Cora Update

23 months!

I'd love to say goodbye to diapers!

Potty Training Update: This month has shown us that long potty training experiences will be our norm.  Most days this month, she's peed one time a day in the potty; sometimes with little need for prodding; other times after extensive reading/encouraging/prompting.  On the other hand, she's had two awesome days in the last week:

• Last Saturday, she peed at home and on three public toilets, staying dry all day as we drove to the Northshore, went on an 8 mile bike ride and out to lunch.  We didn't even rush to potties.  She was going 90+ minutes between potty opportunities. It wasn't until 3:30 in the afternoon when she was over it and went back to diapers for the rest of the day.  (When Cora is done, she is done.  We were 30 minutes late to a party because I tried to keep up the momentum, but NO.)
• Yesterday (also a Saturday), she stayed dry the entire day except for one oops!

At the start of the month, we were having so much trouble I thought it had all been a fluke, but then she would do something like the following to remind me that she can absolutely own this pottying thing: one morning she hadn't been interested in peeing, but she saw me putting on makeup and wanted to play with my make-up brushes.  So I said, "makeup is for big girls that wear undies."  She left the room, went to her potty, peed on it and came back and told me she'd gone! 

So the end of the month consensus? We'll keep up the efforts.

Sleep Training Update: We are one week+ into a sleeping through the night stretch!  That meant it took us about three weeks of 1-2 wakings a night where we rocked and rationalized.  She is no longer nursing in the night.  We feel victorious!

Cora Speak Update:

• Her first full sentence was this month: "I wanna drink Mama wawa" (meaning she wanted to drink out of my cup.)  She is a water-aholic.  She always wants her sippy cup. Other recent sentences: "I wanna help Mama." and "I dropped my bop."  She's been saying words and short phrases (i.e. "Cora cup") for so long that it's weird to hear her converse!
• She continues to refuse to attempt her name.  When you ask her name she says "bebe".  When we say "Is your name Cora?" or "No, your name is Cora," she goes "No!  Bebe!"  She thinks it's great fun.
• First words out of her mouth in the morning are a roll call: "Where Dada?"  awaits response  "Where Jack-Jack?"  Then she smiles, "Where mama?...There!"  "Where bebe?"....and then points to herself.  She frequently checks in on everyone's status throughout the day too.  "Dada work?"  "Where Jack-Jack?"
• She likes to assign ownership to people, i.e "my seat," "my book," etc. and "mama wawa, Jack Jack wawa, dada wawa."
• "MINE!" is her favorite word

Cora Funnies

• Anytime Jacob brings hot sauce to the table, she flips out and insists on having some on her plate.  Also, if she sees us adding salt, she wants some too.
• Potty training is pretty cute as we still all get very excited when she pees, Cora included.  She loves "Undies!!" and dumping her own pee into the potty.
• She still rocks the facial expressions!

Cora Difficulties

• She can be grumpy and emotional a lot!  Especially after nap.  She tends to only want me and not just me nearby, but "Mama hold!" Right now, I can hear her screaming and crying outside (where Jacob and Jack are playing) and I'm pretty confident it's not for a good reason.
• She is SENSITIVE!  Jack can just look at her wrong and she gets mad/offended/upset.  He definitely does things to get a reaction out of her, but other times, he's just trying to play with her and she's all "NO! Jack Jack - no Jack Jack!"

These two things we could live without, but Miss CB we could not live without!  I'm very excited to wish her a happy 2nd birthday in a month!

Becoming a big, independent, strong little lady!

Sleep Training a 22 Month Old

Disclaimer: I use all "terminology" loosely.  I can't say I really know what sleep training is...

With that said!  The 4/5am nightly waking that was not a big deal to us?  It became a big deal when Cora had a few nights of twice-nightly wakings in a row...where she screamed for more than an hour...until I nursed her. We then saw pretty clearly that the only way she was willing to go back to sleep was if I nursed her, which was what she was used to at 4/5am.

These wakings coincided with her increasingly determined and strong-willed new nature.  She was NOT going back to sleep without her mama milk and her daddy could just please leave her room now, thank you.  A month or so back we'd endured a similar night and had chalked it up to her stubbornness, only to find out she had an ear infection, so I took her to the doctor JUST TO BE SURE.  She was completely healthy.

