The Bunny, The Bunny! Yeah, I Love The Bunny!

When I was still pregnant with Jack, my mom gave him a big stuffed Bunny for Easter (He was supposed to have already been there for a week, but he was quite stubborn). We took a picture of my belly with the bunny, and after he was born we took a picture of him with the bunny every month so that we could look back and remember how he had grown! I was very consistent with the bunny pictures up until he was 19 months old, when I decided that I would just take them on his birthdays from now on. So, it's been a while since I've taken these, but here is his TWO YEAR bunny picture!




For a slideshow of all of the past bunny pictures, click here.

(If you're not a Veggie Tales fan then you probably don't get the title reference. For clarification, watch the video below)

Jack's Birthday Party

Jack's birthday party was so much fun! Jack had a great time, and all his guests seemed to really enjoy themselves as well! Thanks soooo much to my parents for letting us have the party at their house! It was such an incredible help to us, especially with this disastrous bathroom remodel we're doing! In case you missed it, here are just a few pictures from Jack's party!

The Invitation


The cake (notice the lights along the edge of the runway?)


One of the airplanes in the fleet


Our little Pilot, in his flight suit, taking his turn at the pinata


So tired after the long day


Having so much fun in the "Flight Simulator"

Happy birthday, Jack Jack!!!

To My Dearest Jackson, On Your Second Birthday

Dear Jack,
My sweet, sweet baby boy, I love you so much! You are going to be two years old tomorrow, and I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown by! It is so amazing how much you have grown and changed in the last two years, and I am so proud of all that you have accomplished in this last year!

