I forgot to mention . . .

It was really windy that day . . .

trip to DC

Jill had a business trip to DC the day after we got back from Florida and Jack and I decided to go along for the ride. While she was in meetings all day, we went to the Smithsonian. He liked the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum was fun. There is a fantastic indoor butterfly exhibit running right now that we both enjoyed. His favorite part of the whole trip was riding the Metro. He was thrilled that he got to ride the underground train "like Caillou." Of course I forgot the camera for the first two trips we made. I did, however, manage to get a few shots in on our last day there when Jill came with us.

potty time

Jack and I were in the bathroom the other day while I was fixing my hair and he was standing there asking when I was going to be done, and he said, "mommy, how do you spell potty?" I told him, "p . . . o . . . t. . . t. . . Y" He was silent for a few minutes and then said, "like this, mommy?" and I looked down and saw this:




hilarious. He used the bathtub crayons to do it. So I had to run downstairs and get the camera. I asked him if he would write "bathtub" for me and he that one too.

Florida Vacation

We went to visit my family in Florida at the end of last month. It was a good trip. Jackson was happy that he got to spend so much time outside. We went to the zoo and he got to pet and feed the goats. He even got crazy and ran through the water at the zoo. He got to ride is bike at grandma and grandpa's house. It was good.

Jack has a superior vocabulary

Yesterday, Jack and Jill and I were driving to the grocery store to fill our very empty refrigerator. We were at a stoplight when this conversation took place:

Jack - Mommy, what is that crack thing over there?
Me - Over where, honey?
Jack - Over there, where I am pointing.
Jill - You have to use some descriptive words, Jack, we can't tell what you are pointing at out the window.
Jack - That crack in the grass, in the yard over there.

I look out the window and guess that he is talking about a rock-lined drainage ditch near the sidewalk in the front of an office building.

Me - You mean that thing with the dark rocks in the bottom of it?
Jack - Yeah.
Me - That's a place for the water to run out of the yard when it rains.
Jack - Oh. . . .
Hey, Mommy. . .
Me - What?
Jack - I thought it was called a trench.


A "trench"? WTF? This kids is three, right? Where the hell did he learn that word, not the mention it's meaning? And if he knew what it was, why did he ask us? Sometimes I think he just likes to remind us that he is the smart one in the family.

brutal honesty

The day before yesterday Jackson and I were getting our pajamas on and Jack said, "Mommy, my nipples are higher than yours! Mine are way up here, and yours are down there."

. . . sigh . . .

reading some more

Yesterday we were in the car driving to Gramm and Gramps and Jackson told me that "S . . T . . . O . . . P . . spells stop!" I said, "Yes! Do you know what "G . . . O spells?" After a few seconds of silence he said "GO!"

doing math

It's hard to tell sometimes when Jackson is getting the question right, and when he is guessing and just getting lucky. Yesterday Jill asked him, "If I had three cars, and mommy had two cars, how many cars would we have if we put them together?" and Jackson immediately spits out "five!" and keeps playing. But when we try to get him more focused and listening to what we are asking, he gets it wrong unless we help him by showing him fingers. He seems to be pretty good at "5." If it is four plus one, or two plus three, he knows the answer is five. Beyond that he is pretty lost.

It is different, however, if he is thinking about things on his own and we are not quizzing him. A few days ago he was following his Gramm into the kitchen to get his quarters that he had "earned" that day for helping them with chores. He was talking to his Gramm about how many quarters he had earned. He said, "I got two from helping Gramps, and one from helping you, so that makes three!" He talks to himself about small numbers like that pretty often. It is so cool to hear.

He is also able to visualize abstract things and count them -- which is awesome. Several weeks ago we were talking about shapes and Jill asked him how many sides a square has. He stopped and looked up into the air and said, "one, two, three, four, five . . . five!" He did the same thing for triangle.

taking a drive to the playground

We spent about a hour and a half driving around the neighborhood today. We were hesitant at first to buy one of these cars -- for many reasons -- but it has been worth every penny. He loves it. And I get to get some exercise.

painting

We get these little kits from the craft store for $1.00 that you can paint and then glue together. They have little cars and boats and tractors and planes. Jack loves them. He is so serious when he paints.

freezing on the swing

I wanted to post these just because I think they are cute. We went out a few days ago when it was really cold, but we were suffering from some serious cabin fever. We bundled him up and played on the swing for a while.

fun in the snow

A few weeks ago it snowed and we got a few inches on the ground that stuck around for a day or two. Guess what Jack and his Gramps did that day . . .





Yes, ladies and gentlemen, those last two pictures are of Jackson pushing around the LAWNMOWER. Even in the freeze of winter, my kid still wants to mow the lawn.

Jack's first painting

It started when I showed him a small painting I had done years ago. It was a painting of the beach at sunset. I asked him if he wanted to paint something. I got out all of my paints and found a very small unused canvas and gave it to him.
He painted the blue first and told me it was the sky -- just like mine. Then he put in the sun. I helped him by moving the canvas around so that all the lines would go outward. Then he put in the grass. Then I asked him what he usually sees when he goes outside, and he put in the tree (that's the brown thing.) He asked me to give the tree a swing, so I did. You can't see it very well, but he also put in some small purple dots for flowers on the grass.