I know, she looks pretty harmless

Well, then. Game On Baby Girl.

We were both off work for a long Easter weekend, so we decided it was as good a time as any.  (Well, I was a little worried that in a few short days Jacob would be going OUT OF TOWN, but we really didn't feel like we could put this off any longer.)

Our Initial Plan: Don't Nurse Her

Because I saw textbook weaning resistance written all over the way Cora has been acting lately, I decided to pick back up the before bed nursing session while we were "sleep training" her in the hopes that this would lessen the blow.  I want to move at her pace for weaning, but the night time problem seems separate to me (she isn't self-soothing).

• Night 1: She woke to a wet diaper (darn it!) but was settled easily by Jacob at 1am.  At 4am, she was awake and crying for well over an hour with each of us making a few trips into her room to try to soothe her in non-nursing ways. 
• Nights 2 & 3: She woke around 2am and cried for 1 hr 15 minutes, with each of us making a trip or two in to try to calm her.  She would calm down when we'd rock her, but scream when we put her back in her crib.  Jacob eventually got her to sleep
• Night 4: She had refused to nap and had a big day, so that probably worked against us, but this turned out to be just a horrible night.  She cried from 10pm-12:45am.  We let her fuss until almost 11:00 when Jacob went and rocked her.  He got up again a while later.  Then I got up.  We gave her Tylenol.  Finally at 12:45, I put her in our bed (which is not usually effective) and she passed out for one hour.  Then at 1:37, she woke up and spent the next two hours tossing and turning and moaning as we all dozed.  Then she full-on cried for another 45 minutes.  I changed her diaper, I put her in cooler clothes, I rocked her.  AND THEN I NURSED HER!  And she passed out immediately and slept until 8:45. Since our plan consisted of "don't nurse her," I had now ruined the plan.  And now Jacob was leaving to go out of town.

I consulted with both grandmas (one of whom was fortunately staying at our house with us) and created a new plan.

The New Plan: Go in to soothe if she gets very upset, but once she is back in the crib, walk out of the room no matter whether she gets upset again or not.  Try a night light.  Try offering water.  Still don't nurse her.

• Night 5: She woke at 1 and 4:45.  Each time, I went in and rocked her.  The first time I put her back in the crib, she flipped out.  So I told her "Do you need one more hug?"  She nodded, so I picked her up and hugged her and decided to try rationalization.  I said "Jack-Jack night-night, Mama night-night, Cora night-night."  She then said "Mama bed" and pointed.  To which I said, "No, Jack-Jack night night in Jack bed, Mama night night in Mama bed, Cora night night in Cora bed."  I then laid her down and SHE LET ME!  I walked out and she didn't cry.  When she awoke the second time, I repeated this and she seemed okay with it.
• Night 6: She went to sleep at 8pm and slept until 7:30 am!!

So this is where I'm supposed to say: "And she forever slept through the night thereafter."  

• Night 7: She woke at 5:20am and Jacob (home just mere hours before) got her back down; she woke again at 6:20 and I was able to get her to read books quietly in her crib for another hour.  This is a cool benefit of the new night light in her small room.
• Night 8: Up from 5:30-6.  Jacob tried rocking.  10 minutes later I was in and rationalized her back into her crib.  She slept until 8. 
• Night 9: Up at 5:45.  Rationalization backfired as she repeatedly said "No mama night night, NO night night."  She cried for over an hour and then we eventually got her up.  This early start to her day seemed to throw her off and she WOULDN'T nap.

Lucky, she's so cute :)

I know many babies routinely wake this early.  But Cora routinely has to be woken up at 7:30.  So getting her up at 5:45 would mean she'd lose two hours of sleep.  (She already goes to bed at 6:30/7:00 and takes a nap).  Sigh.

I'll post an update in a few weeks.

