Little Man turns 2.

Well, the little man is turning 2. Actually his birthday is this weekend and we are going to Santa's Village to celebrate. Santa's Village is a winter wonderland here in Huntsville. But we celebrated his birthday a little early to space it out from Christmas. We had his party at Grandma and Grandpa Gruber's house. It was a Finding Nemo party, which Jack refers to as "The Boat". He definitely has figured out the process of opening presents. He got lots of good toys and he is loving all of them. His favorites are his hot wheels, potato heads, John Deer tools and big wheel. His feet just almost reach the pedals of the big wheel, but that didn't keep Uncle Joey from giving him a little push down the driveway on it. He's also been "repairing" things around the house with his tools. So in closing, I was wondering if anyone knows why in the world the toy companies package the toys like they are lined with gold?? Why does it have to be so difficult to get the toys out of their packages?? Is it really necessary to secure one little toy with 15 metal ties? I think not.

The Big Crash!

On Monday, Jonathan and I had this kind of funny conversation about how Jack is "all boy". We talked about some of the funny things that he always does and how rough he is. So there we were getting ready for bed. Jack was taking a bath and for some reason he started throwing his stars out of the tub and thought it was funny. He doesn't usually do that. Point is...the tile floor was wet. We got into our jammies and I returned to the bathroom to clean up. Well of course Jack followed. Just as I warned him "don't run", he had the big crash. I see him just in time to see his face hit the corner of the door frame and not in enough time to catch him. I scooped him up and pulled him away to look and his left eye is full of blood and still bleeding. Mixing with tears of course. Problem...he won't let me look at it because he is just burying his head in my shoulder and chest. We went to seek help from daddy. After a few minutes we managed to console him a little but he still wouldn't let me examine his eye. I knew there was a small cut on his upper eyelid. Since I can't see his face, I was having Jonathan describe to me what he could see. So the cutest thing is that while we are trying to examine his eye, he looks up at Jonathan and says, "dada, let oli in" because Oli was scratching at the door and we weren't paying attention. So we debate a few minutes on treatment. How is it that I have eight years of critical care nursing experience, work in the 5Th busiest ER in the nation as a trauma nurse and I fall apart when Jack gets hurt and don't know whether or not he needs to see a MD? My dilemma was that I was concerned about damage to his actual eyeball, like vision problems. I thought the little cut would be ok and knew that he was going to have a shiner, but got paranoid that he hurt his eye. Jonathan agrees but says, "you know you won't sleep if we don't take him". I told him he was right and called up my friends at the ER. We took him in for a quick exam by the MD. He looked in his eye (which Jack was NOT happy about) and said that the eye was ok. He thought he could probably put a couple of stitches in but thought it would be worse on Jack to try that as opposed to watching it. I agreed. We said our thank-yous and returned home. Jack was over it by then. He came strutting into the kitchen with my tennis shoes on, his cap on backwards and posed for a picture. Like he was proud of it. So we took some Tylenol and placed an ice pack and went to bed. I think Jack has barely noticed it since then.

Thankfulness and Success

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The things I am thankful for are too numerous to count. On Tuesday before Thanksgiving we went to Uncle Mike's house. Jack completely entertained himself in Tyler's room for most of the day. Of course, I picked up about 100 army men and crayons before I left. But Jack helped and Tyler was a good sport and didn't mind. He also had some quality time with Lindsay "playing" video games. We had lots of good food and lots of fun getting to spend time with everyone.

On Thursday we were at Grandma and Grandpa Gruber's. I think everyone took a turn pushing Jack in his swing, especially Aunt Amy and Grandma. Uncle Joey and Uncle Josh even took Jack for a hike. He loves that. Jack somehow managed to avoid a nap all day and passed out at 7pm, for the night. He also managed to find Uncle Josh's huge collection of hot wheels. We picked those up a couple of times. Again, really nice to spend some quality time with our family.

