Exciting News!

Exciting news from our thrilling life!

1) A few sleepless nights, but Michael's site pretty much went up without a hitch. What a man.

2) Jed has learned to identify several objects. Meaning, yes, he is capable of speech beyond "Hi!" "Wow!" "Bye-bye!" "Wow!" "Uh oh!" which is where we've been stalled for the last six months or so. He can now say "Mom!" and "Da-ee!" with varying degrees of accuracy. He definitely understands what they mean (actually, he is understanding a surprising amount these days... I always underestimate his intelligence. And then he does something brilliant like run flat into a wall and I think, hmmm, maybe I don't.) He also can identify "buh" which is "book." We read books every night before bed, and usually several times inbetween. He's a book lover like his momma.

The real breakthrough, however, was "Hshz" which I finally figured out means "shoes." Jed has developed a literal obsession with shoes. First thing in the morning, he MUST have shoes placed upon him. Even if they go over the footie pajamas. And as soon as Mom and Dad get up, he immediately starts trailing us around the house, a gender-appropriate pair of shoes in hand, with frantic "Uh! Uh! Uh! Hshz! Uh!" until we either go insane or cave in and just put on the shoes. Come by our house any day at 6:30AM and you'll see us all in our underwear and shoes - Jed's favorite outfit. You will also find rows, piles, and stashes of shoes hidden throughout the house in most unlikely places. We tend to be late everywhere these days, mostly because we can never find a bleepity bleepin matching pair of shoes!

Also, he beams with pride as he points to my/his/cat's/Daddy's/cartoon eyes and says "Eye! Eye! Eye!" with a drawn out rising tone, like it's a really suspensful question. Then he gets the most wicked grin ever, points to his nose, and says emphatically "Eye! Eye! Eye!" When I correct him and say "No, you silly boy, that's your nose! Nose! Nose!" he starts to laugh like he's gonna explode and smashes his nose in with the tip of his finger even farther. "Eye! Eye! Eye!" Repeat ad infinitum. This is especially entertaining, it seems, when played through the car rear view mirror.


3) We had our first real FHE with Jed tonight, and it was just as much fun as I've been envisioning since he was born! I used the new church nursery manual, which if you haven't seen yet you should really check out. FABULOUS! At last, a manual that really is suited for the 18 month old mind! We played ring around the rosy (I thought Jed was going to bust a gut laughing), sang Do As I'm Doing (still a little advanced for his tiny brain, but he liked it when Dad helped him do the actions,) said a prayer (he's starting to get the hang of folding his arms but the attention span is like ten seconds) and had a little lesson. Then another prayer, and then several thousand times Jed pointing to Jesus and saying "Eye! Eye!" (conflating lessons here... oh well, rationality is just setting in. I have noticed that he adores pictures of Jesus with the little children and likes pointing out each of the people in turn. And then pointing out that they have eyes.) and then we were done.

4) And, in my crowning motherly glory, I happily announce that Jed did his first pee-pee in the baby potty tonight. Thanks to Brooke, we are the proud new owners of a bright red potty chair. Jed's been most interested in it of late, and so the last two nights when the whole family troupes into our tiny bathroom for toothbrushing, bath, and various other bathroom-type activities, we've been stripping him down and setting him on the potty. Mom/Dad has a book while they sit on the big toilet and Jed gets a book on his potty (this may sound familiar, Eric...) We turn on the bath to fill while we sit there. And tonight, lo and behold, the pot o' liquid gold!

I tried to make a big deal about it and pour it in the toilet and flush and all... but really he had no idea what was going on. That's fine, I'm not in a rush to potty train but I figure we might as well make it a positive pattern now before it becomes a big deal later. Check back in two years for the rest of the story. But for now, I'm going to revel in my sense of victorious motherhood and happily blow it out of proportion for the next week. Yes!