18 Months!

Today was Christian's 18 month birthday. In honor of that, I thought I would give a developmental update. :)

Words: These are the words that I can think of off hand that he uses regularly
Mama
Daddy (Dada)
Trash (tash)
Cow (tow)
Dog
Cat
Up
Down
House
Bus
Home
Ham
Blocks (bots)
Button (butt)
Shoe
Sock
Toe
Eye
Tick Tock (for clock or watch)
Spoon
Bowl
Please (peas)
Thank You (an you)
Danka (anka)
Tchuss
Bye
Hi
Wet
Water
Milk
Apple Juice
That
Star (tar)
Heart (hear)
Blue
Two
Elmo
Bounce
Car
Truck
Dump Truck
Tractor
Train (Choo Choo)
Track
Cup
Tape
Bath (usually with the sign language)
Bubble
Teeth
Tooth Paste
Rocks
Walk
Paw Paw (Cliff's dad)
Play (pay)
kick
ball
Football
Basketball (ba ball)
Bear
Weee (for his slide)
Rocket
Cart
Apple
On
Off
Big (usually in reference to a truck)
Baby (with the sign language)
Banana (nana)
Hat (includes helmets, which he reminds me are necessary every time he sees a motorcycle)
Bean (he loves green beans)
Blueberry
Chair
Tray
Poop
Pen
Pat
Bite
Bump
Box
Help
Bat
Back
Cheese
Room

Letters

If we ask him verbally what sound any letter makes, he can tell us.

These he knows both the letter name and sound:
A, B, C, F, H, M, O, P, S, T, X

These he knows the sound, but not always the name:
D, G, J, K, N, Q, R, U, V, W, Y, Z

These he gets confused:
E - he often thinks it is an F, but can get it if we put the letters next to each other
I - he doesn't always recognize it by sight - particularly if it doesn't have the line on the top and bottom
L - he doesn't always recognize it by sight, but sometimes he does. He always says the sound if we ask him.


Numbers
He says "two" for any number. He will sometimes repeat three, four or five. He has never said one. He doesn't seem very interested in numbers yet.


Colors
He says "blue" for any color. He has recently added "purple" to the list of colors he will say, but not often. He will repeat yellow, red and sometimes green, but he's not really interested in colors yet either.


Physically
He loves climbing on everything. I mean that pretty literally. If there's a way, he wants to be on top of anything.
He can kick or throw a ball; throw a basketball in the goal (more like setting it inside the goal); hit a ball with a bat (the ball is on the floor - kind of a combination of pool and golf).
He likes to walk, run, dance (he has added going in circles to his dance maneuvers), crawl under or over things.

Other

He likes to read, draw/write, play on the computer, play chase, tackle me or Cliff, stack things, pour water, watch us cook, watch DVDs, walk on rocks, play with soldier bear, ride on his push cars, ride on my back, take a bath.

Brussels

We were all tired of being cooped up in the house, so we took our sniffling, lackluster group to Brussels this afternoon. Christian napped on the way. We got there around 2:30 or so. We went to the Atomium first, which is very impressive on the outside. Cliff and I both expected a molecular science museum or exhibit, but instead they had furniture. There were displays of desks and chairs and such. We weren't impressed, but they had wonderful homemade ice cream in the restaurant. Yum!

This is it - the Atomium!

There is a nice park off to the left.

This exhibit was the recipient of all of the silver from Le Belvedere -
evidently very prestigious.


This is one of the LONG escalators leading from one electron to another.

This is one of the LONG staircases. This one is especially nice,
because it leads to the restaurant. :)

Christian and Cliff enjoying some of the homemade ice cream. Well, Christian is concerned Cliff is eating the ice cream without him. Cliff is enjoying the ice cream.

There was a beautiful and rather expansive park across the street, so we played there for a while. We happened to have a soccer ball in the car, so we fit right in. :) We played there until about 6, and then headed into town for dinner.

This was one of may walking paths at the park. Christian really enjoyed getting off of the path to walk up and down hills, over fences, under trees and low lying brush, on rocks...

