Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween 2009! For a while Jack was insisting on being a Stop Sign for Halloween - finally he went back to his original idea, which was to be a firefighter. Jack had a great time trick or treating with Ryan tonight. The boys went to about 5 houses, rang the doorbells, said trick or treat and collected candy. I was very proud of them. After they got some loot we staked out the front yard and handed out candy to kids walking through the neighborhood. The boys really had a great time handing out the candy - it was probably their favorite part of the night.

We also had pizza (courtesy of Tom) for dinner and watched the full moon through the spotty clouds. The weather was great - started at about 70 degrees and maybe got down into the 50s.



Jack the Firefighter with Ryan the Dinosaur.


This was from Jack's school. He was playing with the "spider web" with Abby (Sleeping Beauty) and Nick (Elmo).



Taking a Reese's Peanut Butter break while lounging in his Adirondack chair.


Here's our scary front porch. Grandma Sheep and Jack carved the big pumpkin this morning (actually Sheep also GREW the pumpkin!). I put up the Halloween tape and Stephen set up a speaker that was playing creepy Halloween music.

Fun with Furry Animals

I was concerned about taking Jack to a petting zoo over the weekend - terrified that he is going to catch that stupid H1N1. I fought my flu fears... and brought him anyway. We went with Sarah and Ryan expecting big animals... horses, pigs, chickens, cows... you know, a typical petting zoo.

Umm... not so much. Three were some chickens... and a lamb, rabbits, ducks and tiny goats. No horses. No pigs. No cows. Oh well. The boys seemed to enjoy it regardless. In fact Jack had a special place in his heart for the little black lamb. Yes, he did sing Baa Baa Black Sheep to him... and then he decided to try and feed him the hay that was there for the animals to lie on top of. The neat thing was that the pens were very little and the boys were allowed to go inside them ... and pet the animals. Hence a "petting zoo."

The boys are assessing the lamb situation.


It appears at this point that Jack is trying to let the lamb run free.
He clearly takes after Grandma Sheep.


Not sure what they were doing to the poor little rabbits here...


Getting up close and personal with the rabbits.



"Hi Mom, can we get french fries for lunch?"


Shaking the poor little goat's tail... incessantly.
Reminds me of what Jack used to do to Chatiemac.


This is supposed to be Jack giving Ryan a hug... but it looks a little more like a tackle.

Bass Pro

Who knew going to Bass Pro shops could be so entertaining for both kids and adults. Jack and I headed over there with Sarah and Ryan on Sunday afternoon. Apparently Sarah and Ryan go there all the time because Ryan has an intense love of ATVs thanks to his Grampy. So the first thing you do when you go there is sit on the ATVs outside the store. Jack chose the dark green one to try out first. These things aren't cheap either. This one was "on sale" for like 5k.

Then Ryan wanted to give Jack a ride on the red one. I think Ryan would stay here all day if his mom let him.

Then we went into the store, checked out the fish in the huge tank and then headed outside to the cranberry bog. They just turned it into a nature trail (sponsored by our friends at Ocean Spray).

Here's a nice mother-son shot...

There's a nice wooden bridge that crosses into the bog... and for some reason there's this huge sculpture of a sheep...

The Mama is History!

Last post I told you that Stephen and I were going to ban the mama. We did it. It is gone. Jack asks for it every once in awhile, but for the most part he's over it. The worst time for us is probably at nighttime. If he does ask for a mama we just remind him that he gave them to "the baby" and we don't have any in the house. Let's just hope he doesn't go in the storage closet in the garage :)

So now that we don't have Jack drinking a ton of milk every day - he's clearly turned to solid food to keep him going. I now have a full-fledged eater on my hands. For example this morning he ate 4 pieces of bacon, a mini bagel with butter, 6 strawberries and some purple juice for breakfast. Then he chowed on an apple for snack and ate 2 hot dogs with tater tots for lunch. Who is this kid? I may be saving money on milk - which he hasn't wanted all week - but the food bill is certainly going to increase. This is a good thing.

On a mission

Stephen and I are on a mission. A mission to break Jack of his addiction to the bottle - affectionately known as "the mama." On Saturday we decided that this weekend would be Jack's last one on the bottle. We did this for a few reasons - first of all, he's now 30 months old and secondly we're tired of being a slave to the bottle. So we spent the entire weekend talking to Jack about how big boys don't drink out of bottles - that only babies do. We also threw in an extra line about how we would be giving the bottles to a baby to use (he chose baby Hunter). So tonight before Jack went to bed, we had him gather up all his bottles and put them in a canvas bag. We then took the bag and hung them up on the door knob - for the baby's mom to come pick them up (you coming over Jill?). We also told him he'd be drinking his milk out of an Elmo cup from now on.

