Puter-ing

Jack,

This past weekend, I signed onto the internet at Disney.com and introduced you to a couple of games and stories that are posted on Disney's Playhouse for Little Einstein's and Handy Manny. You became positively addicted and want to play on the computer all the time now.

As a result, your Daddy and I said - expense be damned! - and went out and bought you your first computer game system made for very young toddlers.

Here you are yesterday playing your first computer game on the system:
You are still pretty excited about the system and crack up when the characters get stuck or run into spiders and say "Whoops!" Seems the more they mess up, the more entertained you become. It's a lot of fun to watch and I have no doubt we made the right decision!

Love,

Mommy

And then there were four!

Jack,

You have another cousin! Emmitt joined the family yesterday morning and we went to visit him yesterday afternoon. Not even 24 hours old! He is a tiny little man and you were unsure about him.It took a little enticing for you to come close enough to touch him very gently on his baby face. You were mostly concerned with trying to give Emmitt his binky even though he was sleeping soundly without it.You also seemed unsure about the fact that Emmitt didn't have a teddy bear. You asked about it like "how is this possible? How is he managing without one?"I held that soft little baby and I thought I would be hit by the desire to have another, but I wasn't.

You are knee deep right now in the "2" phase where EVERYTHING is "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOO!" After hearing that time and again for hours, it really starts to wear on you and I can tell you that - until you get through this phase - I'm not ready yet. I only hope it doesn't last until you move out! :)

It's exciting to have another new family member and it was adorable to watch you with your new cousin! It's amazing to think that one day the age difference will seem negligable because right now - the differences between you and that tiny little infant are staggering!

Love,

Mommy

Jack meets Charlie

Jack,

This weekend you met Charlie in person for the first time. This first meeting took place at Bethesda in Great Grandma Jane's room. I didn't even get a picture of Great Grandma with all the excitement of the new cousin:

Later, we went to Grandma Mary and Poppa Dough's for a more up close and personal introduction. I captured this brief video of you and Cal playing at the train table. Luckily, no punches were thrown as the train table can be a sight of some disagreement now that you are both getting to the "mine" phase.
While at Grandma's and Poppa's, there were enough distractions that it took a little while to get you to notice Baby Charlie. As it turns out, all I was able to capture were the early attempts which failed to grab your attention:

But you'll have to trust me that you DID notice eventually. You even helped put the Binky in his mouth, which made an impression on you and you are STILL talking about. Plus, when you heard Calum cry, you thought it was Baby Charlie and came running. When Charlie fell asleep, you squatted by his car seat and said "Chaah-wee wayke UH-P!" Boy, I wonder how long it is before the age difference between you guys seems negligable because right now, it looks so huge! I'm sure you will all be close cousins and I'm excited for you!

Love,
Mommy

Any day with you

Jack,

Any day with you.....



...is one I always want to remember.

Love,
Mommy

Playdates

Jack,

The highlight of your and my weekend has been the playdates that we have had. My friend, Laura, and her two sweet and beautiful daughters, Lilly and Viv, (Viv adorably chose to stare suspiciously at everyone around her) were in town and we had a great time playing with them at the Magic House. You liked when we got there being able to direct us all where to go, but it didn't take long before you were running here and there and so we spent what time together that we could within the confines of toddler energy.
Most of our time together was spent in the racing cars area and in the castle. The castle display is a newer exhibit and we haven't been in it that often so it held your attention the longest. It's funny - being around my friend, Laura, and her girls really highlighted for me some of the differences between having boys and girls. You bolted headlong from one thing to the next like you were in some kind of a race to play with everything first.I love this picture of you and Viv eating at this long table in the castle room. Viv sat stoicly on her seat while Lilly served her and you shoved a carrot in your ear and THEN proceeded to put it in your mouth. They are better that way, right?

It was great seeing all of them again!

After the Magic House, we went to visit Calum and you boys had a wonderful time running around together:

In addition to the running, you both crazied about in a tent that Aunt Erin and Uncle Brett got out for you two. These pictures are a little blurry, but are a great representation of what that play time looked like:It was a great weekend full of toddlers and fun!

Love,

Mommy

Fourth of July 2007

Jack,

You had a wonderful Fourth of July although it was preceeded by a night of falling asleep screaming at 10 PM, waking at 2:30 and crying till 4 and them waking at 5:45. Plus, I put you down for a nap at 11:30 and you screamed until 1 when you fell asleep.

