October 9th, 2008:

Jacob really seems to have a fascination with letters lately! I admit that he talks A LOT and is hitting his language milestones very ahead of what is considered normal and people often comments that he “talks like a big man”. When I say that he talks A LOT…I mean A LOT! Just the other day he was in the car with my mother and I and he basically talked from the time we got in until the time we got out…..”you will drive in your seat nana?”…..”we will go to the restaurant mama?”….”the car will park in the parking lot”…”we will go in restaurant and all sit down”….Basically you get your step by step directions about what’s going to happen from Jacob! Everywhere we go Jacob needs to read letters on signs, on boxes, on stores, on license plates, on buses! Jacob pretty much knows the entire alphabet and can pronounce the letters pretty clearly now and thanks to our favourite show Super Why he’s learning to sound out words and recognize the sounds that all the letters make! I love this show and highly recommend it if you are going to allow your children to watch TV…the entire showis about Words, Letters, Spelling, Phonics, Reading etc. I’ve got to say that I’ve never imagined that this day would come so quickly…that I could converse in full conversations with my toddler and actually understand what he’s saying! I’m impressed!

The past two days the baby has been moving like CRAZY! I think maybe it’s been slowly working its way around in a somersault or something because without fail every time I sit down the baby starts working its magic and reminds me that its there and present. I use to feel that Jacob would try to comfort me when I was pregnant with him – that he’d move or roll at just the right time when I was upset about something or worried and I think that’s true about this baby also. I had a crappy day from start to finish on Wednesday that ended up in a migraine so I took a sick day yesterday to try and get some rest, kick back and put my feet up…that’s when the baby started moving and grooving like crazy. The movements have been the joy of the week…truly.

I have to admit that I’ve been sort of in denial about how crazy hectic my life has been and its only just beginning really. I’ve got a lot going on in terms of moving, growing a baby, work expectations, and family commitments and I think I was kidding myself to assume that I could do it all without help. I spoke early this week about gratitude and being thankful for the substantial things in life that are worth being thankful about and it never fails that my mother is one of the people I am truly thankful for. I think parents have a way of knowing when their kids are in need, when they’re struggling and need a hand because last weekend my mom went to a storage place and picked up 20 moving boxes that we needed to start packing our place for the move…then she booked 6 days off work over the next couple months to come help us do it. What was so great about all if this is that I didn’t have to ask for help but that she just sort of knew that I needed it….I’m tired. Really very tired and I’m very thankful that she has extended her offer of help and that I didn’t need to wait till I was so broke down and overwhelmed to reach out an SOS. Then on Thursday morning my mom went and got us tickets to see the musical Dirty Dancing, a show I’ve been dying to see and just her and I are going to go see that on November 7th….it’s so wonderful to have people in your life that know you need a little cheering up or an extra hand without even having to ask. I’m so full of gratitude for my mom and the things she does for me and I can’t ever imagine a life without her present. Love you mom!