The Times They Are A Changing - January 20th

Has it really been almost 7 months since my last post? Do I really have a 2 1/2 year old and a 6 1/2 month old? Did we really make the move to Vermont?

The answer to all of these questions, obviously, is "yes." It's hard to find the time to write a new blog entry with everything I have going on here as a stay-at-home mom of two. But one of my New Year's resolutions was to bring this blog back to life and I'm really going to try to update it at least once in a while. I've also created a blog specifically devoted to Elka, so this blog will hopefully still focus mostly on JJ. But I'm making no promises that the two won't merge into one someday.

So, to stay on track, JJ is really growing up. He started talking -- I mean, REALLY talking in sentences -- back in winter of 2009 and his verbal ability is really off the charts now. I am honestly amazed at how well he speaks, not just due to his pronunciation, but also the way that he puts sentences together. He's had lots of classic quotes which I should have written down, but of course I didn't. It's amazing how much more time it takes to care for two children versus one...

Today brought the birth of yet another JJ classic quote. He was looking at the project book that came with the Citiblocks he got for Christmas, and he pointed to one partiular structure and said, "Momma, build this and it will change your life." I thought that was pretty hilarious and didn't realize until later that he got that phrase, "change your life," from a Paul Bunyan book we have. In it the story explains that Paul Bunyan receives a double-bladed axe as a Christmas gift and that the gift, "will change his life." JJ asked me to read the book to him before his nap today and when I got to that page, I put 2 and 2 together. So after his nap he convinced me to build it, pictured here. He also told me that, upon completion of the structure, I would receive a "special treat" in the form of a glow-in-the-dark star. Also pictured here. The he proceeded to add his own touches to it, and then he knocked it down. Good stuff.

As evidenced in the above story, these days JJ is in the habit of memorizing things. He memorizes books, like "Hop on Pop," "The Cat in the Hat," "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," and other Dr. Seuss books. It started when Jeremy had JJ on the potty and was reading "Hop on Pop" to him. We happen to have two copies of the book, so Jeremy was reading one and JJ had the other. Jeremy started a sentence and JJ finished it. But that's not all. He went on to finish the the ENTIRE book. We couldn't believe it! We discovered over time that he had memorized several of his books and he was able to read each of them with only the occasional reminder from us on how the story continued. Usually the first two words of the sentence would jog his memory. Over the holiday season we were astonished to realize that he had memorized the entire "Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem, or story, or... whatever you call it.

He also memorizes songs very quickly and accurately. And when I say "accurately" I mean the tune of the song as well as the words. Some of his favorites are "The Goldfish," and "We are the Dinosaurs," by Laurie Berkner, and just about any nursery rhyme song you can think of, like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," or "Baa Baa Black Sheep." We recently signed him up for a Kindermusik class and he's loving it. They sing songs and dance in the class, and each child is given a CD of music to take home. JJ knows almost every song now, and on week two of the class he was the only kid to sing every song. Granted he is one of the older kids in the class, but I really think he has a gift for memorization.

JJ is doing great as a big brother. Elka LOVES him and smiles whenever he pay the slightest attention to her. He often goes up to her and says "I love you, Elka," and plants a kiss on her forehead without any prompting from Jeremy or me. He does get a little possessive of his toys around her, but we're working on it. Once we step in and explain to him that he has to share his toys with his sister, he's pretty understanding and compliant. All in all, it's going pretty well.