Becoming 3reillys When 2reillys add one to the team.

Only in New England

Seen this morning: a large styrofoam DD cup in the water bottle cage of an otherwise serious looking bike and cyclist.

Insert Candid Camera or Big Brother reference here

So I got a video baby monitor last week. Go ahead laugh. I like it.

Jack used to wake up in the morning and talk to himself. This sweet little voice woke me up every morning as he sing-songed his latest da-da-da-da or ba-ba-ba-ba sound. I *loved* listening to him talk in the morning over the monitor.

But he stopped doing that a couple of months ago. These days he wakes up, finds his pacifier and is quiet until I go upstairs. Sometimes he’s standing up in the crib. Sometimes sitting. Sometimes sleeping. Often when I go up to get him after his nap, he’ll be wide awake and look bored to tears, or still sleep — and my opening the door wakes him up.

So my solution was the video monitor.

This morning, I heard a big thud. I turned on the screen and saw Jack standing up. Then he sat down. Then he found a little blanket and put it up to his face and played peek-a-boo with himself. Then he practiced clapping for a bit.

I went upstairs. And he was happy to see me.

Jack goes to the Apple Store

Scene: Mama and Jack go the the Apple Store on Boylston Street. Mama needs an earphone jack adapter for the phone. Jack has other plans — and leads mama over to the ipods on the second floor.

"Sweet. Nice big cans. Turn up the tunes, Mama!"

"Hey, wait a minute! I asked for some Dead, Phish, Acoustic Syndicate — something GOOD! Where’s my BILLY JONAS?"

"Enough of this Coldplay crap. Here. You can take the headphones. I’m outta here. Let’s find a playground!"

Quick! Blog before the baby wakes up!

Some quick thoughts before Jack wakes up from his nap, which could be any moment…

• He walks very confidently now, like he doesn’t think about every single step anymore. He loves it when I’ll let him get out of the stroller and take a walk with me. You can see how he just loves the freedom.
• He talks a lot these days, actually trying to communicate with us with words. Of course, only pieces of the words come out, but Jay and I are having fun learning his vocabulary. Just yesterday, I figured out he was saying, “done” when he was finished with a bottle or sippy cup. It sounds like “doa.” Not to be confused with, “DA!” which is Jay’s name.
• Other words: abuh=boo!, bo=boy, and the classic — cah=car (Of course! He is from Boston, after all.)
• It seems he’s starting a picky eating phase. for the last six weeks or so he’s been willing to try just about anything. Not yesterday. He refused white peach, even though he loves peaches. Also on the food front, he’s quite good with a spoon and a bowl of cottage cheese. And good about getting it all over his clothes, face, and hair.
• He’s still a sweet, funny boy. And he totally cracks us up!

What Jack actually wrote

I think the translation is: “Please send more sweet potatoes. Mom and Dad gave me peas again last night.”

Jack takes the blog into his own hands

Jack is also tired of waiting for me to update this blog. So he has decided to do it himself.

PlayPlayPlay — Jack likes to Play!

Peek-a-boo! Jack can find a good game of peek-a-boo anywhere, especially the playground. Now that he can walk/stand, Jack is having so much more fun playing and exploring all the big toys at the playground. His other favorite today was a big kitchen toy, with a window and shutters above the sink. He walked around to the back of the toy and opened the shutters, peered thru, then closed them. Open, peer, shut. Repeat. Repeat. Laugh. Repeat. From where I was sitting all I could see was a white hat and big laughing eyes appearing and disappearing.

We got some baby gates for the living room, so I can confine him when I really need to. Jack’s not a fan. But so far he stops yelling when I leave the room and he plops down next to the books and “reads” until I return.

He’s starting to ask about what things are called. He’ll pick something up and “ask” (with a high pitched questioning, “Ahhhha?”) what it is. For example, there’s a hat, car, and block on the ottoman. He’ll pick up each one, show it to me, and ask. He’ll go thru each item four or five times. He isn’t trying to repeat after me, but he’s definitely asking.

I have some great video of Jack learning how to eat with a spoon — but have yet to find the opportunity to upload it. Coming soon…

Walkin’ Man Jack!

Today at music class, Jack walked about six feet away from me two or three times. The video above was the first time I set him loose in the living room after we got home. He’s so excited about walking and so happy to be moving on his own. I know our life just got that much more complicated, but I’m just so proud of him and so excited for him!

Step, step, step, step

Jack took his first real steps today!

He has been practicing standing on his own quite often over the last few days. Late this afternoon, he was standing by himself, and then he took four steps forward, and then he stopped and stood still. I yelled for Jay, who came to the living room while Jack was still standing. Of course, Jack then sat down and didn’t care to walk any more.

I’m so excited for him and proud of him!

And because I have to post a photo:

Jack playing with Sammy’s "gee-tar" last weekend during our little camping trip.

Independent Day

Jack and Parker at Tanglewood for the James Taylor concert on July 4th.

Parker is the almost seven month old son of our dear friends Beth and Holly. He’s such a sweet, easy-going guy. It was a lot of fun watching the boys checking each other out. I imagined Parker thought Jack was the cool, older kid, and Jack wondered why this baby didn’t want to walk around like he does. They both did fantastic hanging out with thousands of other JT fans, having a picnic, and staying up long past bedtime. There’s only six months between the boys, so I imagine next year they’ll be running around together!

Jack is becoming Mr. Independent. Jay, by encouraging and challenging him, has taught Jack to stand on his own. Jack often shakes off your hand when he can hold on to something else. He’s Mr. Mobile, crawling and pulling up and cruising and walking if he can hold one of your fingers and sitting and doing it all again. It is amazing to watch.

He’s also becoming increasingly verbal. The other evening, I was talking with Holly about deciding to stay home with Jack (she also stays home with Parker), and I was saying it was a difficult decision but one I felt really good about. And right then, Jack said, "Mah-Mam" and hugged me, putting his head on my chest. I melted. He could not have had better timing. :)

He says "BA!" for bus and tries to say bubble, but it sounds like "bah…..bul." He’s also becoming quite the mimic, trying to repeat words that Jay and I say. Yesterday Jay was pretending to be a Yip Yip talking to a telephone (see 2:28) and making Jack laugh hysterically. Jay then asked Jack if he could do it and Jack would shake his head, making a "burrr" sound. If only the video camera was running, right?

One more story… so Jack loves walking around the kitchen. He has discovered magnets and cabinets and drawers and how to drive mama crazy with these things. He knows magnets stick to the fridge, and he can take it off and stick it on again. The other day he took a magnet and started testing whether it would stick on other surfaces. He put it up to the cabinet, the oven, the dishwasher, the hardware on the drawers. What a little scientist! (He found the only other place it would stick was the side of the oven. Yikes.)