March 27, 2007, 11:06 am

The other day as Ana was getting the kids ready to go as usual. She made a waffle for Jason then went off to get Alyssa dressed. When she came back, she asked Jason if he had finished his waffle. Jason, who was busy watching a cartoon on TV, said 'Oh no, I forgot' and ran off to eat his waffle.

March 20, 2007, 11:26 am

Yesterday Jason had an accident. He fell down as he was climbing the two stairs up from the garage to the kitchen. I heard a big bang and then Jason started crying. This by itself it not too unusual, as he often bangs his head into doorknobs, etc. However, when I ran over to see how he was doing, there was blood dripping down the side of his face.

He got a nasty gash between his eye and his eyebrow and running down toward his ear about 3/4 of an inch. I cleaned it up but noticed that it looked pretty deep. I put a bandage on it and waited for Ana to get home--Alyssa was already asleep, so I figured that it wouldn't be a good idea to go anywhere at that time.

Within 10 minutes of the accident, Jason was running around as usual, laughing and playing.

Once Ana got home we looked at the cut and we decided to call the advice nurse. Based on our description, they suggested that we take him to the emergency room to see if he needed some attention.

At the ER, we checked in and they did an initial checkup right away. Jason was very cooperative--opening his mouth so that they could take his temperature, etc. The nurse commented on what a good boy he was.

We then went back to the waiting room, where Jason was again smiling, laughing, looking around, etc.

After another few minutes, they took us back to the treatment room and put Jason on a bed. The nurse put some numbing gel on the laceration and put a clear bandage over it. We then had to wait around 20 minutes while the gel did its work.

Jason was looking around and noticed that the clock was not moving--it was one of those old-style clocks that only move once a minute. The hand would move forward (tick) and then move back a little bit (tock).

Eventually the doctor came--they took the gel off and started prepping Jason for treatment. They wrapped him up in a gown (straight-jacket fashion) to keep him from moving. jason was getting a little scared, but he didn't cry or complain at all. I asked him if he wanted a kiss and he said, 'Yeah'. He eventually wanted four kisses. When I asked him if he wanted another, he said no.

At first, they tried to set up a sterile sheet over his head with just his eye showing. Looking at his eye I could see that he was scared. They then decided to just cover up the top of his head and leave the rest of his head free.

It was quite something to watch the doctor stitch Jason up. They used a very small curved needle and blue surgical silk. Jason ended up with five stitches.

Afterwards they did a little clean up and that was it. We were discharged a few minutes later and Jason went happily out to the car.

March 13, 2007, 11:10 am

The other day we took Jason to see The Wiggles in concert. We told him where we were going and all and he seemed to be pretty excited.

When the Wiggles actually showed up on stage, Jason was a little stunned--I guess he didn't realize that they were actually going to be there in person!

By the end of the show, he was getting a little bit antsy.

That night as we were getting ready for bed, I asked Jason if he had fun at the concert--Jason whispered, 'Yes'. Then I asked him what story he wanted me to read that day and he said, 'The Wiggles book' (The Wiggles Christmas book that we got for him). This was the first time that he had asked for that book since Christmas.

November 2, 2006, 4:07 pm

As I was driving Jason home from preschool yesterday, I noticed that a couple of pieces of heavy equipment were out from behind the chain-link fence. We parked right next to them and went to take a closer look.

Jason got to touch an excavator and a bulldozer--he was very excited. I wish that I had my camera with me...

November 1, 2006, 4:05 pm

Jason experienced his third Halloween on Tuesday. Not only did he go trick-or-treating, he also helped to give out the candy before he went out.

Whenever he saw visitors approaching, he would say 'More kids coming.' He would then help me to hand out the candy--sometimes the trick-or-treaters got a second helping as Jason was handing out candy too.

Whereas last year we just went to a few houses around ours, this year Jason and Ana went out several blocks. Jason came back with a hefty payload of candy--this is on top of the candy that he received from trick-or-treating at his preschool.

October 28, 2006, 4:01 pm

We had our annual Halloween get-together with our church group on Friday. All the kids were in costume, including Jason.

This year, Jason is a pirate. He still is not really into the costume thing, so the pirate costume was a good choice--he could wear the costume just like regular clothes. Of course, he wanted nothing to do with the pirate headscarf.

