I have been home with Jake since June when school got out and he has learned so much "this summer". (I will go back to work as soon as I find a job.) The main thing that he conquered was knowing his letters before he was 2 1/2! I was so proud of him! (And then he knew all the letter sounds shortly after that!) Here are the things that helped the most...

Leap Frog Fridge Letters

He seriously played with them all of the time. He's only recently stopped playing with them as much.

He carried them around and lined them up all over everywhere.

This was a common sight this summer.

Also, bathtub letters.

Fun times learning letters in the tub.

I also found some alphabet "animal" crackers at Kroger.
He had to tell me the letter before he could eat it.

This is what they look like, in case you care.
They're Kroger brand.

The main thing that helped with letter sounds was probably the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD. We watched it a few times a week and he was in a trance. He seems to learn and remember things very easily.

Super Why helped a little bit with
reinforcement of what he'd learned.

I'm so proud of him!

Posted in: Jake on Monday, October 24, 2011 at at 2:35 PM 1 comments    

This was in August. We had visited a friend's house who had a goldfish. Jake loved it, so I thought "Hey! Let's get a fish!" having obviously forgotten the lack-of-success that I've had with fish in my life. But I did it anyway.

He loved watching it while he ate.

It was just a plain ol' 29 cent goldfish from Petsmart.

For real. Jake loved it.

Well it never ate any of the food we gave it and it died in five days.
I tried again a few weeks later and that one died in two days.
So I quit fish.

Posted in: Jake on at at 2:29 PM 2 comments    

Here are the goings-on from August:

Jake was motivated to brush his teeth by a sticker chart. Then by September he didn't care anymore, so we stopped using it and just brushed his teeth with no problems. (And yes, those stickers are 1980's stickers from Highlights magazine. Keeping it real.)

He started wanting to help make lunch.

One morning I walked in and he had done this.

When my mom came in August, we went to the Peabody ducks again. But we got there late and they started early, so we didn't get to see them come down the elevator, but we enjoyed watching them for a while.

Jake really enjoyed watching the

glass elevator go up and down.

Seriously.

The elevator was the deal.

But he also enjoyed the ducks.

Then we rode the elevator all the way to the top!

He also enjoyed the Granna.

We stopped by the Kroger Marketplace's one year anniversary party where we saw the biggest cake in North America. (No really. Click to see it.)

And Jake got excited for the beginning of football season.

Posted in: Jake, the fam on at at 2:05 PM 0 comments    

I'm going to try to catch up to the present with a few posts of just a few pictures each of everything we've been up to since July (which isn't a whole bunch anyway...)

Snuggling up with the blanket that Granna made him.

There's a church here with a big indoor playground.

Just coming home from a day out,

with cup in hand and "pack-cat" on his back.

We went to a bouncey place.

He really liked just lying down and letting others bounce him.

He climbed up one all on his own, although reluctantly.

Then slid down on his belly.

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

And one day he looked like Steve Urkel in his pjs.

Posted in: Jake on at at 1:44 PM 0 comments