Working at the car wash

Need your car washed? Call Jack - really knows how to work the hose and sponge. He apparently also likes the taste of soap. Tonight when Stephen was washing the car in the driveway Jack insisted on lending a hand. He is a hard worker and loves nothing more than giving something a good scrubbing. He takes his work very seriously.






As Stephen was finishing up washing the car he turned around to find Jack lying face down on the driveway - drinking out of a puddle. Oh Lord... what will I do?

The Fort

We got a delivery the other day (new patio chair cushions) that came in 2 huge boxes. And what does any good parent do with a big box - yes, that's right, throw it in the garage. What? Stephen came home and was like, "What did you do? This is a fort!" He brought it back in the house and showed Jack his new fort. Jack loves his fort - he likes to pretend to go "night night" in it, throw balls into and just hang out... You know who else likes it? Stephen.



I brought them a flash light and marshmallows tonight - and they pretended they were camping. Wondering what we did with the 2nd box? Yep - we brought it over to Ryan.

Simon Says

Jack is getting pretty good at following directions... he might even have a future as an actor. Check out his faces...

Sneak Attack

On Saturday night Stephen and I went to the Red Sox game... they were playing the Atlanta Braves... so I was actually "allowed" to cheer for the Sox this time. My friend (and colleague, and Jack's stalker) offered to babysit. She drove all the way down from Cambridge to spend a few hours with Jack - she's clearly obsessed. Anyway, there were big crocodile tears when we left the house... and as usual he was fine within a minute or two. Julie spent some time with Jack outside - yelling to the neighbors across the street (as you'll see) and squirting his water bottle - even at his "babysitter!"

By the way, that's pizza sauce on his head... not blood. And the Sox won - 3 - Zip.

Toddler + Mirror = Fun

Jack discovered he likes full length mirrors at Bass Pro. He'd run up from the side and scream when he saw himself. The store was full of people - so I didn't have any problems with the yelling. Thought it was pretty funny actually.

Happy Father's Day!

Wow - Jack and I have been working for days to make sure Stephen has a great Father's Day. We got him some gifts at Vineyard Vines... prepared a nice breakfast in bed... and gave Stephen extra sleeping time by not guilting him into going to swimming lessons with us at the Y this morning. Now tonight we're making his favorite dinner - linguine with white clam sauce. I think Jack might opt for pasta with butter.


Yesterday we were invited to Jack's school for "Donuts for Dads." A little hour long get together for the parents and children to eat some donuts together and do an art project.

Stephen ate the donut that Jack picked out... naturally the one with hideously colored sprinkles.

Cute Kids!

Look at these cute kids!!! We have (from left to right) Jack, Hunter, Piper, Harper and Ryan. Love this picture. It's a from a few weeks ago at Jill & Tim's... on Memorial Day.

My Little Man

Every day I swear Jack turns into more and more of a little boy. He's no longer my baby. He's moving all the time - unless Barney is on or he's eating bacon or cold pizza. Here are some pictures I took tonight - while the purple dinosaur was on singing a song about firetrucks.


Here he is telling me no... something I'm all too familiar with these days.

Today at school he made a pasta necklace. I love it. I'm taking it to work with me. Now I'm just hoping for some of this rain that is predicted for the next week - turns to some sunshine.

Puppet Show

Tonight Stephen went to a homeowner's association meeting so I was on my own for putting Jack down to bed - not usually a difficult job. I decided to be extra nice and let him stay up past 8 o'clock so he could watch the Backyardigan's - I think it helps with his dance moves. Anyway - I let him stay up and when the time came I told him it was time for night night. That comment was promptly met with a very stern - No. Followed by another No - followed by a slap to the face! What - are you kidding me? I said - Jack. Chair. Now. He boogied quickly away into the guest room to the chair we use for time outs.

I left him in there for the prerequisite 2 minutes and then went in to check on him. What did I find? Jack putting on a puppet show. He had pulled off his socks and had one on each hand and had them talking to each other - saying, "hi, hi, hi, hi." How do you stay mad at such a cute kid? I couldn't... we moved on. He went to bed (after reading 5 books). He's so cute I could eat him.

