Aunt Jose

Jack was on a "No way, Jose" kick for a while about about a month ago. He didn't just say "no." He said, "No way, Jose!" On Father's Day, we went out to eat with Kyle's side of the family and Jack started by telling his Aunt Katie, "No way, Jose" and by the end of dinner, he was calling her Aunt Jose.

Well, Aunt Jose came to babysit him tonight and he had such a good time. When I got home, she was telling me about all of the games that they played - Hi, Ho Cherry-O, Don't Break the Ice, Memory, etc. I know how much patience it takes to play those games at all . . . but to play them with my two year old? She's a saint.

So when she finished telling me all of this, I just looked at her and said, "God bless you."

Jack started giggling and said, "God did not sneeze!" Too funny.

After Katie left, I laid in bed with Jack for a little while and we talked. When I was getting ready to leave, I said, "Did you know that God made you special?"

"Yeah. God lives in my heart."

"He does? I'm so glad to hear that."

He thought for a moment, lifted up his shirt and said, "He poke out of my belly like baby brother?"

Even funnier.

Bedtime story

When I went to get Jack to take him to lunch today, he turned to me and yelled, "STOP TALKING TO ME! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Heartwarming, no?

But he made up for it tonight.

After I read to Jack tonight, I laid my head down on his mattress and just sat with him for a few minutes. After it was quiet for a bit, he said, "Hey, kid!" I just kind of laughed and he giggled back. We never refer to him as "kid" and I don't recall him ever referring to me as "kid" before. I wonder if he's picking this stuff up from our young teen campers. In any case, it cracked me up.

He said it again, "Hey, kid!"

"What?"

"God! Loves! You! So! Much!" he yelled.

"I know he does. It's bedtime though. It's time to whisper.

A few seconds later he whispered, "Guess who?" Which is what he usually says when he means to ask, "Guess what?"

"What?" I responded.

"I love you." He said it in a high pitched voice mimicking the style in which I often tell him that I love him.

"I love you, too, Jack."



I love that kid.

No date, just breakfast . . .

This kid says the funniest things.

Last Friday, Jack woke up and I asked him if he wanted to go on a breakfast date with mama. He said, "No date. Just breakfast." I guess he thought we were moving our relationship a little too fast . . .

So we went to breakfast and to shop for Father's Day gifts. I thought Father's Day was last weekend, so I didn't realize I had another week! On our way into town, Jack said, "Mama, where did Jesus go?" He says a lot of things like this, including telling me often that he's "going to heaven to live with Jesus." To which I respond, "Yes, but that might be a long time from now." And then I pray and pray and pray that I'm right.

Anyway, I answered him and said, "Where do you think Jesus went?" He responded, "Jesus lives in my heart." I hadn't ever heard that from him before, but figured Kyle or one of his babysitters had talked to him about it or read about it to him in one of his books. I said, "Yes, you're right, Jesus wants to live in our hearts."

Later, I wanted him to repeat it for his dad and I said, "Jack, tell dad where Jesus lives?" And he replied, "In Chicago." Hmmmm . . .

When we were out, I let him play with my (locked) phone for a while to keep him occupied. At one point, he put it up to his ear and said, "Hi dad . . . we be home soon . . ." Later, I asked him if he called daddy and he said, "No, just textin' him."

Bedtime is slowly getting more manageable now that he has his new bed mattress on the floor. It does allow for me to lay with him for a little while before bed. He always asks, "Is mama gonna cuddle with me?" When I do, he wraps his arm around me and says, "It's ok, mama, it's ok." I don't usually say that to him, so it always cracks me up! Where does he get this stuff? He also give me unprompted "I loooove yous" in the same tone of voice that I say it to him at night. While it still takes a LONG time and a LOT of effort to get him down, I sure do love our cuddle times.

On the way to camp this morning (we drive separately), Kyle called me to let me know that Jack was in the back seat crying, "I want my Sara!"

What a funny kid.

Promise?

When we tell Jack, "no" to something, he's started saying, "We'll see? We'll see?" As if maybe he can get us to reconsider. I do say "we'll see" a lot.

If we say "yes" to something, he's started responding with "Pwomise?" Seriously? Have we been that untrustworthy? Who taught him to say that? We can't think of anyone he's around who would teach him to say that.

What a funny kid.

