Where Does the Time Go? (I'm pretty sure this has been the title to posts in the past)

It's amazing how many times I think during the week, "I need to blog about this," and then I get distracted by thoughts of choir, or football, or the loud crash I hear in Jack's room, and think "I'll get it it later." And later becomes the week of Christmas.

Jack has been really into letters lately. Whenever we are driving down the road he is shouting from the back seat "O!" "T!" "B!" as he points to the signs we pass by. The other night we caught Jack "reading" Josh's book.

He was making up words and he followed along with his finger.

Speaking of words it still amazes me when he says a word and I'm like "You didn't know that yesterday!" For example, tonight we were coloring Christmas cards and I asked if he wanted the red crayon and he said, "No. Yellow." Clear as day said yellow when that is a word he's never been able to master.

Jack has also developed a love for trains. We hear trains passing by several times a day and when they blow the whistle, his eyes widen and he shouts, "Mama! CHOO-CHOO!" Prior to this he called trains and trucks "buses." Now he's calling trucks "trains."

Jack is really into the "Christmas spirit" this year as he understands a little more what it is. He was such a good helper when we decorated the tree, although he did have a tendency to put all of the ornaments in one spot.

Our tree is rather small and pathetic now that we have such a large place with cathedral ceilings.

Jack has done a great job of understanding that he can't open his presents till Christmas. When I first put them under the tree he went straight for them and tried to open them, but I only had to explain the process to him once and he understood. For the first week he was still so excited by them that in the morning the first thing he'd do is run to the tree and line up each of the presents and look at them.

I made Jack an advent calendar with each day having a special thing we'd do that day. 

Jack really enjoys opening each card each day so I'm really glad that I took the time to do it. It sort of "spreads out" the Christmas season so it's not just one day of excitement and then it's done.

One of the days, the card read "Let's have a Christmas dance party tonight!" We put on Christmas music and spent the evening dancing like crazy in the living room.

I know I look a little goofy in this picture but I think it shows how much fun we had :)

Other cute Christmas things Jack does:
Calls Christmas Trees "Patrick" because of the star on top (for those who don't know, Patrick is the name of the starfish on Spongebob)
Says "Ooh! Ahh!" when we pass houses with Christmas lights.
Shouts "Ho! Ho! Ho!" whenever he hears sleigh bells on TV or in a song.

The past few days have been filled with family and friends. We've done more entertaining than I've ever done in my life! It was such a nice, warm, feeling to have so many people we love in our lives all in one weekend! Plus, to be honest, it was just nice to feel like we have friends. Lol. I apparently thought I was 21 again and went out til nearly 2am on both Friday and Saturday nights! And it's always so nice when Jack gets to see his bestie, Cara!

These pictures are from our last visit to Mt. Pleasant.

 Cara says Cheese!

Jack says cheese!

This weekend my mom came to visit to see my choir and see Jack in his Christmas pageant. But that deserves it's own post and pictures so I'll comment on that more, later.

For now I'll end with this: The reason I'm able to have time to write this is because my poor little baby is super sick and still sleeping. He threw up 7 times over the course of the night. He is such a brave little boy, though, and didn't cry once. Everyone please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as we hope for a speedy recovery!

Sports Fan

Jack LOVES watching Josh play Madden. Whenever I'm trying to get Jack to go to sleep at night and Josh is out in the living room, Jack repeats over and over, "Dada Ball?" He's always so worried that Josh is out there secretly playing Madden while Jack is stuck in bed.
Tonight he gathered all of his favorite stuffed animals so they could watch daddy play front and center. He was very concerned about "Mouse" being able to see. He kept making sure his head was facing the TV.
Apparently Pooh and Buzz like football the best. At least that's what Jack told me.
In this photo, he is telling Pooh to "Say Cheese!"

This photo is Jack's reaction to Josh scoring a touchdown. All you have to do is say the word "Touchdown" to Jack and he'll throw his arms up in the air.

Here Jack is clapping after the Packers (who Josh plays as) forced a fumble and recovered it. And I swear I heard him say "fumble."

I wish I would have had my video camera out for this. After Josh scored his second touchdown, Jack literally leaped out of the couch and started jumping up and down shouting "Yay! Yay!"

We are heading to Mt. Pleasant tomorrow and plan on taking Jack to O'Kelly's for lunch so we can see both the Packers and Lions games. We are fairly certain that Jack is going to go nuts with so many football games on the big screen and is going to be the center of attention.

