I started singing along to a nursery rhyme this afternoon while sitting with Jack.

His hand suddenly shot out towards me and he firmly said “no”.

I paused for a second, looked at him, and then sung a couple more words.

Jack interrupted me quickly with a stern “stop”.

I looked at him – he frowned back, and then said “no singing daddy”.

Posted by Doug at 9:58 PM

 

Jack getting some out of car time on the way to the Hunter Valley

 

Feeding the animals at the Hunter Valley Zoo

The Wedding Clothes

Posted by Doug at 10:21 PM

An older photo - taken while he sat at my desk.

. The other day Al made a suggestion to Jack that he didn’t like. He responded with “I don’t think so Mummy…”

. Jack had another haircut last week. Al realised the initial booking was with someone who didn’t do a good job previously, so called back later in the day and changed the time and hairdresser. The things you do as a parent…

. Al and I talked about the hair appointment quietly to ourselves, but we hadn’t told Jack until we were just about to go. As Al was getting him ready she said “Guess where we are going today Jack?” “Haircut” he replied with a beaming smile. He had obviously overheard us. We are going to have to be more careful with how discrete we are around him.

. He was once again great during the cut, and as he walked away from the chair he remarked on how it was a “good haircut”.

. We have a pack of large flip cards that show various items with their names. We have been using them with Jack since well before he could speak. He was going through them tonight and I noticed he gave most images multiple attributes. “White Owl, Hoot Hoot”, “Man driving green truck, brrrm, brrrm”, “Yellow Sun”…

. When the sun is out he calls it a "Beautiful day". When the sun is behind the clouds he calls it a "Rainy day".

. If you help him get started, Jack is able to peddle his tricycle half the length of the passageway, ''all by self".

Posted by Doug at 10:46 PM

Last week Jack had opportunity to go into the 'older kids' half of the room at Thursday childcare. They noted he ate all his yoghurt by himself without spilling any, and that he coped well with being in with the older kids. After music class this week he started telling me 'duck room now'. When we arrived he told me he was 'ready to go to duck room' - so was actually enthused about it. When we picked him up he was singing and dancing by himself to some music (which they told us he had requested to be put on).

Last weekend we noticed a couple of marks on Jack's skin that look like bite marks that were becoming infected. We didn't think it was too much to worry about, but figured we should take him to the doctor just in case. The doctor advised they are a bacterial skin infection. Further he suggested that we should keep a close eye on them as if they got worse or more appeared they may actually be chicken pox. Although we didn't believe they were chicken pox, we of course had to play it safe and kept him at home for a few days. Thankfully no more marks have come up. We have also since remembered that he had bite marks in similar spots when we were in the Hunter Valley, so we suspect they were mosquito bites that perhaps trigger an infection. There is always something to worry about!

Doug's parents have commented to us that they still worry about their kids (now in their late 20s and early 30s) so it seems a parent's worrying is never done! Doug has also been sick for part of this week, so a somewhat frazzling week for us all.

Summary of Jack at 27 months

. A few times this month Jack has shown he has remembered things over a period of time. When we visited his Grandparent’s house (first time in several months) he pointed at a teddy bear and asked where its glasses were. He also pointed at the shed and asked for the bike (which he had been riding last visit). When looking at the pictures of himself that Doug put up on the blog, he pointed at the one in his wedding attire and said 'play with soccer ball', remembering he had been playing with his soccer ball at that location. It is a reminder he is absorbing a lot of things around him and remembering them, so we need to remember to watch what we say!

. Jack has loved doing puzzles over the last month, and is getting quite good at them. He can do his 6 piece puzzles 'all by self', and parts of larger puzzles with only a little assistance.

. Jack enjoyed making muffins for the first time with his Grandma Q this week. He very proudly told me he had cooked the muffins and they were yummy.

. Jack is loving his DVD watching more than ever. He seems to watch one repeatedly for days or weeks, (with the occasional different one thrown in), then moves onto a different one to be obsessed over. This month Winnie the Pooh was the first favourite, and the current one is the Cars movie (perhaps inspired by his dad watching Bathurst). At times I have to drag him away from the TV and encourage him to play.

. Jack's language skills continue to rapidly develop and we have long and detailed conversations with him now. Recent concepts he has picked up include talking about going over, under or through things.

. We visited a park last weekend. Whenever other kids were on equipment, Jack stood back and said 'waiting for Jack <surname>'s turn'. He also refers to himself as 'Jack', 'Jackles', 'Mister Jackles', and 'Darling' (much to his Dad's horror that I call him that, and more so that he repeats it!)

