I do myseff

Today I went to water the plants and Jack grabbed onto the watering can and helped me to water each plant. We're one step away from "I do myseff". And the temper tantrum that resulted when the water ran out (hence the paci) makes me not very excited about this new development. I did, however, manage to get a cute picture once we calmed down a bit.

Terrific Tuesday!

Today the mommies met at the park this morning in an effort to beat the heat.
Jack still was flushed immediately. Lately he always looks sunburned because every time we take him outside he goes all 'hypercolor' shirt on us and - BAM!

Melanie and Jillian learned a funny and important lesson about static electricity!

Then after nap we continued to 'beat the heat' by enjoying the pool.

We enjoyed the pool so much that afterward we needed to relax. Whew!

New Developments

In the last week Jack has started communicating using body language. What makes this odd is it's my body he's using. When we're reading a book he'll grab my hand and make me turn the pages. He also points at things using my finger. The ultimate in body-language cuteness was yesterday after nap when he woke up and we came downstairs to the main level. Usually he plays for a bit and descends into the basement or hunts for snacks. Well this day went for what I thought was a leg-hug until i realized he was pushing so hard on the backs of my legs I stumbled forward to catch my balance, then he pushed me out the front door and reached up. It was as if to say "Time to go play down the street, Mommy."


Also I'm proud to say he's becoming a really good listener. It's important to me that if I say 'no' to something he knows to listen. As far as I'm concerned there are 3 levels of discipline

1: "I wish you wouldn't do that because it's not convenient for me" i.e. taking clothes out of drawers or DVD's off shelves which at most will get an exasperated "Jack....." out of me and maybe I'll try and distract him with something else.

2: "I have told you not to do that because there is mild danger or major inconvenience" i.e. walking too far away from me, playing with plugs or power chords in the middle of the room (no actual outlets in range) this gets a louder "Jack" and usually a command like "come here please."

3: "Oh shit, stop right now you're going to get hurt!" i.e. reaching for outlets, walking towards the street, trying to play with lawnmowers, trying to eat cat/dog food this gets a loud "Jack, NO!" where he always backs away/drops what he's doing and sometimes comes to me for a hug.


Also yesterday Jack reached for his first kid-to-kid holding hands experience yesterday. The little girls in the neighborhood have been doing this for a while and I wasn't sure if it's because they're girls combined with their one to one and a half year age difference. I've been waiting for the hand holding for a while now.... just because I think it's cute. Well, yesterday the mack-daddy himself put the handholding moves on Emma and she was happy to hold his hand. She's been trying to hold Jack's hand for about 2 months now but he kept pulling away. Kids crack me up!

Mommy's New 'do

Welcome

Home!It's so good to be back. We came home to a happy cat, thanks Lindsey! Some cool packages, thanks Amazon and Lindsey! And some new neighbors who are quiet smokers... meh, you can't win them all.

A recap

We drove to 'the Valley'. Jack fed mommy dinner.
We went to breakfast the next morning at at, wait for it......

We went to dinner at the cow restaurant. How quaint. Seriously though, don't mock. The food was good, really good.

The company was good too! This is Steve and Sara our 'Penn State friends' and dinner buddies for the evening.

Jack enjoyed their super cool dino-mite gift!

Photos!

This afternoon I went to visit baby Sophie and Mommy Susan and Daddy Nick at the hospital.

The verdict is that being in the hospital itself is a pretty calm experience the second time around because you know enough to relax a little and not be scared out of your wits! Also not chasing around a toddler, or playing with a 'big boy' is pretty freeing. It's the going home and having 2 sets of needs to meet that they report is the scary prospect.

Susan and Nick both seemed so calm and relaxed and confident. Everyone is doing well and they get to go home tomorrow.

Also today Jack got into his regular highjinx and mommy got a new 'do.

Pregnancy Update:

Two down, one to go!

Jen gave birth to her son a few weeks ago: Joshua Michael
... and in this just in Susan gave birth to her daughter this morning at 7am Sophia Elyse is here!

One to go:
Kate you have got to serve Liam his eviction notice!!

Pictures to follow.

Walking Buddies

Jack and Emma have decided to be walking buddies, which is convenient because their mommies have also decided to be walking buddies. In a neighborhood effort to be healthier we're trying to start walking together, Monday Michelle and I took the kids (her youngest, Charlie, was sleeping behind Emma in the tandem stroller). Hopefully as the weather improves we can walk round the 'hood and get more of the neighborhood mommies to join us!

One of these things

FINALLY looks like the others...

I have never been so happy to be done with a project - ever.

Dumpster Diving

Everyone does it. Ok, probably not everyone, but here's the thing, Michelle and I were working our yard sales while we watched person after person after person throw recyclables into the dumpster. Seriously, pick up is Thursday- can it not wait? So Michelle and I climbed on to the dumpster and reached around pulling out as much of the recyclables as we could. In the end it was enough to fill my car, seats folded, everything out, passenger seat filled, that's a lot of recyclables, people!

Then we went back to yard sale-ing.