He was a little sleepy at first (having just woken up from a nap) but was going full tilt within a few minutes. He was running and playing non-stop until Ana took him home.

Needless to say, he crashed pretty fast once I got him to bed.

October 20, 2006, 4:17 pm

Jason really seems to like the car wash now. I remember when he was scared of it.

Prior to our latest visit to the car wash, Jason kept saying, "Daddy's car really dirty." After the car wash, he said "Car all clean."

The other day, Jason went over to a neighbor's truck and said, "Truck is VERY dirty." I hope that the owners weren't embarrassed...

October 16, 2006, 4:11 pm

Jason has been doing another funny thing in the tub lately.

He will splash me with his hand or his feet and then say (incredulously), 'Hey hand (or foot), what are you doing?'

October 9, 2006, 4:26 pm

Saturday was Alyssa's Baptism. Jason wore a blue dress shirt complete with a tie.

The tie was the most amazing thing. Instead of clipping on, it really went around his neck and tightened via a zipper--half of the zipper was on the fat end, half on the skinny end. It took us a while to get him to accept the tie, but after he saw that I had a tie on as well he calmed down.

Jason was a very good boy during the ceremony. There was one point where the Deacon asked all the kids to join around the font and help to stir up the water. Jason couldn't quite reach, but our friend Mike lifted him up so that he could get his hand in the water.

After the ceremony, Jason was running all around the altar area--I guess that he was curious since he sees it practically every Sunday but from a distance.

September 19, 2006, 1:23 pm

Jason has learned a new trick. When I am giving him a bath, he frequently starts splashing with his arms and legs. Whenever he does this, I close the shower door, keeping just one arm inside so that I don't get splashed.

When I close the door, Jason will stop splashing and say, 'Daddy, open the door please.' As soon as I open the door, he starts splashing wildly. When I say something like 'Heeeeyyy!' and close the door, he laughs like a maniac.

September 8, 2006, 9:10 pm

They have finally gotten around to pulling down the strip mall near our house (to make room for new housing). I have been waiting for this since I knew that Jason would be very interested in the heavy equipment.

The other day, they were loading the rubble into dumptrucks--Jason was fascinated.

That evening, he kept saying, 'Excavators scooping rocks in the dumptruck.' over and over.

September 4, 2006, 7:07 pm

Today was Jason's first day at preschool. It was really only a half day (or three hours if you want to look at it that way).

We were worried about how he would react. Would he cry? Would he cause a big fuss?

Nope. He was interested in what was going on right away so he didn't really have any trouble at all.

The only thing that he did not like was when they were making footprints by putting paint on their feet. He wanted no part of that!

August 20, 2006, 8:36 pm

There has been some construction going on across the street from Jason's grandma's house. They knocked out the back wall of the garage and have been bringing out a large amount of dirt, which they are then loading into a truck and hauling away.

Needless to say, Jason has been very interested in all the trucks. The other day, Jason was apparently thinking about the trucks and said, 'Trucks in the garage at grandma's house.' This is the longest sentence (or phrase really) that he has ever uttered to this point.

August 18, 2006, 4:33 pm

Jason had to go in to the doctor's office for a Hep-A shot on today. Normally, he is fine in the doctor's waiting room, but starts to get a little worried as soon as we get into the examination room. Once a nurse shows up, he usually starts crying and doesn't stop until they leave.

Because of a previous injection experience where Jason cried so hard that he threw up on me, we limited his breakfast and I brought a change of clothes just in case.

However, it was Big Boy Jason today. The nurse rolled up his sleeve (his first shot in the arm) and as she put on the alcohol swap I said to Jason, 'This is going to be cold.' Jason replied with 'Cold.' The nurse gave him the injection, he flinched a little and said 'All done, all done,' trying to hold back the tears.

Once the nurse put the bandaid on the injection site, Jason said, 'Thank you.'
He said 'Thank you' again when the nurse gave him a sticker.

Since he was such a good boy, I bought him a mylar fish balloon on the way home.

August 15, 2006, 2:43 pm

Last night I printed out a picture of a tropical fish for Jason. A little while later, we saw him go up to Alyssa in her bouncy-seat and show her the picture while saying, 'Picture of fish.' Very cute!