• When you were 17 months old you knew all of your letters and numbers! You could recognize them when I showed them to you in any random order, and you could pick them out when I asked you to show them to me in any random order! In the past few months you’ve gotten faster and faster and faster at this and one of our favorite games to play is finding the letters as fast as you can!
• You are growing so big and tall! You are 36 1/2 pounds, and 37 inches tall, and the doctor tells me that you are the size of the average 4 year old! Mommy isn’t sure you’re quite as tall as most 4 year olds, but you do weigh more than a few of your 5 year old friends! You are a very solid kid, just like your daddy and your Uncle Travis. You love to eat (just like your momma!), especially fruit, and you love to drink water! Every morning you remind me to give you your vitamin, too!
• You are such a good boy! Mommy was very concerned when you were such a crabby infant, but she has been pleasantly surprised to see how well-behaved you are as a toddler! You do a very good job of keeping yourself in check, too! Ever since you were 16 months old, every time you’d catch yourself starting to get frustrated, you’d stop yourself from whining and remind yourself to “Be nice!” and to ask for “help please!” You are just like your mommy in that you love to have positive reinforcement and, though I am generous with my compliments, if I ever miss something you aren’t afraid to remind me to tell you that you did a good job or to tell you how proud I am of you! You’ve even told me “good job” a few times, and also “I so proud of you!” So many things that you do make my heart swell, but you telling me that you’re proud of me definitely is one of the top on that list! Occasionally you do get a time out, but they are few and far between, and you are very good about sitting until the timer beeps and then telling me what you did wrong. You always tell me “sorry momma!” and give me a kiss before heading off to play!
• You are learning how to spell! You can recognize and spell your name, both Jack, and Jackson, and you know how to recognize and spell mom, dad, stop, cow, and Nike!
• You aren’t colorblind! Mommy was really concerned when you didn’t seem to know your colors by 19 months, since genetically you have a 50% chance of being color blind (thanks Papa!), but one day when you were 20 months old, it seemed you just woke up one day knowing what all your colors were! You love to ask “What color is it?” and then you answer your own question! You make it a game to see if you can answer faster than mommy can answer! Mommy was sure that your favorite color was yellow, just like hers, but yesterday you declared “My favorite color is BLUE!” quite adamantly.
• When you were 20 months old you learned all your shapes! The first was a star, and than an oval, and then a heart, a square, a triangle, a circle, a diamond and a rectangle. Your favorite (besides the star, there was a reason that one was first!), though, is an arrow, and every time you see one you start yelling and pointing “Do you see the arrow! I see the arrow! Momma do you see the arrow?!” and you don’t stop until I say that I see the arrow, too!
• You are still a very careful kid! You are not a daredevil, and you’ve hardly ever given mommy a heart attack by climbing on something that was too high and dangerous for you. When you do climb up on something, though, you always try to catch my attention to tell me “I did it all by myself! Good Job!” And whenever you climb down, you always remind yourself to “be careful!” Mommy is very grateful that you are so careful, especially since you tend to be quite the klutz! It’s not your fault though... you get it from your mommy! Also your size tends to exacerbate the problem. But the older you get, the less you fall down!
• You love water! Whenever you see water, in any form, you start squealing and you want to go play in it. You love the rain, you love the hose, you love the pool, you love the sink, you love your bath, and you love the ocean! When you’re in your bathtub, you roll over onto your tummy and push yourself back and forth and say “I swimming!” and you remind yourself to “kick your feet!” and “don’t drink the water!” And when you’re done you tell me “I a good swimmer!”
• You love music! You sing all the time, day and night, and you always ask me to sing, too! When we’re out and about, I always hear you exclaim “An instrument!” and you follow it up with “it a (insert name of instrument here, usually a ‘biolin’)!” And when mommy or daddy pull out one of their guitars, basses, or daddy’s ukulele, you get so excited and want to join in! When we’re listening to music you sing along with the ones you know, and whenever the song is over you exclaim “I like that song!”
• Trains, planes, helicopters, the moon, stars, cars, trucks, taxis, police cars, tow trucks, dump trucks, big rigs... you are all boy! You are a big observer and always notice what’s going on around you, and when we’re riding in the car you either get so quiet as you look at all the other vehicles on the road, or you jabber on nonstop about the things you are seeing. Typically, you sound like this as we’re driving somewhere: “Oooh a taxi! I see a taxi! It a yellow taxi! Momma do you see the taxi? It a taxi! Look a red truck! Momma I see red truck! Oooooh it a police car! Do you see the police car? See the lights on the police car? A blue car! I see a blue car! A big rig! It a white big rig! I see white big rig, too!” And, being that you love music you always ask me to turn the radio on, so it gets very loud in the car.
• You went to Hawaii this year! You loved it, and you did really well sleeping in the big bed with grandma, and you were such a good boy despite not napping the whole time! You loved riding on the airplane, and you loved the rain and the wind and the ocean! I think your favorite part, though, was hiking up Diamond head and to Manoa Falls in your daddy’s backpack! You laughed so hard! While we were there you added ‘Aloha’ and ‘Mahalo’ to your vocabulary and you’ve told me these many times since the trip! The other day you spontaneously started telling me about our Hawaii trip and the things we saw there! I’m constantly amazed at your memory and how well you pay attention! Nothing gets by you!

Your daddy and I are very very blessed to have you, and we thank God every day for choosing us to be your parents! You are such an amazing little man, and we can’t wait to see what amazing thing you’re going to do next! Thank you, my dear boy, for being you! I hope some day you are able to understand just how much we love you!

Love, forever and ever,
Mommy

Yellow Or Blue? Make Up Your Mind!

Today I decided to let Jack dye some Easter Eggs! Since Dave had his saw and other dangerous tools set up in the backyard, I put my small white table in the front yard for our project. I called my mom and dad and hopped next door to grab Grammy and Lucy and the bunch of us stood around and watched Jack dye eggs. He was so funny! He put all the eggs in right away, and then he started taking them out and putting them back and mixing up the colors. He was talking nonstop about what colors we were using and kept saying "What your favorite color? BLUE?! My favorite color is BLUE!!!" Although, up until today I was sure that his favorite color was yellow, just like his mommy! He wasn't sure about the mess, though. At first he kept saying "Ew! It make a mess!" but after a while he got caught up in the excitement and forgot about the messiness. He kept saying "I dyed it!"

