead.



We walked...



and walked...



and climbed...



and slid.



Yeah...next time I'll catch him.

Tires

We had an adventure on the six hour drive home after Christmas. Some huge metal thing flew off a truck and landed in front of us on the highway. We couldn't avoid it, so we ran over it, and it punched a big hole in our tire. We pulled over on to the shoulder of the highway and contemplated how we were going to get the spare tire out of the trunk. We sat there in the car, Jett babbling away in the back, picturing all of our stuff sitting on the side of the road. We would have had to unload the entire trunk to get to the spare tire - and our trunk was packed with suitcases, boots, a sit-n-spin, a huge rubber ball, and you know - everything you travel with when you travel with a toddler.



Thankfully we looked up out of our stupor and realized that we were sitting 1/4 mile from three tire stores, our car's car dealership, and a shopping center. So we fired up the engine and limped along to the closest tire store. Jett loves tires, so he thought the entire fiasco was just for him, we got three new tires in one hour and I was the only one who whined about it. Not bad.

Whirlwind

Christmas vacation was a bit of a whirlwind



but Jett still found time to build a snowman with Grandma



and I found time to take a nap every time Jett did. What a great week!

In addition to entertaining everyone in church, building a snowman, and napping, Jett also learned a number of new things. First, he learned what a cookie is, where they are kept, and who to ask for one (Grandma). He discovered that he loves gingergread cookies in particular, but he would like me to add that he will also take sugar cookies if offered.

Vacation is Over...

...and now that I have some time on my hands I can catch up on the posts. First up? Christmas.



Ah, the Christmas Eve church service. The music, the candles, the squirmy kids. The child who keeps leaving the sanctuary every five minutes to visit the AA meeting going on in the basement. The people in their pews, chuckling at your child, ready to wave in unison the next time he walks to the double doors of the church and turns around to say "bye-bye" to everyone sitting in the last four pews. Thanks for out-staging the minister, Jett!

Jett has a routine he likes to follow every morning, at least the mornings that I get him out of bed. Once we leave his room (after book reading and diaper changing) we head straight to the kitchen. I carry him and let him open the two cabinet doors he is most interested in: the cabinet that holds the cereal and the cabinet that holds almost all of the other food, like crackers. He points to or pulls out what he wants, we set it all on the counter, and then, after he is convinced that I will really and truly feed him all of the food he has chosen, yes, even a graham cracker, will he willingly let me set him down in his highchair and get down to the business of eating breakfast. So Christmas morning with my family was a little bit different. First of all, the cabinets were different. And there was no cabinet just for crackers. Then we let him eat on the floor so he could be part of the cousin-Christmas-chaos. You can see from his face that he was out of his element.



But he warmed up after a while.



This CD player, from Santa, is one of his favorite gifts, followed by the slightly quieter and slightly classier pull-toy.





It was a good day. I hope you all had a good Christmas and are having a happy new year too. More stories and pictures of our two-week holiday coming soon.