Preparations for Pops and Bertie Coming to Town

Can I just say that I LOVE seeing Jack interacting with our families? ALL of them!!! He is SO cute with them and they are SOOOOO cute with him! He can just tell when someone LOVES him, and he loves them right back! Read on to see how much he loves hanging out with his grandparents:
Pops and Bertie let us know on Friday evening that they would be coming to Cookeville on Sunday. YAY! This gave us just the push we needed to get some much needed spring cleaning done....with my back (and belly...and energy level...) in it's current state, it's been all I can do to try to keep up with dishes, cooking, laundry, groceries and a certain 2 year old....but Daddy stepped up in a big BIG way on Saturday and Sunday and we spent a good portion of the weekend cleaning. (Most of) The house looks GREAT!! wonder how long it will stay that way...
We tried to get Jack in on the action too by telling him on Saturday that "Pops and Bertie are coming tomorrow and we want them to see a clean house"....well....that was a mistake....instead of focusing on cleaning he would run to the window and peek out every so often watching for Pops and Bertie to show up.....apparently the whole "tomorrow" concept is just too new to him (thankfully he didnt get UPSET like I have heard some children would....just really really curious and excited!)....we TRIED explaining that they would come TOMORROW.....AFTER he got up from BEDTIME.....AFTER church......and he eventually settled down about it....but he sure did wake up BRIGHT and EARLY on Sunday morning (maybe not so bright...it was still DARK outside) and the first words out of his mouth were "Jack get UP, see Pops and Bertie!!!" We had to remind him again that they would be here AFTER church (and then we went and confused him again since we decided to be heathens and skip church after all....) and we would meet them at a restaurant. After cleaning a little bit more we procrastinated giving him his bath that morning until we got the call that they were ALMOST to the restaurant....so we snatched him up from watching Thomas (and he didnt even care AT ALL when we told him it was to get ready to see YOU KNOW WHO!) and gave him the quickest bath of his life and zoomed to the restaurant....CHEDDARS! Yum!
I'll post later about our fun times with them at the restaurant and all the goodies they delivered on behalf of the Easter Bunny.....as soon as Bertie gets a chance to send me the pictures....our camera battery was DEAD! :( You should see the video of him being the band leader and leading the family in a song using his instruments....it was SO funny to watch in person!

BOWLING WORLD!

On Daddy's day off this week we decided to take Jack bowling on account of the rain. For the past several weeks it was lovely weather most of the week, but on Daddy's day off the weather was dreadful....at least most of the weekends have been mostly nice. Anyway, I have to confess, I am not much of a bowler....AT ALL...and it has always been a dream of mine to see how well I would do in "Bumper Bowling"...but in deference to the growing baby belly and my back pain (which has been much MUCH better this week, btw...just dont want to push my luck) decided to put off my bowling fantasies a bit longer. Jack on the other hand had a BLAST! Just look at him in those awesome itty bitty bowling shoes!

we chose the lightest ball we could find and he was thrilled with the bright orange ball! He shocked me a few times when he lifted the 8 lb ball all himself...and I could just see visions of dropping it on his own foot, so we always lunged after him to help support its weight. He even got to use the little bowling ramp and he did a marvelous job taking turns while Daddy played too. The camera ran out of memory before we were done so I took some pictures with Daddy's phone, and as soon as we can get those off the phone and onto the blog maybe, just MAYBE Daddy will let me show the picture I took of the final score of the first game!

Maybe this picture will give you a hint....yes...the two year old got his fair share of strikes and spares!! sorry it is so blurry....action shot, y'know! :)

(He JUST sent me the pictures.....the TOP "J" is Jack and the bottom "J" is Josh..... not too bad for a 2 year old's beginner's luck, right?)

Jack only lasted about 1/2 of the 2nd game and got bored and decided he would rather sit in the chairs instead of play. It was a very nice way to spend a rainy afternoon!

As you can see, he also enjoyed the "robot" (pretty much what he calls all machines that move...and what he calls Daddy's new phone) clearing the pins and bringing his ball back to him!