Whoops

Am I a bad Mom because I find this video funny? It's a video I took this weekend while Jack, our neighbor Sarah and her son Ryan were sitting on the porch having a popsicle.
Watch. Discuss. You Decide.

The Gardener's Dancing Assistant

Every gardener could use a good assistant. Few gardener's are as lucky as I apparently am - my assistant can dance!

Founders Day!

Founders Day 2009 is now in the record books. Great weather this year - about 70 and sunny for the parade that stepped off around 10am. Jack knew it was important to stay hydrated for the big day ahead...

Waiting is never fun - especially when you're 2 years old. Jack and Ryan made the best of it. Jack entertained himself by waving his $1 flag that I got him... while his buddy Ryan peeled a banana.

The theme this year was public safety. We had firetrucks and police cars from all over the area. When those firetrucks went by it was so loud. They had kids pulling the air horns - no pictures of that part of the parade since I had Jack in my arms and covering his ears. It was really loud! After the long line of emergency vehicles went by it was a better parade - at least for the kids. A lot of floats being pulled by dump trucks (!), tow trucks (!) and tractors (!). Jack liked that part of it the best. A lot of the kids on the parade were throwing candy. Jack enjoyed a nice root beer flavored Dum Dum during the parade.



Not sure what this was part of ... but as we know, any good parade has a rolling tiki bar?

Here is a quick video of Jack waving to the folks in the parade...

After the parade - we headed down to the high school field where there was a carnival going on. The line was about 50 people deep for a hot dog - didn't even both trying. Regardless the boys were getting tired, the parents were getting hot... and we hit the road Jack...

Red, White & Blue

Today at school they celebrated Flag Day - and asked the parents to dress the kids in red, white and blue. We complied ... seems all the other parents forgot. Whatever. So here is the outfit - he looked so freakin' cute that I just wanted to eat him. Which - according to Jack - I am not allowed to do.

Here is Jack being patriotic and handy at the same time.

Here he is chucking a soccer ball at my head. Same look in his eye he gave me last night (actually 3am) before he threw a crayon at my head. Nice.

Boo Boo

Tonight as Jack was getting ready for "night night" he ran away from me... and head first into the crib. Ouch! Here he is explaining in his own words what happened... sort of.

Time Out

Jack's old enough for time outs now... and boy is he racking them up lately. His 2 favorite things to do to earn him time alone are - yelling "no" very defiantly at either Stephen or myself and blowing raspberries at us if we're trying to give him direction. The humorous part is that - no matter where he is - he already knows where his "time out" spot is. When he's downstairs all we have to say is, "go to time out" and he runs to sit on the first step. If we are upstairs he knows to hightail it to the wing chair in the guest room. We typically keep him there anywhere from 1 to 2 minutes (1 min per year?). We talk to him about why he got the time out and then he has to apologize. But sometimes he ends up getting a time out on top of a time out! Meaning - when I'm talking to him about what he did that was inappropriate - he'll start up that same poor behavior - which lengthens the time he has to sit in time out.

Saturday is Founder's Day here in Foxboro. It's a big day. We have a parade at 10am and then the fire department will be doing demonstrations on the field (where the booths are set up). We are going to have hot dogs (which Jack now loves!), fried dough, ice cream... and other sugary foods. Fun! Fireworks start at 9:15 - don't think we'll make them again this year. Maybe next?

Cheers!

The "cheers" thing might be getting a little out of control with Jack. We do it for drinks, we do it for coffee... we now do it for... popsicles?


We had a great weekend. Headed down to the Cape yesterday to visit our friends Mark and Sue - who happen to be expecting their first this November. Hope Jack didn't scare them - even though it's too late for that anyway. They have 2 big dogs - a black lab (Sally) and a german shepherd (Rocky). At first Jack was terrified, by the time we were leaving today Jack had them following him and licking the back of his head. I think I might be a little put off my a huge furry animal staring me in the face.

Ready for Anything

Jack loves to jump and play in puddles - he might be half duck - not sure. So this morning his neighbor Lauren came over with her life jacket on, saying she's going to go to the pool and swim with it on. Jack was jealous until he found out we had one for him too.