We had a busy week and we have a busier weekend ahead. I'll update more when I have time.

And breathe . . .

Let's catch up.

The Monday before thanksgiving (or was it Wednesday) Jack and I built a snowman in the front yard. The kid LOVES to play in the snow. He hugged the snowman (there will be photos on my photo blog if I ever get it updated), patted the snowman and built a deep attachment to him. As I set him up for a final photo before naptime, he put his hand on the snowman and inadvertently tipped him over. He looked up at me as if to say, "WHAT DID I JUST DO?!" His lip started to quiver and he struggled to hold it together. And he did. I think it's the worst to see your child wanting to cry, but holding it in. It's almost less painful for you as a parent if they just let it all out!

Thanksgiving was great! It was so nice to be away from a computer screen for a while . . . though if you ask my family, they'll probably tell you I spent a lot of time in front of the computer. We went to my parents house on Wednesday and stayed through Friday. Family came to their house and we ate . . . a lot. On Friday morning, my mom, sister and I went shopping with all of the black Friday crazies. And, I will say that we got some tremendous deals. My parents flew to Puerto Rico for their cruise on Saturday, so when we left on Friday they sent us home with ALL of the leftovers. Jack refused the turkey on Sunday because he was so sick of it. The highlight of the weekend had to be Jack saying "gobble, gobble" every time someone said "turkey." It came out more like "Lollal, lollal."

Jack is pretty much a different kid since I last wrote about him. He communicates so well and I feel like we're in a virtual explosion of language growth right now. He says "tadaaa" whenever he does something . . . whether it be good or bad. I walked into his room and he had pulled everything out of his closet. I said, "What did you do?!" And he looked up at me and said "tadaaa." He constantly wants to see football, basketball, baseball or hockey on tv and identifies the sports pretty well. I seriously feel like he's changing so fast right now, and I'm so busy, that there's no way of recording all of the fun stuff he says. He's also become more ornery and will just collapse to the floor in a fit of drama that I've never seen before when we ask him to do something he'd rather not do.

His 18 month check up was on Tuesday. He's grown 2 inches in the last 3 months and gained a little under a pound. He's still off the charts for height, but he's in the 95th percentile for weight. Yay for being on the charts! I didn't get to talk to the doctor as much as I would have liked about vaccines because I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked and I was going on about 4 hours of sleep. But I did find out that the flu shots at the office are thimerosol-free and that's the only one that he needed.

After his appointment, we took him down the street to the Treehouse which was a first for us. It was fantastic. It's this huge indoor playground, but it was way better than a playground. We were there right when it opened and stayed for 1 1/2 hours, so Jack was one of five kids there the whole time. It might not have been as great if there were more kids. There was a two year old who shoved Jack down 6 or 7 times. Yikes. When telling my mother-in-law about it, she told me that Jack actually pushes Emma down sometimes. Yikes, again.

Last night, we did our annual live nativity at camp. It's a ride through on a horse drawn wagon . . . and it is COLD outside. Did anyone hear my radio interview on Friday about it? We taped it on Wednesday and I totally forgot to listen yesterday! It's usually the thing that kicks off the Christmas season for me. This year, it's the thing that is helping restore the Christmas spirit that had already begun to wane.

The past week has been insane, but I am seriously so thankful for the business. But I'm not going to lie . . . I need sleep. So, so badly. I have two photo sessions to process, one youth camp brochure to finish up and many card orders that I'm waiting to hear back on. I have been confronted with a few stinkers this season, but overall, I have worked for some lovely people and have found some great new blogs!

Speaking of blogs . . . I'm going to try and catch up with the 1772 blog posts in my reader. Seriously, you people write a lot.

Watching my mouth . . .

Whenever I tell Jack that I love him, he signs "thank you" back to me. Isn't that the ultimate form of rejection? At one point, he would try and repeat what I was saying when I told him I loved him, but he doesn't any more. He just signs, "thank you." I'm working on a solution to this one.

His vocabulary seems to be exploding. Every day, there's a new word he says or a new object he recognizes. When I got him out of bed this morning, he was copying every sound that came out of my mouth. It's amazing to see someone changing so much every day. It's awe-inspiring, really.

One of his favorite new words is, "tractor." We have lots of those at camp, and he pointed them out to me when we saw them tonight. I'm just hoping his next words aren't "NASCAR" or "mullet."