The area we went to for dinner is very touristy, but it added to the vacation atmosphere. There were narrow winding paths, with candle-lit restaurants lining both sides. Waiters were trying to entice all of the people passing by, switching easily between languages. I'm sure they just knew a few phrases, but it was enough. Cliff said it reminded him of a mini Paris. They had very elaborate sea food dishes on display. With it being a Sunday it wasn't too crowded - still full, but not overly crowded. We had a wonderful relaxing meal, and then headed back home. It was really good to get out. :)

Getting Better :)

We at the Jackson household have been sick for a while now. First Cliff, then Christian, then me. I'm happy to report that we seem to be doing much better. I also have to share a small miracle. I was feeling terrible this morning - a continuation from yesterday really. I had a fever, congestion, incredibly sore throat. This morning I added very painful earaches. Anyway, I'll spare you the rest of the details. So, after about an hour of this I said a quick prayer. Instantly my sinus pressure cleared, I could breathe, my throat and ears felt better and all I had to deal with was an occasional runny nose. It was wonderful! :)

Christian smiling

In this video Christian was smiling for the camera, and then suddenly decided it was a good idea to head butt Cliff. Cliff laughs every time he watches the video, so we thought we'd share.

Mowing the Lawn for the 1st Time

After Christian's nap, it was time to put him to work. :) Christian was in the back yard playing while Cliff was mowing the lawn, and decided he wanted to help. He's always been interested in the lawn mower. After all, it does make a wonderful noise. Christian thinks so anyway.

Christian tackling Cliff

This is Christian learning to tackle Cliff for the first time. :)







This is Cliff and Christian playing football - sort of. Usually after Cliff says (and Christian repeats) "Down, Set, Hike", Cliff hands the ball to Christian and he runs. But when the camera was on him, he took his eyes off the ball.

So, it's finally happened. Christian has learned to say the word, "No". Until today, anytime we asked him a question he would either say "Yeah" or not say anything. Instead of him saying yes or no to a question, we had to ask him to choose between option A or B. He would stay quiet for the one he didn't want, and say "Yeah" for the one he did want. Today he said no when I offered him something at lunch. I can't even remember what it was, because I was so surprised to hear him say No.

What's funny about that, is that we were at a birthday party for Joseph Clune. I was telling Joseph's dad that Christian hasn't said "No" yet. I can't remember how the topic came up. Anyway, it was not more than 5 minutes later that Christian said "No"!

Bubble Bath

Christian had his first bubble bath today. He wasn't feeling well, so I thought this would help his temperature come down and give him something fun to do. He did not like it at all. It took me a while to convince him he could still sit down in the bathtub. He touched the bubbles and they stayed on his hand like bubbles do. He held his hand out to me making a sour face and asked me to clean his hand. It was really funny. I tried to get rid of as many bubbles as I could, but I used lots of bubble stuff. This picture was taken after about 5 minutes, when he was just starting to tolerate the bubbles. When we say "Smile" this is the face he makes now. :) He eventually played, but he made a concerted effort to play with the water rather than the bubbles.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We went to the GK Elementary School Spaghetti Fest for Valentine's Day. It's an annual fund raiser they do to offset the cost of their year book. The highlight event has participants from base who have a no hands spaghetti eating cost. They also had a similar contest with some of the students. That's not really why we went. More importantly, they had a lovely spaghetti dinner for all of us. There was a bake sale with fantastic desserts for 50 cents. They had a variety of events for the kids. Cliff and I didn't talk to anyone about it, but as it turns out quite a few of our friends were there, too. Christian was able to run around a little bit. The highlight for me was the display of their science fair projects. They were so cute! One of the projects asked, "Does food coloring make colors?". The conclusion - "It makes colors". :) The point of the project was mixing secondary colors from primary colors, but I thought it was very funny. There was another project that tested different types of bread to see which one grew mold the fastest. Their conclusion - "My hypothesis was wrong. I thought white bread would mold the fastest, but the potato bread did. So, if you buy potato bread you have to eat it really fast!". That made me laugh, too. We had a good time. I hope all of you enjoyed your Valentine's Day, too!!