We bought this last year. I wasn't sure if it was still going to fit him but amazingly it does - and he has not surpassed the weight restriction. FYI - his sweatpants are only rolled up because the legs were getting all wet when he was jumping in the puddles.

New Neighbors

Check out our new neighbors. They waddled over this morning to meet us.



We were a little shocked that they just came right over - considering Jack was running around the yard like a wild man all morning. Stephen fed them some bread - which he admits is not good for them - but we just wanted them to hang around so Jack could watch them. After the piece of bread was gone, they left... hope they come back!

My Cheering Section

As you may know, I started jogging in April - with the intention of running the Boston Marathon next year. Not sure that is going to happen ... 26.2 miles is a long race!

Last weekend we went to Albany so I could run the Freihofer's Run for Women - a 5K - just 3.1 miles. I ran it with Christy and Mandi - we were team "Good Time Girl." We even got matching shirts - next time we're going with another color than pink - too much pink out there these days.

I brought my own cheering section - my Mom, Dad, Rose, Stephen and of course my biggest fan - Jack all came out to cheer us on.

We started out in good spirits. Lot of people around. More than 4,000 women ran the race. How badly could I do?

Little stretching is a good thing... we tried to look like we knew what we were doing.

Started out strong. Mandi can amazingly talk and run at the same time so she was chatting along when the unthinkable happened - I had to PEE! No really, I really had to go to the bathroom. This was no joke and there were no port-a-potties on the course (probably because it was only 3 miles). At just over one mile I just couldn't take it any longer - I had to go. I told Christy and Mandi to go on... I had to go. I asked a nice man sitting outside his house if I could use his bathroom, he graciously obliged. I ran in, peed, and took back off. I tried to catch up to the GTG - but it was too late. I finished 2 minutes behind them. I had a goal of 40 minutes (told you I was slow) and I finished in just about 37 minutes - even with the pee break. So I'm happy with that. Next race I'll do better, promise.

Here's a shot of me as I'm about to cross the finish line - very happy here!

Yeah, I'm done... thanks for wishing me luck Jack!

The GTG are tired... and ready for the next race... wherever that may be.

School Update

Remember last week when I was fretting about Jack changing schools? Well, it was totally unnecessary... he LOVES it! On Friday we did a half day at the school - drop off was a little teary - but by the time we left the parking lot he was making friends. Then on Monday it was his first full day - again, very nervous and drop off didn't go the best, but as is the case with this little turkey... he turns on the waterworks for Mom and Dad and then as soon as we leave he's playing with the group.

The new school and the teachers are really impressing us. From the layout, to the lesson plans to the way they communicate with us - it's all a breath of fresh air. We are very happy with the decision. Phew.

For Stephen's birthday (which was yesterday) I had asked that during craft time that Jack make his father a birthday card. They did... and it came out so cute. So cute in fact that Stephen took it to work with him. Then yesterday - on Stephen's birthday - the director sent us an email during the day of Jack wishing Stephen a happy birthday. Here it is:


That is Jack playing on the playground. He looks a little sweaty! Gotta start dressing him in shorts... he really works up a lather playing and running around.

Firetrucks!

Since we went to Upstate NY for my run last weekend... we got a chance for Grandpa Tractor to give Jack a personal tour of the firehouse! As you may know, Jack LOVES firetrucks and pulls a pretend siren/horn with his arm when he sees a firetruck.


Jack's eyes widened at the first sight of the firetrucks and then we he got to go in them and turn on the lights... you could just see the excitement run through his whole body.


I think Stephen also got a kick out of checking out the firetrucks and quizzing Dad about how things work...
Trying on Grandpa Tractor's Chief hat...


"But Grandpa Tractor... do you think you could give me a ride in the rescue truck?"

Of course... in the front seat no less!

Look how big the trucks are... and how little Jack is...

Thanks Grandpa! You're even cooler than I thought!

Think we can do this again some time?

I took a really cute video of Jack riding in the fire truck... and for some reason I can't get it to play... ugh. Take my word for it... he loved the ride, the trucks, the sirens, the lights... the whole thing!