Happy Birthday, Jack!

Jack, We can't believe it's already been 2 years since we met you face to face! You are such a joy to us! We praise God for your fun-loving, energetic, and hilarious personality as well as your curious, cuddly, & sensitive side.

At 2 you love trains (choo choos), fire trucks, raisins, throwing things, Lucy, and any activity where you get to run & play.

You are a precious gift & we love you more than you know! Happy Birthday, Little Guy!

Jack & Daddy

Playing Hard to Get

Behold: Pictures of Jack & Lucy playing chase. This was his Valentine's outfit. :)

Dear Jack

Precious Jackson William,

I cannot begin to express how much you have changed my life in the last year. You are an amazing gift & I love you with every fiber of my being. The best part of my day every day is when you hug me tight before I put you down for bed. You are such an amazing little boy. I call you Wild Man, Baby Boy, Sugar Bear, Silly Boy, Little Jack Man, Jack Jack... You've got a lot of names, & plenty of personality to go with them!

I love how you wrinkle up you nose & smile, showing off your new top teeth. I love how you laugh in delight when you think something is funny, or because other people are laughing, or for no apparent reason at all. I love watching you explore & learn as you play with your toys or crawl around the house. I love your sense of humor & your sense of rhythm. I love when you dance & when you sing. I love that you love music, your daddy, & your dog. I love that you can be my silly little wild man one minute & crawl into my arms to cuddle the next. God knew what he was doing when He created you, Precious One, & I praise Him that He chose me to be your Mommy. You are an indescribable gift & I love you more than you will ever know.

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Love,

Mommy

Faces

Jack & Daddy

I love my boys.

Celebrating 9 Years!

On June1st we celebrated 9 years of marriage. It crazy how it feels like our wedding day was just yesterday, yet it also seems like we've been married forever - in a good way of course. ;o) To celebrate we decided to stay a night downtown while my mom kept Jack at our house. It was a whopping 24 hours away from babykins! As we walked out the door, my mom asked what our plan was. Our reply: We don't know!

We ended up doing some shopping, eating lunch, & seeing a movie. Then we found our hotel, walked around downtown, ate dinner, went on a carriage ride (like we did on our wedding day:), ate dessert while watching an outdoor movie, & headed back to the hotel. I think part of the greatness of the day was not having a plan - just making it up as we went, with no schedule. I was reminded how much I love my husband is & how much fun we have together just hanging out talking.

I love you, John & I thank God for you every day!

The Latest

Jack is so much fun! I know I say that a lot, but it's true. Everyday it seems there is a new development, & he is learning new things so quickly. As always...time for bullet points.

• He's working on getting mobile - lots of rolling, scooting, turning, pulling, pushing, kicking, bouncing - anything he can do to move around. I think he's going to figure out this crawling thing pretty soon, so it's a good thing I'm about to be out of school for the summer. We've got a lot of baby-proofing to do!
• He loves his voice. Jack's current favorites are dadadadadadada, mamamamama, and babababababa. There are also assorted screams & whining sounds that he is more than happy to produce at any time.
• He seems to know dada (or daya) is John. I can ask, "Where's Daddy?" and he will look around until he sees John & give him a huge smile.
• I think he knows I'm mama too. :)
• We're working on signs with him too & he seems to know 'all done'. It's still hard to tell, but he seems to be doing it pretty consistently when he gets tired of playing, or is ready for a new activity.
• He loves bouncing & rocking. I sat him on the rocking ottoman in front of me one day & he immediately started rocking back & forth & laughing. He was very proud of himself & got tired of mommy holding on to him so he wouldn't fly off the thing...sorry kid!
• He is 'learning' to drop & throw toys. He will throw a ball back & forth with you for as long as you will play.
• He loves tags. Who cares about the toy!
• He loves to hug & kiss me, or maul me/try to eat my hair depending on how excited he is.
• Like I said, it seems like there's something new everyday, I've gotta write stuff down more often!

Last night he tried to share his pacifier with me. It was pretty funny because I couldn't figure out what he was doing at first. He kept putting it in his mouth, then trying to put it in my mouth. Then he would laugh hysterically. I'm loving his little sense of humor which is showing more and more.

That's it for now! 8 more days 'til summer! Woo hoo!!

7 months

This time of year is always so busy! I'm spending every free moment with John & our little guy. Jack. Is. Awesome. He is such a happy boy - always smiling & laughing. He totally melts my heart. I've tried to post videos periodically here. Once again, I'm going to have to go with the bulleted list of Jack news...

• Like I said, he is SUCH a happy baby! He loves to laugh and smile & coo.
• He still enjoys his 'screeching' sounds & spends a lot of time seeing how high his voice can go. He also likes playing with volume - from whispering, to yelling. I like seeing how pleased he is with himself whenever he discovers yet another new sound.
• We've been introducing solid food & Jack seems to have no problem when it comes to eating! Jack eats rice cereal, apples, peaches, pears, sweet potatoes, carrots, & squash. Next will come the green veggies...that should be fun.
• He makes a 'mmmmm' sound when he's hungry or wants more.
• He definitely knows his own name & will turn & look at you when he hears it.
• He loves saying 'mama', 'ba', 'di', and lots of other sounds and combos
• Seems to enjoy creating spit bubbles
• He has very good control of his hands & will grab anything within his reach. He can also pass things back & forth between his hands, turn things over, drop things, swing things around, turn pages, push buttons on his toys, etc.
• He's also used that new found control to grab Lucy a couple of times. She's been awesome with him. There's only been once where he got ahold of her fur pretty well before I intervened. She just licked his hand until he let go enough for her to escape - yay Lucy! Since then she has been staying out of arm's reach!
• He loves any toys that make noise. He also likes seeing videos & pictures of himself. It's hilarious to watch him watch himself. He will look at the video and smile, then look at me with this completely delighted expression on his face.
• Lastly, he has a new best friend: his stuffed penguin - he LOVES that toy more than any other & cuddles with it at night too. Thanks again for the sweet gift, Monti!

One of my Favorite Pictures

In Love

How could we not be?