J is 4!

Year 4 with our J and the baby years are definitely behind us. Here are highlights of our past year with J.

• It took nearly 3 months, but we finally said goodbye to diapers.
• He's a happy lad, often singing and dancing. I love hearing him make up his own songs. He usually sings about his favorite tv shows or his toys.
• J's favorite tv shows are Jake and the Neverland Pirates, The Wiggles, Super Why, Super Hero Squad. His favorite non-kid shows are the Voice and Glee.
• J's a boy's boy. He loves playing with the typical boy toys - cars, trains, pirates, monsters, robots and super heroes. 
• There were two girls that he fancied this year. His first "girlfriend" was Rachel. He told us that when they get married we can't have pork because Rachel is "allergic to pork." He also said that he liked Rachel because she was "troublesome". A couple months later, J said that his new girlfriend was Kaylee. When we asked what happened with Rachel, he told us Rachel was not his girlfriend anymore because she hit him and he liked Kaylee because she was cute. Also, he plans to marry Kaylee when he is all growed up. One morning, he was very upset, saying, "I just don't know what to do about my wedding."
• He is convinced that he knows everything. 
• Every morning, on his way to school, T and J drive pass a school crossing guard. They roll down the window and J yells, "Hi have a nice day!"
• He loves having visitors. He is much more social than either of us and he is actually helping us expand our social network as we get to know other parents of his school friends. Early in the year, we invited some of his friends and their parents over for a couple hours of playtime. I think there were six of his friends that came. J was so happy to have his friends over to his house and he loves being the host.
• He enjoys welcoming anyone to the house. When we hired someone to do some painting, J tried to tell the painter, "if you want a treat, we can get it from the kitchen." Another time, one of T's work colleagues stopped at our house very briefly. When J saw him, he said to me, "everyone loves to come and play at my house." J tried to impress this man by repeatedly running into the sofa head first. It looked really strange. This man was at our house for less than 30 minutes and J cried when he left, saying he didn't want him to go.
• J is very good at playing independently. He has been very patient with us as we don't always find enough time to play with him. Sometimes, he will ask us, "who's going to play with me?" or "who's going to take care of me?" We always feel so bad about not giving him enough attention when he says these things.

notes on J at 3 years old

Some notes on J. long time since I posted something and here are some things that I think I want to remember when he's older....

• We went to England over the summer for 2 weeks. It was J's first visit and he loved seeing his nana, grandpa, aunt, uncles and cousins. He now says a few words with a British accent, for example can't and sorry.
• Plane trip was ok...going there was better than the return. J started feeling sick near the end of the return flight and held it together until the wheels hit the ground...then he threw up. Yuck.
• J was very proud to finally learn how to answer the question how old are you? He would answer 2 and 1/2. After a while I started saying he's almost 3 and he changed his answer to I'm almost 3. however, when he did turn 3 he would get very upset at me when I said he was 3 and shout, no I'm not 3, I'm almost 3!
• For a little guy, he's has a big attitude sometimes. He shouts at me a lot.
• Potty training is not going well.
• J was woody from toy story for Halloween. He was so excited. His friend at daycare was buzz and they looked so cute together. When I picked him up from daycare, they had taken the costumes off already. I asked him to put his back on so we could go trick or treating right away and he refused and said, "No, mama, Halloween is over. It's turkey day now." We argued all the way home about whether or not it was still Halloween. I stopped the car at any house that had Halloween decorations and told him to tell me what he saw. After the 5th house with a witch or ghost or scarecrow of monster in front he said, "Maybe it is still Halloween."
• Trick or treating was fun! We only went to a few neighbors' houses and they all gave him fistfuls of candy. After the first house (didi's) he had a big smile on his face and said, "Mama, which house are we going to next?!"
• The other day J came home and said, "I have to take my coat off because it's not raining anymore. I have to take my boots off because it's not raining anymore. Mama, take off your necklace, it's not raining." I told him, "I'm not wearing a necklace because it's raining. I wear it because it's pretty." The next day, Carrie Underwood was on TV and I asked J if she was pretty. He said, "No she's not pretty because she's not wearing a necklace."
• J started eating vegetables again a couple weeks ago. I put green beans on his plate and he just picked them up and ate them. Just like that after refusing vegetables for almost 18 months he started eating them again.
• J started sleeping in his own bed in September. Sometimes he still comes into my bed. The other night, he came in while I was already falling asleep. He said, "Mama, I want to talk to you." I said, "OK, what do you want to talk about." Within a moment, he was crawled up next to me fast asleep.
• J dropped out of soccer. since September, he had refused to join his soccer class. We would talk about it and in the car he would promise to join the class but as soon as we get there, he would run away from the field and say, I don't want to! It was so sad because he used to love it. Also, I was starting to get to know some of the other parents and enjoyed talking to them while he was in class. After 4 weeks, I gave up and pulled him out of the class.
• J is learning Spanish at preschool. He is very good at colors. He knows rojo, verde, azul, naranja, cafe, y amarillo.
• J's language skills are very good, but there are some words that he mixes up. he'll say I want it faster to mean he wants us to turn the volume up on the TV.

