Fishing

Jack got a Shrek fishing pole for his birthday. We just recently got the chance to use it for the first time since the weather was nice last week. So off we go fishing. Jack loved it. He mostly loved being outside and running around. We also took some bread to feed to the ducks. Within ten minutes of being there Jack had already lost a shoe in the lake and Oli had already fallen into the lake. We were able to recover the shoe. Within an hour of being there Jack had a minor wound to the face from a fishing hook and Oli had a minor wound to the leg from a fishing hook. Luckily, Jack had his hood on and it took most of the hit from the hook so it just barely scraped him. We did however manage to catch a fish with Shrek. Jack wanted to put it back right away and thought it was funny when it swam away. Oli has always loved fishing. But, he is not the best fishing partner. He runs around barking and scaring the fish and then paws at it when you catch one.

Ah, update on the potty-training. Going pretty well, but still only when it is Jack's idea. He is going more frequently and always has success when we go. Last night we even had success at our first public potty. We went out for wings and we had to wait awhile. So when Jack informed me, "I gotta potty", I thought for sure it was a ploy to get out of his high chair. Despite my suspicion we still have to take him when he says it, so off we go. Much to my surprise, I found dry underpants and he did have to go potty. We also got a compliment on his good behavior on our way out from some guests that had been there even longer than us. We were very proud!! Oh, Jack also thinks that it is fun to put on about ten pairs of underwear at the same time. That will explain one of the pictures that I've posted.

Catch Up

I really wish that I would make more time to blog because Jack does the most hilarious stuff everyday and changes so fast. His vocabulary has really expanded. He's in a big "what's that?" stage. We answer that question a million times a day. He's really understanding directions that you give him or things that you tell him. Now, whether or not he follows those directions is a different story. After all, he is two. Overall, he does very well though. He's doing fair at potty-training. We haven't been pushing him much because he does better when it is his idea. Most of the time when I ask him if he needs to "go potty?", he says no. But he always has success when it's his idea.

We recently took Jack to the Ringling Brothers Circus. He liked it and we had a good time but he didn't' like it as much as we thought he would. Maybe, he's too little yet. He loved the animals, especially the tigers. It was like he waited the whole show just to see the tigers. He didn't quite understand the magic and acrobatics. We also took him to our children's museum. He loved that. Lots of new things to see and everything is hands-on.

Jack also has a new babysitter. I won't go into the details of it, but Jack definitely needed a new sitter and they are so hard to find. But, we did. She takes good care of him and he really likes her. She even gets an occasional kiss. And, he only cries for a minute when I go to bed.

He's growing so fast. I wish I could remember every moment.

Christmas

So...I completely thought that I had posted Christmas. I'm just a little scatter-brained. We had a great Christmas. We went to the Gruber's on Christmas Eve. We played and got to spend time with everyone. Santa even came that night and brought stockings for everyone. Jack was still a little hesitant with Santa. He's ok as long as Santa doesn't try to hold him. We woke up early and opened all the presents from Santa. Trust me Jack had a ton of presents. He has definitely figured out how to open presents. About half way through he decided he just wanted to play and he took a break for a few minutes before opening the rest of them. We came home Christmas night and it was like opening all of his gifts all over again. Jonathan and I felt like kids again as we played with all of his new toys. The next day the Jones family came over and we celebrated Christmas here. It was really nice to have everyone here. Jack again got to open bunches of presents. The dilemma is...Jonathan and I trying to figure out where to put all of them. Between his birthday and Christmas he basically opened presents all month. This was a really fun Christmas with Jack. I can't believe how much he has grown and how our lives have changed since we first brought him home just two short years ago. I can't explain how he fills my heart with joy and laughter. I thought the other day, "what did I ever do before we had him?". I couldn't remember much.

A little bit of back-tracking. On Jack's actual birthday we took him to a place called Santa's Village. It is like a winter wonderland where you get to see Santa and make cookies with Mrs Claus and see the reindeer and make toys. Jack even got to mail his letter to Santa from there. They have express delivery you know? All of the grandparents went with us and Jack loved it because he was, of course, spoiled rotten.

Just a little note that it was this time last year that Jack was so sick and had been in the hospital for RSV and his ear infections. Since then, not one sick visit at the doctor. Yeah!!! Of course that was after the tubes were placed in his ears and we took him out of daycare, anyway so very thankful that he is healthy this year!!

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".