Just Another Mommy Blog

Senior Picture Photoshoot

2011-03-20T13:45:00.000-04:00

Jack and I posed for "senior pictures" yesterday (Only 2 years old and I'm already subjecting him to my posed picture shenanigans).

The one above is my favorite. One of Jack's favorite things to do right now is imitate those around him, so getting him to do this stuff with me was easy. Jack's knack for imitating others really shines when playing the Kinect for 360. Josh is working a video that we took of Jack dancing to Dance Central and as soon as he has that done I"ll be sure to upload it.

We are also at the stage where Jack repeats everything he hears, so now we have to be much more careful about what we say around him. Josh is using this to advantage though by getting Jack to say ridiculous things like, "Booya!" and "Hiyo!"

Jack's favorite "game" to play is taking turns pretending we are Robots or "Bobots" as Jack calls them and chasing each other around the house saying, "I am a robot! I am robot! I am coming to get you!" He particularly loves torturing the cat by chasing him around the house like a robot. We keep trying to explain that Odin doesn't think it's funny and it really scares him but Jack doesn't seem to care and keeps doing it anyway. Regardless, Jack and Odin still have a great relationship. Jack is "responsible" for making sure Odin has food every day and filling his bowl if it's empty. He calls it "Meow Cereal" and gets excited when he notices on his own that Odin is out of food and he gets to feed him.

For the past few months, Jack had been terrible about sleeping through the night in his own bed. He would always wake up and cry several times through the night. Then he just stopped the crying bit all together and when he'd wake up he'd literally sneak into bed with us and when Josh and I woke up in the morning we'd be like, "How'd he get here?" None of us were sleeping well with this arrangement, as Jack is a total bed hog (and morning I woke up both Jack and Odin and weaseled their way between Josh and I). We came to the eventual conclusion that the reason Jack kept waking up was because his toddler bed was too small. As I said, Jack is a total bed hog and rolls around a lot and I think he kept hitting the sides of the bed. Therefore, we packed up his toddler bed for good and now Jack is sleeping on a twin bed and Hallelujah! It worked! We are all sleeping MUCH better and getting Jack to go to bed at night is much easier, too. Double win!

Ok. Enough typing. Here's more pictures. Enjoy!

Jack calls the jacket he's wearing his "Hotdog Mouse coat." He calls Mickey Mouse "Hotdog Mouse" because of the "Hotdog Song" on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Jack LOVES his very own "Vroom Vroom Car" and was super pumped that it's been warm enough that he could use it outside rather than just in the house.

Intentions Not Realized

2011-01-31T20:53:00.000-05:00

When I created this blog, I had every intention of updating it on a daily basis. More importantly, I created it to have an outlet where I could get out all of my thoughts and experiences about motherhood, good and bad. That's why my "tag-line" is "always honest and sometime humorous." Unfortuantly, I don't feel like I've done this at all. I've occasionally griped about how Jack annoys me or about how I have no time, but really this blog as become more of an electronic baby book with photos, highlights, and milestone updates more than anything else. Therefore, at this moment, right now, I'm going to use this post to exclaim:
"Sometimes I just wish Jack would leave me the F*uck alone!"
There! That feels better.
But in all seriousness, I feel like I have this thought at least once a day. And then I feel terrible about myself. I truly feel like I'm a bad parent. Or at least not as great of a parent as I always thought I'd be. Growing up, I always knew I wanted a family. I thought being the "best mom in the world" would come naturally to me. Let me tell you, it does not. Not always anyway. My first instinct is not always to put Jack first. Sometimes (Ok. Let's be honest, often times) I have to seriously put effort into spending time with Jack and not completely ignoring him. I have to remind myself that it's a good thing that Jack has such a fondness for reading and wants me to read him 15 books a day and I shouldn't discourage him by saying, "No! I don't want to read you that book. We've read it 3 times today and I really want to watch Jeopardy!"
Does this make me a bad mother? Maybe some people would think so. I know I have a tendency to think so. I expect more from myself. I feel like being completely selfless should come naturally, and the fact that it doesn't must make me a mediocre parent. But you know what I'm really thankful for? The fact that when I might be "slipping" on my motherly duties, I have people in my life who pick up the slack for me. You know the saying, "It' takes a village to raise a child?" Well I really believe that. And of course my number one man who is there to take over for me is Josh. Josh has the uncanny ability to realize when I'm at a point where I need Jack to quit hanging on me and need some alone time. The perfect example being right now. I've had to stop three times now while writing this post to do the exact same puzzle with Jack (a puzzle that before dinner we had already done 3 times). As soon as I sat down to type again, Jack was at my side begging to me, "One more! One more!" as he shoved the puzzle in my lap. Josh came to the rescue and scooped Jack away without me even having to ask and they are now playing in his room.
But it's not just Josh. It's the other people that care for him too. I can say with 100% honesty that I'm happy Jack has to go to daycare. I've been so fortunate in having Stephanie and Sara in our lives. Both Sara, and Stephanie when Jack was with her, care so much about Jack and his well-being, growth, and development. So I know that on those days where I come home from work and I'm really selfish and I maybe forget to be super-mom that night, that at least earlier that day, someone picked up the slack for me and was an awesome "mommy" to Jack.
Am I proud to admit all of this? Not really. Do I wish it were different? Yeah. And I've been working really hard on becoming a better mother (and wife for that matter but that's for a different blog ;)) and trying not to instinctively always think of myself first. But at the same time, I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that I'm not the perfect mother I always thought I would be. That it's ok that it doesn't come as naturally to me as I thought it would. I don't have to be a Super-Mom to be a good mom. And to those super-moms out there who are actually able to give themselves 100%, 100% of the time to their kids, then I salute you. Because that's not me. And I guess that's ok. :)

I have so so much to update...

2011-01-25T12:27:00.000-05:00

...it will take several posts.

For now, a conversation Jack and I had this afternoon as we were about to watch TS3 (for the 50 billionth time):

Jack: (in a sad voice) Buzz Bear (as he points to Lots-o on the cover)
Me: The bear in Toy Story is sort of mean, isn't he?
Jack: No....no mean.
Me: Is he just misunderstood?
Jack: No....
Me: Than what's his deal?
Jack: His tail.
Me: What? He's mean because he has a tail?
Jack: Uh-huh.

Conversations with 2 year olds are awesome because they rarely make sense.

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

2010-12-22T07:02:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-20T22:46:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-20T22:34:00.002-05:00

"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.

2010-11-15T17:30:00.000-05:00

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?

2010-10-29T20:28:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-18T15:27:00.000-04:00

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.

2010-10-11T00:35:00.003-04:00

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

Jacks "words" - a running list

2010-10-09T14:28:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-10-06T23:47:00.002-04:00

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."

Imagination

2010-08-10T08:19:00.001-04:00

Jack is starting to do the CUTEST thing ever.
He pretends to draw actual things now.
He'll scribble on a piece of paper and then point to it and say "See! Mooooo!" or "See! Meow!" etc etc.
And he'll draw anything for you. You can say "Jack, can you draw me Daddy?" And he'll say "UH-HUH!" and scribble on the page and then when he's done point to it and shout "Dada!" Or you can ask him, "Jack, can you draw me an eye?" And he'll say "UH-HUH!" and scribble out an eye then point to it and say "Eye!" It's funny if you ask him something that he doesn't know. He'll just say "No." and then look at you like "Are you stupid?" and wait for you to ask him something that he DOES know, like Elmo, or Mickey Mouse.
It's seriously one of my favorite things that he does. I just think it's so cool how his imagination is starting to take shape right before our eyes.