Some of the neighborhood men played in the dirt. In all fairness they were leveling Jess's yard, but still, it's funny to say.

While we sold we got some sun. I am now burnt.

After the yard sale I came to a horrible realization. The FINAL coat of deck stain was the wrong color. Matt didn't notice as he put it on, because it's always lighter when it goes on than when it dries. Well since it was the final coat it was touch ups so it was EVERYWHERE. It wasn't ordered wrong, the paint person grabbed the wrong base so the cans were completely identical except for a little number printed on the label.

The paint can says 24 hours to dry so the fact that the weather channel said it was going to rain at 4 tomorrow and it was 4 when we found this out was NOT good news. I got in the car and sped to the Depot. As soon as I walked in I asked for the manager I explained (I mean totally freaked out while I told him) what had happened and that I really needed this project done now. I'm so over the deck.

So after some crying I walked out with 3 free cans of deck stain and more brushes and rollers that I could possibly need.

Spring is in the air

I'm not saying that I don't care about child labor laws... I'm just saying there was some spring cleaning to be done and this eager beaver really, really, really wanted to play with the brush and dust pan. Who was I to deny him?
After our chores we went to play infront of Miss Michelle's yard.

Clearly we don't 'get' bubbles yet.

But we do get cars.

In fact we love cars. This little boy lives on the other side of the court and he drives his car nearly every day. And Jack freaks out and wants to play with his car every day, it's cute. It's getting old, but it's still cute.

Clearly this interest in cars is from Matt and maybe Uncle Tom, but certainly not me.

Also a little shout out to the neighborhood for continuing to be awesome!

Don't feed the wildlife

Like ducks and bread -or- seagulls and a picnic at the beach -or- vultures and... well, you know.

The rest of the day was shambles for us because Jack threw a temper tantrum from then till dinner. I'm beginning to think this "I'll eat anything so you won't worry about my nutrient intake" is a double edged sword. Sure he'll eat anything but if you ever DARE refuse him food or ::gasp:: try to eat your own meal in front of him there will be HELL to pay.

I need a reliable, reuseable distraction. Something to make him forget about the cruelty of mommy starving him to death (or so he feels). Suggestions?

Home again, home again

jiggity jig. Before we left we played with the pop beads.

And Jack tried on Daddy's shoes. This explains why my shoes often look moved and stepped on.

Then we came home to peas gone wild. I'm so excited!

Happy Easter!

Clearly, it was a successful day. Jack hunted eggs, then we had breakfast. Then he hunted more eggs. Later we had lunch; egg salad- of course. During Jack's nap we waged war against the aliens and machines (read: my dad, brother and husband had a LAN party and played KKND). Then we watched the 18th hole and the sudden death shoot out of the Masters tournament, obviously my dad was in charge of the remote. Finally we ended the night with a family dinner and family games, which included one final war.

Today Jack demonstrated his assimilation of Easter knowledge by identifying a bunny in a book and then identifying the bunnies that were part of the holiday decorations.

Easter Saturday

The Taylor Museum in Berlin, MD hosted the city of Berlin's Easter egg hunt, egg toss, three-legged race and spoon race. Jack thought about competing in all the contests but decided it was best just to stick to the egg hunt.

He didn't seem to mind that he didn't technically meet the age requirement to participate.

He managed to find a bunch of eggs, and we managed to eat the candy that was hidden inside each one.

Then we wandered into downtown Berlin. The town had closed down the streets so we could wander and even let Jack get out of the stroller and do some wandering of his own. The bank was hosting a carnival with some rides like teacups and the super slide. The town has set up about 30 little booths like carnival games for kids. They had a ring toss, apple bob and a bunch of other activities that Jack isn't quite old enough to know how to play. The local girl scout troop was volunteering to run most of the booths. That brings back some old fun memories for me, because my mom was my troop leader.

But just like Goldie Locks, this game was just right. We paid a whopping 25 cents for Jack to dig in the sand to find a cool toy.

Mostly he just wanted to use the toy to push the sand around in the box. But this activity provided several minutes of quality entertainment.

Then we dyed Easter eggs. I tried to make my annual big-gay-egg, which is just my fancy way of saying rainbow egg but there was something wrong with the red/pink dye and it wasn't adhering to the eggs so I had to improvise:

I give you striped egg.

Then during dinner we saw the Easter Bunny hanging out in GiGi and Grandpa's yard!

There's a new baby sitter in town

Yesterday morning (at 7:30am actually) the baby sitter arrived. We broke her in by having her do a load of Jack's cloth diapers. The cycle was 1 hour 13 minutes. It only took 35 minutes to dry - this includes the microfiber inserts!

The baby sitter provided some entertainment.

To both babies.

Finally, I got around to Googling the care of peas and realized that you're supposed to transplant them to something with a trellis when they're 3 inches tall. Oops! Well, better late than never.

Since it's too early for the peas to be outside all day and night this is a perfect permanent solution because they'll get to be outside during the day and come in at night until it doesn't drop below 40 degrees anymore.