Easter Camp

I'm a firm believer that if you put a name on something it becomes a whole lot cooler.  So for our stretch of six days home together as a family, I told Jack and Cora they'd be attending Easter Camp.  This looked different each day: from days fully scheduled out to days that just sort of happened.  Here is some of the fun we had:

A Schedule: I can't resist.  When we had to make a last minute adjustment to our Friday schedule to take Cora in for an ear check, I had to console my little alter ego, Jack. We both don't take well to last minute changes.

Crafts:  I love the concept of Pinterest, but visit only about 3x/year.  I got a great return on my five minutes of craft searching:

• Toilet Paper Roll Bunnies
• Fire Truck Craft

Baking: I love how the Waldorf School incorporates baking into the school day, involving the kids in the preparation of their own snack.  So at Easter Camp, we made:

• Our own granola to make trail mix
• Peanut Butter-Yogurt Fruit Dip

 

Music: This was easy!  As the Director of Vacation Bible School, I have the Music DVD and we popped it in to practice songs.  My kids love these songs!

(We invited good friends Jack & Sam to this day of Easter Camp)

Scavenger Hunt: I wrote out a list of things to find (leaves, sticks, balls, etc.) and things to do (something loving, something silly, etc.)  This turned out to be a lot of fun as Cora followed right along with Jack.

The Great Landry Family Egg Hunt: (Again, just put a cool name on something...)  I like the idea of separating egg-esque activities from Easter Day, so we did an egg hunt a few days before Easter and it helped keep Easter focused on going to church and thinking about what we were celebrating.

For the egg hunt, I hid eggs, some with clues inside, the rest empty.  Jack and Cora found and opened all the eggs and then Jack put the clues in number order.  The clues led J&C around the house to find little surprises. 

We also read bible stories, played outside a lot, went on a bike ride, picnicked in the park, had an awesome crawfish boil with friends and family, and have been enjoying the most beautiful beginning of spring in New Orleans.

Cora HATED her cold outside bath!

We had a good friend watch Jack and Cora so we could go peacefully to the Maundy Thursday service at Rayne Methodist.  This is the most beautiful, moving service.  And we spent an uplifting morning at Rayne, celebrating Easter.  He is risen, indeed!

She's 22 m....scratch that..."She'll be 2 in June"

At this point, I think it's only for my benefit to count out how many months Cora is....(that would be 22 months).  When you're this close to two, I think it makes the most sense to start referencing that big upcoming milestone.

In some ways, it seems impossible.  And in other ways, it seems like she's already two.  Not that I buy into stereotypes (entirely), but she definitely puts on her big girl shoes (and 'tude) more and more lately.

Cora Awesomeness this past month

- "Bire Truck!" became a frequent part of her vocabulary thus allowing her and Jack to communicate on all kinds of levels.  She'll find a picture of a Bire Truck! (always with that exclamation mark) in a book and turn to show Jack "Jack, bire truck!  Bire truck! Jack!"

 
- "One more mama" with a serious expression and 1 finger held up is also very cute and frequent
- She cackles, chuckles, squints her eyes, throws her head back, and does lots of other dramatic silliness
- She's peed on many public toilets, her own little potty, and was gifted some very cute new undies by her Grammy
- She loves to listen to the Vacation Bible School music DVD (her first real TV experience) and has quickly picked up some of the dance moves as Jack and I are learning them
- She cares for her baby dolls and had a big thrill holding her friend Liam's baby sister and having her own 8 month old cousin Billy visit

Cora Difficulties this past month

- "NO! MINE!" is heard a lot around here
- She is still INTENTIONALLY beating up her brother (with hands, feet, sippy cup, books, toys, etc.) but at least now she's pretty willing to go say "I torry" and show him her "gentle hands" afterward
- She throws mini tantrums when she doesn't get immediate gratification.  Rationalization is not effective in these moments (i.e. explaining that she will get a snack AFTER she puts on her shoes 90% of the time is no motivation/solace to her)
- She's peed on our carpet, in every pair of undies she owns, and refused to pee on many public toilets and her own potty
- We've had several battle of wills this past month with no clear winner at this point

Jacob and I just marvel at how precious, beautiful, personable, joyful, spirited, and hilarious Cora is.  She is winsome and sweet but also at a demanding and stubborn stage.

