Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Fun song: Cartoons' "Witch Doctor"

John loves the "ooh eee ooh ah ah" part, which showed up in a Diane Ferlatte song... so I found this version when I was searching for a download of the whole song.
I can't find this song except on imeem. Even though there are links to iTunes and Amazon, neither has this song. Imeem has an mp3 stream, but I don't know if I can download that onto my mp3 player... (if anyone knows how I can, tell me!)

It's fun anyway, I'll let you know what John thinks once I have a chance to play it for him!


Witch Doctor - Cartoons

ETA:
Ok, this song can be purchased and downloaded from the amazon.co.uk site, but of course I can't do that directly. How can Jessica buy it and get it to me?

Monday, February 16, 2009

Can he do it? Yes he can!

Just a quick note for all the grands on what John is up to lately...
This weekend he was able to zip up his orange windbreaker, twice, without help, including starting the zipper all by himself! (Can you tell I'm impressed?) It took about 10 minutes of working at it, but he did it.

He can put his shoes and socks on without help, although he consistently gets the shoes on the wrong feet.

He is getting better at brushing and flossing.

The toilet training is coming along. He is very good at school and about 50% successful at home too! Haven't had any dry mornings lately though...

He loves "reading" books out loud now, both to himself and to us. He recites the ones he knows as he turns the pages, and the others he makes up as he goes along.

This will be a tough-ish couple of weeks on John, because Tony is starting tech for his show at school (Two Gentlemen of Verona, the musical) and will start being absent for bedtime and then dinner and bedtime and weekend. We'll get through it, like we always do, it's just harder on John when he doesn't get enough face-time with Daddy!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

You wanted him, so here he is!!!!

Showing his cracker bunnies.



Playing with a rubber band.

No longer playing with a rubber band.


Showing you the hook where he can hang up his coat by himself!


Taking a picture of his hook.


Hanging around at home.





At the zoo:





John loves air hockey, even when he's losing! This was at the Chuck E. Cheese we stopped at near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on our drive to Dallas at Christmas. The gigantic rocking horse in the background was actually very cool. The frequency at which it rocks was very soothing. I rode that one with John about 5 times!


Here is John the awesome playground outside the zoo.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Things other than sleep

But a small sleep note first.
We are back on track for bedtime. He stays in his bed when we leave with only a couple of minutes of crying-protesting. We go in after he's asleep to put up the rail, but he hasn't fallen out again so far.
So we're good on bedtime again, until the next thing! Yay!

His favorite story these days is "Three Little Pigs," he says "Sing the Big Bad Wolf."

Just as Feiste and our friends the Brantinghams told us, John is starting to potty train himself. He often (2-3 times a day) goes on the toilet. We're not really doing anything formal, no stickers or M&Ms, just praising him when he does it. Twice he woke himself up in the morning in time to have a dry diaper overnight. He has done it at school, and he usually does it before his bath.

His imaginative play often involves putting Tony and I through some aspect of the daily routine with the parent-child roles reversed. Tony was very happy that John put him down for a nap the other day!

We have Zoo Tots tomorrow morning at the Greenville Zoo. It's a 45-minute program that involves about 20 minutes of "free-play" at various stations in the education room and a 20-minute program led by a Zoo intern. Last week, the kids (about 10 in the class) got to see a Lorikeet (small parrot-type bird) close up. I was pretty disappointed in the thinness of the program and the leadership skills of the intern, but we got what we paid for, which was to see an animal (besides a dog or cat!) close up.

Our family dog walks our quiet now because John rides in the stroller and listens to the Diane Ferlatte CD. His favorites are "Down by the River," in which a crocodile learns that he can't eat Hen, because she is his sister; and "Turtle Song," in which a baby turtle uses reverse psychology on a coyote, a la Brer Rabbit.

He is getting better at taking turns. Yesterday he and his friend James jumped on James's trampoline and they were both taking turns on their own, without me or Kerri having to prompt them. It was a beautiful thing! The other night, John, Tony, and I played a Memory-style game with his construction vehicle memory cards. Instead of turning the cards upside down, we left about 9 pairs face up, but mixed up, and we took turns picking matching pairs. It was pretty fun.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon. I know it's been a long time. I have misplaced the camera...