USE WORDS!

Jackson's vocabulary is building, but at a snail's pace. Some words are pretty clear: up, duck, doggie, hot, etc., while others are still very muddled: Elmo, down, done, and a few others. I'm afraid he's gotten into a habit of saying things a certain way, making it difficult for him to change the pronunciation. For instance, with Elmo, he can produce the sounds El- and -mo, but putting them together doesn't register in his little brain, and it comes out Ohhhhh (with a really funny face!). It's sad sometimes to see him trying SO HARD.

I will give him a ton of credit for trying more and more. He still asks "Das" when he wants to know what something is, though he does that with words he already knows, and I'll call him on it by saying, "You know what that is!" Usually then, he'll say the word.

PATIENCE. I'm learning patience.

The tantrums are still coming, too. I've been reading (mostly online) about how to handle those, and it's not easy! Sometimes, he has a real mean streak in him. I can only hope that improvements in his speaking will help these subside.

We're going trick or treating on Monday! We'll be going just around our street (which is a circle). I've met most of the neighbors so those are the houses we'll go to. Paul is taking the day off (a comp day for some extra hours he put in a few weeks ago) so we'll be videotaping the whole experience. I'm so excited! Someone came to our door last year with a little girl who was out for the first time, and the parents were so cute with their cameras and videos!

Jackson's birthday party plans are in the works! I'm a little obsessed about it, I know, but he's my baby! We're having an Elmo-theme with tons of Elmo decorations, and a few little surprises. I have a friend who makes AMAZING cakes---she did his last year and I'll have her do this year's as well. I don't know what she'll do but I'm going to leave it up to her to be creative. Food-wise, we're still working on the details, but likely we'll have it catered from somewhere around here. With almost 30 people coming (including kids), I'm not going to be in any mood to cook. Shoot...I can barely cook for the 3 of us most of the time! HA!

Happy Halloween!