The Flanagan Four: A little about Mr. Jack...

Since I did an update on Rylee the other day, I thought I should give equal blog-time to our first born with his own update! :) I can't believe that my little boy is going to be 4 in just about a month and a half! It really seems like he was just born. I'm already getting a little freaked out about the fact that he only has one more year of preschool left...he's just not big enough for kindergarten...and I'm not ready!!! :)

Jack is so full of personality. He is always entertaining us and loves to make us laugh (wonder where he gets that from?). He loves to tell 'knock-knock' jokes, even if they don't make sense. He also loves making funny faces! Jack is very into games right now. He got a few new ones for Christmas and has enjoyed playing all of them. We have started a little routine of playing games before bedtime after Rylee's gone to sleep. The pieces don't get messed up as much that way! ;) He also loves to play puzzles and is super fast at putting them together. Jack is such a good helper. He has started helping us set the table for dinner as well as helping to clear the table when we are done. He still enjoys helping unload the dishwasher and change over the laundry. I welcome the help with those chores!

Jack is getting to be such a smart little boy, too. We've been working really hard at learning to write his name. He is doing very well with it and even signed all of his own Valentine's for his preschool class! :) He got a workbook for Christmas to help with writing all of his letters and we have been working through that book a little at a time. He can recognize his first and last name, Rylee's name, Momma, and Daddy. He loves trying to sound out words and spells out every sign that we see as we drive down the road! Jack has been interested in where we live lately. He has learned his address, the town that he lives in, his state and country. When I work I'm not home for bedtime, so Jack calls my cell to tell me night-night. John has taught him my cell number and he now can dial it all by himself. Pretty useful thing for him to know!

Jack says the funniest things sometimes. I think he hears things that we say and tries to use them in the right context. Sometimes he does a perfect job of this, but not always! Some of his recent expressions are:

~"Well, actually..."

~"Like I said,..."

~"I'm so worried about..."

~"So anyways..."

He also uses "I'm so proud..." a lot and that is one that he doesn't quite get right. We always tell him that we're so proud of him if he stays dry overnight, uses good manners, etc... and I think he's misunderstood it to be another way to say "I'm so excited." So, he kinda gets that one a little backwards, but it's cute anyway! The other night, John and Jack were playing Candyland while I was at work. Jack grabbed the instructions and started looking at them. All of a sudden, Jack says, "Ooooh, I get it!" Too funny!

Jack has always had trouble saying his 's' blends. Words like smile, stairs, spoon always come out with an 'f' sound at the beginning. Recently, we've started really working on saying these words correctly and he has done so well. I think the 'f' sound sort of became a habit and when pushed to sound it out, he could totally do it. He gets so proud when he says it right and wants a high five every time!

Jack loves to play pretend. He loves his doctors kit and has pretend boo-boo's all the time that we must fix with a shot or two! He also loves to take care of some of his favorite stuffed animals. He'll wrap them up in his blanket and carry them around the house. Sometimes he says they are taking a nap and he makes everyone in the room be quiet. He also loves to sing. He likes singing songs everyone knows and songs that he makes up. He makes up songs to go with anything we're doing...my mom says I did the same thing when I was little.

Jack is growing up more and more everyday...and looking less and less like a baby! He is getting taller and thinning out so much. It's so fun to see him learning all of these new things, but I am a little sad that my baby boy is growing up so fast. Here are a few recent pictures of our monkey!

Having fun at Library Storytime