A Few Snippets of Jacob
May 12th, 2009
It’s been awhile since I posted some Jacob updates. He’s 2.5 years old now. So here we go!
Here’s what I think
A recent conversation after Jacob had been misbehaving.
John: I think we should have some consequences for that.
Terah: Do you think he should have time out?
Jacob, eavesdropping: I THINK NOT!
He managed to evade time out that time because once we got over our shocked silence, we were both laughing too hard.
The Post Office
Every time Jacob and I drive past a Sonic (a drive-in restaurant), he says, “See post office over there. Have cherry limeade!”
Yes, he was there with Terah to get a cherry limeade once. The post office thing was a mystery to me. Near as we can figure, he had gone to Sonic with Terah right after the post office one day, and got them confused.
Then I took him to an actual post office last week. I told him we were going to a post office. I started getting him out of the car. He looked confused (after all, post offices don’t look like this, right?) But then he said, “This post office. Have cherry limeade inside!” I had to tell him it is a different kind of post office, with mailboxes inside. “Hmm.” I gave him a piece of junk mail to carry to the car, which I think may have been more exciting for him than even a cherry limeade.
Terah has tried to explain that a Sonic isn’t a post office, but he doesn’t believe her.
Trains and Chicago
We took the train to Chicago for a quick weekend last week. Jacob loved it. He jabbers on and on about going to the train station to “get on the night train” (we did get on the train at 4AM), eating in the “train diner car”, and seeing all the conductors on the train. He also loves to talk about the elevators in our hotel, riding on a city bus, and seeing ambulances on the streets.
Didn’t Notice It
We got a new Roomba off Woot the other day. Its box has been sitting in our kitchen for a few days now, since we didn’t have time to unbox it yet (already have another Roomba). Finally Terah started unboxing it.
Jacob said, “Ooo, a SPECIAL Roomba! I didn’t notice it there.”
Terah: “What makes it special, Jacob?”
Jacob: “Comes from Walmart.”
Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.
Colors
Terah read in her “What to Expect” book about the toddler years that, at Jacob’s age, there’s a small chance that children can identify one color. Jacob can identify more than a dozen, maybe even two.
Navigation
This really shocks me. As we’re driving down the road, Jacob will — correctly point out directions to me:
“This way to day care!”
“That way to grandma’s house!”
“That way to Newton!”
What really shocked me, though, was when he pointed to an entrance ramp to an Interstate — one which we never take with him — and correctly told me where it went. And when he pointed down a country road that we have never even talked about, let alone driven on, and told me where it must wind up (in Newton, yep). I have no idea how he managed to figure that out.
Scary Memory
Last week, Jacob got a balloon. It reminded him of a balloon he got last Halloween — six whole months ago. He was at a Halloween event for kids, and they gave him a black balloon. It was filled with helium, and it rose up high enough that it touched a sharp edge of a fire sprinkler and popped.
Jacob told us about all of that, right down to it being a black balloon that popped on a sprinkler. They gave him another balloon to replace it — orange. Jacob told us, “Orange balloon not pop.”
Six months ago.
I think it’s time to get him signed up for the debate team…
Days of the week
Jacob doesn’t know what day it is, or in what order they come, but he does know that we go to church on Sunday, that he goes to grandma and grandpa’s house on Tuesday, and to the clinic and Walmart on Wednesdays.
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As someone who has chosen to not have kids, these little stories are surprisingly interesting and cool.
Your “what to expect” comment reminded me of a project that someone I know started: http://tumblon.com is a place to keep a diary about your kid and has a lot of these “achievements” and milestones on it. It may be useful to check it out, I think it has sources from 3-4 books on the kinds of things like “what to expect”
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The “navigation” note is pretty funny to me. Recently I spent a day with Jacob and at one point he wanted me to take him to grandma’s house. I said “Jacob, I don’t know how to find grandma’s house” so he went outside and pointed down the lane. “That way!” I thought briefly about trying to find it with Jacob’s guidance but just didn’t have enough faith! :)
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You have been really blessed with your family :-)
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The one about eavesdropping was pretty darn funny.
Ralph
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Re Jacob’s post office / cherry limeade confusion: I distinctly remember making a similar mistake as a child, thinking that “chelsea” (a small town near where I grew up) was a term for curled, dried up fall leaves. I discovered my mistake early enough to even have a vague memory of the fall day where the confusion began.
Also, I hope that Jacob goes into computing, as I would love to walk up to him at a conference or somesuch 20 years from now and say “Hey, want to go to the post office for a cherry limeade?”. I presume that advances in net-crawling, GPS and AI software will facilitate this event by reminding me of my intent and/or pointing out opportunities when he is nearby (of course, he will be forewarned by the same and thus no doubt just roll his eyes at me … :) ).
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John Goerzen Reply:
May 16th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I vaguely remember thinking that dehumidifiers had something to do with fire, and Jacob interestingly enough has been thinking the same thing.
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