A Little Justification Goes a Long Way

Good news, blogger friends: a) I remembered what I was going to write about yesterday, and b) The Biggest Loser is over until January, so you have at least two weeks until I rave about it again.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the aquarium with my parents. Jacob had a wonderful time—there were four people to chase him/carry him around/feed him rolls, plus all kinds of fish and whatnot to look at. We went to celebrate my mom’s birthday, but Jacob probably thought it was his.

 

When it was time for the walrus feeding, the trainer went through a routine with the I-forget-how-many-hundreds-of-pounds beast to show off all she could do. The best part was when she explained that what the animal was doing weren’t tricks, per se but “behaviors,” skills she would have naturally used every day in the wild, but that she was doing on command while in captivity in order to keep her mentally and physically fit. “Behaviors, not tricks?” I thought to myself. “I can use this.”

 

So, friends, today I share some of Jacob’s recently developed “behaviors”—things he does naturally (in the wild?), but will do on command to his parents’ delight. I wish I could have captured some of this in video, but whenever I pick up the camera, all I get is a video of the little man whining to hold it himself. Maybe letting him play with it that day wasn’t such a good idea.

Jacob’s skills run the gamut these days. He’s a bit of a Renaissance man, tackling a little of everything. If we ask him where his ear is, he’ll point to it. If we ask him what a cow says, he’ll say, “Mmmmmmm.” And perhaps the most exciting trick, I mean, behavior, is that when we say “J-E-T-S!” he answers, “Jets! Jets! Jets!” For serious.

The performance isn’t always flawless. Honestly, if you ask him where any body part is, he’ll point to his ear (although he did make one valiant attempt at “belly button” yesterday). The other day, I asked him the two verbalizing questions too close together, so he ended up telling me that a cow says, “Jets! Jets! Jets!”

I’d like to meet that cow, for sure.

 

The Demise of the Ducky

There is a blessing and a curse to blogging about life with a young child. More often than not, the behavior/oddity/phenomenon I post about one day is gone the next. This is great news when I’m writing about something that frustrates me or is difficult to manage. This is bad news when I post about bathtubs.

 

Jacob was getting very cozy with his ducky bathtub last week. He’s always loved it, but last week he was in it a couple of times during the day, fully dressed and with “toys” like spatulas and kitchen timers.

 

 

Saturday morning, John and I woke up to find the ducky had taken a turn for the worse:

 

Jacob may have slathered a little too much love on the poor guy. The really bad news is this is our second ducky tub. The first one didn’t quite make it through our family vacation in June. I think we moved it too often in and out of the bathroom we were sharing. Just because something is inflatable doesn’t mean it should be repeatedly traveled with. The company very generously sent us a second tub for free, because I couldn’t find the hole through which air was leaking.

 

I’m not sure how many more times I can request a free tub. Although as far Jacob’s concerned, this one still works just fine.

 

At-Home Spa

I think the stress of the holidays is bringing Jacob down. He’s been spending a lot of time in the bath lately.

 

The good news is, he isn’t just holed up in the bathroom; he’s definitely willing to get out and go places.

 

 

Hopefully destressing now means he’ll be able to really appreciate Christmas when it comes. He can let all his cares drift away, and just be happy that he’s surrounded by family, friends, and good news.

 

In the meantime, if you’re stressed out over the holidays (or even if you’re not), I hope this healthy dose of baby belly laughter makes your day!