Crib Fun

Last night Ryan came over for a quick visit (while Tom asked Stephen a question) and they immediately ran up to Jack's room to play. Why do kids love to have other kids visit their room? Jack was very proud to show Ryan around, let him ride He-Ho and handed him a few books to read. Very good sharing - very impressed. Then they decided they wanted to jump around in the crib. They jumped like monkeys. They laid down to pretend they were sleeping (with fake snoring too!). They shoved stuffed animals in each others faces. All around a good time...


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The pictures are a little blurry because they were moving so fast and the camera on my BlackBerry can't keep up with the activity level of a 2 year old.

New Apparatus for Pool Time

Jack loves a good dip in the pool - but I have a problem with it - my arms gets so tired flinging him around in the water. So when I was in WalMart (never again!) on Saturday, we found this cool shark floatie thingie. A woman buying one said it's her son's favorite thing... so I was sold. And she was right. This was a great purchase. It goes around his arms and then wraps around his chest - giving him a lot of support - and resulting in some real independence.

He actually doesn't mind that water gets into his ears... he just has to work on keeping his mouth shut.


Afterward, there was still a request to have Mommy wrap him in a towel and warm him up.

Feeding the Cows

Down the road from us there is a small farm - not even sure you would characterize it as a farm - it's a house with a barn and a few big hairy cows. Anyway - Jack likes to say hi to them as we pass each morning and afternoon. When Grandma Sheep was here last week - Jack got to see the cows up close and personal. This is the "baby" cow with my baby...

Surprise!

This post pretty much speaks for itself... what did I do wrong?

A quick trip...

Stephen spent all last week in Denver... so what do you want to do when you get home from a long week of working on the road? Right - head to Upstate NY to renovate a bathroom. When Stephen's plane landed at 7pm on Friday evening, Jack and I were there to greet him, but not before running through Logan and going up and down the escalators a dozen times. We also played in the children's area where they had a replica of a plane to play in.

Got into Queensbury late Friday night and Stephen got up bright and early on Saturday and started digging in. Meanwhile Jack and I (with Grammy) did errands and played assistant for the Stephen and Pooh. We swam (pictures to come), we ate popsicles, we helped water the new flowers in the front of the house.

He was "helping" but also ended up getting totally soaking wet - which necessitated the third clothing change of the day.


What is this move?



Now that's a steady stream...


So after a fun-filled Saturday - it was time to hit the road on Sunday mid-morning. Jack and I headed out while Stephen stayed behind the finish the bathroom project. All was good... until a few miles before Exit 9 on the Mass Pike.

Traffic at a standstill. You know it's not good when there is no traffic coming in the other direction and the people in front of you are getting out to walk their dogs. Turns out there was a rollover just a mile ahead of us and they had to land the medical chopper on the Pike. Just slowed us down for about 45 minutes. We were heading back to be home in time for Ryan's 2nd birthday party. We were fashionably late - but we had a good excuse. Ryan got a great new motorized car for his birthday. Here is a picture of Jack taking it for a spin - with 9 month old Hunter in the back... yikes!


That car goes pretty fast... hopefully being able to ride in Ryan's every once in a while will satisfy Jack - we shall see. As Ryan's grandfather told me - Target has one in red too :) (actually found this one that I like...)

Swimming Time

Finally the clouds and rain have hit the road and summer is finally here. That means we can finally use the pool in our neighborhood and put all those swimming lessons at the Y to good use.

Jack has no hesitation getting into the kiddie pool. It's the perfect size and depth for him - just 1 foot deep... which also helps with the water temperature.

Grandma Sheep was a good sport and took Jack to the pool on Sunday and again on Monday (he played hooky from school today!).

Look at that body! He kind of needs a tan... no?

He pretends to walk like a crab in the water... and practices blowing bubbles. One thing he's had to learn at the pool is to close your mouth when you fall over. He learned this the hard way!

Playing games with Grandma Sheep.


One funny thing about Jack is that out of the blue he'll declare that he's cold and needs his towel - even when it's really hot out and there's not even a breeze. He makes this face like he's is out in 10 degree weather. I'm pretty sure it's all an act...

Zoo 2009

Last year we took Jack to the Roger Williams Zoo for the first time - he enjoyed the giraffes and strolling around. Today Mom and I took him back - boy what a difference! This time he really seemed to love all the animals (they had just "studied" the Safari in school last week) and have a great time. The weather was great too... all sun and no clouds - yeah!

We started our with the zebras - which Jack insisted were "he-ho's" (horses). Then we quickly came up on the the elephants and zebras - a HUGE hit with Jack this time.


We got to watch the elephants get a bath. It's amazing how much water then can hold in their trunks - like up to 4 gallons!

Whoa - a real sheep. Baaaa....

Walking to the next exhibit alongside "Sheep."