Our conversation tonight as I was putting him to bed:
Me: Did you have a fun day today? Do you remember what we did?
Jack: Grandma! And Lucy! We dye eggs!
Me: That's right! We dyed eggs and grandma and Lucy were there, too! Who else was there?
Jack: Um, Papa! Aaaand Grammy! Aaaaand Mama!
Me: That's right! Papa and grammy and mommy were all there, too!
Jack: We dye eggs! My favorite BLUE!
Me: What's mommy's favorite color?
Jack: Momma Yellow! Gramma purple!
(pause)
Jack: I ayergic (allergic). Daddy eat eggs, I no eat eggs.

In other news, Dave finally let me take a picture of his face! It's looking better already!

Dave And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Poor Dave has had nothing but trouble since he started this bathroom remodel! Yesterday he sat down with a big humph and said "I think this might just be the worst day I've ever had!" He's had setback after setback, and things are going a lot slower than he had planned. It also turns out that the bathroom needs a lot more work than he initially thought! He's found moisture-soaked Hardibacker and drywall that crumbles down in big wet glops at the slightest touch, chainsawed right through a water pipe, discovered that the new shower he bought (and can't return) had the plumbing on the right (our setup is on the left), had to make 10 trips to the hardware store in the last two days (not an exaggeration, and the store is not close to our house, btw!) and whacked himself in the eyebrow with the back of a hammer (requiring 3 hours in the ER, 5 stitches and a tetanus shot). Poor Dave!!!

Upon returning home from the ER


Later that night (it looked a little less gory in black and white and I didn't want to freak anyone out)

It looks much much much worse today, but he won't let me take any more pictures. His whole eye is completely purple!

A Haircut, A Rabbi, And Stitches

The first time we got Jack's hair cut he was 13 1/2 months old. Dave insisted that it was time to cut his hair, and though I really didn't want to cut it, I felt like I had already stalled long enough and I agreed to take him. I was sure that he would wiggle and squirm and cry, but he did fantastic! I was thrilled! 6 months later Dave was bugging me to cut Jack's hair again, so he and I took Jack back to Super Cuts. Jack screamed the entire time, like we were torturing him! He wiggled and squirmed and screamed and it was pretty much a wrestling match to get his hair cut. The kid is soooo strong so it took both of us to hold him still enough that the lady wouldn't cut his ears off! After that, I told Dave that if he wanted Jack's hair cut so badly, then HE would have to be the one to take him! I didn't care if Jack looked like a long-haired-hippie-surfer-dude (Dave's words), it was not worth his screams of terror to get it cut!

So, it's been 5 months, and Jack's birthday is this Saturday and Easter is the day after that. Jack most definitely has been looking like a long-haired-hippie-surfer-dude with his shaggy hair, and Dave has been bugging me again. His hair is covering his ears, getting in his eyes, and curling around his collar in the non-fashionable almost-but-not-quite-mullet kind of way. I reminded Dave of what happened the last time we tried to get it cut, but I finally gave in and decided to take care of it. This time, though, I called my mom! I thought that maybe it was partly the salon setting and the fact that a stranger was the one wielding the scissors added to the problem last time, so I wanted to have him in familiar surroundings with someone he knew this time. Jack adores my mom, and he'll do anything for her, and she has hair-cutting experience so I wasn't afraid that it would look ridiculous (you know, the way it would if I tried to do it!). So, I called my mom, and then Jack and I headed over there yesterday for some hair cutting fun!

Yeah, I should have just left it. Mom hadn't even started cutting yet when Jack realized what we were going to do and started howling like a banshee! The poor kid was in hysterics to the point that it took us hours to get 5 snips of hair off his head! And Jack, who absolutely adores my mom and sometimes chooses her to comfort him rather than me, refused to go to my mom for a bit because he knew that she was the one with the scissors! Even afterward when we had given up and were eating dinner, Jack started bawling in terror when my dad even mentioned the word "haircut"! Poor baby! After that I swore that I was not going to cut Jack's hair until he was 3, because nothing is worth these alligator tears of terror!