August 13, 2006, 2:40 pm

Jason had a very exciting day Friday. Not only was there the weekly excitement of the garbage truck, there was a fire in the garage of a house down the street. Four fire trucks came to help put out the fire, along with the fire chief. Jason was glued to the window.

Ever since Friday, Jason will periodically say something like 'Fire trucks down the street' as he remembers the event.

August 3, 2006, 4:36 pm

The one thing that Jason doesn't like about his new baby sister is the crying. At first, whenever Alyssa started to cry, Jason would get agitated, cover his ears, and often would run from the room.

I have explained to him that Alyssa can't talk, she can just cry when she needs something. At some point when she was crying, I told Jason that she was hungry. Now, when Alyssa starts crying, Jason says, 'Baby hungry.'

Because Alyssa gulps a lot of air during feeding, she frequently starts crying during feeding. Jason heard me say, 'No crying, eat.' So now, whenever she starts crying during a feeding, Jason says, 'No crying. Eat.'

July 31, 2006, 2:06 pm

The other day Jason wanted me to read him 'The Very Busy Spider'. After I read it, he said something like, 'Story again?' I read the story a second time, after which he wanted me to read the story a third time. I said something like, 'No, twice is enough.' He then went to Ana and had her read him the story--another THREE times.

I'm beginning to understand why it was that my mom claimed to have lost 'Tootle' after we made her read it too many times as children. It was only 30 years later that I found the book hidden at the bottom of a drawer at their house.

July 24, 2006, 5:09 pm

Jason started singing the alphabet song the other evening. He kinda blurs over some of the letters, but he gets the whole thing out. Pretty amazing, I think.

July 21, 2006, 5:14 pm

We had a very hot few days, so we finally got to set up the kiddie pool for Jason. At first he just stood in the pool. Then he started splashing a little with his feet, then his hands. Before you know it, he was sitting in the pool splashing and splashing, laughing and laughing.

When we wanted him to get out by saying something like, 'Okay Jason, time to go in.' he would reply by saying, 'No. Pool.'

Afterwards he was saying, 'Pool fun!'

July 4, 2006, 10:08 pm

Jason has a new baby sister: Alyssa, Born on the fourth of July!

When Ana's mom came by the hospital with Jason to see Alyssa, Jason's Uncle Pedro brought Jason some toy trucks. Between Alyssa and the trucks, see if you can guess which to which he paid the most attention...

Yeah, right. On the video of the occasion, all I could here in the background was Jason saying, 'Truck. Truck.'

We were lucky in that Ana went into labor at 10:30pm, that way Jason was already asleep, and Ana's mom was able to come over to watch him while we went through the 'blessed event'.

June 23, 2006, 11:19 am

Some time in the last week, Jason has learned how to jump. He scrunches himself down, and with a mighty leap, gets about 2 inches off the ground. He thinks that jumping is the greatest thing. He will do it until he starts falling down.

He especially likes it if he can get an assist from Daddy. I stand behind Jason and lift him up as high as I can as he jumps up. If I get tired and try to walk away, he backs up to me, and says, 'Again?'

June 22, 2006, 4:57 pm

Whenever we go under an underpass on the way home (and there are quite a few), I say, 'Under the bridge!' to Jason. I also add a swooshing sound, which Jason repeats. For the last few days, when he sees a bridge up ahead Jason will sometimes say, 'Bridge.' Except that he really goes into a windup, so it is more like 'BBBBwwwwige!!!!'

June 15, 2006, 2:20 pm

This morning as Ana was getting Jason ready to do to her mom's house, they could not find one of his shoes. They looked everywhere. Ana asked Jason where his other shoe was, and he replied, 'Gone.'

After several fruitless minutes of searching, Ana said, 'What are we going to do?' in the fashion of Wayne from Higglytown Heroes. Jason then said, 'I know what to do.' This is the longest sentence that Jason has ever uttered.

But when Ana asked him what they should do, Jason didn't really have an idea.

June 15, 2006, 2:17 pm

Jason's latest word is 'can' which he uses to describe garbage cans (the kind that you wheel out to the curb). Whenever we are driving and he sees one, he says, 'Can!!!' Last night, he figured out how to combine 'can' with 'trash', so he started saying 'trashcan' over and over.

Friday is garbage day in Ana's mom's neighborhood. I'm sure that Ana will here lots of 'Trashcan!!!' from Jason.