A cool wall of water - that a lot of kids got totally soaked while playing in it. Fortunately Jack kept that to a minimum.

He also loved the monkeys - but I don't have any pictures of those. They were little blonde tamarins...

And we ended the day at the zoo with Jack's first ride on a carousel! He really loved it - and I tried not to throw up watching them go around and around and around.

What did Jack do today? Answers and video below:

What Jack did today (in no particular order):

• played with choo choo's
• watched Caillou
• ate bacon
  
• drove Daddy to the airport
• went to Target
  
• saw a wild turkey in a parking lot
  
• missed Daddy
  
• made pasta and butter for dinner
• watched Scooby Doo
• went to Stop & Shop
  
• said hello to a policeman
  
• took a nap
• shaved my legs (just kidding)
  
• went to a friends 1st birthday party
• ate a "Hoodsie"
• jumped in a bouncey-bounce
• waited for Grandma Sheep to arrive
• played with Play-doh
• got new water shoes
• ate an apple
• yelled at my servant (aka Mom)
  
• rode on a cool Thomas the Train at Owen's
  
• asked to go pee pee on the potty and did (!)
• ate a popsicle (aka freeze pop)
• ate lunch from Wendy's

A Big Helper

Jack likes to be part of all the action... and that includes helping us with chores around the house. You know he's an zealous vacuumer. He is pretty decent at picking up his toys.

Today Jack decided outdoor work was where he needed to pitch in. When Stephen was mowing the lawn - Jack was watching. When Stephen was using the blower - Jack was in his arms. When Stephen was weed whacking - Jack was screaming at me to let him outside (I'm doing a decent job of playing the buzz kill). And when Stephen was covering up the gas grill after making some chicken - Jack was there to lend a hand.





I'm sure this phenomenon will wear off just when I actually need him to start helping out.

Are mosquitoes ruining anyone else's time outside? Ever since the rain stopped the mosquito population has exploded. You can't be outside for 2 seconds without getting eaten alive. Now I have to fully coat Jack in bug spray before even venturing outside for a few minutes. Almost wishing for the rain to come back - almost.

Pool Time

Finally the sun is shining - summer has arrived! Neighbor Sarah and I took the boys to the pool yesterday for a little splashing around. The water in the kiddie pool is really warm (I'm sure for 2 reasons - it's shallow... and gets plenty of "deposits").

Here are the boys - pre-pool.



Here they are post-pool. Hard to take pictures "during pool" because my camera isn't waterproof - and there's a lot of water involved.


The boys are definitely good at chillin' and relaxin'... ahh... it's good to be 2!

Slip Sliding Away

Saturday evening at Grandpa Tractor's, Jack's cousin Kyle insisted on setting up the Slip and Slide. No matter that it was 7pm and like 55 degrees. Jake and Kyle had fun slipping down the plastic ... Jack enjoyed watching them at first. Then he insisted on joining in. Since I didn't have his bathing suit on, I just stripped him down to his diaper and let him go for it.


Here's an action shot of Jake...


And a short video... watch the first 2 seconds very carefully - see Jack try to knock himself out.

The 3 boys really had a really good time playing with each other. It's a shame they live on opposite coasts :(

What does a pirate say?

Arrrrrrrgh! Today at school they had a guest come in to read a book. It was a pirate! To celebrate they made pirate hats...

Jack modeled the hat for us during dinner. Yes, he is eating bacon for dinner. We called it his pirate's booty.


He loves to act like a pirate. And a dinosaur. And a tiger. And definitely an elephant - trunk, foot stomping and all.

Tractors and Cows - oh my!

Big weekend for Jack - not one, but TWO tractor rides from... Grandpa Tractor. The first time they headed down the driveway to visit the cows, got a big scoop of dirt from somewhere and then brought it back up to the house to dump behind the "barn."



Sunday morning Jack coerced several different people to walk down the driveway with him... including me. We sat down after a bit and looked at the cows ... off in the distance. Actually we yelled at them.



Jack saw the mommy cows feed the babies "real mama's." As you know, Jack calls a bottle of milk a mama... he found this "from the source" method quite intriguing. Hopefully he doesn't want to go back to that way - not sure I have anything to offer him :)

Happy Birthday Grandma Rose!

Someday, Jack will hate me for this...

But he's the one who made me get into a freezing cold pool with him this afternoon. The pool is heated - but we hadn't planned on going in so the hot water wasn't pumping through the system. It was an impromptu swim. It started with putting our feet in... to wading on the first step... to taking off his shorts and shirt... and finally to stripping off the diaper. I even took Jack by the arms and dipped him in the pool - he loved it. Tomorrow we'll turn on the heat and we will hopefully get some good pool-time before heading down to my grandmother's 89th birthday party.

Marching

Jack loves to march... and dance. Tonight Jack mixed the two with Pooh...