Easter Highlights

Don't have time for much, but wanted to share some brief Easter highlights of Jackson.

Jack at the Easter carnival. He loved his blue balloon dragon, but was terrified of the Easter Bunny, so no pics of that. He kept himself buried in mom's shoulder the entire time...begging to leave.

Easter morning was exciting.

This is the first year he dyed eggs. He insisted we leave them in for a LONG time to get the color extra bright.

He mostly just dyed blue eggs...his favorite color.

He was pretty excited about the finished products.

A quick picture before the egg hunt.

Come on mom, I've waited long enough!


So proud to have found them all!

Always better to share them with dad!

Sleep Talker

Jack talks in his sleep. This is nothing new, he has done this since he was a baby; back then, however, it consisted of babbling, crying, and giggling in his sleep. I don't think we realized just how much he did it until we shared a hotel room with him in Hawaii. It's a LOT. Now that he is older, it's fun since we understand what he is saying. When he wakes from a nightmare, I am always surprised about what it was regarding. Once he told me, through tears, that his Ironman fell in the potty. Another time he was upset because his friend Jamie (from down the street) had taken his toy. Sometimes it is more vague, like when he frantically asked to "get it back."

A couple of nights ago Jack had a really bad dream and we woke to him screaming out "mommy" at the top of his lungs. Stuart graciously agreed to go to try to calm him down...okay, maybe I insisted it was his turn, but whatever...after a couple more screams, it was apparent that only mommy would calm him down and I stumbled into Jack's room to take over the situation. The second he saw me, he relaxed and for some unknown reason, he began to try to soothe me. He told me, "It's okay, you can watch turtles another time." He then pulled my head close to his, leaned his forehead against mine and whispered, "It's okay...everything's under control." All while stroking my face. Once he laid back down, I told him good night and went to leave his room, he called out, "I miss you mommy."

He's too cute and precious to be upset about the interrupted sleep.

Stuck in a Box

When Jack first called out to me, telling me he was stuck in webs, I took my time. He didn't sound upset. Oops. Guess he really was stuck.

Ben 10

About 2 weeks ago, Stuart let Jack watch an episode of Ben 10 on the Cartoon Network. I thought he was a little too young for the show and we haven't let him watch in since. 10 days ago, I was at Walmart looking at shirts for Jack when he spotted this Ben 10 shirt. He went nuts. He BEGGED for it. I relented. Jack hugged the shirt when I handed it to him and thanked me repeatedly. As soon as we got through the check out he had his shirt off and immediately put on his new Ben 10 shirt. For the next couple of days he insisted on wearing it and cried when I washed it. After 3 straight days of washing the shirt, I gave up and returned to Walmart to buy 2 more of them.

Today makes 10 straight days of Jack wearing this shirt. It cracks me up. He asks to wear to bed, but I took a hard stance against it (I need time to wash them, after all.) I told him they weren't jammies.

Jack now wants to go shopping for Ben 10 jammies.

Hair Gel

For future reference, when you child is taking too long in the bathroom and then insists that you shouldn't come in because he doesn't need your help, always be concerned.

Jack applied his entire tube of hair gel to his head because he didn't want his hair "up." He doesn't like it spiked up...ever. He wanted to ensure he slicked it down good. It was funny until I realized he was leaving a trail of goo on every surface he leaned against or laid on the rest of the day.

Even More Jack Speak

I love talking to Jack. He cracks me up every day! Here are just a few things he has told me recently.

• After explaining to Jack that Alicia was his aunt, he told me: She's not an insect mom. She's just a person.


• Stuart poked Jack with his fork when Jack tried to take food off his dad's plate. Jack got very upset and said: Dad, don't fork me! Dad, you're forking me!


• When he is sick he tells me: I'm hot like a bacon.


• I want you to be happy. Like this. (As he shows me his forced smile.)


• If he doesn't want to do something right now, he will often tell you: maybe after later


• Once I sneezed while holding him on my lap and he asked: You allergic to me?