Yesterday we went to the Silver Bells Parade and Capital Building Christmas tree lighting. I posted pics on FB so check them out!

My Elaborate Plan for the Packers/Lions Game

"We should get to the game while they are warming up and bring something CMU for Zombo and Jenkins to sign. I bet they would because they would think it's cool we went to CMU. Then I bet Clay Mathews would come over to see what they were up to since he and Zombo hang and we could get his autograph. And by this point we will have drawn so much attention to ourselves that Aaron will have to notice and he'll take one look at my 'Mrs. Rodgers' shirt and want to sign it." - Me, revealing my plan for the Packers/Lions game to Josh this afternoon. I was am kinda totally serious.

Halloween.Football.Birthday.Outfits.

It's been far too long since I have updated. I swear, I think only a week has gone by and I look at the calendar and it's been an entire month!
Lots has happened since I blogged last, including real Halloween and Jack's 2nd birthday! Wahoo!
So I guess I'll just start at the very beginning (a very good place to start)...
Halloween.

For Halloween we went to Mt. Pleasant to go trick-or-treating with the Stinsons. Jack was unbelievably excited. When we pulled up in the driveway, I couldn't get him out of the car seat fast enough, and he immediately ran up to the door to give hugs to his bestie, Cara.

Jack was an AWESOME trick-or-treater. He would run up to the doors and knock all by himself then shout "Treat-Treat!" (he didn't give them the option of giving him a trick). Then after he got his candy, he would point to Cara and Hannah's baskets and make sure they got treats, too (he was very concerned about this lol). When he was satisfied, he'd say "thank you!" and shout "Bye-Bye!" all the way down the driveway.

Apparently trick-or-treating made quite the impression on him because the next night when we got home from work/daycare, Jack ran to his room to get his monkey costume and started trying to put it on. When I asked what he was doing he said "Treat-Treat!" I think he thought we were going to do it all over again!

Football.

Now if you are wondering what is going on in this photo, at first glance you are probably unaware of just how awesome it is. While the screen looks like it's blank, (due to taking a picture of a picture) what he is actually watching is the Packers v. Jets game. You see, we were visiting Ron and Glo and in the living room, Josh and Ron were watching the Lions game. So, Jack took it upon himself to go into the kids room and turn on the little tv and pull up a chair to watch the Packers game. On my honor, he did it all by himself. We were all in the living room and all of a sudden we heard noise coming from the kids room and I said, "Is Jack watching the Packers by himself in there?!" and sure enough, I walked in him cheering away. Now how awesome is that?!

My pride grew when we were watching football the following weekend and when Green Bay scored their first touchdown, he threw his arms in the air and shouted "YAY!"




Birthday.

Jack's birthday was a huge success. We think everyone had a really great time. We know Jack did. He was so excited to have this many people come over to see him that for a while all he did was scream and run around in circles.

 

One of his gifts was a tea/dishes set from Papa and "ma" Martin. I know, it seems like an odd thing to get a boy, but whatever. He likes that kind of stuff :) Here he is having a Tea Party with Buzz, Woody, Mouse, Pooh and Woof-Woof.

It was ridiculously cute. He made sure each one had a cup, plate, and fork, and he'd continuously keep pouring them more to drink. He'd take a break only to pretend to take a drink himself, or take a bite of cake and say "Mmmmm!"

Outfits.

Jack has been a big helper in the mornings when it comes to picking out what he wants to wear. Frequently he does a great job and wants to wear something like this:

Other times, he gets a little more... creative...

It's worth to note that BOTH times, Jack asked me to take his picture. What a ham.

Of course Jack is still obsessed with Toy Story (we've watched TS3 5 times this week), Pooh, and BobBob.
He is also now obsessed with watching video clips on YouTube of the songs in movies such as The Lion King. Just what we need. Someone else in our family fighting to get on the internet. Haha.

I'm sure there's more, but I'm pooped.
I need to keep more on top of this so I don't have to commit so much time to writing each entry!

Potty training?