December 2010

• Soccer! J started soccer lessons through the lil' kickers program. It is actually a parent/tot program and they pretty much do the same stuff they do in the gymboree yp of classes but they are on an indoor soccer field and use soccer balls. Jake loves it - he is really good at playing red light, green light.
• Christmas songs. J learned to sing 2 christmas songs. He sings Santa Clause is coming to town perfectly! He sings most of jingle bells - he stumbles a little in the oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh part. In addition to these 2, he also sings out frosty the growman!
  
  
• Bice-cycle. T started cycling again this year. He cycles all the way to/from work - about 18 miles each way. He has kept this up even in the winter. His coworkers are impressed but L wishes he would just drive or take the train when there is 2 to 4 inches of snow on the ground.




• That's mine! With the holidays coming up, there are boxes of new stuff all around the house. J points to each one he sees and asks, 'that's mine'? When I say no, he shouts, no! That's mine!!!! and throws himself to the floor.


• J loves to look out the window of the car and point out the decorations in front of the houses we drive by. He especially like to shout out santa clause! frosty the growman!


• What do you want for christmas? J reponds to this question with, Santa Clause! But look what happened when he actually met santa!


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Thanksgiving 2010

With everyone's busy schedules, I definitely appreciate vacation time to be with J. A full week with J gave me a bunch of amazing moments. He has developed a wonderful personality, with lots of cheer mixed in with a healthy dose of toddler spunk.

We decided to take a road trip to visit J's new, weeks old cousin Nong T (my brother's son). We stopped overnight in Ohio, near toledo, at a Homewood Suites hotel. The car ride to Toledo went well, although we left later than I would have liked. J and I sang songs together for much of the journey. His singing is getting really good, he actually has the right pitch sometimes. Most of his favorite songs are from the wiggles - toot toot big red car, play your guitar with murray, do the monkey. He also tries to sing along to songs on the radio even if he doesn't know the words. Sometimes, he would yell out everybody clap! And if I stopped clapping along, he would reach over, grab my hand and say, clap mama!

The hotel in toledo was terrific. As soon as we entered our room, J smiled wide and said, Nice! Big room! In the morning, there was decent breakfast buffet. There were 2 toddler girls at breakfast for J to flirt with. When he spotted the first little girl, he pointed at T and said, papa...then pointed at me and said, mama. I told T, I think he is trying to introduce his family to that girl!

J had a good sleep for the second leg of the trip and by the time we got close to Pittsburgh, he was pretty psyched up to get to T's house and also see khun yai (grandma). When we got there he gave lovely hugs to uncle L, auntie S, and khun yai. I wondered how he would react to Nong T. When J was a little baby, some kids of our friends/relatives would get really jealous when their moms held J. But J was absolutely fine with me holding Nong T-he didn't act jealous at all.

J was very excited to be staying at uncle L's house and especially excited to be reunited with Khun Yai who used to look after him in the early evenings while we were working. J enjoyed playing with all the toys that Nong T is still too young to play with. He also sang and danced around the house and was generally never quiet. When we said hush, nong T is sleeping, he would reply excitedly Nong T sleeping! Sometimes uncle L would try a different approach and say, J, what is Nong T doing? I guess his hope was that J would respond Nong T sleeping, shhh. But instead, J would shout, Oh, no! Nong T sleeping! Wake him!

Here are some other random notes about J, who is now 2 years and 2 months old.