Down by the meadow in an itty bitty pool, swam three little fishies and a... Jack!

2010-07-22T21:56:00.000-04:00

On our last day of our Escanaba vacation we went to my dad's house so Jack could go swimming in the pond with their fishies. My dad and Roxanne have a beautiful Garden with a gorgeous pond in their yard. They bought him a cute little tube for him to float around in while the fish swam around and nibbled at his toes as he threw out Cheerios to them.

The big fish that is surfacing in the picture is Goldie. She is a koi and she is HUGE. She is just like a little puppy dog. She comes swimming over when she hears Roxanne's voice, and she eats out of your hand as she lets you pet her.

This picture makes me laugh because at first you don't even notice the fish right by Jack's foot with it's mouth wide open sticking out of the water.

And... an attempt at a family portrait. They never work. It looks like I have a bird growing out of my head.

My son, the ham

2010-07-22T21:48:00.000-04:00

Not much to say aside from the fact that earlier this week Jack was sick and I stayed home from work with him on Tuesday and Wednesday. His baby-sitter's daughter had hand, foot, and mouth disease and I think he may have caught it. Tuesday night he was burning up with a very high fever and he refused to eat pretty much anything for 3 days aside from popsicles and jello. By today, however, he was back to his normal, smiling self.

Jack is definitely starting to grasp the concept of photos. He is beginning to put on little shows for me when I get the camera out. Here he was doing various poses such as waving,

giving his version of a "thumbs up" (which is putting his index finger up),

and apparently calling me a loser.

But then he more than made up for it by blowing me kisses.

Disney Fun

2010-07-15T09:40:00.000-04:00

My mother and sister will be happy to hear of this news. I forgot to mention in my previous post that Jack's new favorite movie to watch is the Disneyland Sing-Along DVD that we got for free from Disney Rewards. He wanted to watch it 3 times yesterday. He even turned down watching Toy Story!
His favorite songs to dance to are "Rumbly in my Tumbly" with Winnie the Pooh (our favorite, too!) and "Making Memories."
However, he does not like "Grim Grinning Ghosts" and makes me skip that song when it comes on. I find it fascinating that he understands it's supposed to be "scary" (even though it's really not) and doesn't like it. They show the ghosts that are inside the Haunted Mansion and the characters that dance in it are the Wicked Witches from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, along with Captain Hook and Donald wearing a sheet to look like a ghost. But Jack has never seen any of these movies nor does he understand what a ghost is, so it amazes me that in-spite of this, he knows that these things are scary. It's just cool how much of that kind of knowing we are just born with.

Jack's Words

2010-07-15T09:17:00.001-04:00

Jack's vocabulary has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past week.
Words that he's known such as "off" and "eye" are becoming much clearer (he actually says the "ffff" of off now so "on" and "off" don't sound exactly the same haha)
Some of his latest additions are "mouth" and "hot dog." And no. Not as in the food. As in Mickey Mouse. When they sing "Hot Dog!" at the beginning of the Hot Dog song, Jack will repeat it.
And as of this morning I've learned that he's added "Cookie" when Josh sent me the following message:
Josh: Jack said "cookie" this morning.

me: no way

really?

like it was obviously cookie?

was he pointing to the cabinet?

Josh: He was at the cabinet and it cleary sounded like cookie. I was proud, so we both had a cookie for breakfast.

Jack also surprised the hell out of us when we discovered that he knows his numbers and letters. We recite the alphabet and count with him at home, and Stephanie does when he's with her, but not really in a manner to encourage him to learn them, just more so he gets used to hearing/seeing them. Josh discovered on accident that Jack knew his numbers when Josh said the number "3" and Jack pointed to it. We then wrote out numbers on a dry erase board and asked him various ones and he knew every one!

Yesterday we were doing it again as we were coloring so I decided to see if he knew the alphabet too. Sure enough, he knew several letters! I don't think he's confident with all of them, but he definitely has the first few down pat. We sure have a smarty on our hands!

Parade, but no Fireworks

2010-07-05T12:54:00.001-04:00

Our 4th of July celebration was half success, half failure. A success because the rain held out long enough to have the parade and spend some time down at the park. A failure because it poured during the time that they were supposed to shoot off the fireworks. Needless to say, we got soaking wet as we scrambled to get back to Travis' from the park. However, Jack was able to sneak in some play time with Tyler and Carry's little girl, Chloe, and Amy and Jamie's little boy, Noah. It's too bad that we all don't live closer together so they can see each other more often. Jack and Chloe were hugging each other within 2 minutes of being introduced and Jack and Noah were giggling as they chased each other around the park like they've been friends forever.

Jack had a great time at the parade, of course, and managed to get tons of candy. He was a little Grandpa's boy and rarely wanted to leave his side.

After the parade we walked down to the park for some "patriotic people" watching. Jack passed out in his wagon and slept the entire time.

After the park, Jack got treated to a 4th of July ice cream cone.

Currently the sun is shining and looks to be a nice day. I'm sure they will set off the fireworks tonight since they couldn't last night. Unfortunately, we won't be able to stay as Josh and I both have to get back to work tomorrow. Our time in Escanaba always flies by too quickly.

Lions and Tigers and... Lemurs?! Oh, My!

2010-07-04T08:45:00.002-04:00

Greetings from Escanaba, Heaven on Earth, God's Country U.S.A.

Yesterday Dad and Roxanne took me, Josh, Jack, and Jillian to the DeYoung Zoo in Wallace. For those of you who have never heard of it, I'd highly recommend checking it out. It's in the middle of nowhere and the coolest zoo experience ever. They have the largest collection of "big" cats (Tigers, Lions, Leopards, etc)than any other zoo in the world. Furthermore, every hour they have "Animal Experiences" where they take out all of the baby animals from the zoo and let you hold and pet them! I thought Jack would go nuts over the baby lemurs but he was terrified of them. What a wuss!

They look so terrifying, don't they? I love the look on this face when they are handing the Lemurs over to him.

When we went in the fawn pen, I was in 7th heaven. When I was a child I used to cry because I didn't understand why I couldn't have a deer for a pet. Jack was less enthused. The baby deer started sucking Jack's little fingers because to a baby deer they looked like, well, you know. The deer thought he was going to get a yummy milky snack out of them.

We bought a bucket of food so Jack could feed many of the animals there. He raced into the goat pen, thinking it was going to be awesome. The goats swarmed him and got the best of him, immediatly knocking him to the ground. Jack would have nothing to do with the goats after that and stuck to more gentle animals such as llamas and donkeys.

For those of you who are interested, the DeYoung Zoo has it's own series on the National Geographic Channel called "My Life is a Zoo." If you are ever channel surfing sometime and see that pop on, check it out!

We also went to the cottage on Thursday night for a bon fire with friends. Much firewood was burned and alcohol consumed. The next day we tried to get Jack to swim in Lake Michigan. He wasn't really game. The waves were scary to him and he hated the sand. We managed to sneak in a few photos with smiles (yes, Josh actually took some pictures!)

Now it's off to Gladstone for the 4th of July festivities to begin. I hope everyone has a fun and happy 4th!