Josh and I have been trying to get Jack used to the idea of "going on the potty." It's not that he doesn't understand, he's just a very stubborn boy who is happy sitting in his own poop.
Yesterday at Meijer we passed the little boys underwear and he got really excited. He wanted the Buzz and Mickey underwear badly. I explained to him what underwear meant and that big boys wore underwear and that if I got them for him that meant he had to go on the potty. He excitedly agreed and I put them in the cart.
When we got home, he ripped the underwear out of the packages with excitement. I reminded him again that if he put them on, that meant that he had to pull them down to go on the potty. He grabbed his butt and made a pulling down motion and I said "Yep. That's right. Do you still want to wear them?" and he shouted "No!" threw the underwear at me and ran away.
Today when I got home from work I decided I wanted him to wear a pair for at least a little while so he could get used to how the feel. But lo and behold, I couldn't find them ANYWHERE. Josh finally found them in Jack's secret hiding place, behind the door in our closet. I got them out and asked Jack if he wanted to put them on and this time he said yes. I picked out a pair of Buzz undies and put them on. But Jack wanted a pair of "mouse" underwear on, too. I told him he couldn't wear two pairs on his butt, so he decided he'd wear the other pair on his head.

Jack's new favorite place to watch TV is in the ottoman. The only bad thing is he wants you to put the lid on while he's in it and he gets very upset with me because I won't do it.



On Wednesday, downtown Lansing had trick-or-treat on the square. I was nervous about how Jack would react to wearing his monkey costume so I kept telling him all day "When you put on your monkey costume, people will give you treats because you are so cute!" It worked, because he didn't put on much of a fuss when I put it on, and on our way downtown he only tried once to pull the head off and as soon as I reminded him that he'd get treats if he kept it on, he stopped.
He sure was a cute little monkey, and loved the whole experience. Every time someone put a new piece of candy in his bucket he'd stare into it, almost as if he were counting each piece to make sure he really did get another treat. I'm excited for real trick-or-treating on Sunday in Mt. Pleasant!

Our New House

I've received requests for photos of our new home so here are some!

I Love Love LOVE the kitchen and it's a big reason why we took the place!

Our "office" type area. Can you guess which desk is mine and which is Josh's? :)



Living room - We love how open the floor plan is.

Notice the old windows used as a room divider? It's one of my favorite parts. Compliments of my grandma!

Jack's room! It's very large and bright. And we love the hardwood floors. Sorry. No pics of our room yet. It's still the one room that isn't quite done.

It's great that it's sort of divided into a sleep area and a play area.

On a Jack note, he is getting more hilarious every day. Every day he learns a new word. Literally. Today it is "hide." He loves that there are so many new places for him to "hide" here. Today we were crawling around the apartment "sneaking" around and all of a sudden he stopped, put his finger to his mouth and started taping it and said, "Hmmm..." as he looked around for a new place to hide. It was so funny! Another word he recently learned is "stuck" and now he'll purposely wedge things into tight places, such as the remote under the couch, so he can come to me and say "Stuck!"
He is also growing like a weed. I swear one morning he woke up and none of his pants were long enough. I had to buy a whole bunch yesterday so he could stop looking like he was preparing for a flood.

We are still trying to figure out why Jack keeps waking up in the middle of the night several times. He'll get out of bed, creep into our room and stand at the foot of our bed and sort of let out these sobs until one of us wakes up and carries him back to bed and lays him back down. He'll fall right back asleep again, but 2 hours later he does the same thing. Last night, after the third time, he finally crept into our room and this time didn't make a sound, just climbed up into our bed and curled up at the foot of my bed like a little dog. I didn't even notice til Josh woke me up and pointed it out to me.

I forgot one of Jack's favorite words: MINE!