The things he says:

A few more of Jack's newest sayings to add to the list:

*Before prayers at night we ask him "What should we ask God for tonight?" and recently he asks for "Baby Bruver (Brother)".....then we ask "What should we thank God for tonight?" and he will say EVERY NIGHT "Daddy fix railroad tracks!" (btw this is whether they played with the train that day or not!) Last night he even inserted the "Railroad Tracks" into the mealtime blessing too!

*Speaking of Baby Brother...before our ultrasound confirmed a boy, Jack was VERY convinced he was getting a baby sister....so we have been working hard at getting him to realize that a baby "Bruver" is in his future by having this interaction at least once a day:

"Jack, where is the baby?"
"In Mommie's mumma (tummy)"
"Is it a baby boy or a baby girl"
"Baby BOY!" (MOST of the time he answers this correctly...)
"What are we going to name the baby boy?"
Answers vary, including:
Gracie (our name for a girl...)
Baby Julia (after his baby cousin, whom he has met in person once but talks about ALL THE TIME)
and the creme de la creme, best name for a baby brother that our 2 year old son came up with yesterday:
DINOSAUR!(complete with the ROARRRR! too!)
So that settles it, my friends, we are naming this child Dinosaur.... or at least that is Jack's vote...right now...stay tuned for what tomorrow's vote may be. Dear heavens, don't let this baby live up to this name!!!

*He's working on learning opposites...and he's got the hang of up/down, big/little, boy/girl, on/off, happy/sad....but it makes me smile that he also gets some confused such as when he says "Jack go swing INSIDE?" or "Maggie go INSIDE?"....I cant seem to convince him that when we go OUT of the house it is actually OUTSIDE, but what also gets me is that he is asking these questions and many others with the sweetest voice and inflection at the end so that you can distinctly hear the "?question mark?" at the end of his sentences.

*He's also, somehow developing a thick southern accent with a few words....don't get me wrong, I've grown up in the south and can certainly slip into a respectable southern drawl if surrounded by it, but neither Josh nor I have a strong southern accent (at least I dont think we do)....so we really have no idea where he is learning to put all these extra syllables into some of these words...I'm not sure I can even do them justice by spelling them out, I may need to video them... let's see how I do:

"hey-ulp"

"die-ow-n"

"eye-ow-t"

"toe-wees"

"hay-ow-s"

"bow-eey"

I'm sure there are others, I just can't think of them.....any guesses about these words?
let me help you out a bit:

help....down.....out.....toys.....house.....boy...the thing is, he doesnt say ALL the words like this ALL the time...personally I think its cute and I think he just enjoys how is sounds and feels to drag out the words like this.....wonder if it will stick around?

bathtime

I thought this was too cute not to video. Is it obvious now our son's addiction to "Thomas and Friends?"

After bathtime has gotten really sweet too. For most of the baths of his life, we wrap him up in the hooded towel I made him and snuggle up close. Usually we admire our reflections in the mirror and I talk about my "sweet baby" etc....well, lately I can't just cant hold him for as long...so we have moved our cuddle time into the spare bedroom. You see, Jack is still in his crib, the last of all his little friends (as far as I know) who is still in a crib, but never fear, we are making plans to move to a BIG BOY BED soon. My grandmother handed down a twin mattress, which currently lives in our spare bedroom, waiting for us to make the trek to Target to get some new bedding. The plan is to put just the mattress on the floor for a while, then add the box springs and eventually the whole bed frame when we are comfortable he wont fall out. Right now Jack LOVES sitting and laying on his big boy bed, and since I cant comfortably sit on the floor with him for diaper changes, etc, the big boy bed has become a bit of a BIG changing/clothing table. Now after his baths he tries to delay getting dressed by "playing baby" with me. He insists on staying all bundled up, with his feet covered and his head covered with what he calls his "baby hat" (just the hood of the towel) and he wants me to hold him and rock him and talk baby talk to him. It's really sweet, and pretty much the only thing that can bring our sweet cuddle time to an end is my fear of holding an undiapered little boy in my lap for too long! I know that our times of uninterrupted cuddling will be drawing to a close soon, so I try not to rush these sweet times....no matter how many chores are calling my name.