- He is growing taller, but still quite skinny. The 18 months pants fit his waist perfectly now, but are too short. The 24 months pants are just a little long but quite loose in the waist.
- He moved up to the intro to preschool room. The biggest difference is they won't let him use a sippy cup, he has to drink from a little plastic dixie cup. When we get home, he begs me for milk from his sippy cup and drinks 2 cups of milk. So I guess he is not a fan of drinking from a regular cup but it is early days.
- He has an outgoing personality, quick to greet everyone he sees with a hi and bye. He is also never shy about blowing kisses to the girls, he is quite the flirt.
- He started playing with my shoes and T's hats. While I am writing this, he is next to me trying on T's bicycle helmet.
- When there is something he really wants, he started shouting Big one! Sometimes we have no idea what he is talking about which is quite frustrating for everyone.
- We had a few outings while in Pittsburgh. Everytime we left Uncle L's house, J would quickly ask about the people that didn't join us. He would say, where Khun Yai go? Where Uncle L go? Where Auntie S go? Where Nong T go?
- When we returned to our own house, J was excited to see all his own toys again. He picked up his winnie the pooh, hugged it and said, "winnie pooh!" then he took another look at pooh and yelled, "no pants!"
- The other night, I was lying in bed and J tackled me. I cried, 'owie, you gave mama an owie! J said, "Sorry, mama. I kiss it better" and gave me kiss. He says sorry whenever he sees anyone hurt, even if it is not his fault. He even says sorry when he trips over himself.

day at the zoo

J and I had a mommy and me day at the zoo. Here is how it went

• As soon as he understood where we were, he said zebras?
• First animals we encountered were a couple of lions sleeping in the sun.
• First bathroom stop was actually for me. Restrooms were in the Lion house, downstairs and no elevator. Luckily, I had decided to leave the stroller in the car as I figured J spends most of his days walking, he should be able to manage.
  
• Went to the monkey house next. J said, "monkeys in the trees! Awesome!"
  
• A gibbon put on a great acrobatics show for us
• Second bathroom stop for J - again had to go down stairs and no elevator. Hooray for my no stroller decision.
• J started getting tired and saying, up! up! I carried him for a bit but then sat on a bench and let him snack on cheerios for a little while.
• Next stop - zebras, the one J was asking for when we came in. By now J was refusing to walk and I was thinking I need to rent a stroller.
  
• We stopped for lunch on an outdoor patio by the pond. J had chicken nuggets kids meal that came with apple, carrots, and chocolate milk . I had a grilled chicken sandwich, half of J's apple, all of the carrots that J wouldn't touch, and the chocolate milk(zoo did not have straws, J wouldn't drink from the carton, and his sippy cup was already full of milk from home). I thought the kids meal was expensive at $7 but actually I think they gave us double portion of chicken nuggets by accident and I got a carrot/apple salad out of it, plus the milk so it worked out ok.
  
• After lunch, I headed back to the zoo entrance to rent a stroller. J was so excited to sit in the stroller. We went to see the sea lions next and he would not let me take him out of the stroller seat.
  
• From the sea lions, we went to the children's zoo - a section that I never saw before so it must be new. I didn't see any animals outside in this section, but there was a building that had a very cool climbing maze. And there were bathrooms that did not require stairs so I changed Js diaper here.
  
• In the children's maze building one of the windows you could see into the beaver's pool and there were 2 beavers swimming around in there. That was very cool - I don't think I ever saw a beaver underwater before.
• We headed back outside and went to the Africa house where we saw the giraffe. At first, J said zebra but I told him it was a giraffe and he stuck his tongue out. We also saw a couple of ostriches - I forgot just how big they were!
• We did a quick zip through the reptile house - only went in there to use their bathroom because there were no stairs.
  
• Passed by the lions again - they were still sleeping in the same position as when we arrived.
• Went back to the entrance to return the stroller. J had a mini tantrum, screaming, 'my stroller! my stroller!' I think that was the first time I ever heard him say the word stroller.
• I took J on the endangered species carousel before we left. He had been on a carousel before, just a few weeks ago when we were in Canada. But this time, he did not want to ride the animals so we sat on the bench and he looked around at the carousel animals around us. He was very clingy which was nice actually because he doesn't let me hold and cuddle him much these days.
  
• I figured J was tired by this time and we headed home. I figured he would fall asleep during the hour it took to get back home. I was wrong. He sang to himself on the way home and was awake for the rest of the day until 8pm.

Things my almost 2 year old said to me today

Morning at the changing table, together we said, "ten fingers, ten toes, two arms, nose. Two ears, one mouth. Two eyes. One head. two feet. one chin. me! complete!"

Breakfast
- Mickey Mouse! Manny Tools! (asking to watch his favorite tv shows)
- when I tried to give him the burger he didn't eat for dinner the night before: I don't want it!
- when I gave him some toast with nutella spread: mo!
- mo mo mo milk

Morning leaving the house
me: Jake's it's time to go!
Jake: I don't want it!

Morning in the car
Jake: BBC
Me: you want to practice ABC's?
Jake: yes

Morning at the doctor's office
Jake: I don't want it! (when I try to sit him down on the exam table)
Together: ten fingers song and ABC's while we waited for the doctor.
Jake: mama's kess (playing with my necklace)

Morning at daycare:
Jake: bye!

