Cute Jack Stories August 26, 2009

(originally posted on LiveJournal)

I’m not sure where it came from, but Max and I decided that Simba (from The Lion King) goes “wiggle wiggle pounce!”. We have taught Jack that, starting when he was just a wee small baby. We extended that to all cats, ferrets, and occasionally other animals as well. Last night, Dino (pronounced Dye-No, not like The Flinstones‘ character) was “wiggle wiggle pouncing” on Jack’s new blocks. When it came time to be done playing and go upstairs, Max asked for a night-night hug and kiss. Jack immediately backed away…

Then he squatted down a bit, wiggled his bum and said, “Wiggle wiggle wiggle” and then “POUNCE” as he leapt into Max’s arms.

Cutest. pounce. ever.

Later, we were reading the book of friends and family that I finally printed out. We have Jason & Paula and their son in it. I asked Jack if he thought Benjamin looked like him. Jack said, “Yeah, because we have curly hair.” Then he said, and I swear I didn’t prompt this:
“He kind of looks like me but I look better.”

I love my son. I look forward to spending more time with him.

Happy Birthday Jack! January 18, 2009

Today is Jack’s 3rd Birthday! He has been wanting it to be his birthday for MONTHS now.

If all you want is to see pictures, scroll down.

The party was held at Scoops, which serves crepes and gelato and has a BIG play area for children under 8. We actually got there before 10am (when the party started)! Our friends David, Melissa, and their kids Joe, Noah, and Elijah were there first, followed by Kristen and Austin.

We haven’t seen K & A since … well, it’s been a long time. They were a casualty of the “no Dads at MOMS Club events”. Even though we  like them, and Jack and Austin get along, I didn’t make it a priority to remain friends with them. That was a mistake, and I’m trying to fix that now.

Anyway, when Jack saw Austin, he ran around to the door and gave Austin a HUGE hug! I wish I had had my camera ready.

More and more people arrived. Unfortunately, several people who RSVPd yes were no-shows. I was disappointed that Jack didn’t get to see all of his friends, and it irked me that several crepes were wasted, made for children who never appeared.

Jack was happy, however. One of the new boys in his class came with his mom, and we were happy to meet her. She’s really nice, and is another possible source of playdates. I also got to meet Jack’s “girlfriend”. Candace is in the “big class”, so she’s 4. I told Jack, “You’re just like your Daddy – you like older women.”

Playing and eating occurred. Then I mentioned to Jack that we were going to open presents, and before I knew it, he was on the puppet stage ripping open a book. I got there, and got support from Max – he took pictures – while I tried to follow what Jack was doing and write down who got him what. Unlike at Christmas, he wanted to open all of his presents to see what they were. The kids clustered around him, and I felt like Tippi Hedren in The Birds. We did get 3 duplicate gifts, which is an etiquette quandary I get to face.

After presents, we barely got cleaned up before doing cake. Max baked the cupcakes – chocolate (brown) with blue icing and green sprinkles. They came out really nice!

The cafe has a “Make Your Own Animal” thing that many of the kids used. I felt bad for the parents – like they were trapped into buying more stuff. I was surprised that Jack hadn’t noticed it. (Later, Max told me that he did, but only mentioned it once, so, nothing.)

Overall, I think it was a successful party. I didn’t get much of chance to talk to any one mom, but I do think I talked at least a bit to all of the moms. There are a couple I think I missed. There were only 3 dads there – Max, David, and another David, Dad to Sophie and Emma.

Oh – that’s kind of funny. Max was looking for the treat bags for Sophie and Baby Emmy. He said “We don’t have a treat bag for Baby Emmy.” I said, “Emilia.” He replied, “Oh. I wondered who that was.” Hear that Annemarie? It’s already started.

I’m particularly proud of the treat bags. Max, Jack, and I decorated plain lunch bags, and I put in 1 ball point pen, 1 mechanical pencil with doodles on it, 1 sheet of stickers, 2 markers, 1 pack of Jelly Bellies, 1 Post-It note pad, 4 crayons, and a number of paper clips shaped like hearts, stars, feet, hands, and musical instruments. I thought it was neat. One of the kids looked at it, and said, “Oooh! I love craft stuff!” So I hope it’s popular with kids and parents.

We left just before 2, and then it took an hour to put Jack down for a nap. I kept having to remind myself that today is his birthday, and I should be nice to him. He didn’t think I was being so nice. But he finally did get to sleep, as I petted him. It was classic – one minute, he was fighting sleep, saying “I want to go to the toy store” and then he was snoring.

I tried to nap. I needed to nap. But my head was too full. Jack woke up before 5, and I got up at about 5:30. We went to Toys R Us because one of his friends gave him a gift card. We had to explain to Jack that he could not buy all of the trains. We did get him Peter Sam and Rheneas.

After the toy store, we went to Denny’s because it was close. I tell you this because of the following exchange:

The manager brought Jack’s grilled cheese… with fries. Jack ordered fruit. I was worried he’d want the fries. But he looked at the plate and said, “I wanted fruit.” So we handed the plate back, and Jack said, “I wanted fruit. But he brought me French fries. Silly turkey!”

Jack also asked to go the bathroom and really did pee in the Men’s Room toilet. Go Jack! Unfortunately, while playing trains at home, he peed in his jeans. Ah well!

Jack got to play with his trains and track for awhile after bath time. I talked to his Birthmom. She and I talked for a bit, and then Jack actually talked on the phone to her. He told her to sing him Happy Birthday, and answered a few yes and no questions about his birthday, and then said “I love you” and gave her a kiss.

Getting him into bed was a great feat, as he’s still on Cloud 9, being the Birthday Boy.

Tomorrow, the grandparents and our neighbors will be here, so his birthday will be extended a bit.