Gators and Slip-n-Slides

2010-06-29T20:10:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we went up to Josh's mom's house in McBain. Josh's sister lives up there, too, so Jack got to spend plenty of time with his cousins Dru and Jacob. Jack learned how to "drive" the gator, but he refused to slide down the slip-n-slide, even if it was a Toy Story one.

A family portrait. Too bad Jack isn't looking. He was apprehensive about Ruger (the Great Dane). He is a super friendly dog but his size intimidates even a dog lover like Jack

Even though Jack wouldn't go on the slip-n-slide, he still like splashing in the water it sprayed up.

Jacob was a pro on it!

Dru and Jake also have a little toy 4 wheeler. You can see Dru riding it in the background of this picture. Jack liked to sit on it and pretend he was driving it

Dru and Jack are so much alike sometimes.

And here's more pics of my little California boy

Well, that's about it for now. Sorry that I had so little to write. I mostly just wanted to get caught up on posting pictures. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to add next week. We are spending the next 5 days in Escanaba. Can't wait!

Swimming and Summerfest

2010-06-29T18:52:00.003-04:00

I took Jack to our apartment's pool last week and he had a blast. He loved sitting on the stairs and splashing the water and kicking his feet. He even let me take him out into the deeper part. I took his arms and would swing him around through the water and he would giggle with delight.

I can not get over how awesome he looks in his swimming gear. He looks like he could be on a brochure enticing people to go to California.

Jack also had his first experience with carnival rides, a parade, and fireworks during the Mt. Pleasant Summerfest. If this is any indication as to how the 4th of July is going to be, it's going to be awesome. Jack was such a ham during the parade, waving and shouting loudly at all of the police cars, fire trucks, and kids. About half way through he realized that the more he waved, the more candy he got, so his waves got even more enthusiastic. As a matter of fact he was still waving to random people and cars as we headed down to the park after the parade.

At the carnival, he was enthralled with the kiddy gator coaster and would scream and raise up his arms like the "big" kids riding it. He kept pointing to it and asking if he could ride it but he had to stick to the carousal. The roller coaster is actually what he's looking at in this picture. But Jack loved riding the carousal despite not being able to ride the big kid rid He rode it once with mommy and once with daddy.

Fun in the park

2010-06-29T18:33:00.001-04:00

On Thursday nights, my sister-in-law plays on a volley ball team down at the park. The past couple of weeks we've taken Jack down there so he can watch and play with Jaden and Ellie. There isn't much to say about it except for the fact that it's an opportunity to get great pictures. Speaking of pictures, you should check out the new wedding blog I've made to showcase my wedding photography. It's nicoletakesphotos.blogspot.com.

Every week this puppy is there and they love petting him.

Both Jack and Ellie were rockin out in Papa's sunglasses.

And just because I love taking running photos of Jack...

Dow Gardens

2010-06-29T18:25:00.001-04:00

Alright! I caved in and went to my mother and father in-laws to use their internet to post some pictures (thanks for offering the use of yours, Melinda! I just knew that I had a lot to do and didn't want to tie up your computer for that long!)

A couple of weekends ago, Josh's brother Ron was in town with his kids as well as his friend Rhonda's kids. With 6 kids in tow, we headed to Midland so they kids could walk around Dow Gardens. I had never been there before and was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, it was hot and Jack was a little cranky. But overall a good time was had by all. Jack particularly enjoyed the "kids" garden as they had huge tubs of bubbles and these gigantic bubble wands.

I particularly love this photo of Rachel for some reason.

In other news, Jack can now say "MOO!" when you ask him what a cow says.

No Pictures? Oh My :(

2010-06-23T09:01:00.000-04:00

I am extremely frustrated with our lack of internet. Tethering the Droid worked wonderfully at first but now I'm lucky if I can connect at all, let alone at speeds fast enough to allow me to upload all of the great pictures I have taken. So, I must settle for writing a picture-less update from work.

So where to start? I have lots of little stories to share so I guess this is going to be pretty random.

The other night we had a pretty bad thunderstorm. I woke up several times because every window in the apartment was rattling. I remember being shocked that it didn't wake up Jack up. Well, apparently it did. In the morning I noticed that Jack's door was open (apparently Josh left it open for some reason). I peeked in on him and much to my surprise, he wasn't in bed! I ran out to the living room and there he was, curled up on the couch snuggling Mr. Pickles. I have no idea at what point he got up and wandered into the living room. He couldn't have been scared because he never made a noise and strangely didn't come into our room. Needless to say, we will be double checking that his bedroom door is closed from now on.

Jack is finally starting to understand the concept of "indoor voices." Yesterday we were eating at Subway and he was very excited and kept squealing with delight. I kept saying "Shhh. Indoor voices" and he'd smile and start "whisper squealing." I don't know how else to describe it. Additionally, last night we went to the carport to look at the birdies and he being really loud. I put my finger to my mouth and said "shhh. You'll scare the birdies." So then he kept putting his finger to his mouth and saying "Shhh. Shhh." When I told Josh this, he said that he did the same thing the other day when Josh dropped him off at Stephanie's and Cara was still sleeping. It's beyond adorable.

Jack's vocabulary is starting to grow and his words becoming clearer. He says "Jack Jack" when pointing to himself. Well, sometimes he says "Jack Jack" while pointing to himself. Often times he'll point to himself and say "Mama" or "Dada" and then smile really big like he knows that isn't true. He also says "Bubbles" whenever he wants to go outside. And "ball" anytime he sees something round. Yesterday I was drawing shapes for him with sidewalk chalk and he kept trying to say "Star." And Jillian will be pleased to know that he hasn't forgotten "JaJa."

Jack seems to have become rather possessive of me. He gets very jealous of Josh when he has physical contact with me. Whenever we hug, he starts whining and if we pick him up to join in on the hug, he pushes Josh away. He also tries to wedge himself between me and Josh if Josh is scratching my back or giving me a back rub. I wonder if this is typical behavior for toddlers. Whenever Jack gets upset over it we tell him that it's ok, mommy and daddy love each other, so I'm guessing he'll grow out of it soon.

Well, this has been a lot of text and without the adorable pictures of Jack to break it up, seems excessive. Hopefully soon I'll be able to create a post of a bunch of pictures.

Busy Busy Busy aka Where does the time go?

2010-06-13T23:08:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in 2 weeks. :(
I keep meaning to, but there always seems to be something else to do. Even this is going to be a pathetic attempt at an update, but I'll do my best.

Last weekend was a rarity in that every "Martin" cousin was together at once. They all spent the entire afternoon playing at the park in Rosebush during Kayla's graduation party. They all had an absolute blast. In fact, some of them had a little too much fun with both Xander and Dru throwing up from go around too many times on the merry-go-round. Dru was extremely proud of this accomplishment and made sure that everyone, even strangers, knew that he threw up all over the merry-go-round.

I got a lot of great photos of each of them and put together a little collage. From left to right, top to bottom: Xander Martin, Brianna Martin, Rachel Martin, Jack Martin, Dru VanEpps, Jacob Van Epps, Ellie Beltnick and Jaden Beltnick.

Jack's favorite thing to do at playgrounds is definitely go down the slides. It's funny to watch him because since slides are now plastic and Jack has so much hair, the static electricity makes it stand on end.

