Talking to, and about, everything

I really need to write in this thing more often. In theory, a blog gets updated, you know, every day or at least every few days. Not once a week at most. Sorry.

Anyway. Lots to talk about with Jack these days....

When he's happy, Jack likes to talk a lot. And jump like a frog. And dance. And talk about what he's doing. "I'm jumping!" "I'm a baseball player!" (Complete with baseball hat.) "Nice job, Daddy!" (When he gives me the hat, making me a baseball player, and I hit the ball.) He talks to his trains: "Lie down, Salty!" And, "Hello, Thomas!"

He announces what we're going to be doing. For example, he goes around turning off the lights, and says "It's sleepy time now." If I reach for a toy, he explains, no, it's not playing time, it's sleeping time. We lie down together on the rug for a couple of minutes. "You lie there," he explains. And, "Mommy lies over there," he adds. And of course, old favorites: "Do you want to play with my toys?" Or "Play with me?" And "Play with me, Daddy."

Sometimes, and I know this is bad, but it's also very funny, he tells us what not to do. "Don't touch my toys." And, "Don't touch my trains." Not an order so much as a request. "Daddy, don't move my trains." He's on his way upstairs, but wants to make sure we don't play with his toys without him. Funny.

He can also be sweet, like when we were playing in the driveway the other day with the 2-year-old boy next door. Jack had his basketball and Max had a little ball, which of course Jack was fascinated with, and didn't want his own ball anymore. So for a while they traded, and both were very happy, but then the time to go in came and I said, Jack, give Max back his ball. And he walked over and handed it to him and Max handed his back and it was really quite touching. It was funny, too, to watch them playing, putting the balls through the hoop and jumping up and down with happiness.

Jack likes to turn the radio on in my room, the little clock radio, and gradually we find music -- which is to say, Jack turns the dial and the volume around randomly and ultimately I'm able to lock it in on an actual station, with music, and then Jack starts clapping and jumping around.

I ultimately got whatever eye problem Jack had, pink eye or more likely allergies, and had to have eye drops. Jack watched as Mommy gave me the eye drops -- I was incapable of doing it myself. When Mommy was done, Jack said, "Do you need jelly beans, Daddy?" Since that, of course, was how we got him to accept the eye drops.

Jack sings himself to sleep and sings in the mornings, too. He sings Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and Twinkle Twinkle, and Can't Stop the Cops (from Backyardigans). We went to the library for reading group one day and the teacher sang "Where is thumbkins, where is thumbkins, etc." So the next morning, when we woke up, we could hear Jack singing:

"Where is my daddy,
Where is my daddy,
where he is,
where he is....

Where is my mommy,
where is my...."

So, he's fun.