 
Potty training continues to be interesting.  I'd say we're at a similar spot to last month except now we are very clear that Cora knows how to potty, but just doesn't always feel like participating.  Some days, she's motivated pretty easily to pee and definitely responds well to attention, role models (someone else peeing first) and spectators (she performed happily for visiting Grammy and Aunt Kristen), but more than half the time it's "NO pee-pee poppee NO!"  It seems pretty clear to me that the right path is to not push her when she doesn't want to go .....BUT then there are those times (usually at least once a day) when she is dry after several hours but won't go potty.  Those are the times where I feel it's worth an effort and we've gotten into a few stand-offs when she just wasn't interested in peeing in a potty.  It was helpful to have my mom here for the last few days to get her advice.  She says to just relax and follow Cora's lead.  I'm going to....but I also plan on stringing up those cute new undies (which Cora loves) as motivation to pee.  She's not allowed (for obvious reasons) to wear undies unless she's just peed in the potty.

Nursing is another area where her strong personality has shown through.  Jack followed a really gentle weaning process over his second year and was down to just one feeding at this age without either of us having any difficulty with the process.  With Cora, we've been working on dropping from three to two feedings for several months, but baby girl has fought it hard.  It got to the point of her crying nightly starting at bath time because she knew there was not going to be any "mama mih."  From what I know and have read about toddler weaning, it's best to follow their cues and if they're overly anxious about giving up a certain feeding, then put the pause button on and try again in a few weeks.  We did press pause, but recently tried again and this method seems to have worked because she's only nursed twice a day for the last week or so.

A Nice Array of Cora's Sweet and Sassy Sides!

 

Mama goes shopping

If you have not tried Stitch Fix, try it now.

The clothes come to you!  A stylist picks them out.  You can set your style and price preferences.  If you need more convincing, see my experiences here and here.

This was my first "fix" in quite some time.  I kept three items.

KUT skinny blue pants and Ritz mixed pattern knit shirt

Callafia short-sleeve blue wrap dress

Like my co-model?  She does a great job at solo shots too!

Baby Led Weaning vs. Pureed First Foods

By happenstance, we approached introducing solid foods differently with Jack and Cora.  Jack was fed with our own mortar and pestle purees (joking a little) and Cora was handed ears of corn and mango pits (not joking).  This gives us a fascinating study on what leads to a better eater!

A little background.  Jack was our first baby.  We felt like we were being very avant-garde by making our own baby food.  I fondly remember our little ice cube trays full of homemade apple sauce, oatmeal (no salt - the way he takes it to this day), and lima beans.  Puree, freeze in trays, pop out into Ziplock bags for easy future meal assembly.  "How does pear, barley, and avocado sound tonight, hon?"

Little did we know there was a whole other movement.  Enter Baby Led Weaning.  This child-led approach to eating seemed like the natural progression for a breastfed baby.  (Breastfed babies self-regulate their intake; baby led weaning brings this same approach to solid foods.)  It also seemed easier (no puree-making) and with two children, easier seemed better.  So Cora was our guinea pig.  Here's her having fun.  What a little chunk!

 

I often watch Jack and Cora's eating habits and wonder if it was their first foray into solids that led them to these idiosyncrasies OR whether it's just that Jack is Jack and Cora is Cora.  I imagine it's a bit of both, but do note the control factors we did happen to have in place.

• Both were exclusively breastfed up to the point they began solids
• Both started solids right at six months
• Both had the same first solid food: sweet potatoes - Jack's was pureed and Cora's was roasted in the Baby Led Weaning-suggested stick form
• Both experienced much of their early eating in the same Craiglist-acquired wooden high chair :)

The Results

Jack is a wonderful eater.  He covets fruit.  (There's no better way to say that.)  Any fruit.  He overindulges on them.  He prefers them to desserts. 

He likes to begin his day with a big bowl of "yum-yum."  I still make our family bowl of old fashioned oats with no salt.  Jack's bowl has no salt (we add sea salt to ours) nor sugar (we add brown sugar to ours.)  He often likes to remind me that he "doesn't like salt or sugar, so don't put any in mine."  His oatmeal also has a scoop of plain, organic, low fat yogurt, cut up fruit, and walnuts.