Jack's Dream House

Last week Daddy built a new house on his day off....pretty impressive eh? Actually it is made from the box our new toilet came in....and Jack LOVES IT! The architecture is quite detailed, down to the handle of the door, the chimney and dormer. Can you tell that at one time Daddy was interested in drafting and engineering? I guess he also decided that pictures of toilets on the exterior of the house just wouldnt do....so he gave it a paint job and once it aired out, we were all pretty pleased.

I just love this smile that he is showing us these days, not any sound coming out, just a big wide mouth of excitement!

He likes to go into the house to have some "quiet time" especially away from Maggie.

DINOSAURS!!

I had a video showing his love for dinosaurs....but for some reason it won't upload...but here is some photographic proof of how much my 2 boys enjoy these prehistoric creatures:

Can you tell what they are? LEGO Dinosaurs! I have to say, I am VERY impressed with Daddy's LEGO ability (must have had lots of practice as a little kid)....and now, everytime Jack goes into play with his legos, he says he is building a DINOSAUR! ROARRR!

sciatic nerve pain stinks!

I don't remember this kind of pain when I was pregnant with Jack. It starts in the left side of my lower back and pulses and spasms, sometimes shooting down my leg and even making my leg feel a little numb. It's not ALL the time, and thankfully I am learning what can make it crop up, such as sitting on the floor to play with a 2 year old or standing in the kitchen making dinner. Definitely NOT convenient. Last week when I asked my doctor about the pain, it was just the occasional annoyance, but now it has gotten a whole lot worse. She told me to lay in bed with a tennis ball situated under the sore spot, which does help EVENTUALLY but before it feels better it hurts SO bad I can hardly stand it! It first started getting bad after I was outside on a pretty day to weed the garden. Notice I didnt say WHILE I was weeding the garden...it didnt hurt even a little bit WHILE I was out there...but boy was I punished afterwards. Yesterday was especially bad...I think because I spent a lot of time on the floor with Jack playing and working on potty training. So. here is my game plan: 1)potty training may have to take a back seat for a while, or at least until I can figure out how to do it without sitting on the floor. The thing is, since he is so heavy for me to lift, I have been sitting in the floor with him to change his diaper and put his clothes on instead of picking him up onto the changing table, so we may have to devise a plan B for that as well...the kid can't wear the same diaper and clothes all the time. 2)try borrowing a low-to-the-ground beach chair from my sister in the hopes that it allows me to still be near the floor to play with him, but not in the position that irritates my back and 3)still trying to figure out about dinner. Hoping that if I am able to work on parts 1 and 2, maybe cooking wont be as painful. I'm wondering if maybe not going around barefoot so much might help on the hard floor in the kitchen....
Yesterday morning I mentioned to Jack that my back hurt and we needed to play on the sofa for a while. During his nap I laid in bed with the tennis ball on my back the whole time (not so great for getting stuff done around the house!) so once he woke up I was feeling a bit more human, but still sore. He and I were playing in his room with his legos (I hadnt said anything about my back since that morning, but I WAS sitting in a chair in the hopes of not aggravating it again) when suddenly he stopped, looked up at me and said "Mommie back hurt?" and came over to kiss my back. It was so sweet I couldnt help but tear up...and not just a little bit.
So here is my request....if ANY of my dear friends who have experienced sciatic pain like this before, please share with me what worked to help with the pain..(other than, of course, HAVING the baby...since that (HOPEFULLY) won't happen for another 18 weeks or so!)

oh NO!

