The J is for Jackson

My friend who has a 15 month-old daughter mentioned the other day how much her little girl loves to color. It hadn't occurred to me that AJ would be capable of coloring yet, but I ran across some crayons at the grocery store and thought I would give it a shot. I was surprised that he could hold the crayons in his hands and control them well enough to do some scribbling. The picture above is his first creation. I think we need to change the J in AJ to Jackson, as in Jackson Pollack the abstract artist. AJ seems to have a good start on the multi-colored scribble.

Eating Contest

I think AJ may have a future as one of those contestants in a food eating contest. Fifty-seven hotdogs in 10 minutes will be no problem for a guy who can down seven pieces of watermelon and a serving of baked spaghetti in 20 minutes as a one year old.

All Aboard

All aboard! AJ's Chicago grandparents found this conductor's hat for him during one of their outings. Now he just needs to run 8 minutes behind schedule for no apparent reason and he could be a real Metra commuter train conductor.

Mellow Yellow

Does this guy look good in yellow or what?

Aquarium Redux

AJ has made a couple of trips to the aquarium back when he was a little guy--both at about 6 or 7 months. I thought he loved it then, but it was amazing to see the difference that a few months made in his ability to appreciate what he was seeing. There is a huge coral reef aquarium right at the entrance, and he would have been content to spend the three hours there with his nose glued to the glass without bothering to see the whales, dolphins, otters or penguins at all. At the coral reef aquarium he could get right up to the glass and the fish were swimming by at his eye level--a major advantage over the dolphin tank where things are far away and he is still too young to be able to track the quick movements of the dolphins jumping very well.

AJ's Iowa grandpa ("Pops") and Susan came for a visit and got to experience the aquarium with us, and I was happy that they got a chance to enjoy the outing with AJ. I think it is true that kids have a contagious enthusiasm for things that makes everyone around them see the same old stuff through new eyes. How can you not be excited about a yellow tail red snapper when a one year old is excitedly jabbing at the glass and grinning at you while signing "more! more!"

Milk and Cookies

Joe took a break from work last weekend to instruct AJ on the finer points of dunking cookies. I found these great chocolate chip dipping cookies at Trader Joe's that are designed to be longer and skinner than traditional cookies so that they fit easily in and out of a glass of milk--no more getting a soggy cookie stuck on the exit only to have it break into chunks in the milk. AJ took to cookies like a natural, and I have started to make sure that I put them away in the pantry where he can't see them and be inspired to ask for one every five minutes.

Language Explosion

Back at AJ's 12 month appointment when he could only say mama and boom!, our pediatrician told us that we should watch to make sure that he had a language explosion here in the next few months. It struck me as an odd term. Regardless, I think it has arrived. In the span of the last two weeks, AJ has said mo (for more), down, dat (for cat), deese (for cheese...seems like "c" words might be tricky for him), duck, eeeet (for eat), baloo! (for balloon), maw (for meow, in response to "what does a cat say"?), woof! woof!, moo, tut-tull (for turtle), gamma (for grandma) and finally, after much cajoling, prompting, begging and offers of $5 dollars in his piggy bank, AJ has uttered what are supposed to be the two easiest syllables for a baby to say--"da-da". So far, he will not say it to Joe's face. This morning, as soon as Joe walked out the door for work, AJ turned to me and said "da-da". Joe forgot his blackberry and came back into the house to retrieve it, and AJ immediately clammed up.

That's About the Size of It

AJ has been fussing about wearing his shoes lately, leading me to speculate that he may have outgrown them in the two months since we bought them. Yep--turns out that he grew two shoe sizes in two months. Look at these size 7 monsters! At first I thought they looked way too big on AJ, but now I am getting used to how cute these little boats are on the ends of his chubby little legs. (And yes, that is my son outside wearing only his diaper. I have no defense.)

The Sunshine State

This weekend my mom and sis braved a two and a half hour plane ride with me and AJ to visit AJ's great-grandparents in Florida. The plane flights can be summed up by this: the man in front of us on the way down to Florida resorted to fashioning earplugs out of his newspaper due to the screeching, squealing baby in the seat behind him. I am nominating my mom and sister for sainthood for their patient assistance. At one point, my mom gamely spent 10 minutes explaining to AJ over and over that the trash can at the airport is where the garbage goes as he stared into the can with fascination. Anything to keep him quiet!

It all was worth it for the chance to see AJ's great-grandparents hold him and to catch up with the rest of our Florida family. AJ has a little cousin, Camille, who is 3, and he adored watching her show him how things are done. Their favorite activity was to race Hot Wheels cars down a homemade ramp. My grandpa is an avid collector of Hot Wheels, so we first had to convince him to let the kids play with two of his cars so that we could get a good race going on the ramp.

The trip was extra-special because we had a chance to celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. It is quite the accomplishment! Seeing them together again made me think that maybe the sixth decade together is the sweetest because they appreciate each other, their good health and their blessings in life much more than I think the rest of us do in our younger years.

The pictures from top to bottom are of AJ with his great-grandma, AJ with his great-grandpa at breakfast, and AJ with his cousin, Camille.

Night Swimming

After a long weekend of unpacking, I finally convinced Joe to take a break for a quick dip with AJ a half hour before our local pool closed. Twenty minutes is about all AJ needs in the pool anyway, so it was a great little outing for us. AJ started squealing as soon as we walked through the locker room doors and he caught his first glimpse of the pool, and he was in heaven the entire time, splashing and laughing. Toward the end, he even got up the courage to jump/fall in off the side into Joe's arms. It was a great way to cap off the weekend before heading back to work.

If you click on the pictures, they will appear larger on your screen. The second one is my favorite when blown up.

Choo Choo

AJ had the privilege of taking in the train exhibit at the Botanic Gardens with his Chicago grandparents this weekend. I know that some people claim little boys are just born liking trains, but rest assured, we have been actively trying to cultivate a love of trains in AJ since birth. One of his first gifts from his Chicago grandparents was a wooden train, the first sippy cups that I bought for him feature Thomas the Train, and we constantly are pointing out the commuter train that runs through our town. Apparently all of our hard work is paying off, because Grandma and Poppa reported that AJ was fascinated with the trains at the Botanic Gardens and was excitedly pointing at the one that he wanted to see next. For my part, I was anxiously waiting to see how AJ did on his solo outing with his grandparents, as I was fearing a crying bout, a meltdown or a diaper explosion. (I know, as if they have never dealt with any of these before, having raised four kids. But still, I didn't want them to have to go through it again with MY kid.) I breathed a sigh of relief when the reports were all shiny and bright.