Ready for rest

Driving his car....... a better description would be smashing it into things and laughing.

Playing on the hill with Moe.

It is as if Jason has went into super learning mode. Suddenly in the last few days he has started to say many more words and is really puting them into phrases. One thing that he really loves to do is sing and interact with cartoons. When Diego comes on he sings the song and loves to say "Click... take a pic"..... It is adorable. When he sees anything to do with the Backyardagains, he sings their song and dances like they do. I didn't teach him their dance, he picked that up on his own. You may be thinking...... Does he just watch cartoons all day? He doesn't, just while I take a shower, in the mornings when he gets up so that I can make breakfast and Colin can get his stuff done, then when I am cooking dinner I put them on. We have a really cool preschool channel that has age appropriate cartoons and learning shows on all of the time which is a god send when I have to do a lot of prep to make dinner. The words he has been saying are much clearer as well. Jason can say things in a way that we can get the point under most circumstances...... those times that he is just grunting and whining... he doesn't get anything and we tell him to talk if he wants something. Also he says "Please" all of the time....... We are working on thanks. Here is an example of one of our conversations to give you an idea of what kinds of things he tells me. I always let him help me on the computer..... it makes everything much more difficult and nearly impossible to read something and type, but it is fun and good for him. One day I was trying to post when he reached to type on the keyboard. Even though he has his own keyboard (an old one dad gave him), he wanted to use the same one I was using. I told him no and he started to throw one of his monumental temper tantrums. I asked him if it was really that bad....... he said "No"....... so I asked "Then why are you throwing such a big fit?" he replied......"Cause I bad boy." Then his fit was over and I couldn't stop laughing. I don't know where he gets these things from, but he always has an answer to a question and most of the time it makes sense.

Bucket head...... he likes to walk around with it on his head and uses his arms to guide the way.

Jason is also coming out of his shell around other people. Yesterday we had to go to the mall in search of winter clothing. Before the snow hits Jason needed snow boots, a hat that fits his growing head, mittens to fit his huge hands (bigger than most 3 year olds), and snow pants. He also needed some long sleeve shirts, which are difficult to find in his size (2T to 3T). I think that that must be a popular size. We also needed to walk a lot. Both him and I can use all of the exercise we can get. It was too cold and windy (the wind knocks Jason over) outside and the mall provides the perfect place for us to get the needed exercise anyway. I didn't think there would be any problem finding the needed supplies, but I was oh so wrong. We went into every store that had sales and couldn't even find long sleeve shirts in Jason's size, so snow boots and snow pants were definitely out of the question. After walking around for almost 2.5 hours...... Jason walked and ran the entire time I was ready to give up. On the coming out of the shell thing....... Jason had to say "Hi there... How you?" to every person we saw then said "Bye there" and waved as we walked away. It was super cute at first, but it got old by the time we were done. This constant greeting takes a lot of time and makes it difficult to pull the little man away to continue walking. The moment he would begin to walk, he would do it again. He is just so friendly. I think I got most of my exercise from wrangling him and not from walking. I also realized that Jason picks up on almost everything I do. When I shop I always look at the tags and compare prices. I am addicted to sales and good deals. It crushes me to buy something that isn't on sale. He has seen me look at so many tags that he has started to do the same. He grabs things off of the shelf or rack and then looks at the tag before puting it back. I couldn't believe my eyes, but it is true....... I have created a sale shopper. So, after 2.5 hours of searching I was ready to be done so we stopped at the last place on the list and the closest to the car........ Target. To my surprise... everything that we had been looking for was there. We did all of our shopping in 10 minutes. I couldn't have been more thankful. It was a perfect way to end the day. As we left, Jason did his exit wave and we were on our way home. Now we are ready for the snow. We can't wait to see Jason's reaction. It should be a blast.

Visiting with the neighbor's dog.... Monkey.

Now we are ready for the weekend. We just need to rest and it is much easier when there are two of us to chase wild man. I want to wish all of you a wonderful weekend. Have a great time, be safe and enjoy...............

Photo op.