Jack is becoming interested in DINOSAURS (just ask him sometime "What are you?" and most of the time he will respond with "DINOSAUR!!! ROARRRRR!") and he was very excited to play with a dinosaur puzzle the other day at the library. I was impressed that he could identify T Rex and I helped him with identifying Stegasaurus and Brontosaurus and was about to help him with Triceratops when he piped up with "Baby Bop!" WHAT!!?!?!?!? I almost choked right there in the library!! For those of you who havent watched a lot of children's shows the past few decades or so.....Baby Bop is a baby triceratops on the show "Barney"....I watched quite a bit of it when I was babysitting and its not TOO bad...but Josh detests the show, so we promised that was one of the shows we wouldnt get him hooked on. A few months ago I checked out a bunch of "New Baby in the House" books and one of the few I could find was "Barney and the New baby" so reluctantly I gave in and checked it out for Jack. Apparently, despite our best efforts Barney and Baby Bop made an impression....because I can GUARANTEE that is the only time WE have shown or talked about Baby Bop! EEEK! When I relayed this conversation to Josh he asked me "who is showing him Barney when we arent around??" :)

The Terrific Twos!

I had a revelation the other day.....I LOVE having a 2 year old! I wont say I have been dreading Jack turning 2....because he is my son and I dont dread much of anything when it comes to him (other than anything having to do with needles and pain of course), but I'll be honest, I had/have been nervous about the "terrible twos." I think we have had a taste of what the quest for independence/frustration about communication issues that are cropping up at 2, and I am bracing myself for 2 1/2 when new baby brother comes (I've heard from SO many people that the "terror" really comes when the "competition" comes) But I gotta tell you.... lately he has been SO much fun. Part of what makes him so much fun is seeing his quest of independence and seeing how proud he is of himself when he learns to do something new (maybe that is the teacher in me too...) but my FAVORITE part of his being 2 is getting to hear him talk. I've mentioned that before....right? :)
Here is my latest favorite conversation with him:
Mommie-"Where does Daddy go during the day?"
Jack-"Wok" (work)
M-Where does Daddy work?
J-Daddy offish (office)
I assumed the topic of conversation was over so I was about to move on when he piped up with:
J-see docka bobun (Dr. Colburn aka Daddy's boss)
M-that's right....who else does Daddy see at work? (assuming he would name off one of the nurses....sometimes he knows their names....)
J- Daddy see Jesush (Jesus)
M-um....Daddy sees Jesus at work?
J-yes
(later when Jack and I reenacted this whole conversation for Daddy, Josh reminded me that there ARE several paintings of Jesus up on the walls of the office....maybe that is what he is remembering)
Upon further thought, I am leaning towards believing that Jack has figured out what Matthew 25:40 means:"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me" ....so maybe Daddy DOES see Jesus at work! :)

working in the garden

with all the beautiful weather today I decided that Jack and I should enjoy the fresh air. I was planning weeding the garden while Jack played, but he decided he wanted to help. I got him his gardening tools and he enjoyed digging in the dirt. He also pulled on my spare pair of gardening gloves...I cant tell you how much I wish I had my camera! He also enjoyed unpacking and packing my garden tote bag and talking about every "fovel" and seed packet, Off spray ("need spray mommie?) and bug lotion. He also got to hold his first WORM today. He seemed to think it was pretty cool and was very worried about the worm after he handed it back to me and I tossed it back into the dirt. Later I found a much smaller worm and he was very excited to show the "baby worm" to daddy....I reminded him to be gentle with it, but I guess he forgot...because by the time he had gotten the worm to daddy we heard "uh oh, worm broke!" whoops! hope he is gentler with his baby brother than he was with the baby worm!