Jack Peek-a-Boo

Cupcakes!

Robyn and Baby Emmy

Jack Hugging Austin

Jack Opening Presents

Tippi Hedren? No, Robyn!

Happy Birthday to Jack!

Happy Birthday Jack

Cheers!

Exclusive!

Jack and Daddy

Ten Stories About Jack April 28, 2008

Work has been heating up, so I’ve not had a chance to do much, blog-wise. I have been jotting down notes, which add up to 10 stories about Jack.

Story One – “I like”

Jack is very big on sentences. His new favorite seems to be: “I like x.” and “x like me.” For example, “I like Alex. Alex like me.” (Alex is a girl at day care.) “I like Mommy. Mommy like me.”

He is also very into the concept of friends. Last Friday evening (4/18) when I was taking him home from day care, we had to stop at Trader Joe’s, which is right next to the pet store, one of Jack’s favorite places. He asked, “We go to peh-store?” I said, “Maybe.” He said, “I see birdies, fishies, and squeak-squeaks. I like birdies. I like fishies. I like squeak-squeaks. They my friends.”

The way he says “friends” is so adorable! I can’t write it phonetically. It’s just the way he intones the word “friends”. It’s almost Southern in pronunciation.

That leads me to a related topic – “mine”. In the last week, Jack has gotten very possessive. If he’s holding it, it’s “mine.” He likes to say “My Mommy.”, “My Daddy.”, “That Jack Mommy.”, “That Jack Daddy.” and so on. (Sometimes he does say, “Jack’s”, but sometimes he doesn’t.

Story Two – Boo Boo

Jack had a boo-boo on his leg – his knee, to be exact. He looked at it and said, “I am broken.” Really – all 3 words.

He then asked for a Band-Aid. He also remembered on Friday (4/18) that I told him we would get him Pooh bear Band-Aids, thus necessitating a trip to Target. They didn’t have Pooh Band-Aids, but they had Spiderman, and that was OK.

Story Three – Toilet Training

I never understood the excitement and pride that parents seemed to feel when announcing to the world that their child had used the toilet. Personally, I feel that such information is best kept to oneself.

Now, to be a total hypocrite, last week (Tuesday, I think), Jack used the toilet for the first time. He’s been sitting on it since January. We bought him a little seat that goes over the real toilet. I’m reading The Everything ‘Toilet’ Training Book (I don’t use the p-word) and it told me to get a couple books for Jack to enjoy. I found two that are pretty neat. Uh-Oh Gotta Go! and the Karen Katz book A ‘Toilet’ For Me. Anyway, we had been in the hot tub (see next story) and I took Jack out of his kick-kick clothes. He peed on the carpet. I said that was OK and asked him if he’d like to sit on the toilet. So he did. And while we were reading, he pooped! Woo hoo! Now, I get the excitement and pride.

Story Four – Height

Jack is now tall enough (34 inches) to stand with his feet touching the bottom of the hot tub, and his chin just touches the water. He’s very happy about this. Sadly, our hot tub seems to be broken, so we can’t go kick kick anymore. I hope we get this ironed out before the summer, when it’s too hot to go in the hot tub.

Story Five “Hi-Oh”

Jack now says “Hello” but he says it “Hi-Oh” like “Ohio” without the first “O”.

Story Six – Dolphin?

All I have written down is “dolphin.” I don’t know what that means. I do know that Jack can recognize dolphins as opposed to fish. But I’m sure that he did something cute involving the word “dolphin” and now I just don’t know what it is.

Story Seven – Tigo Beads

On April 15, Jack came home with a bag full of toys and books from day care. His day care provider, Angie (who is WONDERFUL!) had gone to a forum presented by First Five, about their Tigo program. First Five is dedicated to helping children ages 0-5, and the Tigo program teaches parents how to play with and read to their children. I think it’s awful that a program like that has to exist. Angie was actually supposed to give us (all the parents) a 3 hour class on how to use the toys, and the toys came with this pull out card with instructions, telling us what skills the toys develop. Anyway, one of the toys was lacing beads! I’ve been wanting to get Jack some lacing beads, but I wasn’t sure he was ready. Well, he dumped them out and wanted to play with them. At first, he couldn’t figure out how to do it, and got frustrated, so he asked for help. (I love that he asks for help instead of getting so mad he wants to stop.) I showed him how to lace the beads once, then I held his hands while he did it, then he did it all by himself! I was so excited! I took a video, which I’m putting here (Or not. It’s so big, I have to upload it to YouTube then link it, and I don’t want to do that tonigh. BTW: When he says “Wanna see Jack” he means that he wants to see himself on the camera’s LCD. He’s starting to take pictures, but that’s another post.) I did include a picture of Jack playing Tigo beads.

Story 8 – Cake

Jack loves cake. All kinds of cake. But other than that, I cannot remember why I wrote down “cake.” This story isn’t that good, is it? It’s just a reminder that Mommy created this blog because she couldn’t remember these stories, and therefore should post more often.

Story Nine – eBay

I’ve been bidding on items on eBay. In the middle of last week, the Red Sox “curse jersey” was up for auction. It was on the eBay home page. Jack saw it, and said, wrinkling his nose, pointing at the screen, “That shirt all dirty.”

Story Ten – 1, 2, 3, 4

On Wednesday night (4/23) at 11:54pm, Jack called out from his crib, “One, two, three, four!” then stopped. I have no idea what he was dreaming about. (I know the time because I was working on my computer and wrote it down.)

Plus One

To make up for the dolphin and cake stories, I will tell you about something that happened today (4/28). Jack found Max’s Wii guitar for Guitar Hero. He picked it up and said, “I wanna rock” (only “rock” is still pronounced “wok”, but close enough). Sadly, I was on the phone with my friend Anna and not able to get to the camera in time.