Jack's Playroom

Before I get to the Christmas postings, I thought I would share some pics of Jack's completed playroom. As he grows and develops new interests, we are constantly rearranging it, so I thought I would share what it looks like today. It's right outside his bedroom and bathroom, so it's kinda like having his own wing of the house. Spoiled boy!


Notice we converted his train table to a LEGO table last year. Yup, he's growing up fast! If you've never seen this, it's because we put his LEGOs away before other kids come over. Mommy does NOT want to rebuild these LEGOs again!


Tom's home...I think he is a little lonely with Jerry gone.

Notice his reading table is getting taken over by HEX bugs.

Man, does this kid have a lot of toys!

Have I mentioned the fact that I cleaned out my storage closet to make him a Star Wars room? I'll post pics if I ever get that one finished. Yes, I know, I need help. But, I love getting to relive being a kid with him.

I LOVE Making this Boy Smile

About a week before Christmas, I was out shopping and found these new pajamas. Jack needed new winter jammies, so I bought them. Now, he always gets to open one present on Christmas eve, and they are always pajamas, so I already had a pair of Darth Vader ones wrapped under the tree. These, however, were a much bigger hit! The minute he saw them, he stripped down and put them on (it was lunchtime.) He then wore them for the next day and a half before we convinced him they needed to be washed. I should have saved them for Christmas. Oh well. Look how happy he is in his Tom & Jerry jams!

Edible Ornaments

Mmmm...rice crispy treats. For all the baking Jack and I have done together over the years, we have never made rice crispy treats. So, we decided to make rice crispy treat ornaments. Jack had so much fun. He especially loved rubbing butter on his hands so that he could shape the treats into balls. The messier the project, the more fun it is!

And don't forget the decorating.

This is serious work.

I thought they turned out pretty cute.

But, Jack wasn't satisfied until he had squeezed the entire tube of sparkle blue icing onto the ornament.

Don't question his artistic vision, because the result is pretty spectacular.

Homemade Christmas

One of the best things about Jackson going to preschool is that he makes some cool things to bring home.

I love every one of them too!

This Year's Ornament...

Every year Jack gets to pick out a new ornament for the tree. I like that when he is older, I will be able to look back and be reminded of what he was interested in as he grew. He often surprises me by what he selects. This year I thought for sure he would pick a Star Wars ornament, but instead, he went with Tom & Jerry. He loves it!

Winter Festival

Recently, our neighborhood held it's winter festival. Because we had just spent the previous weekend visiting Santa, we decided to skip that portion and enjoy the other festivities. They had a cute little train for the kids to ride, but Jack couldn't wait. He immediately headed over to the snow!

We didn't plan ahead and just grabbed a plastic box lid for Jack to use as a sled. It didn't work and stalled him in the snow after just a few feet. Another family was kind enough to let Jack use their inflatable tube for a run down the hill.

After that, Jack was happy just playing in the snow.

Dad had to talk to him about throwing snowballs at kids. (The boys at the park didn't mind, but the little girls seemed a little upset when they got hit.)

Jack was thrilled when his friends Connor and Elaina showed up to play.

Yes, Jack hit Connor's dad too...no one was safe.

He had a blast.

Then it was time for the bounce houses!

Then, back home to dry off, warm up, and have some milk and donut holes. (And, yes, he is naked from the waist down under that blanket...who is really surprised by that?)

Visiting Santa

I had a crazy idea a couple of weeks ago to drive to Anthem to see the largest cut Christmas tree in North America. I thought if we got there right when they opened, we could also see Santa and avoid a big line. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea. It was FREEZING cold. And, everyone in front of us had multiple kids...that each needed an individual picture with Santa, and a group picture with all the kids with Santa, and one with the parents...you get the idea. We waited in line for 2.5 hours! We tried suggesting to Jack that we come back another day, but he was already too excited. Stuart actually had time to drive home, grab some heavy jackets and come back.

The tree was impressive, as usual.

I was so impressed with Jack. He played with all the kids in line. He was so outgoing. He would go up and introduce himself and ask if they wanted to play. (Of course, once it got a little weird when he approached a couple of older girls and said, "Hi, I'm Jack. Do you like candy? I've got candy in my pocket." We'll have to work on that approach.)

By the time we got close, Jack was literally, jumping with joy.

When it was his turn, he didn't hesitate, but went right up to Santa and climbed on his lap.