The great name debate, part I

So we decided to put off any really name debating until after we found out the gender of #2...What would be the point before then. We did talk about it a little bit, but really only to throw around the girl name we had picked out for Jack....had he been a girl of course. We didnt even begin to talk about boy names....what whaddaya know....we're having a BOY (have I mentioned that yet? ;) So Thursday night my sweet sister and I went to BAM! (aka Books A Million...basically the only bookstore in town) and perused the baby name books. It was quite shocking to see how OVERBOARD some of these books go with the # of names! It ranged from 13,000 to 100,001+......WHAT! That totally overwhelmed me! I finally settled on a reasonably priced book containing 25,000 names and came home. I decided that given that I have more "free" time than my husband...and just to simplify life a little bit, that a first step would be for ME to go through the names and list the ones I like...and then to have Josh say yea or nay to that list....then if he is still not satisfied with those choices he was welcome to read through those thousands and thousands of names himself and we could start the process over again. I got from A-S with a nice sized list by the time he got home...and then we went through T-Z together. It ws interesting to see our different "styles" of perusing this book....I was basically scanning names, skipping over all the....um...."ethnically unusual" ones for the more "mainstream" names while he wanted to read EVERY SINGLE name and their origins and meanings...at first I thought it might be draining to do that....but we had several laughs about some of these wacky names....such as ones that mean "Bear Making Dust while running away" and "Bird digging up potatoes" and our personal favorite "Deer thinking about eating onions"....wow! I dont remember the origin of those names....or even the specific names....they were so far out of the realm of what we were looking for.

So here are some of the guidelines I set...at least preliminary....1)trying to say away from names that end in -er...like "Tucker Cooper"...I think it sounds sing-songy for both names to rhyme... I also had the name Zack on the list for a while, but I'm not sure about "Jack and Zack"....but we'll see.....2)also hesitant for any names that start with a hard "C" sound such as "Carson or Conner" (both names I LOVE...just not sure about the alliteration factor....but I MIGHT be willing to budge depending on the situation....well....sadly, probably not "Conner Cooper" that would be breaking 2 of my "rules"....) 3)I'm not necessarily looking or staying away from other "J" names....but I don't think I want a "theme" for our children's names, like starting with the same letter...I think that's cute for some families....I just dont want to be limited...but if it happens it's just because we like the name....not on purpose (or maybe it's that subconsciously I dont want to be outnumbered by J names....who knows!) 4)we are also not necessarily looking for or staying away from "popular" names...we're just looking for something we like. 5)We are also debating ideas about possibly making one of the names a family name...or maybe derivative of a family name...not sure which side of the family yet! :) 6) We are also not necessarily wanting OR avoiding names that have already been "taken" by friends and family....again, just looking for what we like. Whew, this is a lot of guidelines...It will be interesting to see what we find!

Now, dear blog readers, may I ask a favor? for my sake, please, PLEASE refrain from suggesting or offering opinions about names for our baby....unless of course we ask for them! I'll tell you why I ask that: We have several friends who chose NOT to share their chosen name until the child was born...and I'll admit, at first I thought that was a bit unusual...but once we started having friends who were having babies, and having one of our own I could TOTALLY see their point....I can remember making what I thought were cute suggestions to friends and getting my feelings hurt when they HATED my idea...and I can remember getting tired of trying to either put up with other people's unsolicited opinions or trying to preserve the feelings of others ideas I didnt like. So please, help keep me from feeling guilty about possibly not liking your idea or worrying about upset feelings about OUR child's name. I dont think that I can wait until the child is born to share the name....because calling the unborn child by name is so fun and exciting...and it's nice to hear positive comments about our choice.....I only ask for as much support and as little criticism and unsolicited "help" as possible. Maybe I'll be brave enough to put a poll up eventually to let my dear readers vote on a favorite name....maybe.....we'll see.

a big shocker!

Today in an effort to kill a little time while waiting for guests to arrive (in an effort to keep him still and not tear up anything that had just been straightened) I pulled out my phone so he and I could look at the nearly 100 pictures stored on it. I gotta tell you, I know I may eat these words before long, but I LOVE hearing him talk! It is SO fascinating getting to see inside his sweet little mind! He had something to say about each and every picture...most of which I could understand and could respond to. It not only amazed me to hear his 2 year old responses to these pictures and memories, but also to see what am AMAZING memory he has....the fact that he was talking about pictures and memories that were made before he could TALK. Pretty Cool.