Jacks "words" - a running list

Dada - Josh, or himself (not sure if he's trying to say "jack jack" or if he just thinks he's a dad, too)
Mama, Mom - Me
Ma - Grandma
Papa- Grandpa
Nana - Grandma Jan
Ja-Ja - Jillian
Sissy - Usually referring to Hannah or Cara, also used for Jaden and Ellie, occasionally it can mean any little girl below the age of ten.
Woof, Dah - Dog, Pluto
Meow - Cat
Moo- Cow
Neigh - Horse or sheep
Ah-Ah-Oo - Rooster/Chicken
Teet-Teet - Bird, or oddly enough, Chip and Dale
Mouw - Mickey Mouse, or mouth. You have to base your interpretation on the situation.
Duh - Duck, Donald Duck
Buh - Buzz, or Woody, or anything that has to do with Toy Story
Snuh - Anything that has to do with the nose, including the nose itself, smell, flowers (I'm guessing because it's derived from the word "smell" or "sniff") and trees and grass because apparently those things are the same as flowers to him.
Nuh - Pacifier, derived from "nuk"
Uh-Huh! - Yes
Mal - Anything you drink, including milk, juice, diet coke...
Shaow - Shoe
Shah - Sock
Bob-Bob - Spongebob Squarepants
Pah - Patrick
Bah - Box or Blocks, again you have to determine what he's saying based on the context
How - House
Side - Outside
Pooh - Winnie the Pooh
Poo-Poo - Anything that has to do with going to the bathroom including poop, pee, diapers, toilet, and farts
Ah - Both "on" and "off" You have to guess which one he is saying based on if the item he is pointing to is on or off
Elmo - One of my favorites, and no, it's not the furry red creature. It means "No more" or "All done" or "all gone" I think it's derived from "no more" and it just sounded like "Elmo" to him so he stuck with it
Dah - Done
Moe - More
Tank oo - Thank you (always whispered)
Eah - Ear
Heh - Head
Ahm - Arm
Fuh  - Foot
Pees - Please
Words that he actually says correctly:
Say
See
Eye
No!

I wanted to document this because some of them are so funny/cute and I want to remember them forever. And I know if I didn't write down phonetically how he said words I would forget.

I have not abandoned my blog!

Many people have asked me, "why don't you post on your mommy blog anymore?" The answer is, "because I'm too darn busy!" But, fear not, we are slowly settling into our new lives and therefore blogging shall commence again! (I know you are all just way too pumped).
So, lets see. What's been going on? Well, for starters, we are now official residents of Lansing, Michigan! Wahoo! I will post pictures of our new place as soon as it's put together. I don't know how we have accumulated so much stuff but it seems that for each box I unpack, another box miraculously appears.
Jack is settling in nicely. Bed time is a little rough, but other than that Jack really seems to be enjoying it here. It warmed my heart today when we pulled into our driveway and he pointed to our place and said "house!" (that's his version of referring to a place as "home.") His room is huge so there's tons of space for him to actually play with toys that move, cars, etc. And at times, he'll simply run around the apartment in big circles screaming "Ahhhh!" just because he can. I also love the fact that we have a fenced in yard and we can sit out there without me having to watch his every move to make sure he isn't running into the parking lot.
One of the saddest parts about leaving Mt. Pleasant was leaving Stephanie, Cara, Hannah, and Paul. Tears were definitely shed. Steph but together a little photo album for Jack with photos of he and Cara. But, the good news is, I have found a daycare provider whom I'm absolutely confident will be great with Jack. Today was his first day there and he did so well. Plus, she's just awesome in general and we seem to have a lot in common. If you want to check out where he's going to be, her site is www.sarafedewa.com.
While we were unpacking today, Jack found an old sweat band and immediately had to put it on. He looked like such a duder.

Since I haven't posted in forever, I'm just going to post some random pictures I've taken of Jack over the past month. Sorry that there is going to be little explanation but it would just take too long.



 In August, we all went up to Petosky to spend some time at Josh's aunt Sherri's farm. Although he loved the horses, cows, and goats, his favorite thing to do was of course, chase the barn cats.

In August, Jack also went to his first sporting event, a Lugnuts baseball game. It was put on by Josh's work and he had a great time running around with Logan (Matt and Christy's son).

Oh yeah! I have Jack his first haircut! This is the after photo. It went WAY better than I had anticipated. I kept putting it off because 1) I didn't think he could sit still long enough for me to do it. 2) I was selfish and couldn't stand the thought of cutting off any of his gorgeous curls. However, I saw some pictures of Jack that Stephanie had taken and even I had to admit he was starting to look a little too feminine. So I bucked it up and one night decided to take the plunge with the scissors. We made a game out of it by going "One! Two! Three! Snip!" and Jack held surprisingly still. I ended up cutting about 2 inches off. And don't worry, I saved those precious curls in an envelope. Haha.

And here is an appropriate photo to end the post with. Jack was so tuckered out but was fighting taking a nap. Usually when it's this difficult I let him sleep on "the big bed" and he'll go to sleep. But even on this day he kept crawling off of it. That is until he just couldn't fight it anymore. He tried to escape.He made it to the very edge of the bed and then konked right out.

And with that, I too, am saying "goodnight."