Today Jack got even more cousin fun when we went to Marion for Jacob's 5th birthday party. Jake and Dru have a power wheels police car and Jack loved going for rides with his cousins in it. He also spent much of his time throwing rocks into the pond with Dru. I wish I would have brought my camera because there were lots of cute moments shared between Dru and Jack. They really have many of the same mannerisms and at times looked so identical. Jake got lots of Toy Story items much to Jack's delite. Jake's grandparents have bunnies so I used the opportunity to teach Jack a new animal. Now when you ask him what a bunny does he says "Hop! Hop!"

It's really amazing to think how quickly time flies by. Seeing Jack running around like one of the big kids and being able to keep up with his older cousins often astonishes me. There are times in my mind that he should still be just a little baby, unable to do the things that he can. I admit that my heart beats a little faster as I see him follow his cousins up the stairs, or when he rides around in the police car, or when he goes down the "big" slides by himself. Silly as it is, however, during these times when I feel myself getting overly protective, I remind myself of "Finding Nemo" (which we appropriately watched today) and how I can't prevent him from doing anything just because I'm not ready for it. Whenever Jack does these things, there are plenty of adults around, and I just have to remind myself that he needs to be able to feel a sense of independence, explore the world on his own, and experience new things.

As some of you may know, I've made the leap into wedding photography. Yesterday was my first "real" job for a couple from Essexville. It went extremely well and I think they are going to be very satisfied with the end product. The whole process was really natural for me and I think this is the start of a very promising career for me. I have 7 more to go this summer. I'm hoping that I eventually can get to the point that I make enough supplemental income from my photography that I'd only have to work part time. I think that in a couple of years that is a feesable goal to attain. It definitely helps that Josh is so supportive of this endevour.

Aside from family and weddings (Josh and I attended a long time friend's wedding last weekend) I've been consumed with updating my resume', job searches in the Lansing area, writing cover letters, and looking at Lansing real estate. I know this move is going to come up so much faster than we anticipate so I'm trying very hard to remain on top of things. Hence the MIA from blogging. I'll be much more relaxed about the whole thing when I get a job.

And now, just because there was way too much text without a picture, here's Jack!

Memorial Day Weekend in the Yoop

2010-06-01T23:19:00.009-04:00

Josh and I got to take Jack up to Escanaba for a long weekend. Jack spent nearly every waking moment outside. Both of my parents have huge fenced in yards with tons of flowers, ponds, fountains, and tons of areas to explore.

He got to help water the flowers (and the fish) and feed the fish Cheerios at Grandpa and Grandma Borden's.

While at Nana's Jack got to sleep on a big boy cot rather than in his pack'n'play. He loved it! I think he felt so grown up and in control over when he got to go to bed. Twice he climbed up onto the cot on his own to take his naps! But little boys who can climb into bed can also climb out. On our last night, I was sleeping out on the couch (my allergies cause me to cough all night and I didn't want to keep Josh and Jack up). In the morning I awoke to the pitter patter of little feet running around the house. I got up and looked around. Josh was still asleep. My sister and mom were gone. I went into the family room and there was Jack chasing the cats. He had decided to get up all on his own.

Because Jack liked it so much, as soon as we got home we took his crib apart and converted it to the toddler bed. When he saw it he said "Ooooh!!!" and immediately climbed up on it. His face was just beaming as he sat on his boy boy bed. I even got a little teary-eyed watching how excited he was about it. He's growing up so fast.

Jack's weekend was filled with all sorts of other "firsts" as well. At Uncle Dave's and Aunt Carol's Jack got to go on his first boat ride (he even got to drive!)

He also went swimming in a lake for the first time. At first Jack loved being in the water. It was super warm and their were little minnows swimming all around him. It was like a giant bathtub. That was until he fell face first in the water. He wanted out, like now. We eventually coaxed him back in with bribes of buckets, shovels, and seashells, but from that point on he refused to move from his spot. His feet were firmly planted and no one was going to cause him to fall over again.

On Sunday we had a cook-out at Aunt Carol's and Uncle Duane's, and it was there that Jack decided what he wants for Christmas this year: a golf cart. Every five minutes he was asking someone to take him for a ride around the yard. Jack also sang karaoke for the first time, although Jack's version of singing is more like beat-boxing into the mic and throwing in a few shrieks just to make sure you're paying attention.

Needless to say, it was very difficult to leave. The U.P. is heaven in the summer and I wish we could spend every day up there. I think Jack misses it too. He got used to being outside so much and being able to wander around and explore wherever he wanted. Today he wanted to be outside every second. More than once he went to the door and just stood their crying because he couldn't be outside. And when he was outside, he no longer listened when I told him he had to stay to the confined little space of our little lawn. At least we'll be going up there again for five days over the 4th so we'll be able to see all of these smiling faces in less than a month!

These Boots are Made for Walkin'

2010-06-01T22:49:00.002-04:00

I bought Jack a pair of Toy Story cowboy boots last week. The smallest size they had was a 7, but they were on clearance so I figured I'd get them for him to wear this fall. I thought it would be cute for Jack to have boots like Papa's.

Jack had other ideas, however. He doesn't want to wait until the fall when they would fit them. He wants to wear them now.

He is always asking Josh and I to put them on when he goes out to play. He looks absolutely ridiculous clomping around in them. The other day Josh dressed him in a t-shirt and mesh basketball type shorts. Guess what shoes he wanted to wear with them? Josh tried to convince Jack to wear his sandals so he wouldn't have to explain to the babysitter why Jack was wearing cowboy boots, but Jack was persistent. Luckily Jack took them off in the car on the way there and Josh used the opportunity to switch the boots out for sandals.

And just for some more laughs, here's another one. As if he didn't look silly enough, note the Mickey Mouse sticker stuck to his inner thigh. Yep. That's my boy.

Me, Jack and the Camera Just... Click.

2010-05-23T09:48:00.005-04:00

Has summer arrived?

It's been a gorgeous week with temperatures in the 70's. Next week they are calling for the 80's. Hopefully this means we can officially pack away the sweaters and coats and pull out the shorts and T-shirts. It's been great how much of our afternoons Jack and I have been able to spend outdoors. We get much less irritated with each other when we can sit outside rather than being cooped up in the tiny apartment. He even got some outdoor nakey time yesterday (well, mostly nakey. He still wore a diaper)

Being outside with Jack is becoming much easier now that he is old enough to understand the concept of boundaries. He knows where the limits of how far he can go in the yard and usually obeys them. If he wants to go past them, he'll ask. If I say no, he'll get this sweetest little smile on his face and ask again... and again... and again. I think he knows it's hard to resist such a charming face. But when I hold my ground and say "no" every time, he eventually gives up. And on the rare cases that he doesn't listen, all I have to do is say "Jack, do you want to go inside?" and he'll come running back. Even he knows that being confined to an area outside is better than being confined to the living room.
A couple of days ago, Jack had Buzz outside with him. He likes to glide Buzz through the air and make "swishing" sounds like he's flying. Buzz got to fly all over the yard.

After dinner, Jack came up to me holding out his sandals. I put them on for him and he bolted for the door. Apparently he wanted to back outside. I told him that this time he had to put some clothes on, so he ran to his room, grabbed a Super Man T-Shirt, and held it out for me. Apparently he thought that was enough.

Unfortunately for the both of us, spending so much time outdoors has it's consequences... ALLERGIES. Poor little Jack couldn't escape the inevitable. At his last check-up he was given a prescription for them, although it doesn't seem to be helping much.