So, on to the potty-training issue. We have been kind of casually working on potty training for a couple of months now and just letting Jack do his thing without pushing him. A couple of weeks ago we decided it was time to get serious about it since Jack is constantly taking his diaper off! I'm still working nights and Jonathan days. The other night Jonathan rolled over in bed and there was Jack, stark naked! Jonathan, knowing that he had put Jack in his little footed jammies, gets up to investigate the situation. He finds Jack's diaper and jammies laying just beside the toilet with his elmo potty seat in place. At this point we decided he was definitly ready to be pushed a little. I picked Jack up new underwear that he was really excited about because they had Buzz Lightyear and Nemo on them. When we got them home we had to put all eight pairs on at the same time! Even though Jack has been sitting on the potty for months now, he had not had any success until last week. He was in the bathtub and stopped playing suddenly and looked down. I asked if he needed to potty, he climbed out of the tub, up onto the potty and success!! Number 1 that is. Today, we sat on the potty reading books for about 30-45 minutes and had success with number 2!! I now feel like Jack is well on his way to a diaper free life!

The Artist at Work

Ok, so again...it's been awhile. When you read this post you will know why, I'm just going to give the highlights but you will get the idea of how busy Jonathan and I stay with the wild child. So, a couple of weeks ago Jack and I were having a typical day at home. I was not feeling well and trying to be lazy. I go to the kitchen and get Jack a snack. Well, he lingers behind to play with his fridge phonics magnets. I return to the couch. I can hear his magnets moving around on the fridge for about ten minutes, then I partially see him cut through the dining room and go to his room. After about ten minutes in his room I say to myself, "self...it's too quiet in there". So here I go into his room where I find that he has obtained a black sharpie marker from a drawer in the kitchen. I then followed the marks from multiple places in his room, down the wall in the dining room and into the kitchen. The kitchen being the worst! So now on top of not feeling well, I spent four hours, eight magic erasers and a bottle of goo gone cleaning the walls, the appliances, the cabinets and more. When Jack braves getting up from time-out, he comes into the kitchen where I'm cleaning and leans over my back and says, "color momma??". My answer was "no".

Little Monster??

Jack loved being Shrek for Halloween. He even kind of let me paint his face green. He ran around saying "Shrek, Shrek" the whole time that we were getting ready. It only took him one house to figure out the objective of trick-or-treating. Although, he couldn't say "trick-or-treat" so he just walked up to the houses, knocked on the door and said "punkin". After two houses he was doing it all by himself. What a big boy!! He even blew the little elderly ladies kisses. At the last house that we went to Jonathan said, "ok, come on Jack". Jack looked at him very seriously and said, "I Shrek". So, Jonathan corrected himself and said, "ok, come on Shrek". We then returned home and he feasted on his candy. Jack definitely enjoyed Halloween this year.

Jack is really talking a lot. He loves Toy Story. We have to carry Buzz and Woody most everywhere. And Jack continues to find mischief. His latest disaster involves a black sharpie marker. Oh yea. Jack was eating a snack and I could hear him from the living room playing with his fridge phonics. Little did I know that he was "coloring" the fridge phonics and everything else in the kitchen. Long story short...eight magic erasers and a bottle of goo gone later I finally got almost all of the marks off of the refrigerator, the white cabinets, the pantry door, the walls and more.

"Where's Pete?"

Big Day!

We had such a big day on Saturday. We started out at Jonathan's work where Jack got to "drive" the backhoe with dad. He loved it and climbed up on that huge thing all by himself. It took a minute, but he managed. He always loves to go to the golf course and climb up on the carts and mowers.

After that, we went to the Pumpkin Patch. Jack enjoyed it last year but had only been walking for a few months. This year.....he loved it. He was all over the place. He of course liked all of the playground equipment, but he loved the rabbits. It was difficult to get him to move on to something else. We had to stop and pet all of the animals and hold about 5 different rabbits. Then we waited in the long line to ride the corn ride. Jack wasn't so impressed. I honestly think he thought that it was kind of boring. The first time around he was sleeping and the second time around he was working on the seat belt which he promptly unhooked. About the time we saw a leg over and about 3 inches from the concrete, our hearts skipped a beat and we knew he was not entertained by being pulled around by a tractor in a corn bucket. He must have heard the panic in mine and Jonathan's voice when we told him to "sit down!", because he did. Jack was even sweet enough to pick me a sunflower while out in the pumpkin patch and bring it to me. That is a great habit that he has learned from his dad, they always bring me flowers. So sweet.

