The Many Faces of Jack

While in Florida on spring break, I was sitting across the pool from Jack. He was eating applesauce and I was playing with the camera's zoom feature. I took these pictures without him knowing that I was doing so. No one was near him and no one was talking to him. This is what I mean when I say that he has a million faces........

who knew that eating applesauce could evoke so many emotions?

Our little man is THREE!

Sticking with tradition, we celebrated Jack's birthday twice. Once, when we were with family and secondly, on his actual birthday. Yeah for Jack!

We snuck in a little party at the Outerbanks while most of the family was together. Being that Jack loves pirates and wanted a pirate birthday, it was the perfect place to celebrate! Jack and his cousins sported pirate tattoos (or too toos as Jack calls them) that his cousin, Megan bought for him. Keith was the "special" big cousin who was chosen to wear the last tattoo in the pack.

The kids each got a special birthday cupcake because I was too lazy to make Jack's pirate hat cake while on vacation. There was lots of singing and dancing, balloons and even some presents - does it get any better?
For his REAL birthday this week, we went swimming in the morning and then came home and played games. I made the promised pirate hat cake and we had everyone's favorite dinner - spaghetti and meatballs!

Will and Emma really had fun preparing for the birthday. Will made Jack a comic and Emma made him a very loving card.

At Jack's well check, he weighed in at 31.4 pounds and measured up to 38.5 inches. The nurse told me that his height is in the 75th percentile, but I just don't believe her. I am sure she isn't intentionally lying to me, but I do believe math isn't her strong suit.

It is hard to believe that Jack is three already. It seems like just yesterday that I was trying to induce labor with a disgusting concoction of orange juice and cod liver oil! I am sure most parents say this, but I really can't imagine life without Jack. He frustrates me daily with his strong will and independence. On the flip side, I want to squeeze him all day long because I love him so. Those cheeks are oh so kissable and his many faces make me laugh every time. I truly believe that he is an old man in a little guy's body. Some of the things he says just aren't commonly found to be coming out of a three-year-old's mouth!
Happy Birthday, Jack! We love you so!

Goodbye Pampers!

And hello more money in the pocket! For the first time in 7 1/2 years, we are no longer purchasing diapers. Well, there was a brief time before Jack was born, but it was so brief that it really didn't count.

I feel that I can safely announce to the entire world that Jack is potty trained! Wahoo!!!

It all happened on May 27th. There were issues that I won't go into and I simply told Jack that the only way to resolve the issue was to pee in the toilet. He had woken up dry that morning and I decided to keep putting him on the toilet whenever I thought about it. I really had no big expectations. In fact, we went to the outlet mall in Concord that morning, which is about 50 minutes away. That really wasn't the ideal situation to potty train, but then, I really wasn't planning to! He wore a diaper (from the previous day) and kept it dry into the evening. Logic told me that if he could stay dry for 12+ hours, this child was ready to wear underwear. So, the next day he wore his little boxers just like his big brother and the rest is history! I never put another diaper on him. I am guessing that he has had less than 5 pee accidents since then, but poo is another story. He did well at first and then changed his mind around the time that we were going on vacation. Thank goodness we had a washer and dryer at the vacation house! But, since returning home, he has decided that it much better to skip the middle man and just put it right in the toilet. Again, wahoo!!!!

We've been doing pull ups at night only, but he has only wet in them twice since May 27th. So, tonight is the big leap into wearing underwear at night. Stay tuned for that outcome!

I know it is easier said than done, but seriously, kids will potty train when they decide they are ready. I knew I was pushing Will, but I just couldn't stop myself. Let this be a lesson to all of you who have yet to potty train a child. Don't worry about when YOU think they should be trained. Let it up to them and it will be a stress-free, positive experience for everyone involved.

Hmm.....that line should be in a commercial.

Swimming, swimming...just keep swimming.....

Yep. I have the Dory song running (or would it be swimming?) through my head. We've been doing pretty much nothing but swimming for the past week and a half. We left for vacation at the Outerbanks on June 8th and swam everyday for 7 days. Upon our return, we've been to the pool twice daily. Normally, we would only be there in the morning for swim team practice. However, Will is also going to Cub Scout camp this week and can't make the morning session. This forces us back to the pool in the evening so he can get practice in.