So I had an idea....you get to read my commentary on pictures of Jack...I thought I would share with you some of the pictures and I would share with you some of his commentary (with additional commentary from me, of course)

I asked him what his shirt said and without hesitation he said "Big Brother!" just as plain as day. He has worn that shirt MAYBE twice since we had him pose in it in early November.

"King Hat" -early February-and incidentally we have played with this king hat around the house lately....and I convinced him that when the hat is on me it is a queen hat....and when he would put it on I would ask him "Are you a prince" to which he would reply "NO!" "Well, what are you??" "A DINOSAUR!"

"Jack wear Daddy Backpack" (mid august)

"Jack eat HotDog" (Mid september)

"Jack and Daddy shop" (Mid September)

These last few kinda shocked me!

When I scrolled to this picture he immediately said "On a walk" which was correct.....we had gone on a walk in our neighborhood and stopped to talk to a sweet older lady for a few minutes. He plopped down in a neighbor's yard to play while I tried to wrap up the conversation. This was back in mid-october....4 1/2 months ago.

"Car...Friend Tucker" It took him a few seconds to figure this one out...I'm gonna say it's because Tucker's face is blurry....but he also hasn't played with Tucker since December. I was impressed he remembered the name!

the biggest shocker to me was when he saw this picture I took at the garden section in kmart.

This map indicates when the last frost dates are for different parts of the country. I'm not sure I've ever showed him this picture before but as soon as he saw it he said "merica" and it took me a split second to realize he said "America!" OH MY GOODNESS! I couldnt think of where he learned this....Josh thinks it is from the plastic placemat on the table that is a map of the world. It's been a while, but I do remember singing a little "Continents of the World" song from my early elementary days to him and pointing out the different continents...but it's not like we do flashcards and review it everyday...like it was MONTHS ago when I sang the song to him. I have NO idea where he learned to identify AMERICA...but it's cool! We pulled out that placemat again tonight (A few weeks ago I had replaced what I thought was a pretty boring placemat with an ELMO Geometric Shapes and Counting mat) to see if he could identify America on that map....yep! He didn't really know any of the other ones....even after we named them....although he did eventually identify Greenland....but I think it helped that on the map the island is GREEN. :)

I am just amazed at this child's memory....not that I have a terrible memory or anything, I'd say mine is maybe slightly better than average...but getting worse....but I know that Josh's memory is remarkable....and it looks like Jack may have inherited his Daddy's memory.

It's ok mommie

Today Jack found a plastic harmonica I bought him several months ago. My little chipmunk apparently cant help but gnaw on just about everything and this piece of plastic is no exception, thus the harmonica really doesnt make much music anymore. He brought the instrument to me while trying to blow on it, and then handed it to me saying "broke, 'monica broke" I said "I know honey, it is broken, I dont think I can fix it" to which he replied, "Ok Mommie, Daddy Fix 'monica" and that was the end of the discussion. Daddy can fix anything!

The results are in.....

so today was our BIG ultrasound....and it went great! Everything looked good as far as the health of the baby...there were a few things on their list that they couldn't see due to angle and wiggling etc, so I get another ultrasound next month too...but nothing that anyone is worried about. The baby was very wiggly but we got some very sweet pictures....hopefully I will get my act together to scan some in and post them on the blog. After our appointment we got to eat at PF Changs! YUM!
Granny Ruthie watched Jack during our appointment and together they took a trip to Target and created a little surprise for us and a fun way to reveal our good news! When we got back to their house Jack showed me 2 bags....a blue and a pink.....he informed me which bag was the "boy" bag and which was the "girl" bag. I whispered in his ear which bag to hand to me.....what do you think???

IT'S A BOY!!!

Little guy #2 wasn't too shy about making his gender known! YIPEE! We are so excited...even though this means we get to start the great debate about a name....we had a little girl name almost picked out but we dont have ANY idea about a boy name! I got really excited when the nurse said something about "Congratulations on TWO BOYS!" For some reason hearing the phrase TWO BOYS got me ecstatic all over again! Our Dr. said congratulations on 2 boys too...she said we should be thankful that it could mean less drama in our home (spoken like the mother of 2 young girls!)