I was ready for a stiff drink, but settled for having five servings of dessert and two dinners instead. I feel so bloated right now.

No - but, you were in heaven when we reached your cousins house for the holiday celebration. Here you are running the course you set between the inside and outside of the house that you were thrilled with for the majority of the time we were there.

Happy Fourth of July, Jack!

Love,

Mommy

Tropical Breeze 2007

Jack,

It's been a long time since I blogged. I can't think of a reason "why" - it's just been the fact.

Since I last blogged, we have been on a week vacation in Florida at Tropical Breeze - a resort that I used to visit as a child with my parents. I have many fond memories of being a kid there, so it was fun to see you there and make some memories with you in that same place - although it looks nothing like it did when I was little.I have a couple of movies of you at the Ocean, but nothing mind blowing. Your biggest joke during this time was to say "I want some milk" in a deep voice as though that phrase could ever sound manly. It really cracked me up so I tried to get you to say it for the camera as much as possible.

We did swim at the beach, although you much preferred the pool and I can't say that I blame you. I used to prefer the pool, too, because you know in the pool you aren't going to unexpectedly get slammed by a wave of salt water leaving you coughing, sputtering and rubbing your eyes blindly hoping you don't get hammered by another while still recovering from the first. Don't get me wrong - I love you the ocean - but I think it takes an older child to appreciate it's challenges.

Kelly was good enough to make you a sandcastle of Lightning McQueen which I must tell you was incredible. It was sooo clearly him that we had one person approach it and say - Hey, that's a Cars castle! I'd say that's a good job when others can recognize it for what it is.
The highlight of my vacation was a compliment paid by our cabanna boy. He actually told Grandma that if the mother of his child looked as good as I did, he'd be a happy man. What can I say - best $50 I ever spent! :)

You really took to the water on this trip and gathered confidence swimming in floaties. I was really impressed by how well you did. You loved the pool so much that you would be screaming about returning to the pool even as it was dark and I was putting you to bed.

The airline trips left a lot to be desired. I've never been so stressed out. You started resisting the minute we started to walk into the airport and didn't stop until you fell asleep during the plane ride or at all. Not even movies seemed to work to calm you. It was a nightmare. Here's just a sampling of the experience.

You are old enough that you need to sit in your own seat during take off and landings and anytime that the fasten seatbelt light is on. Also, we can't turn on the laptop for movies until it's okay to use electronic devices. Plus, on both flights we were situated over a wing and couldn't see out the window so we didn't even have that for a distraction.

We DID arrange for one day in Orlando and ended up taking you to Disney World's Magical Kingdom. It was a serious nightmare. The lines to meet the characters were 30 minutes long and you didn't understand why you couldn't approach the characters one-on-one. Plus, it was hot and sunny and the lines for the rides were prohibitive. We found some areas you enjoyed playing that were playground-ish.
Not the types of things that you would expect to do in Disneyworld, but you were happy. We did also manage to go on the It's a Small World ride which you loved with all the singing dancing dolls. It was fun to do that with you.All in all - it was a great trip, but it had it's stressors.You being two, the two summer classes that both Clay and I are taking this summer and the midterms and assignments coming due while on our trip, you settled back into a routine of resistance of sleeping without someone in the bed with you. Plus, you had to put up with your parents who were both stressed out and less than pleasant to be around most of the time.Highlights of the trip for you were the runs that you would take on the beach. You did this twice with Poppa Dough and twice with me. One evening after a late run down the beach, we encountered a jelly fish on the beach and you said "good-night, jelly. I'm so proud of you." It was adorable and melted my heart. You were also impressed when Aunt Kelly found a fish that had beached itself and tossed it back into the ocean to find it's mommy. You talked about that quite a bit, too. "Kelly put fishy back. Fishy go to it's mommy." The swimming in the pool, too.Here are some odd pictures from a game my Dad created for us to play where we needed to get five pictures of people holding this photo of Ghandi. I impressed myself by getting the night security guy to do it. The guy never smiled. I think I should have been in sales.Anyway - it was a great trip with a little bit of stress to be completely honest, but it was a great time.
It's always nice to come back home, though. :)

Love,

Mommy