Jack has a sick week

Jack had his first really bad cold this week and he made the most of it. Stacy stayed home with him on Friday, February 9 and he had both of us to boss around. Monday, Nana arrived but Jack was so needy that Stacy stayed home again and Nana went home. Tuesday we had to skip storytime but he felt well enough to dig in the dirt pile. Wednesday we had a good time at the playground with Emma. Jack can now climb the ladder up to the roof of the plastic house and slide down its slide. He laughs when he lands on his bottom in the sand. We met Emily, a redhead who is two and a half. She allowed Jack to play with her wooden duck toy and Jack let her use his big round-tipped shovel. After the nap, we went down to see the fire damage at the house next to Bird and Beckett. Jack was awed by the burned clothes, especially the burned hat. Thursday was a Daddy day and Friday Daddy took us to breakfast at Toast before Jack's doctor's appointment for his two-year checkup. The appointment went well until Jack got a shot and then he was pretty upset. By the time we got home, Jack was his usual sunny self and we had a great afternoon. First a little digging in the dirt box, a nap, and then a lot of fun play and invention in the living room.

Jack recreates what he witnesses. This week he's been dragging a piece of chalk on a chain with his little bulldozer and putting out fires with the wire from Mommie's computer. He also is very inventive when we sing Old MacDonald. That farm has a combine harvester, a backhoe, Bowling Ball Beach with Quinny and Axel, and all the animals he remembers seeing at Sea Ranch (deer, rabbits, turkeys, a woodpecker). He remembers an event and populates the farm with the things he values. It's touching to realize he is thinking about Quinny and Papa whom he really cares about even though he doesn't see them so often. He also remembers books that we took back to the library weeks ago. Next week, I need to find the Max book that has a bulldozer in it. Machines have definitely replaced brooms now although brooms are still loved when they show up in a book.

The doctor said, "no more juice; he's got to eat more." So we'll have a struggle for a while. Jack has figured out that he can suck the juice out of an apple slice and spit out the roughage. He did, however, drink 6 ounces of chocolate milk for lunch, just chugged it down.