All things Jack

Some stuff that Jack is doing/liking these days

I haven't had much energy lately so we've been reading a lot more. Here are some of the books we have been borrowing from the library:
- The Island of the Skog
-Make Way for Ducklings
-A Pocket for Corduroy
-If You Give a Pig a Party ---and other Laura Numeroff books
-Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Pickles Over Pittsburgh

There are others-- currently we have 10+ books checked out-- but these are the ones we have been reading over and over.

Playing games takes a little more energy but we play Memory and Hi Ho Cherry-O

He loves to do puzzles and is enjoying 24 piece puzzles. I bought him a 48 piece puzzle for Christmas--we will see how it goes.

We bought him Brain Quest for Threes and he loves them and the mouse Molly.

He loves to listen and sing to Raffi

He loves going on drives. They can't be errands or trips to places he is familiar with, they have to be aimless driving around and turning the wrong way drives.

He loves exploring and hiking with Pete.

We have been teaching him to spell and how to sound out words- he is doing a great job. He can spell words like: up, stop, go, park, dark, dog, mom, dad, bath, and a few others. He can almost always tell you what a word starts with unless he is being silly then he tells you the wrong thing on purpose.

That is another he loves to do right now: spell words wrong, count wrong, sing songs wrong, tell you the wrong color, and etc-- I think he must be bored with our games.

He likes making caves out of blankets and cushions.

When frustrated he tells you what he wants to do before he does it-
- I want to scream
-I want to hit you
- I want to throw a ball at you
He does these things but has started to sort of temper these urges, and now if you really get his attention you can distract him. Yesterday he wanted to throw a ball at me, but I was able to get him to throw it up in the air to see if he could hit the ceiling.

He can also be really really sweet. He will randomly say I love you. When he is having a good time he will say thank you for doing whatever activity we are doing. If he can tell I am tired or don't feel well he will automatically get me a coke or bottle of water. If I complain of an 'owie" he wants to kiss it right away to make it better. He loves to just hang out with us and sit by us. He remembers things he has done recently with Pete and will randomly say: I had a good time when we went to the Squirrel Park ( a park in town with a lot of squirrels) or That was nice when Daddy went to Home Depot.

He has been sleeping in his room through the night. We still lock the door for the most part but he isn't banging or crying to come out anymore. He usually stays in there until around 7:15-7:30am before making noise to come out. For the past few days I have been unlocking it before I go to bed just so we can get out of the locking the door phase and it has gone really well with him not leaving his room in the morning until around 7:15. He sleeps on the floor in his sleeping bag and refuses to sleep in his bed. He has become a fan of the night light, and I think all of this has helped him.

I think he will have some issues with Big Baby, but hopefully it won't be too bad. He wanted to read a book the other day and when I suggested he read it to Big Baby he told me that Big Baby doesn't like books, and that I should read it only to him. He found our umbrella stroller and wanted me to push him around in it like a baby. I got out our baby toys and now Jack loves to play with them-so I am a bit worried. We have a few more months but it is something we will definitely have to be aware of.

We got family pictures taken last weekend-- I am excited to see them. I hope they turned out well ( Jack actually smiling). They were taken at a local park and most were us exploring because that is all Jack wanted to do. I will post some when we get them in a couple weeks.

The 2- year- old strikes again

I realized I hadn't been letting you in on how life with a 2-yr-old is going. I really can't believe I have been so selfish. So here you go.

-He figured out if we are in public and we pick him up or grab his arm, he can yell: You're hurting me!!! and people will stare and we will become embarrassed.

-When he gets mad he looks at me and goes: I want to hit you. Then he does.

-Today after I got my shot he loudly asked me, in front of the nurse, where are the stickers? When she said he could have one, he misunderstood and thought suckers would be involved. Once receiving sticker and being made to say thank you- he threw it, yelled: I want a sucker! and ran into the office of one of the doctors. She was in there- I was mortified.

-The winner happened tonight. We decided to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings. We rarely eat at places that don't have a drive-thru, and now I remember why. He started sliding straws, wipes, and etc. into the booth behind us ( there were people in the booth). He threw the same things in the air just to see where they would land. After much scolding and moving these things out of the way he began to get irritated. The food finally arrived, and we thought things would calm down- no. He took a fry and tossed it at the table closest to us- hitting a man in the face. We left.

Oh the joys of parenthood. Below is a picture showing how cute and sweet he appears to the normal everyday passerby.

Also..