Posted by Al at 4:34 PM

Jack had his appointment with an Orthopedic Surgeon today. His doctor had referred him to double check his hips, after reports of clicking by his Maternal Health Nurse, and a report from his childcare centre that he would sometimes walk with one foot angled out.

The appointment went relatively well. At one point the Surgeon asked me to move away, and to get Jack to walk from his mum to me. I had to admit with a touch of embarrassment that Jack was not likely to leave his mum to walk to me. In the end we resorted to peeling Jack off Al’s leg, having her step away, and then releasing Jack so that he would rush back over to her.

The diagnosis was that Jack had noticeably less lateral flexibility in one knee / leg, but that it was still within the normal range. We are to return in two years if it remains a concern.

He made a point of trying to set our minds at ease – but the reality was that we were already at ease. The visit was simply the result of following the advice of health care professionals. We were in fact surprised there was something to find.

Posted by Doug at 8:49 PM

Jack has recently started to clamber up over the armrests of our couch - often to a stern “No” from the nearest parent. He seems quite pleased with himself. Last week I turned to see him kneeling on the armrest, arms outstretched, preparing to dive onto the couch. Just as the words “No Jack – you’ll hurt yourself” escaped from my lips, Jack fell forward with a cry of “Timber”. In slow motion he bounced on the cushions, bounced again, and then in a mad rush tumbled off onto the titled floor.

There was a moment of deathly silence, then a horrified scream. I picked him up and tried to console him, but he hit me a number of times and twisted away – calling for his Mum. After a quick check over to find no obvious signs of damage, I told him off for hitting me, and then gave him some room to get over the fright.

Jack has also recently started to run off in the nude after his morning showers, forcing Al (in her own time usually) to chase him down. The morning after the couch fall, Jack was doing another of his nudie runs. He clambered up onto the single bed in his nursery, and leapt forward onto the pillows. His momentum then carried him, and the pillows, straight off the end of the bed. He has struck the sharp wooden bed frame with his upper lip and nose on the way down, taking off skin much like a severe case of carpet burn. Again he screamed.

The day following that, the battle scarred boy was out playing soccer with his mum. He was running after the ball when he tripped over his own feet, literally flew through the air, and landed on his head. To the red sores on his face he added concrete rash to his temple and one shoulder. Again he screamed.

Any one of those falls could have been disastrous. While Jack has gotten over them in short time, the quick succession of falls left both Al and I feeling rather frazzled and shaken.

Posted by Doug at 9:16 PM

After some 9 years of fantastic service, Al's Corolla was traded in today on a new Ford Focus.

While Al was excited - she was sad to see the old car go. It was a pleasure to own.

Posted by Doug at 9:33 AM

We visited my parents this weekend and attended the local country show. It was drastically smaller than the last time I went – which was all the way back in my teenage years. It was too hot, loud and overwhelming for Jack, although he did enjoy watching the joy flight helicopter taking off and landing on the sports oval, and seeing all the different animal displays. He has since quite accurately recounted everything he saw – from the motor bike and boat rides he was intrigued by, but not brave enough to go on, to the various animals he saw and which ones were noisy, the clown mouths he put balls into, the show bag he got, the loud truck that was powering one of the rides, and finally the scary man who stamped his hand as we went in. I wonder if the town Rotary President realises he left such a lasting impression on a 2 year old. Jack also caught up with two of his cousins, and interacted with them quite well.

Posted by Doug at 5:55 PM

My Mum had another operation today. This one will hopefully provide some small improvements to current and future quality of life, while mitigating one of the risk associated with the anti cancer hormone treatment she is currently on. She should be in hospital for 5 days and off work for 8 weeks. As is her way, she took it all very well and in her stride – which meant we could do little else but the same. I was thinking on how Jack is still a long way off being able to understand many of the complexities in life - such as this – and how lucky he was for it.

Dad called earlier and said she came through the operation well.

Following on from the multiple falls last week, Jack gave us another scare tonight. He was sitting at the kitchen table eating a lollipop – one of the items he got in his show bag. He suddenly let out a horrifying scream and cried inconsolably for several minutes. We looked in his mouth and tried to work out what had happened – initially thinking that he had bit his own tongue, had hurt a tooth, or had cut the inside of his mouth on a shard off the lollipop that he had been crunching down on (against our protests).

We then looked at the lollipop stick and found an odd brown stain on the end of it. We thought it might have been blood – but then realised in horror that it was worse than that. It was ear wax. Jack must have stuck the lollipop stick in his own ear - enough to have hurt himself.