He adores cheese.  Cheese and fruit are all he'd ever ask for.  He's suspicious of new dishes.  He can spot an onion from a distance.  He will not eat them.  He consistently passes on tomatoes, cauliflower, and cabbage.  (That is top of mind as we had coleslaw tonight.  He sat on the porch and cried because we insisted he give it another try.)  He can be picky about dinner foods.  He doesn't like our homemade cornmeal pizza dough; he doesn't like our veggie burgers (they have onions and green peppers - which he will meticulously weed out); he usually gives us trouble on things like tamales and burritos.  Vegetables are a mixed bag.  He seeks out raw carrots, doesn't mind broccoli, enjoys magic beans (edamame), but there are plenty he complains about.

He is four after all.  He definitely has strong dislikes, but the fact that we can send a salad in his lunch to school?  And some days an apple and an orange?  And he asks for "nuts and raisins" as a snack?  And that he once told us he wasn't going to have birthday cake at a party "because cake hurts my tummy"?  He makes a strong case for starting with purees.

Cora is a wonderful eater too...sometimes. 

She is most different from Jack when it comes to fruits.  She likes apples, pears, melon, grapes, and bananas but will not eat citrus, picks strawberries out of her oatmeal daily (I ascribe to the "you have to try something repeatedly before you can establish a dislike" philosophy), and will not try anything with "berry" on the end of its name. 

Cora also begins her day with a big bowl of "yum-yum," served just like her brother's - no salt, no sugar, plain yogurt, nuts, and fruit.

Cora also adores cheese.  RAISINS and cheese are all Cora could ask for.  Cora tends to be our more adventurous eater at dinnertime.  She has been known to chow down on things like red beans and rice and gumbo, affirming for us that she is our Cajun child.  (She also insists on having some of "dat" whenever her Daddy has a bottle of hot sauce out.)  She loves herself a tamale or a burrito.  And she LOVES meat.  But then again, so does Jack.  She's more adventurous with vegetables, once shoveling a whole bowl of brussel sprouts in her mouth for lunch.  She loves roasted broccoli and cauliflower.  Today she was eating olives.

Edamame and black beans for snack

I can't call this contest now because Miss Cora is QUICKLY approaching two and is a very opinionated child.  I have found that if I'm persistent, she'll come around.  She gave up eating apples a month ago, but I got her back to them after a week.  Cora is too young for me to have many quotes, but she lightens up meals with her favorite game: "Where wa-wa?" as she hides her cup under her napkin and then laughs and laughs and with her silly face games.  We often look over to find her eyes squinted and closed as she eats :)

If we end up with a third baby Landry, we'll have to reevaluate this contest to see which approach should be used next time!

We love the free and healthy Whole Foods kid treats.  Here: matching apples for the ride home.

21 Months: Ears, Mouth, and a Hiney

Today she is 21 months old!

While her outie belly button is adorable, her curls get cuter by the day, and her "CHEESE!" grin is oh-so-cute, this month has centered on her EARS, MOUTH, and HINEY.

EARS
- Weekend ear pain had me taking off work and taking her to the doctor on a Monday morning only to find out she had two ruptured ear drums :(  This was only Cora's third ear infection (Jack had had at least ten by this age), but was our first experience with a rupture.  We were prescribed antibiotic ear drops and Amoxicillin, but she never seemed fully better so I wasn't surprised to find out that she still had an infection at her 10-day check-up.  After bumping up to Omnicef, she was clear as of last week.  Fingers crossed her ears won't cause us the same drama as Jack's.  His ear tubes just fell out and he immediately got an ear infection :(

MOUTH

Our mute child has really started talking!  She has had a decent vocabulary for a while, but she showed a definite preference for NOT talking.  She wouldn't play the "say..." game and she would generally gesture or make faces rather than say words she knew.  But this past month, she's started babbling, stringing her words together, and adding in lots of new words. 

Our favorite Cora speak:

•  "wow-wee" for flower
• "a-yi-yi" for I love you
• "a-yeyow" for another (she says this one any time she sees more than one of something, so a lot!)  Jack used to say "nummy"
• "pee-pee-poppee" for pee in the potty (see below!)

