The Once and Future Normy

Did you know I don't ever call him Normy anymore?

It's hard for many of you to think of him in any other way, I'm sure. It was a conscious decision on my part. Somewhere between 18 months and his second birthday I decided that we had given him a perfectly good name, and we should use it. It wasn't his fault that it was confusing to have two Jacobs, why should he get shafted out of his name? So I went cold turkey. These days I've been missing "Normy" a little bit. I wonder if I can reintroduce it as a proper nick-name. We sometimes call Georgia "Peaches" and she knows it's her nick-name. Balance. Anyway, these days he's all Jacob, and he knows it. The other morning I was video-taping Georgia eating Cheerios at the breakfast table when I heard Jacob next to me spell, "J-A-C-O-B." I've got it all on tape!

Like millions of other two and a half year-olds, Normy is obsessed with Cars. Santa gave him these Cars cars for Christmas, and the other day I came across him playing with them just like the movie scene. For those of you who haven't watched the movie 6000 times like I have, this is EXACTLY how the final moments of Lightning's big race goes. Here Jacob was busy saying "Tires! Pit Stop!" and making this noise like the tires going on. I was AMAZED. But I shouldn't have been. The kid only knows maybe 40 words, and yet he can quote Cars like nobody's business.


He is an incedibly industrious and focused person. There is no chance this kid has ADD. Now he might have a touch of OCD, but that's a whole other story. He sat here for over and hour and a half filling the cookie cutters with crayons in different ways.

He was mesmerized.

I think this was the day I managed to serve a hot breakfast, bake two loaves of banana bread, a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and fix stuffed peppers for dinner. He was so busy with the crayons and cookie cutters that he forgot to ask for "Thomas Now!" or to bully his sister.

Actually, I can't complain about his relationship with Georgia. For as rough as he can be with her, I really think it is ALMOST all out of affection. He just doesn't know how to be gentle. He loves to crawl around the floor with her. He'll see her playing peacefully and run across the room at her at warp speed. Half the time it's to knock her over and take the toy she was playing with the other half of the time he gives her a hug and kisses her forehead.

I love that he loves his robe. He is so picky about his clothes. Lately, he has a real problem with shirts and socks. Nearly every time I dress him lately he wants his shirt off. "Shirt of NOW!!!" he'll wail and wine. The same goes for his shoes and socks. Despite the fact that it is sixty something degrees in the house he is fore ver taking off his shoes and socks. Every afternoon, when I go to him after his nap he's taken off his socks. On laundry day I have to check behind his crib for the half a dozen pairs hiding out under it.


Actually, he really doesn't like clothes at all. This morning before breakfast he striped down and the climbed right up into his chair as if to say, "Alright, let's eat! I'm ready!" After I stopped laughing I helped him back into his clothes and diaper so he could eat his oatmeal.

I just wish I could keep socks on him!