Jack's a Big Boy

Well, I'm scheduling this to be posted on February 12th. Really I will be going under the knife that morning. One L5-S1 discectomy please. Wish me luck. Now onto Jack:

Jack has definitely left his infancy behind and is moving on to bigger and better things. This past month, especially just the past couple of weeks he seems to have changed so much. And you know me, I'm not one to get emotional over my baby growing up too quickly.

First, he started giving kisses. You know, the big, slobbery open-mouth kisses. Who would've thought getting drool in your mouth would be so cute?

Next, he started crawling. Well, he CAN crawl, but he usually chooses just to slither around like a lizard.

Then he learned the art of clapping. His first clap came appropriately while watching the Super Bowl. Then everyone would yell "yay" and start clapping and he would join in with a big grin on his face.

Then, after realizing that being up on his knees to crawl can help him reach higher he started trying to pull himself up. And after a few tries he was able to stand up. Only he's really not good at it at all. So he'll stand up with his legs completely splayed out and not in a good position to support him. Or he'll get standing just to reach for something with both hands. He has no concept of his own safety and has already taken many, many spills. I have a feeling I'll eventually end up at the ER with him.

I'm sure you're not supposed to always compare your children to each other but I just can't help it. Almost everything Jack does makes me think about how different it is from what Jane was like as a baby. I don't think that one approach to life is better than the other, just different.

*Jane was a very cautious baby. Jack isn't. Jane would rarely do anything to endanger herself. If she stood up on the couch and wasn't sure how to get back down she would cry for us to help her. Jack, as I mentioned, stands up and reaches for something far away, tumbling down onto a pile of blocks. I can't leave him unattended right now because he will undoubtedly hurt himself.

*Jane was very fearful. Even from a very young age. Any loud sound scared her. She was scared of my big exercise ball when she was just 6 months old. She'd cry when it was in the room. She would nearly lose her mind when the vacuum was turned on. She still hides in the bathroom when I get it out. Jack doesn't cry at loud noises. The other day I started to vacuum, but this time I just left him on the floor to vacuum around him. When he saw the vacuum coming his way his eyes got big and I thought, oh, he is going to be scared of it. But I soon realized they were big with excitement because he started crawling over to check it out.

*We never childproofed our house with Jane. Sure, we put some nice books onto a high shelf, and had to put something in front of the DVD player/cable box stuff but that was the extent of it. We never put on cabinet locks or childproof door knobs. She never climbed up to where she shouldn't be. She just never got into stuff. Jack, I fear, is going to be a whole other story. He has already managed to break some blinds and rip up the cable cord. If he can see anything, he wants it.

*Once Jane could sit well we stopped using the baby bath tub and let her sit in the big bath tub. She would sit there nicely, touching the water, calmly playing with some toys, etc. Jack can sit up, but my attempts to sit him in the bath tub have been comical. He won't sit for a second! He immediately lunges forward for a toy, getting a face full of water.

* I remember I used to hold Jane while I would make dinner or get other stuff done. You can only hold Jack if you don't have anything in your hand or anything in front of you that you'd rather he not grab. He will dive bomb out of your arms to grab for whatever he sees.

*I looked at Jane's baby book the other day. I noticed that around 7-8 months I had taught her to take the star rings off her little stacker toy and to put blocks into a bucket. I can remember doing that. I sat across from her and showed her how to take the stars off. Then I took her hand and showed her that she could take them off too. Voila. So one afternoon I sat across from Jack and put the star toy between us. By the time I had taken one star off Jack had grabbed it from my hand and decided it would be much more fun to bang it repeatedly against the stacker. He was just a windstorm of movement, kicking it with his legs, banging it with hands. Then he took the whole toy and turned it upside down, a much more efficient way to get the stars off in the first place. So I moved on to the blocks in the bucket. He grabbed two out and started banging them together. He didn't pay any attention as I dropped my own in. I tried to pry the blocks out of his hand to show him he could put them in but he cried at my attempts to take something away from him. So that was that.

Here's some other stuff about Jack. He really likes kids and babies. Kids can always make him laugh. And he usually giggles or squeals when he looks at another baby. He even gets pretty excited when he sees one of Jane's baby dolls.

He's still toothless.

Jack tends to get nervous around men he doesn't know. Not all men, and not all the time, but if he cries out of the blue and you're not sure why it may have been that a man looked at him funny. It started with Grandpa Griner in Missouri. But he warmed up to him. Then Uncle Terrell shivered while in Jack's presence and Jack LOST it. After that the mere sight of Terrell sent him into hysterics. It also has happened with Uncle Nate, strangers at church and consistently with his pediatrician.

(He actually liked Uncle Byron but got a little nervous at this point).

Jane and Jack share a room. One night, Jack was already asleep in his crib and Jane and I were sneaking in to put her to bed. As soon as I walked in I saw Jack lift his head and look right at me. So I quickly laid down on Jane's bed and got under the covers. So Jane and I laid there quietly. Jack didn't cry so I lifted my head and saw that Jack was on his tummy, holding the crib bumper down with his hand staring right in my direction. I laid there a long time waiting for him to stop staring at me. Jane and I nearly lost it in a fit of giggles but eventually he laid his head back down and I snuck out. I couldn't believe he didn't cry. But that's pretty Jack-like. He is pretty rambunctious but he's also easy-going. We just love him to bits around here.