The results of that cut are still pending. We got the back trimmed, but that is all. The sides needed to be trimmed very badly, but there was no way we were going to be able to get near them yesterday! So, Jack's almost-but-not-quite mullet is gone, but since we weren't able to get near the sideburn area, he looks like he's an Hasidic Jew with the long peyos. Okay, so it's not actually that long, but it does need to be fixed!




I think it will be okay if we leave the rest of it alone, but those sideburns have got to go! I'm going to try to sneak up on him when he's not paying attention this week to get the sides. It's either that or slick down his hair for his birthday and Easter- and we don't have any gel.

In other news, I just had to pack my husband off to the ER! He took the back end of the hammer to his eyebrow. Yikes! It's not too bad, but he does need some stitches. He drove himself to the ER against my wishes. I told him that if he got in an accident because he's driving with a head injury, then he'd be in so much trouble when he gets home!

Dave's Mini-Me

Jack is little blonde-haired-blue-eyed mini version of Dave. He looks just like him (aside from the coloring), he has so many of the same mannerisms, and he even has his personality! There is a lot of me in him, too, but mostly he is his daddy's son. He's quiet and a little bit shy around people he doesn't see all the time, but when he's in his comfort zone you can't get him to shut up! He is a serious person, but he loves to laugh and joke and be silly. He even makes sarcastic comments, just like his father, the king of sarcasm!

This list doesn't even begin to scratch the surface!

1. Love Of Sarcasm
Exhibit A:
While driving in the car:
Jack: Ooooh a W!
Me: Yes, that is a W! Good job! That stands for Weinerschnitzel. Can you say "Weinerschnitzel?"
Jack: Sure!
(yup, I can say it. What? you didn't ask me to say it, you just asked if I could say it!)

Exhibit B:
While learning shapes:
Me: Can you say "Quadrilateral"?
Jack: Probably!

(he's not even 2 yet, can you imagine what I have to look forward to when he is a teenager?!)

2. Joy In Teasing
Exhibit A:
Aunt Sandra. Jack loves 'Nana'. He gets excited to see her, but the second she sees him he puts his head on my shoulder and pretends to be shy. He won't give her kisses, but he's smiling his daddy's little I'm-trying-not-to-smile smile, and as soon as she stops trying, he puts his head up like he's going to give her a kiss, and then puts hit back down when she tries to get that kiss. When she's not paying attention to him, he goes up to her and tried to get her attention, and then when he has it he once again teases her by once again pretending to be shy. When I show him her picture and ask who it is, he smiles that little smile, puts his head on my shoulder and giggles "It's Nana!"

Exhibit B:
Jack: (singing) I toooooted! I toooooted! I toooooted!
Me: Jack! You're so silly! Did you really toot or are you just teasing me?
Jack: (giggles) I tease you!

3. Rugged Good Looks
Exhibit A:
Profile


Exhibit B:
Mugs


Seriously, need I say more? ;)

IHeartFaces- Week 12

I recently found a photography blog that I'm really enjoying! Every week they do photo contests, and I decided that I may as well jump right in and enter a photo! This weekend I had my very first photo shoot with twin baby boys (okay, so I'm not a real photographer, but I can pretend, can't I?). The boys were great, and I managed to capture a few very fun images of the boys together! But more on that later...

Over at IHeartFaces, the theme for this week is Kids- Pouting. So, I thought I'd enter an image I captured of one of the twins, Armin. He was definitely having a pouty moment- he's even wringing his hands as though frustrated that he's not getting his way! If you look closely, you can see me reflected in his eyes. I'm telling myself that I'm not the reason he was sad, even though I'm sure that I would have a strong emotion about having a stranger with a huge camera in my face just snapping away, rather than handing me that bottle that I was whining for!

Be sure to head on over to www.iheartfaces.com to check out all of the beautiful face entries this week!

(click to enlarge)