So, sorry to the majority of the voters who voted for girl....but I am proud to own my vote and to give credit to Auntie Bethany for her correct vote as well...not sure who the third boy vote was... but at least I can claim that my baby dream was accurate!

So I'll make my baby guess "official"

well, not really...because I still feel a little torn....Jack (and all the rest of you by the looks of the poll) just about have me convinced that we are having a girl....whenever we ask him if he is getting a baby brother or baby sister he will pipe up and say baby sister....and he will even volunteer the baby girl name we have been batting around since before he was born....but that will stay a blog secret for now....
but in an effort to be "different" and to stay true to my subconsciousness I will go on record to say that in my dream the other night I dreamed we were having a BOY....which would be cool from a financial standpoint....hopefully reuse most of Jack's stuff (although having a newborn baby boy in opposite seasons from his older brother wasnt great timing from a hand-me-down point of view...oh well....maybe this child wont be off-the-charts BIG like his big brother and the clothes might actually fit at the appropriate age...Jack was in 6 month clothes when he was 2 months old!!!!) and a boy would be cool for other reasons too.....but having a girl would also be SO MUCH FUN....so I'll honestly be fine anyway.....really REALLY just praying for healthy! I'll put something up on the blog as soon as I can confirming what we find out. I am scheduling this post to publish at the exact time of our appointment....so that it can't be said that my official guess is cheating! :)

Daddies can do ANYTHING!

maybe even SURF! (according to Jack!) more on that later.....

Our son loves STICKERS....LOVES THEM! If I give him a sheet of stickers and a piece of construction paper, it's an (almost) surefire way to get a moment or 2 to myself to get something done....sometimes. I think what he really likes about the stickers isn't so much making the picture, because a lot of the time he doesn't even pay attention to where he put the sticker, he just likes to look at the picture on the stickers and talk about them, make the appropriate noises etc, and hone his fine motor skills getting them off the sticker paper onto his artwork. This morning however, I was really glad that I joined him in his sticker picture. I got him some cool sports themed stickers and on this snowy morning I thought it would be a good idea to pull them out. He got really excited about them and started talking about each and every picture:

"Football.....Daddy play football....Jack play football...down...set....hike HIKE!"

"Soccer....Daddy play soccer...Jack play soccer"

"Baseball....Daddy play baseball....Jack play baseball"

"Basketball....Daddy play basketball....Jack play basketball...Mommie play basketball" (I guess because of the bball goal pops and bertie gave him for christmas)

"Mommie...look...look!" (this is what he says when he isn't sure about something)....

so I tell him"That's a bowling ball honey..."

"Bowling Ball.....Daddy play bowling ball...Jack play bowling ball....Mommie play bowling ball" (referencing a wii game I guess...the only time I bowl lately)

"Tennis Ball....Daddy play tennis ball....Jack play tennis ball"

"Golf ball....Daddy play golf ball....Jack play golf ball"

(are you starting to see a pattern here....but isnt this what EVERY little kid should think about his dad....Daddy can do ANYTHING!!!)

This one is my favorite:

"Mommie....look...LOOK!"

"That's a surfboard honey"

"Surfboard.....Daddy play surfboard...Jack say go daddy go!!!.....Daddy fall down....go aaahhhhhh!"

(I think he is remembering watching Josh play with the wii balance board this weekend and doing some skiing game or something....because as far as I know he's neve seen Daddy on a surfboard!)

I only hope we can recreate this conversation tonight when Daddy gets home.

CHOO-CHOO!!