This is a picture of Jack drinking his last mama. I'm actually kind of sad. My eyes welled up as I handed it to him. My baby is a big boy :( . I'll make sure to let you know how it goes tomorrow morning - with the Elmo cup. Stephen better hide that bag of bottles...


If you watched the Patriots game tonight you know how rotten our weather was today. It was literally raining snow. Jack though it was great. I didn't. Ugh, snow.

Name Game

Here is a quick little list of "Jack-isms"...

He Ho = Horse (as of tonight Jack renamed his hobby horse - Hokey as in Hokey Pokey!)
Choo Choo = Train
Tickle = Favorite Blanket
Nemo = Jack's Fish
Bob Bob = SpongeBob
Mama = Bottle
Boon = Balloon
Popo = Butt
Ry Ry = Ryan
Firetruck Man = Fireman

Also tonight Jack was teaching me some song about bubble gum where you pull it. I had to look it up... he really liked it a lot. He is also back to wanting to be a stop sign for Halloween. Some people found directions on how to make the costume. I just might attempt it :)

Sunday is a Fun... and very busy... day.

Unfortunately I had to miss Michelle's big Boston bachelorette party last night... but I tried to "make up for it" a little bit by heading into the city with Jack this morning to meet the hungover ladies. And boy were they hungover. I think, for some of us, our tolerance for alcohol gets lower.

Anyway, Jack and I met Michelle, Christy, Mandi and Tonya (Michelle's sister) at their hotel this morning for breakfast. We decided to eat at the hotel - but there was a 20 minute wait so I had to keep Jack entertained. Fortunately there was a large staircase near the restaurant which Jack climbed up and down (only falling once). Guess what he ate for breakfast? Yep, bacon... and a big piece of cantaloupe.

After we ate the ladies decided a little fresh air was in order. We walked from the hotel, in Downtown Crossing, through Boston Common and the Public Garden. We stopped where the swans normally are to check out the waterfowl. We saw some ducks and geese... but no swans.

Jack still enjoyed the view... and Christy was on the phone (canceling her credit card misplaced the night before) and Mandi )carbo-loading to try and recover!).

From there we headed to Newbury Street... but instead of checking out overpriced high-end stores... we ended up at Filene's Basement. Everyone found something for a damn good price... and Jack... snoozed!

After the Basement we headed back to the hotel (not before running into Matt, Maria, Owen and Ethan on the street!) and Jack and I hit the road. When we got home we did some more choo choo's, ate some lunch and then decided to make chocolate chip cookies. Since Jack didn't get to see Owen and Ethan (since he was sleeping) we brought them the cookies and 2 of Jack's Halloween creations that we made last night. Owen was very gracious accepting his crafty-gift and Ethan wanted to eat it! We played outside for more than an hour and then it was time to get home to eat dinner and take a bath. We were both so exhausted... Jack feel asleep very easily and I'm heading to bed right now. Night Night.

Glitter Eyeball Pumpkins!

Jack and I were looking for something to do this afternoon so we went to Borders to get a book. Jack liked running up and down the aisles, I'm not so sure all the customers felt the same way. Oh well, if they want quiet they can go to the library. We ended up getting a Halloween Max (from Max & Ruby) book, but one other thing Jack wanted was a tub of crafty things. Problem was it was $27! I was like - what??? No way. So we bought the book and headed to Michael's to pick out our own craft supplies.


We got googley eyeballs, glitter, feathers, glue sticks, confetti ghosts and spiders, construction paper and foam pumpkins. When we got home we quickly set up our craft area (aka the kitchen table) and got to work. Jack is quite adept at the glue stick but the feathers kept getting stuck to his fingers.

Then I asked Jack what he is planning on being for Halloween... lately the answer has been a "stop sign." Not sure where he got that idea... but I do think it's creative!

"It's Sunny!"

When Jack gets up... at the crack of dawn... he yells for one person. Mommy. It's a sing-songy "Mommy" at first, but if I don't respond quickly enough the call becomes much more urgent in nature. Quick bursts of "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy." Typically it's right around 6:15 (the kid has a decent internal clock) but every once in a while the call comes before 6 which is just brutal.

Here's the thing - it's impossible to get mad at him for the early call because as soon as I go in... he points to the window and says, "it's sunny!" The rule is he's only allowed to get up when it's sunny (as opposed to pitch black outside). Even when it's raining in the morning - Jack still proclaims "it's sunny" when I walk in.


Now here's the interesting thing. When I went away with Jill on Saturday night (to the Mystic Marriott and Spa!) I was chuckling to myself that Stephen was going to have to get up early with Jack. Stephen is NOT a morning person... so when Jack woke up around 6:15 on Sunday morning he yelled for Daddy (smart kid!)... but Stephen yelled back that it wasn't sunny yet... and the kid went back to bed for an hour. What? This is so unfair.