• After prayers one night Jack asked some questions about God and where He was. After I explained it he got quiet and said: That's a lot of Gods

And my current favorite happened just the other night. In going to the bathroom before bed he somehow managed to get pee on his underpants. He told me: Oh, no! I got pee on my underpants. I laughed and told him it was okay, asking how he managed to do that. He responded: That penis was just going crazy!

More Baking with Jackson

Jack loves to help cook. Pies are fun because you get to help with the dough.

It takes a lot of concentration to get it just right.

But the finished product is well worth the effort.

Weird and Wacky Jack Fack #9

Stuart has this weird leg brace he wears to bed sometimes. It helps eliminate some foot pain that he often gets. Jack is obsessed with it. He wears it around the house all the time. He often insists on wearing to bed himself. (We take it off him after he falls asleep, of course.) I guess he just wants to be like his dad.

Jack's Bathroom

YES! Another project in the house is finished! I completed the murals in Jack's bathroom this morning. I still want to do a shark above the window, but I think I will drive my husband mad if I do another one, so I will stop...for now.

The first picture I found on-line, and Stuart loved it so much he agreed. It was the picture that inspired the entire room.

Jack had a lot of influence in the artwork this time. The crabs were funny. I didn't plan to do them, but Jack insisted on crabs. We found some pics on line that he liked. He insisted that he didn't want the mad crab, only the happy one. After I drew 2 different happy crabs on the wall he got upset that I didn't draw the mad one. So, he was a last minute addition.

Jack also influenced this picture. I planned on painting the turtle shell brown and yellow and Jack was not happy about it. He demanded the shell be green.

After drawing the baby turtle on the wall, Jack told me it was too little and I had to make it bigger. I relented and he was right, it looks better this way.

It took awhile to find a octopus picture that both Jack and I liked.

I think Jack likes his bathroom.

I'm just glad to cross another item off of my list of things to do.

Friends

Since Jack doesn't get to see his sisters very often (or his cousins for that matter,) friends are very important to him. We are very lucky to live in a place where we have great neighbors. Jack loves his friends and we try to ensure we schedule play dates as often as we can for him. I know these pics are awful, they were taken with my phone. This is Jack with two of his friends, Connor and Jamie. This is at the Play Fort in Anthem, an indoor play place for kids that is great. (His other friend Jack was there but didn't want to sit for the picture.)

I love that when I first set up neighborhood play dates (a year and a half ago) they didn't really play together. Now they are actually friends and I just love watching the relationships grow. Here is Jamie reading his book to the boys while Jack is feeding them yogurt melts.

Today we went to the park and met some older boys (7-10 years old.) The second Jack saw them, he jumped off his bike and ran over to them, telling me he had to go play with his friends. (I just love that he considers kids he has never met his friends.) The boys were very patient and took the time to play with Jack on his level. (I mean, I really love our neighbors.) Jack is a very sociable kid. I am so proud of him.

Vegas Baby!

So, April has not gotten off to a great blogging start...March 31st, Stuart and I went to Vegas for a couple of nights of alone time while Jack had his Grammie and Papa watch him. We took the camera, but only got one picture (in the hotel room) before it died and then we realized we didn't bring the charger. So, apparently, what happens in Vegas really does stay in Vegas. I did get a couple of pics on my cell phone. Stuart and I don't gamble (we're too cheap for that!) But, we do love checking out the resorts. These are at the Encore. The mosaic tiles were beautiful!

Stuart posed with Bumble Bee so that we could show Jack the pictures. Jack thought it was pretty cool. Stuart is such a great dad. He does so much for his kids.

The best part was not waking up in the middle of the night to calm nightmares and getting to take our time getting up in the morning. We loved that Jack was in good hands the entire time and got to do fun things with Grammie and Papa. We did bring the laptop to Skype with Jack, but only did it once. Jack got a little upset that he couldn't come be with us and that was too much for Stuart to take. He hates upsetting him. (I have rarely seen this man cry, but if he does it is almost certainly in regards to his children.) It was really hard, however, not getting to talk to him more. We really missed our happy boy.