Jack and I have enjoyed a few more outings over the past month while his activities were on hold. We went to his first Hi 5 concert which he was suitably excited by. He sat on my knee throughout, but did announce 'enough Hi 5' as we were leaving. We had another trip down to Geelong to visit my high school friends, then dinner at Grandma Q's afterwards. We visited Charlie (his previous music teacher and her son) and Jack enjoyed jumping on their trampoline, went to a park with Braden, had Damon and Max over to visit, and visited Baby Braden in hospital – the second baby for one of the mother's group. It has been nice having a bit of extra time in our schedule to fit all these things in.

As a family we have visited friends who have recently moved back home from Scotland. Jack has had both Grandma Q,and Grandma and Pop C visit in past week, and enjoyed some one-on-one time with each grandparent. Last of all we have met up with Kiara and her mum to see the Sand Sculptures at Frankston which Jack was intrigued by.

Jack has enjoyed starting back to his activities. He was especially excited by starting Ready, Steady Go - an activity which introduces kids to a range of ball sports. The first 2 weeks have been learning soccer, as well as some time pretending to drive hoops around as cars. There are only 3 little boys in the group and 2 instructors - so the kids get lots of one-on-one attention. Jack insists I run up and down and participate the whole time with him, so it is an exercise class for me also. Jack was also excited to visit the beach afterwards - which he referred to as 'Wiggle Bay'. He was also very happy to see the return of instructor Kellie at swimming. He has another new teacher for music and is still clinging to me and refusing to participate without my help. Given that the rest of the kids are getting more and more independent, we may well not continue with that activity. Time will tell.

Unfortunately with all this busyness I came down with my 3rd inner ear infection for the past 6 months. It took almost 4 weeks and antibiotics to clear it. Jack also was sent home from childcare early last week with a temperature (which was one of his usual teething temps).

Summary of Jack at 31 months:

. One of Jack's favourite activities is for us to hide him under cushions on the couch and then have us pretend to look for him. He also enjoyed playing 'hide and seek' with Grandma C in the garden, and spent 10 mins at a time wandering around the garden pretending to look for grandma and saying 'boo' to all the bushes and laughing at himself.

. Jack is getting more co-ordinated - with us bouncing a ball to him and him doing a single bounce back. He is yet to master multiple bounces and gets a bit frustrated when he tries. He is getting better at hitting balloons up in the air. Dad and Jack have managed to keep the balloon up in the air with over 50 consecutive hits (mum and Jack don't manage to get quite so many!)

. Jack now has his 19th tooth half way through. Hopefully the end of teething is very near now.

. Jack's main new present for the month was a large car road mat which now fills our upstairs area. He particularly loves playing car, train and ball games with his Dad currently and actively seeks him out to play.

. Jack is demanding I carry him everywhere when we are out in public at moment. I think it is a reaction to being around strangers/in a crowd, since as soon as anyone looks at him or he hears loud noises or anything makes him uncomfortable, he demands I pick him up. Given he now weighs over 15kgs I am struggling to carry him for any length of time.

. Jack has learnt all about road rules from one of his play school DVDs this month. When we are out in the car he talks a lot about 'green for go' and 'red for stop' at traffic lights, as well as waiting for other cars at roundabouts. When we cross the road he is learning to look both ways. Sometimes it can cause some confusion for him if there are parked cars and I tell him we can cross anyway, whereas he thinks any car in sight means we have to stop and wait.

Posted by Al at 10:43 PM