Jack is a great little test subject for me to practice different photo techniques with. In this next set I was playing with shooting into the sun, emphasizing the contrast between light and shadow. I love how the grass looks in each of these.

I've also been practicing pre-focusing on a spot in front of a moving subject and then taking the picture when they walk into the frame, rather than trying to focus on them as they are moving. Last night it worked spectacularly. I love this photo.

And just because Jack is so cute, here are some more photos to wrap things up. Sorry this post is so long. But when my internet time is very limited, times between posts become longer.

Jack loves sniffing those flowers!

A Couple More Firsts

2010-05-18T07:46:00.000-04:00

The stinky one: I thought Jack might be pooping because he stopped playing and just stood there and squatted for a minute. I asked him if he went poop and he said yes and ran into his bedroom to get his diaper changed.

The cute one: When Jack went to bed last night and I said "I love you" he tried to say "I love you" back, followed by blowing me a kiss. It was a garbled mess, but coherent enough that you could tell that is what he was trying to say.

Jack's First Vacation

2010-05-17T19:37:00.003-04:00

I'm back! The person we were "borrowing" internet from moved out. Therefore for the past week we've been without the internet and I've been going crazy. Josh has managed to give me access on my computer via his Droid so we'll see how this works out.

This past weekend Jack went on his first vacation! We went to Chicago to meet up with my sister and her boyfriend, as well as some other friends. We had a blast and Jack was a really good boy the entire time.

Jack loved the Children's Museum. Josh and I felt bad making him leave. I'm sure he could have spent all day there. It's definitely some place that we'll go back to. They do a really great job of catering to toddlers.

He even got to be a Paleontologist!

They had a full fossil skeleton of dinosaur that I had never heard of. I asked Jack if it was a T-Rex and he adamantly said "No!" He's such a smart paleontologist!

We also went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Jack's favorite exhibit the tesla coil (a lighting machine). I thought he'd be scared of it because it was so loud but he cheered every time it went off and would sign and say "More!" He was also very interested in the periodic table of elements. I think he may have recognized it from the They Might Be Giants video "Meet the Elements."

In addition to the museums, we also went to the Shedd Aquarium and the Lincoln Park Zoo (yes it was a very packed weekend). It was so awesome for Jack to see all of these animals that he's been learning about in real life. He'd roar at the lions and leopards, say "ah! ah!" while tickling his armpits at the monkeys, and bark at the wolves.

Everywhere we went people would come up to Jack to say "hi" and tell us how adorable he was. I mean, look at this little guy. He's impossible to resist :)

For the car ride there and back, we bought Jack a mini dvd player. This was one of the best purchases we have ever made. We didn't hear one whiny peep out of him the entire trip. Granted we had to watch Toy Story 1 and 2 over and over again, but hey. It kept him quiet and happy.

And to end this post, here is an awesome photo(s) I took of the Chicago skyline and photo-shopped together.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T15:20:00.002-04:00

My mother and me.

When this picture was taken, my mother was just about the same age as I am now and I was just about the same age as Jack.
My mother and I have always been alike. Even at an early age I could see this. I am the spitting image both looks wise and personality wise of her. But while other young women grumble, "Oh my God, I'm turning into my mother," I've always embraced and loved the fact that we are so similar. My mother is a remarkable woman and throughout my entire life I've looked up to her in many ways. I'd never quite know the influence she'd have on me, however, until I became a mother myself. When dealing with Jack, I find myself thinking all of the time, "How would my mother have handled this situation?" I have such a deep admiration for how she raised us, and how she still is today with children. She was and always will be "natural" mom. Sometimes I feel like motherhood doesn't always come as naturally to me. But whenever I have those moments and I don't know what to do and I feel like a terrible mother, it's comforting to know that I have the wisdom of my own mother to rely on.
Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I love you.

Oh and here's a picture of my Mother's Day present. Josh says I shouldn't get used to this :)

NO!

2010-05-07T18:40:00.002-04:00

Jack's latest response to everything is "Nuh-Uh" while he wildly shakes his head back and forth. Yes, we've reached the age of "No."
Prior to a couple of days ago, Jack was really good at lettings us know what he wanted. "Are you hungry?" if he was he'd nod yes and say "Uh-huh!" "Do you want a drink?" If he didn't then he'd say "Nuh-Uh." But now it's impossible to know what he really wants because everything is "No!"
Josh and I have been having fun with it by asking him things like "Do you want to go do Disney World?" and he'll say no. So then Josh will reply "Good! Now we don't have to take you and that'll save us a lot of money!"
Jack has also discovered my "sticker box." I have loads and loads of stickers from when I was younger and collected them. Jack loves looking at them. But now we find random stickers stuck all over the house.
Josh and I bought a new vehicle today! It's a Ford Escape XLT. I am so excited. I've always wanted an SUV. I feel like such a "mom" driving it. Josh is excited because he told me now I'll have room to haul all of Jack's hockey equipment around. Speaking of hockey equipment, holy crap Johan Franzen! Last night as we were watching the game we finally got a "yes" out of him. I asked Jack if he wanted to be a hockey player. He said no. I then asked if he wanted to be a football player. Again he said no. So then I asked "Do you want to be a dancer?" and he said yes and started spinning in circles.

Bubbles!

2010-05-04T20:48:00.003-04:00

Today was the perfect day to play with bubbles outside since it was really breezy and Jack doesn't really get the whole concept of blowing into the wand. All he had to do was dip the wand in the solution, hold it up, and let the wind do the rest.

I love getting my back scratched and I ask Josh to do it pretty much every night. Lately Jack has been wanting to help and squeezes himself between Josh and my back. This evening I was sitting on the floor with Jack and said to him "Jack, want to scratch my back?" never dreaming that he'd understand what I was asking. Much to my surprise he walked around to the back of me, lifted up my shirt, and began scratching away! I knew there was a reason for having kids. I can't wait for him to be strong enough to give me back rubs!

Life Changes Coming Our Way on This Wonderfully Sunny Day

2010-05-03T18:23:00.003-04:00

Today we just found out Josh got a job in Lansing. Our lease is through the summer here, so we won't be moving until the fall and in the meantime Josh will commute. We are so excited. Not only is it a great job with great benefits, but we are so ready to move on. When I moved down here to come to CMU, I never imagined that I'd end up spending nearly 10 years in Mt. Pleasant. And Josh has lived here his whole life! So we are so ready for a new scene and to face new challenges together.
Today was a beautiful sunny day. The perfect day to receive such news! So Jack and I spent the afternoon playing outside in the field.

He thinks Dandelions are really pretty and goes "Ooo!" whenever he sees a big patch of them. He likes to pick off the heads and throw them. Every time he does it I think "Mama had a baby and it's head popped off!"

Jack also likes to "sniff" the pretty "flowers" (He doesn't really get the concept. He exhales instead of inhales).

A little Robin made a nest in the corner of our carport and there are two little babies in it chirping away that caught Jack's attention. I lifted Jack up so he could get a closer look. He kept pointing at them and saying "Bir" (minus the "d"). He sounded just like Bambi.

Before/After

2010-04-29T15:33:00.002-04:00

Jack loves apples. Last night he ate one as a snack. Literally. He ate the entire thing.

Before

After

He was watching Toy Story (weird) and eating it so I wasn't paying much attention. When I did look over, he only had a small piece of it left. He had already eaten the entire core, seeds and all. I remember being little and my dad telling me that if I ate the apple seeds a tree would start growing inside of me. Then I saw a Weekly World News cover that had a picture of a boy with a tree growing out of his mouth and freaked out. Thankfully all that will happen to Jack is he'll have some weird looking poop.