A few days before Halloween I had my 20 week ultra-sound. She tried quite hard to do some more 3-D ultrasound pictures, but the cord was floating right in front of Big Baby's face and there was also an arm resting on the forehead, they ended up not being any good. :(

She switched back to regular ultrasound pictures and got a few good shots. We got confirmation that Big Baby is in fact a boy!! Very exciting. 1. We were hoping for a boy- after all our adventures don't ask me why I wanted to add to the trouble- but I did. 2. Since Jack and Big Baby will more than likely share the same birthday month we don't have to buy any new clothes- score!





Here is a picture or two of me. I am starting to get bigger and even since these pictures were taken I have gotten bigger and gained 5.5 lbs. Oh my! According to the ultrasound I am due March 7th-ish. Pete is really hoping Big Baby is born after Jack's birthday- it will be cutting it close, but it may happen.

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween plans changed a bit at the last moment. We were going to hang out here in town, but Pappy ended up in the hospital so we headed to KY for Halloween.

Pappy was home in time to celebrate Halloween. Pumpkin carving started the day.




Then Jack got dressed for the evening, as you can tell he was a pirate. Daddy was in charge of going up to the houses with Jack. I was in charge of pictures.




Once home we got to dig into the candy!


The next day Jack got to play in the leaves- for a little bit.

crafty???

Jack's walls are pretty bare. So I have decided to slowly but surely add some decoration to his room. We are starting out with these letters- which he helped to paint- then we are getting a bulletin board that will be covered in fabric. After that who knows, but we will figure something out.



Once we painted the letters I felt sort of crafty. I am not crafty or in any way artsy, but thought hey why not try small things and see how it goes. We cut out felt bats, spiders, and ghosts, added pipe cleaner smiles, and googly eyes. We also printed out some Halloween pictures, added ribbon, and hung them from the ceiling fan.


Realizing, that through doing these activities we have had far fewer outbursts, I had to come up with more so we made roll-out sugar cookies. Jack helped pour the ingredients into the mixer, helped roll out the dough, cut out the shapes, icing them, and eat them!


We had fun painting our small pumpkins last week, I thought why not do a couple more to keep inside. Jack picked out his pumpkin- his is the one that started out with white on it. He painted his pumpkin almost all by himself. I only helped in a couple of spots. His ended up being the one with the pipe cleaner hair.

a compact fall break

We had big plans for fall break, I was so excited, but a week before we were set to go Pete remembered he had a math conference that weekend!!! The conference was here, so no big plans to travel to far away cities were made. Needing something to do and somewhere to go we headed off to KY for a quick two night stay. We arrived in time to celebrate Danny's b-day. Then the next morning it was off to the Newport Aquarium. We had a great time.




Jack's obsession with lawnmowers continues. He is pretty particular and requires all lawnmowers be cleaned before ridden.




We also went to visit some farm animals ( they were extra stinky!) and Jack helped Granny carve a pumpkin.




Once home we painted a few pumpkins. This was Jack's first time using paint and he did a great job!

babies, toddlers, and out of town/ out of my mind

My sister, Mary, had a baby girl on Sept. 30th. I thought it would be great to go and help out, plus the added bonus of seeing Jack around a newborn couldn't be bad. Well, I just want to say right now that if anyone wants to help out a new mother- LEAVE ALL TODDLERS AT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, I was so angry, mad, stressed, mean, tense, and unhelpful. SORRY! I had great intentions, but we all know the adage. It wasn't that Jack was malicious or in anyway hurtful or harmful toward the baby, but toddlers need routine, exercise, and sleep- Jack had none of these. He was actually very sweet toward Khloe; he kissed her all the time, hugged her, wanted to help when she was crying, but that part didn't out weigh the rest. He never listened to me-ever, he never slept-ever, he did the exact opposite of what I said, and took so much of my time that I really couldn't be of any real help. Of course the fact that this baby was extremely good and didn't require much of my help in the first place also made me feel useless. They were really on that 2-hr. schedule of nursing and sleeping accompanied by almost no crying. We left 2 days early because we were causing more noise and disruption in their house than the new baby.

Things weren't all bad- here is Jack reading to Khloe while Mary took a nap.


Jack laughing at something - who even knows.




Jack holding Khloe our first night there.



I did get to see a glimpse of how kind and sweet Jack will be toward a new baby, and I think being at home with his dad, dog, friends, routine, and bedroom door that locks from the outside will all help when it is our turn in March.

Other notes:
I am taking weekly progesterone shots to help prevent preterm labor. Now that I have had the first one I am actually pretty nervous about continuing them. I am looking for any information people may have. I think the fact I am having a boy is intensifying my fears- maybe that is silly but there you go.

Pete has a math conference this weekend which is great for him because it is here at Purdue and the two professors he works with are hosting it, but sad for us because that is our fall break. Who schedules a conference over fall break? boo.