For his Birthday Jack was given a motorized Thomas the Train set, complete with a small set of tracks. He and Daddy have had all sorts of fun putting the tracks together into different configurations, and of course, engineer Daddy has been trying to rig up different ways of making it even more fun and fancy with hills and ramps....but without much success since we didnt have the right parts. This past Thursday, on Daddy's day off, we ventured to Walmart and splurged on an expansion set of train tracks, and some additional train cars too! I'm not sure who was more excited, Jack or Daddy..but I'm guessing it was Jack because he REFUSED to let go of the packages while we were in the store, checking out, getting in the car and getting in the house! Imagine his dismay when we told him that it was NAPTIME and he would have to wait until he woke up to play with it. As I predicted, the first words out of his mouth when he woke up from his (shorter than usual) nap were "ChooChoo...play ChooChoo RIGHT NOW!" So we did! Jack and Daddy setting up the tracks.

Watching the trains go around, while holding the ever important REMOTE CONTROL for the trains.

A few cool "action shots" that were totally done on accident....I have NO idea how to do fancy camera work!

This shows configuration #1 with one hill and one loop.

I included this one because if you look close, you can see his "bed head" from where he just woke up from his nap!Configuration #2, very fancy shmancy with overpasses, underpasses and 2 switches! I'm impressed! It took some careful engineering a few times to prevent train wrecks!

Another cool action shot!

Jack has also become a big fan of the Thomas and Friends TV show. This is good news and bad news.....the good news is that to me it is one of the least annoying shows that he watches....it's calm, quiet and I can nap during it if needed....all good things! The bad news is that it only comes on once a week so if he wants to watch it more than that we have to watch the same ones over and over on DVR....and that DOES get a little old after a while. I tried earlier in the week to get a thomas dvd from netflix, and lo and behold...it was the SAME EPISODE we had just recorded from TV! AUGH! He doesn't seem to mind too much....he still asks to watch "MOMAS"...along with Wonder Pets....sigh....

Early in the week I was at a cooking class so Jack and Daddy were on their own at night....and of course, part of their evening consisted of THOMAS! Since the trains have been played with so much lately, we have had to replace some batteries all ready in one engine, and last night the other one was needing some replacement. Daddy was in the kitchen at the time when Jack came running in, rushed over to the kitchen drawer where we keep the batteries saying "Thomas need new batteries!" When Josh told me this story I was surprised because 1)I didnt even know Jack KNEW that his toys have batteries or that they could run down and 2)I had NO idea he knew where they were stored!

Hey.....Hay?

The other morning as Daddy was getting ready to go to work Jack and I were hanging out in his room play with....what else....MOMAS (Thomas). As you can see in the picture, the new train cars for his train include a car with apples, a car with milk cans and the last one is a car with bushels of hay. At some point in our playing the hay car turned over and Jack exclaimed "Hay....Hey!!" (I wasnt sure at first which "hey/hay he meant, but soon figured it out. Then he picked up the hay and started making his little snoring sound "zzzzzzz" I asked him, why are you snoring? He replied "Baby Jesus!" I kept pressing for his answer to see his reasoning so I said "what about baby Jesus?" and he said "Baby Jesus sleep on hay!" This SHOCKED me, because we havent sung the line "The Little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay" since Christmas time, but he REMEMBERED! I got very tickled about his realization and called Josh in.....it took a bit of coaxing to get it out of Jack again, but after he told us about Baby Jesus and the Hay he also informed us about the other animals that were in the stable too with Baby Jesus, complete with sound effects. I just love seeing how his little brain works! We also told him what else hay is used for.

Later on that day we were playing outside and there is a pile of dried decorative grass that I trimmed a while back that looks a bit like hay, so he started all over again telling me "Bugs eat hay, animals eat hay, Baby jesus sleeps on hay" I dont know why, but it still surprises me when I see that he actually listens to us!

Jack the chaperone

this morning Jack and I were playing with Mr and Mrs Potato Head....and again, he decided that they needed to be a couple and had them hold hands. In an effort to encourage his imagination I asked him what they were going to do....we settled on going to eat pizza and then to see a movie. I asked him which movie they were going to see, and he immediately informed me they were going to see a Baby Einstein movie. He immediately picked one up, told me to get the other, and marched them into the TV room to watch their movie....I guess he felt like they needed a chaperone, so he sat down beside them to watch the movie too. I just couldnt help myself....I had to give in!