He's so grown up!

It's a Star Whores Christmas

This year, Jack picked Star Wars for the little Christmas tree in his room. (Or, as Jack would say, Star Whores.) I found a string of Yoda lights on-line that were super cute and some cheap Star Wars ornaments.

I love the way it turned out this year.

Blue Goo

OK, I know I'm behind on the blog. I have written lots of blog posts in my head, but just haven't had the time to post them. So, hang in there while I catch everyone up on all things Jack.

A few weeks ago, I ordered Jack some bathtub goo. He was so excited. You put the powder in the tub and it turns the water to goo; when you are done, you add another powder to turn it back to bathwater. Jack picked out the blue goo. It was a hit.

It was pretty cool. If it were cheaper, I would order it all the time.

Look At Me Now!

Jack found his dad's roller blades in the garage. They are a size 13. Jack doesn't care. He insists on wearing them all the time. He loves them. It is so cute!

Weird and Wacky Jack Fact #12

I think I may have mentioned that Jack talks in his sleep. A LOT. As he gets older, it is funny because we can better understand what he is saying. Now, Jack is great when it comes to bedtimes. We kept him in a crib till he was around 3 and were clear that if he wanted a big boy bed, he was NOT allowed to get out of it in the middle of the night until we gave him permission (except to use the bathroom.) This is a zero tolerance policy in our house and it works great. Jack calls to us from his room if he needs us (even in the morning) and stays there until we tell him he can get up...as a result, we get no middle of the night visitors. It's pretty awesome. But, because we cannot hear his room from our room, we still use a monitor. So, we are privy to lots of his night time talking. Some of the things we have heard:

• One night he yelled out, "Look at all the LEGOs!"


• The other night we could hear him loudly exclaim, "Say excuse me Dad!" over and over.


• A recent nightmare had him crying, very hard. The reason is not really clear, but he said something like, "They ate without me. Mom, you ate without me!" He was VERY upset.

I really wish I wrote more of these down, but I'm usually pretty tired when they happen. Seriously, some of them are hysterical...but I can't for the life of me recall any. Such is life.

Worn Out

What happens when you spend the day after Thanksgiving playing with your favorite cousin, Bremen at Grammie and Papa's house? You fall asleep in the car on the ride home...at 5pm! And, you sleep until 6:30 the next morning!

Awesome.

Thanksgiving

I know I have much to be thankful for that I won't get into in this post, but know that this cute kid is at the top of my list!

Thanksgiving day was a quiet dinner for 3 in our house. Jack helped make the pie. Well, after he kept stealing my pie dough, I gave up and made a second batch of it and let him just go crazy with his. He felt it was too dry and needed more water. It was a disgusting mess...but oh, so much fun!

Dinner was very nice. Jack was excited because it was the first time he got to use grown up dishes, including a wine glass filled with Sprite.

As well behaved as he was, he still doesn't have much patience, so it was a quick dinner. He ate very little. I was impressed that he ate broccoli (although I'm sure it helped that I made it with a cheese sauce.) His favorite, not surprisingly, was the dinner role.

Yup, he makes holidays fun.

I love the enthusiasm of a 4 year old. Life is good.

My Cat Spider

So, Jack really wants another pet. Don't misunderstand, he loves his robot butterfly, his fish, and his guinea pig, but he wants a pet he can play with; so, he continually asks for a cat or a dog. I made a very big mistake a couple of months ago and told him he once had a cat named Spider, when he was a baby, and that we gave him to another family because Jack was allergic. (All true. However, Jack appears to have outgrown the allergies because he has no problem being around cats and dogs now.) I never should have said that to Jack. For WEEKS he couldn't stop talking about his pet Spider and could we please get him back? Sheesh. To shut him up, Stuart told him Spider died. Now, we don't know this for a fact, but it is highly possible since Spider was at least 11 or 12 when we found him a new owner 4 years ago. So now Jack still asks about Spider, but less often. He tells everyone that he has a cat Spider who is in heaven.

When taking out the Christmas decorations, I found this stuffed cat. The girls bought it for me years ago and they used white-out to paint whiskers on it so that it would look like my cat spider. (It was very sweet.) I explained the story to Jack and now he is very loving with his new stuffed cat spider. But, he still reminds me that one day, when he dies, he will see his cat spider when he is in heaven.