After starting on a course of antibiotics last Friday, I am finally recovering from the combination of a bad cold and sinusitis. Jack still has a slight cough, but for the most part has recovered far quicker than I have.

In the past few weeks Jack enjoyed having his Auntie Lis and Uncle Mal visit and join him at Gymbaroo. He has also had fun with Grandma C visiting – who came to see Phantom of the Opera with me. Father’s day was a quite one at home this year.

Now that the weather is warming up, Jack is asking to go outside every chance he gets. I am so glad to have winter behind us. Jack and I have enjoyed being able to get back to the park, and he is loving playing soccer outside. He seems to understand that the ball needs to stay off the road and out of the garden.

He spotted Mitchell (6 months older than Jack) playing footy with his dad down the street, so asked to go join in. When Mitchell kicked the football onto the road, Jack told him 'not on the road, no'. Whenever Mitchell fell over in attempting to kick the football, Jack thought it was hilarious and would fall over himself in imitation. It is nice for him to have a little friend in the street.

Jack is still learning new words and phrases regularly. When I have commented on pictures he has done from childcare, he has said 'lovely drawing Jack' or 'beautiful painting Jack' - obviously repeating the phrases that the childcare workers told him. He remembers phrases we tell him and prompts us to say them in the appropriate times. He sometimes kicks me on the change table, and I sternly tell him 'no kicking Jack, say sorry mummy'. When he says 'sorry mummy', I say 'ok Jack, just don't do it again'. If I forget to say this he says it for me repeatedly, until I say it.

He continues to learn new songs at childcare, and prompts me to sing them with him at home. Sometimes I don't know them or all the actions, so have to ask him to show me!

Doug found all the kids singing 'ring a ring a rosie' with a carer when he picked Jack up from childcare yesterday. They did all the actions, and the boys enthusiastically threw themselves on the ground for the 'all fall down' part. Jack seems to delight in throwing himself down on the ground at the moment, or on top of us. He loves yelling 'timber' and falling, particularly on the bed. He also enjoys swinging on the rings at Gymbaroo and throwing himself down onto the ground. He is getting better at jumping also, and really enjoys jumping on the trampoline, holding my hands, or by himself.

Posted by Al at 2:27 PM

Jack had what we think is another first for him tonight – a blood nose.

He stood up during his bath, slipped, and hit the side of the spa. I heard the resulting loud “thunk”, pause, and cry from the opposite side of the house, and came running.

It turned out to be a two tissue blood nose, with only 30 seconds of crying. Jack then told us solemnly that the bath was “bery slippery”.

Posted by Doug at 7:57 PM

We have had our first family driving holiday with Jack. We spent a night in a motel room, stayed with friends in Canberra for two nights, spent three nights in the Hunter Valley where we attended a family wedding, and then we spent a night at my parents place on the way home.

It took a surprisingly large effort to prepare and pack for the trip. There are a lot more contingencies that you have to cater for with a toddler in tow. Included in those preparations was getting a roof mounted DVD player installed in the car. That expense had well and truly paid for itself by the end of the trip.

Overall it went well, and Jack took most of it in his stride. He did however forlornly ask “Home now?” on more than one occasion.

Aside the wedding itself, the biggest focus was how far we could travel before having to pull over. Jack is good in the car for around 45 minutes before he starts to get antsy. Turn on the DVD and we got another 45 minutes. Hand back some lollies, a book or three, and a few toys, and we got another 10. At this point you had little choice but to pull over and let Jack run around for a while.

The problem and stress was when there was no place to pull over – particularly going around Sydney on the Toll ways, or simply when the next town off the freeway was too far.

In the end we only really had maybe 40 minutes of crying from Jack while in the car – although each one of those minutes seemed to last a whole lot longer. Al already seems to have glossed over the amount of thought and effort we expanded on that one little question – how far, but I haven’t. We did both agree however that family driving trips – if kept to within 4 hours distance, are quite achievable.

The things I remember…

. We found that Jack seems to prefer full pillows – and sleeps better with them. Up until now we have just given him a fairly flat baby pillow.

. Jack was immediately taken with our friend’s oldest daughter (who is almost 4), and was happy to play and interact with her the entire visit. He reacted poorly however every time their 10 month old son came close to him. It was heartening to see he can interact so well with other kids – even if they have to be older than him.

. We had a long stop at the Australian Reptile Park. During a presentation a handler brought around various reptiles for us to touch. He showed a small snake to Jack – obviously expecting Jack to shrink back. Instead it was the handler who had to leap backwards - as Jack went to grab the snake. It seemed to amuse the small crowd.

. Jack had his very first icy pole at the park. He was quite taken with it.

. We used our first ever baby sitter for Jack. We had her visit to get acquainted with Jack for a few hours (which gave us the opportunity to visit some wineries and sample the local foods), and then baby sit him while we attended the wedding reception the next night. She was the image of a grandmother (which apparently the service specialises in), complete with grey hair tied up in a bun. Jack was obviously quite taken with her, and she with him, and both sessions went very well.

. As she left at the end of the evening, the baby sitter told us Jack was a bright and lovely boy, who was a credit to us as parents. It is nice to think that we must be getting some things right.

. Jack fed animals at a small local Zoo. We were surprised at how relatively comfortable he was in amongst the goats, sheep and birds. He scolded and chastised several animals for roughing up his mum however.

. On the way to my parents place – with Jack asleep and us covering some good miles, we were pulled over for a random breath test. As the country police officer came to my window he gave us a loud greeting. Al leaned quickly across from her passenger seat and loudly shushed him. He looked surprised for a moment, and then glanced into the back seat where Jack was blinking in sudden and startled wakefulness. He quickly apologised and said he had two kids of his own. The breath test passed we went on our way – but Jack didn’t get back to sleep.