Evening - daycare pickup
Jake: Mama! I see you! I did it!
Jake: Bye bye Jayna! Bye bye Zoe! (saying bye to his friends)

Evening at the library
Jake: books!
Me (whispering): Will you come upstairs with mama?
Jake (whispering): Yes.

In the children's section of the library:
Jake: I don't want it! (repeatedly and no longer whispering)
Jake: Bob Builder! (when he spots the pile of Bob the Builder books on the floor)
Jake: Guitar Murray! (when he sees the picture of Bob the Builder's rock star friend in the book)
Me (after 10 minutes of bob the builder): Do you want to go home, now?
Jake: No. Bob Builder!

At home in the evening.
Mickey Mouse! Manny Tool!
I did it!
Again! AHHHH! (protesting when the computer, which is streaming his tv shows online, goes into power save mode and screen goes black)
Mo mo! (asking for more french fries at dinner)
Po (asking for apple)
Mo milk

Bathtime:
Fishies! Quack quack! (playing with his toys)
I don't want it! AHHHHHHH! (protesting when I lift him out of bath)
More of I don't want it and AHHHH! (at the changing table)
Mo! Mo! (asking me to give him lotion so that he can put it on himself)
I did it!

Me: Jake do you want to wear monkey or mickey mouse (pajamas)
Jake: Mickey mouse (as he grabs monkey top. I put the monkey on)
Me: Jake where are the bananas? (the bottom part of the monkey pajamas)
Jake: Nana! I find it! (he runs off into his room and picks up the banana pants off the floor) I find it!

Jake: Night night (pointing to my bed asking if he can sleep with mama and papa)

I did it! repeatedly as he flips through his Bob the Builder library book by himself.
Two, five, seven, ten (as he stacks his books)

Saturday, July 24 - counting singing dancing talking sleeping toddler

Jake is definitely not a baby anymore. He is becoming more interactive and independent every day. Lots of changes to report, so here goes

• Counting - he counts to 10...in Thai. I taught him to do the Thai equivalent of hip, hip, hooray when he gets to 10 and he loves it. He says each number with the perfect Thai accent. However, when he counts in English he only counts 2, 5,7, 9. I'm not sure why he doesn't like the other numbers.
  

• New daycare room. We decided to move Jake to a different room at daycare. We are sad to separate him from his little friends - there are at least 4 others who were born within 2 weeks of Jake and they have all been together since he started at daycare at 3 months old. They love each so much - they hug each other when they say hello and goodbye it is so sweet. But there is a girl in his room that has bitten Jake 6 or 7 times over the past year and I am worried that he will turn into a biter. Jake starts in the new room on monday.
  
• Story telling. Jake kind of told me a story related to the biting incident. I asked him what did he do when M__ bit him. He replied, 'a kicking' which I think means he kicked her.
  
• Singing - Jake loves to sing and I can actually make out a few of the songs he sings. mostly they are wiggles songs but he also sings baa baa sheep (he doesn't get all of the words but you can figure out what he means).
• Guitar - Jake's favorite toy is his new guitar, which he acquired when we visited Jack's house (Jack is a couple years older than Jake). Jake loves his guitar more than anything and he even sleeps with it. He loves to sing and dance with the guitar and does a great job strumming it as if it was a real guitar. Here he is grooving to Justin Bieber.
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• Playtime - Jake is much more interested in playing with others, including us. He takes us by the hand to lead us to play. At daycare, the staff report that he takes his friends' hands and gets them to dance with him.
• Caring - Jake is beginning to express his affection for us and others more now. A few times, he spontaneously ran up to people to hug them. He hugs and kisses us more and when he sees us hurt (like if we stub a toe on the chair or something) he asks, 'are you ok?' Also, when he doesn't see us, he says, 'where are you?'
• Sleeping - Jake has been co-sleeping with us since he was about 2.5 months old. This was a great arrangement in the beginning - we bought a 'nest' that we put in between us that he could sleep in safely when he was little. When he was still feeding in the middle of the night, I could feed him without getting out of bed. But we started having problems about a month ago when we finally took his pacifier away for good (he was using it to help him fall asleep). Without his paci, Jake would jump and sing and dance around in our bed, sometimes for over an hour, before he fell asleep. This meant I couldn't fall asleep as I was worried he would fall off the bed. On Friday, I finally had him sleep the night in his crib. He is sleeping in his crib again tonight. It took longer for him to fall asleep but it means that I don't spend an hour waiting to catch him if he falls (at least as long as he doesn't learn how to climb out!).