 We get a kick out of how she calls herself "baby."  When looking at a family photo, she points out "mama," "dada," "dja" and "baby."  If we ask where Cora is she always points to herself, but when we ask her what her name is, she says "baby."  To which we say, "no your name is Cora - C,C,C-ora"  Tonight, for the first time when we asked her what her name was she said "Tuh-tuh-tuh" :)  She can't make the C sound yet, but it showed she wanted to giver her real name a try.

She loves her Jack-Jack!

HINEY

We brought out the potty at 19 months because we noticed Cora was really aware of our routines and thought she might be interested in trying the potty.  She wasn't.  She only occasionally, by chance, peed on it.  But midway through this month, things clicked and now she pees nearly every time we sit her on the potty and she's pooped several times!

Our experience with potty-training Jack was a long 12 month journey that I was DETERMINED to complete before Cora was born.  We hadn't really been trying with Cora, so to have her all of the sudden peeing and pooping was a very pleasant surprise.

BUT!

Potty training is a double edged sword because it requires a lot of effort from the parent.  We weren't planning to make any effort yet with Cora and now are trying to determine exactly how much energy to invest.  Mardi Gras week was the perfect week to try things out because I had more time off and we were home.

I see POTTY TRAINING as a multi-step process.  I love that we've already gotten started and would love to pack up the diapers, but I expect this will take some time.  I just hope it will be 3 or 4 months rather than the YEAR it was with Jack!

Cora showing off her big girl undies!

The Potty Training Process (as I see it):

1. Child knows how to make themselves pee.  CHECK
2. Child can pee both on a little potty AND a big one (because let's be honest, it's not that convenient when your child can only go on a special-only-in-one-room-of-your-house-container-that-must-be-dumped).  CHECK
3. Child can tell you when they need to pee rather than you suggesting it.  This has happened several times - yeah!
4. Child is invested enough in peeing in the potty that they don't make it into a will power battle at every sitting. We don't push it when she's just woken up and grumpy and any other time she's not in the mood.  She's on board with "pee-pee-poppee" about 80% of the time.
5. Child is comfortable enough peeing in the potty that they would do it for others (i.e. at school).  We're not going to push this yet.  We'll give it another week or so and see if we're still making progress before we mention it at school.  Cora's only there two days and we found with Jack that his teachers weren't invested until they felt he was really all about the process. 
   Cora has peed for her baby sitter.
6. Child CAN poop in the potty.  I have to put this on the list because this was a big obstacle for Jack.  It freaked him out and he resisted for months even while he was easily able to pee in the potty. Cora has nonchalantly pooped several times in her potty.  I was so excited I took a picture and sent it to my mom :)
7. Child can tell you when they need to poop.  Not yet
8. Child sends themselves to the bathroom consistently (i.e. you are no longer prompting them throughout the day to safeguard against accidents.) I see this as a ways off

I hope the next month brings more forward progress!  I have to say that it's actually fun to have the whole family (daddy, mommy, and Jack) jumping and cheering every time we have pee-pee action.  It keeps the joy factor up in our house!

4 and a Quarter

Jack was all about being 3 and 3/4s, but  4 1/4 doesn't have quite the same oomph.  Still, he did seem excited when I mentioned Monday was his "4 and a quarter" birthday.

Let me tell you a little about Jack at four and some change:

SCHEDULE/ROUTINE

It's cool to see how his concept of time and its structure has evolved over the past year.  Last year, he associated his days at school with what that day's snack was (Waldorf is a proponent of rhythms and each weekday has a set snack and routine.)  He would talk about how Mr. Ben the music teacher came on rice day.  He never said Monday, but instead said "rice day."  (Which then became quinoa day after the flare up over arsenic in rice.)

Well, the boy is now far beyond this surface level understanding of his weekly schedule.  He knows that Sunday is church day and he talks about the order of his activities (which class first, what floor, and when snack happens.)  "I go to school three days: Monday is the first day, then Tuesday, then Wednesday."  Monday is quinoa day, Tuesday is yum-yum day (we've not graduated past calling oatmeal "yum-yum"), and Wednesday is baking day.  "On Monday, I go to swimming lessons.  Once there was a holiday on Monday and I didn't go to school, but I still went to swimming."