. When we purchased the car 12 months ago we had thought it should handle the trip to the Wedding well. It did.

Posted by Doug at 10:13 PM

Jack coped very well with our trip up to the Hunter Valley for my brother's wedding. The DVD player in the car certainly made the travel much easier than it otherwise would have been. On the other hand he only slept for an hour or less at a time in the car (instead of his usual 2 hour daytime nap), so it was also harder than it could have been. We still had a couple spots on the trip where Jack was upset for 15-20 minutes until we could pull over, but considering the distance travelled he did extremely well.

Regular stops (usually about every 2 hours) to play at parks or take coffee breaks helped. We also happened upon the Australian Reptile Park the other side of Sydney, and this allowed for an enjoyable 2 hour break. Jack was very excited by the crocodiles there. He was even brave enough to touch snakes and lizards.

We had a very enjoyable 2 day stopover at our friends in Canberra. Jack had a lot of fun following their almost 4 year old daughter around. Observing this was one of the highlights of the trip for me, given his social reluctance to date. It was a contrast to his reaction to their 10 month old son – who Jack cried or reacted negatively to any time he came near. It clearly showed that Jack prefers older kids at this stage. While in Canberra we also had an interesting visit to Questacon.

Our cottage in Hunter Valley was much smaller than we had envisioned, but thankfully had plenty of open space around it. Jack was able to get out regularly for walks and to play with his soccer ball. He was particularly excited by watching the automatic pool vacuum cleaner moving around and shooting water up every few minutes. The new toys, sticker, coloring and reading books all certainly helped keep him entertained for the most part. He still had periods of frustration however being cooped up, and I have to admit my patience with him was also shorter than usual.

Since we needed a babysitter for the wedding reception, we decided to also have Jack babysat on the Friday morning so that he would get used to the babysitter during the day. Doug and I enjoyed the opportunity to have these few hours to ourselves to do some wine and cheese tasting, and visit a chocolate shop and a gallery. We were then able to indulge in the food we purchased for the remainder of the trip.

Friday afternoon Jack enjoyed a visit to the Hunter Valley Zoo with his grandparents, a couple Aunties’, an Uncle and a cousin. He was brave enough to put food on his hand and feed the kangaroos, goats, sheep and a calf. He did tell the goats off though each time they jumped on his mum.

Although over-tired, on Friday night he was happily handed around family and friends at the family pre-wedding dinner. He was very well behaved the next day at the wedding ceremony (at the beautiful Hunter Valley Gardens), chatting quietly to his dad at the back of the proceedings, and the second babysitting stint also went well.

On the way home and after a very long day in the car - and although very overtired by the time we arrived, he was excited to find himself staying at Grandma C and Pop's house for a night.

Jack has been catching up on his sleep ever since. He was very happy to arrive home, and excitedly ran through the house leaping about with excitement. He has enthusiastically returned to his activities and childcare this week. When I told him animals were coming to the duck room on Tuesday, he ran all the way from the car to the room!

All in all, he has been a very happy and good little boy for the most part and coped with the disruption to his normal routine and life very well. It has given us more confidence to consider more breaks away, although we would try to opt for shorter distances (within about 4 hours drive).

Belated summary of Jack at 26 months

. After quite a few months of being out of sorts, Jack has returned to his normal happy self in the past month or so. It has been a relief, and a delight to see him mostly happy again.

. Jack loves jumping at the moment – including leaping off steps while holding our hands, and jumping on our bed.

. With the weather starting to warm up, Jack is excited to get outside every chance he gets. He loves playing soccer and riding his tricycle down the street (with me pushing).

. Jack's social skills have shown improvement in the past month. He particularly enjoys playing with older kids (3-6 year olds), following them around and imitating their actions and speech. He has started to enjoy playing with Kaitlin and Kiara (at times) at playgroup.

. Jack is starting to become a little more independent with his play. While he still likes to know I am close by, he has been a little less clingy and more inclined to go and play by himself for short periods. This has made life a little easier for me.

. Jack coped well with his first time being babysat by someone other than his grandmas (while in Hunter Valley). The babysitter (a grandmother herself, complete with grey hair and bun!) was very taken with him and declared him a lovely, bright little boy and a credit to his parents. He even went down to sleep well for her at night. This gives us more confidence to consider an external babysitter again.

. With our swimming time changed in the past month, Jack and I are now fitting in story time at the library again. Jack then enjoys going to the shops with me for lunch, and sits up and eats his sausage rolls and sauce. He then goes on the car and train rides that are there.

. Jack made a toy guitar at childcare (with rubber bands for guitar strings). He loved sitting and strumming this toy guitar when watching the Wiggles. Given his enthusiasm, his new toy for the month was an electric wiggles guitar. He loves it.

. Jack has become more fussy with food again, and is not enthused to eat his veges or much meat these days. On a more positive note he seems to be getting more coordinated with feeding himself. Our constant chant of 'small mouthfuls Jack' has seen him make a real effort at putting smaller amounts on his spoon, and so get less all over his clothes, chair and the table. This means he doesn't need an outfit change quite so often. (It was after almost every meal there for awhile).

. Jack enjoys having a little bit of water put in his toy tea pot, pouring it into his toy cup, and drinking 'cups of tea'. Although it is rather messy play, it is getting him used to drinking out of a little cup (since to date he is still drinking from his sippy cups).

. Jack has started asking 'where and what' questions, such as 'where are they', 'what happens next', and 'what doing mummy'. His babysitter commented that he is really good at repeating what you say, and picking up new words very quickly and easily.

Posted by Al at 9:12 PM