Rocky

2010-04-28T20:32:00.005-04:00

Once again Jack wanted to watch Entourage today and I once again told him he had to wait til Daddy got home. As soon as Josh walked in the door, Jack ran up to Josh like this.

It is a beautiful evening, however, and not meant to be spent indoors so we took a walk to the pond to throw rocks. Fun for Jack and Josh, and photo-op for me!

Quotes That I Can Now Relate To

2010-04-28T17:47:00.003-04:00

"She's wearing a pale pink T-shirt, Alice notes- a color Taylor used to make a point of hating. She always had to wear out-spoken things, red, purple, orange, sometimes all at once. Alice realizes something important about her daughter at this moment: that she's genuinely a mother. She has changed in this way that motherhood changes you, so that you forget you ever had time for small things like despising the color pink."
- Pigs in Heaven, Barbara Kingsolver

"...I'm sorry. I just got overwhelmed. No one tells you how hard this is all gonna be [...] It's the hardest job in the world and nobody prepares you for that. Nobody tells you how much you have to give up [...] I've given up so much of what made me who I am. But I can't say that because I'm a very bad person if I say that. But I feel it. I really do. I feel it sometimes. I just- I just want you to know that.
- Marley and Me

My Blog got a New "Do"

2010-04-28T17:26:00.000-04:00

When I first started this I sort of threw a header together without really thinking about what I was putting. Today I decided to actually spend a little time on it and ended up changing the title to something more appropriate. Because lets be honest. There are so many mommy bloggers out there. The concept of this blog is hardly original by any means. Haha.

I'm not the only one with a babby in the family.

2010-04-26T18:52:00.001-04:00

Here is heart warming photo of my sister taking her baby out for a walk in her "Baby Björn" (said in a Swedish Chef accent).

Jack's Newest Animals

2010-04-26T18:11:00.001-04:00

Jack's animal list is growing. For Monkey's he goes "Ah! Ah!" and tickles his arm pits. For birds he says "Teet! Teet! (he can't say the "w." Actually, what he says sounds more like "Tit! Tit!" lol). If you ask him what a lion does he'll say "Rawr!" and if you ask him what a crab does (yes, a crab) he pinches his fingers together and makes a little cackling noise.

In other news, Josh and I have every season of Entourage on DVD and yesterday we started a marathon of getting through it all. All three of us watched the entire first season while eating pancakes and drinking wine. I know. Classy. Pancakes and wine. At 11am. Five bucks a bottle. That's how we roll. Minus Jack. He didn't have wine, just pancakes. Although he tried when we weren't looking. Fortunately it ended up down the front of his shirt rather than the back of his throat. But he did smell rather fruity for the rest of the day and Josh was worried that his parents were going to notice that he smelled like wine when we went over there later that afternoon.

This afternoon I asked Jack to pick out a movie to watch and he picked out one of the seasons of Entourage. I told him we couldn't watch that one without daddy and to pick out a different one. So he put it back and grabbed a different season of Entourage. Looks like someone is a fan. Or he has a man crush on Adrian Grenier. That's ok. He can have him. Mommy likes Kevin Connolly.

Day Off!

2010-04-23T18:21:00.004-04:00

Both Josh and I had the day off so the whole family got to do go to Doozies and to the park. Jack got to run around, and I got to play photographer.

This is my new favorite photo of Jack. I think it capture's his personality perfectly.

This was taken with my new fisheye/wide angle lens.

Yesterday I made the mistake of leaving the box of Lucky Charms out within Jack's reach. I took my eyes off of him for two minutes and this is what happened (either that, Alexa Picken stopped by for a surprise visit).

This morning we watched "The Squeakel." I don't know if any of you have seen it, but in the movie the Chipettes sing "Single Ladies." As some of you may know, that is one of Jack's favorite songs. Whenever he hears it he stops what he is doing and does the dance (the wrist flick/wave). I have it on video and I really need to upload it because it's hilarious. Anyway, now Jack connects that song with the chipmunks so now all he has to do is see a picture of them and he'll start doing the dance. With the NFL draft going on right now, I keep talking about how some day we are going to be waiting to see where Jack gets drafted (yes, I totally want to be a football mom) but in actuality, I'm more than likely going to be going to his dance recitals rather than his football games.

Mommy bought herself a new present

2010-04-20T19:30:00.005-04:00

Actually, several new camera equipment presents, including a wide-angle lens and a high-speed flash. I was previously very anti-flash. I hated the unnatural color and avoided using it at all costs. This sometimes poses a challenge when taking photos of Jack, however, because Jack does not understand that he has to sit still long enough for the shutter to stay open when I have the shutter speed set at 1/10. Anyway.....
Last night Jack was giving kisses to Josh in his tent. This is a photo that normally would have been challenging for me to take due to Jack being in the shadows of the tent and Josh being in the light. But with my new high-speed flash... voila! Beautiful colors and everything is well lit. This was definitely a great investment. I'm going to love it.

On a completely different note, Jack is more obsessed with Toy Story than ever. He knows all of the characters, but he has a special fondness for Buzz.

Here is a picture he colored. Can you guess where I helped? :)

And my last note of the day...
Every Sunday at the Martin household is "Pancake Sunday." I make Jack's extra special.

The inspiration behind my blog address

2010-04-18T08:48:00.003-04:00

I've had a couple of people ask how I came up with the address "thatspellsroygbiv" so here's the answer. It's a magical little number/video. Enjoy!

SATC

2010-04-16T21:18:00.015-04:00

This afternoon Jack was really wound up from playing with Cara and did not want to take a nap. Josh suggested that I put on a movie or something to calm him down and just sit with him on the couch until he fell asleep. I wanted to put on something that wouldn't interest him too much so that he wouldn't want to actually watch it. I therefore decided on every male's nightmare: Sex and the City.

This was him by the time Carrie's opening monologue was over with.

Baby, You'll be Famous

2010-04-14T19:22:00.004-04:00

Jack always wants to drink my Diet Coke. Today he grabbed my pop from McDonalds and took a sip before I could take it away. The look on his face was priceless. Pure disgust. Like "This is it? Why in the hell do you drink this crap?!"

Due to Jack's love of forts, I decided buy Jack a little indoor tent (like Ian's!) with the money Jack got for Easter from Nana, GG (Great Grandma), and Great Grampa (who we are trying to convince to go by "GG Pop" but he has shown little enthusiasm for it ).

Also, were you aware that Jack is a Rock Star? He even hangs out with Mark Wahlberg.

The paparazzi constantly following him around is becoming a problem. Leave him alone, Lady Gaga! You can chase him down all you want but he's not going to love you. He's only 17 months old for god's sake! And dude, the reason he keeps telephoning you while you are the club is not because he's obsessed with you. It's because he's a baby and doesn't know how to use a phone. And the reason you can't hear him isn't because you have no service in the club, it's because he's not talking. Because I repeat, he's 17 months old! Geez, I know you want a bad romance, but this is ridiculous!

(I got way too enjoyment out of writing that)

Jack's Latest and Greatest

2010-04-12T17:22:00.005-04:00

Jack has been recognizing a lot more animals lately. His latest favorites are elephants (thanks to Stephanie!) It's absolutely adorable.