Today, we were at the pool in the morning for Emma's team practice and stayed longer so Jack could get in a swim lesson. As soon as we got home from picking up Will from camp in the afternoon, we packed up again and headed to our first swim meet. We were there from 5:15 - 8:00. Normally, we would have been there until after 9:00, but I requested that the kids swim early due to camp starting at 8:15 the next morning. Whew! Did you catch all of that?!

Thank goodness everyone LOVES to swim! The kids did GREAT at the meet tonight. All of the practice has paid off because neither Will nor Emma had to stop to make it to the other end of the pool. We weren't the fastest, but we weren't the slowest either!!!! HOORAY!!!! This may not seem like a big deal, but just last year at this time, Emma couldn't even swim!

Words cannot express how much pride I felt tonight. To give you a good idea, Emma told me after Will was done that I had hurt her ear from screaming too loud!

Now, I am going to make my dinner since I was too nervous at the meet to eat. I am going to dine on hot, out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies. MMMMM......... I promise to post pictures and details of our Outerbanks trip soon.

Too Busy!

I can't even believe that I haven't had time to blog everything that has been going on here in the past month. I knew we have been busy, but when I look back at the calendar, I realize just HOW busy! Since the last blog, we spent Spring Break in Orland with our awesome friends from Detroit, we got a surprise visit Allan's sister, Debbie and brother, Dennis, we were visited by Allan's nephew, Chris, his wife, Jill and their incredibly cute little guy, Wyatt, Nana made it down for Emma's preschool graduation, Allan and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary, I enjoyed a wonderful Mother's Day with my awesome children, I painted the family room and half bath, Will has had two baseball games and one practice each week, Will and Emma joined the swim team at a nearby pool, we've had end-of-the-year parties for Emma and Jack, we traveled to Ft. Bragg to visit Chris and Sonya and had a ton of fun at the All American festivities.........hmmmm.....I am sure I missed something, but who knows what?!

I would love to write about all of these events and activities, but it would seriously take me over a month to catch up. So, I am going to post a few pictures with the intention of creating a space on the blog to view them all and maybe someday write more detail about everything that happened.

Talk Fest '08

Trying to catch up on blogging, I am going to start back at the first weekend in April. My friend since grade school, who I never get to talk, was actually able to get away for a weekend to visit us! She and her daughter, Claire arrived on Friday afternoon. Believe it or not, we had a lot to catch up on, so we got down to the business of talking right away! It should also come as no surprise that Emma and Claire hit it off right away. They were in their own little girl world and we hardly knew they were here.
Saturday morning we woke up to the news that Skybus had folded and there would be no return flight for Amy and Claire. I think both Amy and I thought Allan was playing a seriously bad joke on us. Luckily, we got busy finding alternate ways to travel back to Ohio and they had a rental car booked that morning. I think we all were thanking God that we don't live any farther than 7 hours away!
We continued our "talk fest" as Allan termed it throughout the rest of the weekend. We also managed to fit in a little shopping at the outlets (girls only!). I'm not sure if it was due to our talking or what, but for some reason, we only made it into three stores at the mall before returning home to the guys.
Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and we weren't able to take in some of my outdoor ideas. Fortunately, we still had lots to talk about, so we drank a little wine, relaxed and talked!
Even though the flight situation was a huge bummer, we had a great weekend. It was so nice to catch up with an "old" friend who has been like a sister to me for an unmentionable number of years. We definitely need to do it more often.

Toothless!

It finally happened! Will LOST his first tooth. He has had three teeth pulled prior to this, but he finally was able to lose one on his own. Hurray! It happened on Tuesday night after dinner. Dad was tired of this lose tooth "hanging around", so he suggested that Will tie fishing line around it and then pull.

I should also point out that Will's two top front teeth have no roots. They have been gone since his last dentist visit in February, according to the x-ray.

So, Will went along with the fishing line idea, but insisted that HE be the one to pull the tooth out. After gently pulling a few times, he decided that he was done with this idea and he would wait a little longer to remove the tooth. Dad said that he would take the fishing line off and, can you believe it? the tooth came off right with the fishing line! :) What a sneaky dad! It happened so fast, that Will didn't even know what had happened. We picked the tooth up off the kitchen floor and ran to the mirror to see our new Will. What a look! To make things worse, the other front tooth is still hanging on crooked and he REALLY looks goofy.

That night, Will put his tooth in a glass for the fairy. Can you believe the fairy was so busy that night that she didn't get to Will? (my nomination for Mother-of-the-Year was revoked because of this) Will patiently waited and thank goodness, she got to him last night. She left him two gold coins and her dress turned the water orange this time!