After a nap at home, we got ready for our dinner and show. Grandma and Grandpa came over and we went to Disney On Ice. I kind of thought that Jack would like it for a minute, but he loved the whole two hours. He sat right on the edge of his seat and danced and talked and laughed. He also enjoyed his Mickey Mouse ears and his smores-on-a-stick during intermission. Jack's favorite part was Peter Pan. He would point and say "where's Pete?". Grandma and Grandpa had to swing him the whole way back to the car so that he could fly like "Pete". As soon as they would stop he would say, "Pete, Pete". Of course we had to watch the movie at bedtime.

Pics

It's official.

Well, it is official. Jack is no longer my little baby. He's my little boy, my little man. He climbed out of his crib this past weekend. We converted his crib to a toddler bed. Well, Jonathan did. Friday morning the babysitter said to me, "hey Felicia, can Jack climb out of his crib? I woke up and he was standing right in front of me with his face in mine". And so it begins. Nap time and bedtime are a bit of a challenge since then. We usually lay Jack down awake for naps and bed. Friday I went to lay him down for a nap and he gave me a very mischievous grin. About 45 seconds later he was standing at my feet in the kitchen, laughing. He is taking full advantage of his new found freedom. He has been finding his way to our bed at night even though he has never slept with us before.

We also finally put a child lock on the refrigerator. I wasn't sure I could bear one more broken egg, spilled salsa or spilled sweet tea. The full pitcher of sweet tea was probably the final straw on that. He's so much fun and into everything. He's doing a lot of talking. Talking you can understand that is. One of his favorite phrases is, "It's stuck!". For example, the refrigerator, "it's stuck".

We've been really busy since I last blogged (of course). Jonathan and I went to Las Vegas for friends' wedding. Jack stayed a few days with Nana and Pop and a few days with Grandma and Grandpa. He loved it of course and got spoiled the whole time. Jonathan and I on the other hand, not so much. We missed him. Jack also got to go to the fair with Grandma and Grandpa. He rode all of the rides possible and loved them. Especially the carousel of course. Jonathan I took Jack to the Birmingham Zoo. He liked the animals but was more interested in the carousel, the park and the water area. Jonathan took Jack to his first high school football game. They had fun.

Just a quick note in reference to the Cardinals jersey because you guys know that we are Cubs fans. Our good friends Marc and Tricia live in St Louis and are Cardinals fans and sent the jersey to Jack. It is so cute on him, so we have to support the Cardinals after the Cubs.

Will blog more soon. We of course have Halloween coming up soon. Still trying to decide what Jack will be. And you guys know that Jack will always be "my baby", whether he is climbing out of his crib or graduating from college.

Golf Balls!??

Ok, so this is funny. As most of you know, Jonathan and Jack are by themselves on the nights that I work. And pretty funny stuff happens, bad habits are formed and they have "parties" in his room leaving behind lots of toys and stuff. I'm sure I don't even hear about half of the stuff that goes on while I'm away.

So, last night I went to work as usual. At some point, Jack approaches Jonathan with what appears to be a golf ball in his hand. (we randomly have those around since Jonathan works at the golf course and Jack and Oliver play with them). Jonathan doesn't think anything is unusual about it and says, "throw it Jack". So what does Jack do? He throws it. Much to Jonathan's surprise....it was an egg. Ha Ha! Jonathan found three broken eggs in the floor on the way back to the refrigerator. Of course Jonathan was just laughing about it. But the whole time he was trying to clean up the mess Jack was jabbering like he was telling Jonathan all about it and like it was Jonathan's fault. He told him to throw it!! Jonathan sent me a picture and message while I was at work and it just made my night.

Reunion Pics

Reunion Pics

Reunion Pics