Jack also knows his dinosaurs, thanks to his favorite song "I am a Paleontologist" (see earlier post of him dancing). Here he is watching the video to the song and responding appropriately.

And here he is in the car, very enthusiastically responding to the song.

Jack has also developed the habit of saying "Pffftt" whenever one of us farts. But I don't have a video of that because you all don't need to see/hear me fart. I save that for Jack and Josh.

2010-04-11T09:05:00.006-04:00

Oh, the things I do to amuse myself.

2010-04-09T13:17:00.007-04:00

Dear Diary,
I had thee worst date ever this afternoon! The date started out on an ok note...

I tried to ignore the fact that he had chosen to wear a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" shirt on our first date. "Maybe he's just quirky," I thought to myself as we waited for our food.

"I wonder where that waiter is!" I exclaimed, trying to fill the growing silence. But, things did not get better once our food eventually arrived. He sat there in silence for the most part, staring at each bite I put into my mouth. The only time he spoke was to say, "Oh-Oh!" whenever I dropped some food on the floor. As if pointing this out wasn't embarrassing enough for me, he would then get up from the table and pick up each piece of food I dropped.

However, I was determined to try to make the best of the situation and began to try to make conversation. He was clearly not interested in what I had to say. You could tell that the entire time he was thinking, "Why does she keep talking?!"

Then, he even had the nerve to check out another woman as she passed!

As if things couldn't get any worse, at one point during the meal, he got up and dumped my entire plate of peas out onto the table.

I was so mortified. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at us!

At that point, it was clear that the date was un-salvageable, so I pulled one of the oldest "bad date tricks" in the book. I pretended to receive an important phone call from a friend.

"What?" I gasped. "You're in trouble? I'm sorry to cut our date short," I told him. "But my friend is in trouble."

He didn't seem too phased by the fact that I was leaving. He was probably happy that I was no longer keeping him from playing his video games.

So that, diary, is why I will never go out with Jack Dexter Martin again.

I wonder what weird thing he's up to right now? ....

We survived our first blood bath!

2010-04-08T20:38:00.005-04:00

Jack fell down today and bit his lip. Of course it had to happen in public, the CMU music building to be exact. Not to mention that it is Opus this weekend (which is, for those who don't know, like thee event of the year) so the building was filled with people. So I had to rush out of there with a child screaming at the top of his lungs with blood coming out of his mouth. I'm sure I looked like a super awesome mother. Once we were in the car, I gave him a nuk to try to calm him down. When we got home and I took the nuk out, he had a ring of blood around his mouth. In the picture it just looks like chocolate.

The reason we were at the music building today is because I was helping out On the Rox with an arrangement I did for them. Of course, Jack being the ladies man that he is, had all of them swooning when he lifted up his shirt to show them his "button."

Yesterday I made Jack sit through the movie "Evita" with me. As if it wasn't bad enough that he had to watch it, he had to listen to me serenade him throughout the entire thing. Yes. I know every single word to every single song in that musical.

This was his initial reaction:

But then he realized that he loved it.
( I knew he would. Hello! His parents have music and theatre

degrees!) And he was straining to see around me and the camera:

Toy Story! Toy Story! (I am so one of those Moms)

2010-04-06T17:06:00.007-04:00

Because of Jack, we are constantly buying Disney Movies, so I signed us up for the Disney Rewards program (I totally became one of those moms who searches the internet for ways to get more points and for codes from other moms). Anyway, they were offering a special for rewards members that if you owned the Toy Story and/or Toy Story 2 VHS' or DVDs, you could enter in their UPC codes online and receive a $10 off coupon for each of the new blu-rays. Seeing as I have both, I totally jumped on it. Furthermore, Target was having a sale that if you bought both of them, they gave you $10 off. So I essentially got both for the price of one. Furthermore, when I entered my Disney rewards codes for buying the blu-rays, I got two free movie tickets to see Toy Story 3!

I'm really considering having that be the first movie we take Jack to. I know that he'll only be around 20 months old at the time and that seems sort of young, but Jack loves movies. I did some snooping online about when most mothers thought it was appropriate to bring your kid to their first movie and a lot of mothers said it really depends on the kid. Some said their kids wouldn't sit through a movie til they were 4. Others said they brought theirs as young as 18 months. And Jack definitely has the attention span to sit through entire movies. He does it all of the time. Additionally, I think it's a good choice for a movie. He is familiar with the characters (in addition to the movies, he has a Toy Story couch and Toy Story table and chairs) and we'd be seeing the movie for free, so worse case scenerio he won't sit still and we have to leave. I think it's worth a shot anyway.

So anyway, back to my Disney Rewards story. In addition to the two movie tickets, I also got the standard points that you get every time you buy a Disney product, leaving me with a total of 1,500 points.
So that means I got to redeem them for the best free gift ever...
the Disneyland and Disneyworld Sing-A-Long DVDs!

I know most of you reading this are going, "Great.... what's that?" But my mother and sister know how amazing this is. Jillian and I grew up watching these on VHS and we adored them. I am excited to continue the tradition with Jack.

Jack is currently very intently watching the Toy Story 2 blu-ray on his Toy Story couch. The quality is AMAZING.

This morning Jack put on daddy's shoes. He was apparently very proud of this accomplishment. And look! He's wearing his Toy Story pj's! Man! What a Toy Story Day!

Forts II

2010-04-05T18:34:00.008-04:00

Jack decided he wanted to try to crawl on top of his fort again.Of course this is what happened.

He then decided this was pretty comfortable and watched the rest of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse like this.

Jack has also learned how to take pictures with the camera. Here are a couple of his shots.

Nice, huh? Now everyone gets to see how messy our living room is.

Forts

2010-04-05T16:40:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we built our first fort for Jack in the living room after discovering how much he liked it when we were all under the blankets on the bed. Now he's all about forts. He's hanging out in one that I just put up for him in the living room.

Last night Jack got up on the couch and tried walking across the blankets on the top of the fort while Josh was underneath. Of course, Jack is no Jesus, so he immediately fell right through on top of Josh. Comedy gold.

The Easter Bunny Came!

2010-04-04T08:53:00.014-04:00

When we woke up this morning, we could hear Jack stirring around in his bed. Then we heard the infamous "clunk" of something being thrown out of his bed followed by "Oh-Oh! Da-Da!"

Josh then had to keep Jack from leaving the bedroom once we got up because the Easter Bunny forgot to hide Jack's eggs last night.

Jack got really excited when he saw his Easter basket. And he did an awesome of job of finding the eggs.

He did an even better job once he realized there were M&M's inside of them.

Afterward I said to him, "Isn't the Easter Bunny AWESOME?!" and this was his response.

Jack getting down to "I am a Paleontologist" by TMBG

2010-04-03T23:47:00.004-04:00

He kept spinning throughout the whole song and getting dizzy and falling over.
The second time he falls over is the best. You can even hear me snorting in the background as I try to stifle my laughter.

Jack takes after his mother in some ways

2010-04-03T23:02:00.002-04:00

I jump at EVERYTHING in movies. Stupid things people shouldn't jump at, even in movies that aren't scary. It seems as though Jack may take after me.

We were watching "Finding Nemo" tonight and when the pelican flew into the window, Jack literally gasped and jumped so high that I felt him lift off my lap. It scared the crap out of him. So funny.

Throughout the movie I kept trying to get him to say "Nemo." He'd just look at me and put his hands out, shrug his shoulders and say, "Huh?" every time I said it.