"On Thursday, I stay home with Mommy.  Daddy goes to work."  Fridays are the day with his sitter.  Saturday he knows that we all stay home.  During this past week of Mardi Gras, he would keep checking in on where we were at in the week, confirming that he wasn't going to school on his regular school days and making sure he knew when it was Daddy and Mommy at home vs. just Mommy.

He's also QUITE aware of his TV schedule.  We've kept it to two days a week.  He calls them his "Sam days" and usually wants his second Sam day to be right after his first.  (I try to hold him off.)  He LOVES watching TV and I love being able to line up Cora's nap and Jack's TV time.  Jack's TV repertoire: Fireman Sam, Thomas the Train, Bob the Builder, and he's always happy to watch Barney Visits the Fire Station or any real life fire video/movie. 

TALKING

This would be the most inaccurate update if I didn't mention, emphasize, and underscore that Jack NEVER STOPS TALKING.  I used quotation marks above because he's recounted his schedule to me so many times, I can hear his voice clearly and feel quite comfortable quoting him.  Jack talks to me, then switches midstream to talking to Cora, then segways into his favorite tune:

"F-I-R-E-M-A-N, 
Fireman Sam, he's our friend...
Safest place I know, 
Pontypandy by the sea
Welcome to our town
Where we all live safely
We all live safely.....F-I-R-E-M-A-N..."
 
You have to love a song that segways back into itself endlessly!

Jacob and I crack up at the dinner table as Jack earnestly recounts the happenings of his day, complete with exaggerated facial expressions, interrupting himself with lines like "This certainly is a lot of rice!" and chuckling at his own jokes.  The majority of the time, I love listening to Jack.   Now when Jacob is out of town or after several hours of being alone with Jack...it can become a little bit insane.

QUIRKS

Because Jack never stops talking, it can be hard to get a word in to discipline.  We are hearing a lot of "But I was trying to tell you something!" when we are interrupting to tell him no or to reprimand.  This genuinely frustrates him and he starts to cry.

Every night before bed we have to go through the following before leaving him in his room alone can be considered acceptable:

1. Switch closet light on.  Leave door generously ajar.
2. Ask him how many kisses he wants before we go to bed.  (We get numbers like "400 closets full" and "1,000 10-hundred"
3. Tell him that we promise to leave the closet light on.  All night long.
4. Promise to tell him when it's morning, even though 99% of the time, he is the one telling us that it's morning.
5. Promise him that we'll tell the other parent "all of these things" and that "we won't forget any of these things."
6. Start to leave..."One more thing Mommy!"  Listen.  Say "okay...goodnight" a few more times.  

INCREDIBLE SWEETNESS

He is the most awesome big brother.  If Cora is upset, he always pipes up to advocate that we give her the thing she wants.  "Just give her the snack Mommy."  He gives her hugs and calls her "his baby princess."  She terrorizes him a good bit, smashing LEGO creations he's worked hard on, but he never retaliates.  He's protective, attentive, loving, and despite their 2.5 year age span, they can have quite the good time together with silly little games they create on their own.

He continues to be a voracious reader.  We have 30+ library books checked out at all times.  I'm reading the Little House on the Prairie books aloud to him now and we are both loving them.  (We're on book two.)  His latest interest has been Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggy series.  He continues to adore Berenstain Bears and Jacob and I somehow muster up the energy to keep reading them.  Since he no longer naps, he rests daily for 30-40 minutes just flipping through a stack of his books.  We read to him at least two times a day, but I know there are days I read 20 books.

He can ask some profound questions about death and life after death.  He about broke my mom's heart by saying that he wanted to die before Grammy so that he could be waiting for her at the gates of heaven.

The best thing about Jack is his insatiability about life.  He wakes up every morning full of energy and excited about the day ahead. 

Flowers for Mommy

It's a rare night that I don't wish I could be a better mother, more patient, more in-the-moment, and more worthy of him and Cora.  They can wear me out and wear me down, but when I stop to think, (like by taking the time to write this) I'm just in awe of how awesome they are and what a privilege it is to be their mom :)