Gaia Park & Dinner

We had a really fun day today. Cliff is home and the sun is finally shining. Yeah!! We decided to go to the zoo, Gaia Park, in the Netherlands. It is still a bit cold outside, but it was a beautiful day. Christian enjoyed seeing all the animals, but he was far more impressed with the rocks on the ground. :)

The small wooden fence in front of them is what prevented children from roaming into the wildebeest area. :) There was also a ditch the kept the wildebeest from getting out, but I think most children would be able to clear that.

Christian and Cliff looking at a native sheep from the area.

Christian and I watching the wild horses, that seem not so wild.

After Gaia Park we went into Gangelt for dinner with some friends. We were the only ones to bring children, because I am very picky with babysitters. But we had a good time. The restaurant was really good, though a bit slow - even by European standards. The people at the table next to us had some older children playing with a Nintendo DS. Christian was fascinated by it, and kept looking over my shoulder to see what they were doing. They eventually noticed and showed him the Nintendo DS and gave him a lolly pop. After a while they let him play with the Nintendo DS! I wouldn't have let him play with it. :) He even let the little girl hold him. So, we had a babysitter for a little while. They were incredibly nice despite our language barrier. :)

Carnival

So the children's party in GK yesterday wasn't really a children's party. When we got close to the party tent Christian wanted me to hold him. He was a little nervous, but he was okay if I was holding him. That was unfortunate, because his boots tend to fall off when I'm holding him. I noticed a lot of kids in costume running around, so we went ahead and went inside. It was nothing but beer, brots, VERY loud music and adults dancing and lots of smoke. Christian did not like it at all. On top of that a strange man kept wanting to stroke Christian's face. Weird. So, we went ahead and left.






We tried again today with a parade in Gangelt. It was a lot of fun. The Coles from around the corner, her husband also TDY, joined me and Christian at the Sherinian's house. The 10 of us walked into Gangelt from there. The kids ran around and played while we waited for the parade to start (which took quite a while). The parade itself was a lot of fun. A lot of the floats were pulled by tractors, which Christian was particularly excited about. A fire truck was at the beginning and end - another high point for Christian. They threw all kinds of things - lots of candy, of course, pens, brushes, flowers, matches... I thought the matches were an especially nice touch for the kids. :) Unfortunately as I was poised to take a photo of the first float, my camera battery died. Boooo. So, this is the only picture I have to share.

Carnival Cowboy

Christian and I hope to attend our first Carnival events today and tomorrow! I'm so excited! I think he's going to love all the people dressed up. There is a children's party in Geilenkirchen today, and a parade tomorrow. There have been TONS of events everywhere all weekend - starting on Thursday of this past week, but few of them are very child friendly. :) So, here is our Carnival Texas Cowboy. He even learned to say Texas (you can hear him on the sideways video). He tries to say "Howdy", but says "House" with enthusiasm instead. Isn't he cute!?

My little cowboy taking a break from, well,
dressing like a cowboy. The belt and hat came
off shortly after the video below. :)

Sherinian Birthday Party

Christian went to his first birthday party today at the Schinnen bowling alley. It was LOTS of fun. Gabe Sherinian turned 3, and Jack Sherinian turned 6. Gabe's birthday theme was the Wiggles, and Jack's birthday theme was army. He was especially fond of the army truck on the cake. There were tubes to crawl in, balloons, and, of course, bowling balls. One boy was nice enough to let Christian throw the balls for one of his frames, so he bowled for the first time! He knocked down 4 or 5 pins - not bad. He really tries to keep up with the older kids. There was a baby in a stroller that he was absolutely fascinated with. He even got a little party box with some musical instruments - maracas, tambourine, whistle, and a kazoo. Here are a few pictures.

The cake with the coveted truck. :)

Playing in the tubes. Actually he could only stay
in this area, but he had fun anyway. :)

Throwing the bowling ball! He was so excited!

Watching the ball hit some pins. :)

Playing with Brittany - the baby girl he adored. :)

First Snow!

It snowed for the first time today. It was beautiful! :) And to make it even better, the sun came out and melted it all before we had to drive anywhere. Then we had sunshine, blue skies and white puffy clouds! It's been a LONG time since we've seen the sun. These pictures were taken from Christian's window.