2010-04-01T20:10:00.010-04:00

Jack and I took our first trip to Doozies today for icecream. He ate his entire vanilla kids cone all by himself.

I went to Menards yesterday and bought some gardening fencing to make a little play area for Jack in our yard. It seems to do the trick to keep him from running out in the parking lot. He doesn't necessarily love being confined to it, but he's going to quickly learn that he either plays in there or he doesn't play outside.
It's a fairly large area... 8'x16' so he has room to run around. The fencing was cheap and it's easily movable for when the lawn crew comes through to cut the grass.

Jack also has his own little matching patio chair that he loves sitting in. I think it makes him feel like a big boy. You can sort of see the new patio furniture I bought us in the background.

Jack was especially photogenic and cooperative with the camera today so I am going to bombard you with photos.

I think Jack looks rather Irish in this one.
Like a little Leprechaun.

I even laugh at my son's misfortune

2010-03-30T18:58:00.000-04:00

As I was on the computer talking to my sister, I heard Jack start screaming bloody murder. I looked over and all I saw was two little feet sticking up in the air... he had fallen face first into the storage ottoman where we keep all of his toys. Apparently he was reaching in a little too far. After I pulled him out, he buried his head into my shoulder and started wailing. I'm sure it scared the shit out of him. But as I was comforting him, I couldn't help but snicker a little inside because the image of nothing but is feet sticking up in the air was too damn funny.

2010-03-30T18:00:00.003-04:00

There is a 12 pack of Diet Coke on the floor and Jack is taking out everyone of them and testing each one out to see if it's open and he can get anything out of it. It's absolutely hilarious.

Now he's admitting defeat and putting each one back.

Mommy's Little Helper

2010-03-30T09:57:00.000-04:00

Well, after writing that post yesterday I decided I needed to bite the bullet and just begin tackling the mess. And of course Jack totally proved me wrong and was a little angel during the entire process. No tugging at my pant legs as I cleaned the kitchen. No pulling out the forks and spoons that I had just loaded into the dishwasher. He left my piles of folded clothes alone rather than knocking them down and throwing the freshly washed clothes around the room like he usually does. And when it came time to pick up his toys, he joined in, putting every single one of his mega blocks that were thrown around the living room back in the bag they belong in. By the way he was beaming, you could just tell he was so proud that he helped mommy. I made sure to tell him he was such a good little helper and gave him a big hug and completely forgot how annoyed I was with him a few hours earlier. Kids have a way of doing that.

2010-03-29T18:35:00.001-04:00

Ugh.
Got home from work and the house is still a mess.
Sometimes I feel like all I do is go to work then come home and clean, then eat dinner, then go to bed. It's days like these I can't even enjoy hanging out with Jack because all I want to do is get this crap cleaned up and Jack just feels like he is getting in the way (and then I feel bad for feeling that way). He's especially whiny today. Not even Mickey Mouse will make him happy.

Jack's Intellegence always takes me by Suprise

2010-03-26T16:32:00.002-04:00

Jack has a book with pictures of different types of vehicles. When we were looking at it today he kept wanting to look at the page with the school bus and then he'd start waving. It took me a couple of minutes to try to figure out what he was doing until it dawned on me; every day Jack goes with Stephanie to meet Hanny at the bus stop. Stephanie has told me more than once that Jack absolutely loves waiting for her and waving to all of the kids as they get off of it. So that's what Jack was doing now... waving to the school bus!

Right after this incident, we were playing patty cake. He then started to pat his hands on his lap so I joined in. I started saying "Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat" and getting faster and faster until I said "Blast Off!" Jack then immediately got up and picked up his little Einstein figurines. I said "That's right Jack! That's what the Little Einsteins say! But where is Rocket?" and he got up, ran into the living room, and brought Rocket back in. I was seriously blown away. It's not like we watch Little Einsteins on a regular basis (we don't even have cable) and he just got the toy two days ago.

(Sidenote: I love having this blog because I can write and brag about things like this and not feel like people think I'm stupid for thinking my kid is the smartest kid in the world, which I'm sure every parent thinks about their kid)

Jaden's Birthday Party

2010-03-25T21:35:00.008-04:00

Tonight was Jack's cousin's 6th birthday. Otherwise known as the night Jack discovered balloons.

2010-03-25T17:33:00.003-04:00

Having a toddler is full a lot of fun. Here are just some of the "joys" I get to deal with on a daily basis:

"Accidentally" dropping things out of his crib when he doesn't want to take a nap and shouting "Oh-Oh!" over and over again until I go in there and pick up whatever it was he dropped.

Discovering that things can go up his nose, such as his finger, Q-tips, Crayons...

Fascination with the toilet and thinking that his favorite stuffed animal (which will from now on be referred to as "Mr. Pickles") needs a daily bath in it.

Trying to lift my shirt up in public places so he can see my belly-button.

Mission Completion

2010-03-24T17:32:00.003-04:00

I bought this today at K-Mart on the clearance rack for $11. It had been $42. I mean, it's cool and all, but I would have NEVER paid $42 for it. I was curious to see how much it is online and sellers on Amazon have it listed for $142.99 or more!! I re-read the description several times to make sure it was the same item and it is in fact the exact same thing. Did I accidentally stumble upon one of those "it" toys that people will pay anything for?!
Regardless, Jack thinks it's awesome. So I declare this a mommy win.

*Edit: As I was writing this it occurred to me how quiet it had gotten. I soon discovered the reason. Jack was dropping his crackers into the toilet.

2010-03-24T17:03:00.002-04:00

Jack is growing like a weed would grow in my garden if I had one (I imagine that if I had a garden, weeds would grow even faster than in most people's gardens, because I can't imagine myself as a very good gardener).
Many of his clothes no longer fit him, including most of his pajamas.

I think he looks sort of cute in a "Please sir, may I have some more" kind of way.

Jack and I went shopping at Target and we bought him a bunch of summer clothes. I also decided we needed some new patio furniture. After buying it, I spent 30 minutes trying to get in the car. I failed. I had to walk right back in and return it. Embarrassing. Father-in-law is coming to the rescue with his truck so I can re-buy it tonight.

2010-03-23T21:04:00.003-04:00

Jack's version of "Baby Blanket: You're doing it wrong"

This is Pepper, one of my mom's cats. Jack simply adores cats. Whenever he looks at these pictures on the camera he says "Awww..." and kisses the screen. I wish we could get one for him. Every time I pass the Cat Clinic I have to force myself to keep driving past it and not stop in and adopt one. Stupid apartment with it's stupid pet fees.

I should have started this 16 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days ago.

2010-03-23T18:23:00.000-04:00

Better late then never, I guess.
I've been thinking about doing this for several months and just never got around to it. Mothers know how it is. It's easy to put things like this off. Especially when your child is obsessed with the computer and wants to "type" and move the mouse around while you are on it, and screams if you don't let him near it. Right now I am managing to write this by distracting the little bugger with Cheetos Puffs. I know. Very nutritious. I am the very model of a perfect mother. That's why you should read this.
Anyway, maybe I'll occasionally sprinkle in significant/humorous/exciting moments of the past with the present. I'm not exactly sure what I intend for this to be. I'm sort of waiting to see how this evolves. Regardless, it's sure to at least be a mildly amusing, occasionally heart-warming, and sometimes pathetic account of my life as a mother.
Enjoy.