We welcomed baby Jack into our arms. What a crazy, funny little man he is becoming! I'm not sure exactly when he transitioned from being the "baby" or "toddler" stage to the little boy stage, but he's firmly there now. For so long it seems like he was sort of parroting back our expressions, stories, words, etc. and now he's off on his own. Sometimes I wonder how in the world he thinks up such off-the-wall things. He makes up crazy pretend scenarios (i.e. his empty grape sprig after he's eaten all the grapes off of it becomes a dragon that talks in a high pitched voice!).
Jack definitely has a flair for the dramatic, which is very amusing, although it can be frustrating. He still thinks up crazy excuses for not being able to do something we've asked of him, like washing his hands before a meal. Yesterday was funny because we decided to give Thomas one small toy airplane on his actual birthday (and Jack will get the same thing today). We'll do a couple more gifts for them on both on Saturday. David talked to Jack about letting Thomas open a birthday present and Jack seemed OK with it, but when it came down to the actual present-opening, Jack got very melancholy and exclaimed "No, no, I don't want any birthday presents tomorrow. I got lots of presents at Christmas" and things of that sort in a very sad, down voice. He snapped out of it fairly quickly, but it's funny that he chose to go the Eeyore route rather than getting angry that Thomas was getting a present when he wasn't.
Jack has definite preferences that he has no problems sharing with others. He sticks up for his quirky particularities and won't be persuaded by what everyone else is doing. He used to be (and still can be) shy when meeting new people, but lately he talks to random people pretty darn freely. He'll yell at the workers in the neighbor's yard "Hi! What are you doing? I'm just outside with my brother..." and then he launches into a 5 minute monologue about anything and everything until I gently pull him away :). Yesterday the first thing he said to two little boys he saw at the park was "These are my wedding shoes" while pointing to his black shoes that, indeed, he did wear to Aunt Wheetah's wedding nearly 9 months ago! The boys said "What?" and Jack repeated the same thing clearly and slowly, and then one of them quickly agreed "Yeah, you are!" Ah, the power of stating your position assertively and with authority :).
So, maybe we're raising a construction foreman or a bishop! Jack has boundless energy, he is a very good and kind big brother to Thomas (most of the time), and he entertains us and keeps us on our toes from the moment he gets up to the moment he reluctantly falls asleep. :).
2 comments:
Oh, my goodness! I completely lost track of time. Happy birthday to Jack and Thomas! I hope the party today (?) is excellent! Your sons are so perfect, Kathy, and I loved your respective birthday posts. Yay! You and Dave really have done a wonderful job raising your boys (with help from your equally wonderful families, no doubt). I'm so, so lucky I got to meet Thomas and Jack :) Sometimes I find myself falling into one of the weird voices I did for them when I'm alone...that's bizarre, isn't it?
The boys still go around saying "Yeah!" in super deep voices (trying to recreate the game that you invented with them). I just can't do it as good as you can, though. And Jack busted out a pretty decent monkey impression the other day, which sounded remarkably like your rendition :). You definitely made an impression on them! I'm so glad they got to meet you!
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