He has been pretty feral for most of the afternoon (in fact, for the last couple days), so his reaction might have just been over the top due to how he was feeling. Or – he may have actually seriously hurt himself. There was no blood, he calmed down after a few minutes, and his balance and hearing seems fine. His parents however are still jittery, and will be watching him like a hawk over the next couple days to see if we need to take him to the doctors or not.

Posted by Doug at 10:54 PM

My mum came home from the hospital today - a day early. She is feeling great, and is wondering how she is going to get through 7 more weeks of taking things easy.

Tonight is the first time Al has been away from Jack. She is off with a couple of her Mum friends. Aside the obligatory cry when she left, Jack seems to have taken it in his stride. He enjoyed his first Yum Cha, got his foot measured (6.5) and tried on a couple pairs of shoes (neither shop had stock in his size), and got to visit the inside of a petrol station when I had to fill up. He even talked to Al on the phone tonight and didn't get upset.

The biggest unknown was how he would handle sleeping. He has basically slept every night for the last two years cuddled up to his human mattress - Mum.

It seems he took that in his stride as well - and he simply decided he would cuddle up with Dad. The problem with that is Dad can not get comfortable or go to sleep with him in the same bed. I toss and turn a bit in my sleep - particularly if dreaming, and I have always feared rolling over and hurting him.

I failed to get him down for his afternoon nap. He had slept a few minutes in the car on the way home from Yum Cha, which can sometimes leave him thinking he has already had his sleep. The benefit of that however was that he did go down relatively early tonight.

He refused to even lay down on his Cot (just in case he inadvertently fell asleep), and kept insisting he "cuddle with Daddy" in the nursery's single bed. I persevered for a while with trying to get him down in his Cot, but ended up laying down with him on the single bed once he was about to start to get upset. Once he was asleep (which happened quickly), I tried to transfer him to his cot. This is what Al does once or twice on most evenings - but I obviously lacked the tricks she has, and Jack quickly woke up protesting. I persevered again with trying to get him into his Cot, but again he started to move towards getting upset.

Not being able to get him into his cot, and not being able to leave him in the single bed alone, I ended up pulling that mattress off onto the floor of the Nursery. I lay with Jack for 5 minutes (by which time he was already back asleep), and left him there.

He will wake up demanding a human mattress at some time this evening (usually between 15 minutes and 3 hours). I'm not sure what I will do when that happens.

Posted by Doug at 9:23 PM

Jack woke up three times on the mattress, but I was able to get him to go back to sleep by talking to him quietly. The fourth time (a bit after midnight) he woke very upset calling for his mum. I moved him to our bed at that point - where he stayed until he got up at 5:45am. He woke several more times in our bed - but settled quickly with just a little reassurance. I ended getting about 4 hours of restless and broken sleep spread out over 8 hours.

Posted by Doug at 9:48 AM

Jack was bitten several times by mosquitoes during our hunter valley trip. Two bites, one on his ear, and one on an arm, took 6 or 7 days to clear.

A few weeks later they came back again. This time they were weeping a little, and Jack remarked on how they were sore while itching at them occasionally. His Doctor diagnosed a bacterial skin infection and prescribed antibiotics. After this the sore on his ear had cleared, and the one on his arm reduced to just a small red mark.

A couple weeks later and they were back. This time he was prescribed a cream to apply three times a day. While helping, the cream doesn’t seem to be clearing them.

During that last visit the doctor was able to confirm that Jack had indeed poked the lollipop stick into his ear. He had done this hard enough to leave a red mark – but thankfully not deep enough to have caused any lasting damage.

As a parent, you seem to constantly have to address little issues like this.

We always ask Jack how his day at Childcare was. Initially he wouldn’t say anything – but then started to tell us that he had a “Good Day in the Duck room.” Later on, if they were really good days, he started to call them “Great” or “Fantastic” days. This afternoon’s conversation after childcare went something like this –

“Did you have a good day in the Duck Room Jack?”

“Good fun day in the Duck Room. Played outside”

“What did you have for morning tea?”

“Umm, some pear”

“What did you have for lunch?”

“Some yummy Soup”

“What type of soup was it?”

“Yellow Soup”

“What did you have for afternoon tea?”

“Umm, some lunch”

The sign-out book had indicated he had 4 serves of pumpkin soup for lunch, and we assume he had some sandwiches for afternoon tea. He will now also often tell us that he did painting, or pasting, or dancing – or whatever else took his particular fancy. Aside being cool - this ever improving communication makes other aspects of parenting easier.

Posted by Doug at 10:00 PM