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."