The True and Tried Method

When Jack was younger, Brian used to do this thing to Jack called the "Jacky Butt". It was a name for a napping method that Brian had for Jack.
Basically, he would put him on the bed when Jack was super cranky, and blow on his belly to make him feel better and more relaxed. The more Brian did it, Jack would relax which at that point Brian just eased the technique and eventually Jack would fall asleep.
This happened when Jack was around 2 years old. Brian hasn't done it since then because Jack doesn't nap anymore.
Until today.
New Years Eve - Jack and Brian were playing around when Brian decided to do that to Jack, just for old time's sake. I said to place Jack on the couch, as I was curious to see if Jack would really nap again after a two year span of not getting the Jacky Butt .It worked and Jack is sleeping on the couch as I type this.
Happy end of 2011. I have two boys napping at the same time. Now unto some Breaking Bad episodes for me and Brian.

The Magic Puppy

Charlie recieved this little play dog for Christmas that sings lullabies. It's preey funny because you press the button and this announcer says" 20 minutes of lullabies"followed by yes, 20 minutes of sweet slow music.
Christmas night, we placed Charlie in the bed, tightly swaddled and played the puppy music. He just lay there and I thought he was about to cry, since the music was a bit slow and sounded sad.
But his little eyes closed and fell asleep.
And woke up at 4am. When all this time, he has been waking up almost every two hours.
Woke up only one time?? Is this the answer to our sleepless night prayers? Is this really the magic puppy?
And did I junx myself by stating how well he has slept these past two nights?

For anyone that wants to know, this magic puppy is from the makers of Leap frog. Thanks Leap frog. My tired eyes and body thanks you for giving us some good night's rest.

The Christmas of 2011

My kids are eternally lucky.
One kid has a birthday in November and the other has a birthday in January. Do the math and that means that they get double the presents within a month apart.
See, lucky.
Also, that means that we are screwed because now til forever, we have to figure out what to get them for their birthday that they are not going to get on Christmas. And which day do we deem more important? The anniversary of their birth, or the anniversary of baby Jesus? Since they know nothing about baby Jesus, but a whole lot of Santa, it is hard to see what to get for on what day.
This Christmas was insane with toys and items. For both of them. I thank their grandparents and the aunts and uncles, but it was a lot of stuff. All great stuff, especially since Jack got  exactly what he wanted this year. His face was one of surprise when I told him that Santa knew exactly what he wanted. The lightbulb went off for Jack and I could feel that he was thinking "Whoa , that Santa is goood! "
I felt like I had to compose a schedule for the day; just to make sure all the toys were being played with.
9am - Legos
10am- Playmobil
10:30 - Thomas and the train table
12 - lunch
1pm read (you get the picture)
My mind fast forwarded over to Jack's birthday, which is less than a month. How can I compose an email to the would be gift givers and say "Jack needs only underwear and socks. Thank you"
Is that nice to say? Can I tell people what to give as a gift? I am not sure, as this blog says, I am a new mom.
With a 4 yr old and a 1 month old, all of this still feels very new to me.

The Favorite Hobby

In the category of "We must be doing something right", Jack loves to take photos. Loves to hold cameras, loves to look at where he can take a photo.
Enough said.

The Christmas Tradition

We have a pretty sweet train to go around the Christmas tree every year that was The Polar Express. Jack got Thomas last year, and that easily trumped the Polar Express as now the main train around the tree.
This was Brian and Jack putting it up this past Thursday, now with a new member of the team Charlie. Although this was right in the midst of Charlie's nap, so he couldn't be bothered with such tasks as placing trains on tracks.

The One Month Mark

One month of being a parent of two. What a tiring ride. But we are getting better at it. And I am happy to report that now, Brian and I are actually able to watch a show here and there before we go to bed. The hardest part of this is that we are getting right into the winter weather. It has been cold this past month and I have been at home a lot more than I would like to. Thank you to my husband for always trying to get me to go out. Even if it is grocery shopping, at least it is going out somewhere. As I write this, today is supposed to be 50 degrees, yet rainy all day. There goes my one chance to go out and walk around the block. Such is life.

Charlie , on the other hand, has been amazing to watch. He likes to do this boy cries wolf act, where in the middle of the night, he will wail and scream for about 4 times before he actually wakes up to feed. All the while, I am lying in bed, waiting for the moment where I really have to get up. Charlie, you are very unlike your brother at this age. Jack slept the whole night and wouldn't want to eat at night. You , on the other hand, love to get up and eat. It's alright. It's been a month now. I am finally getting used to it.
You are now staying more awake in the morning. It's fun to watch your little face look around and stare. Even though if you are staring at the window blinds. That's ok, you never knew what window blinds were until now.
Let's see what month 2 brings - an actual smile? An a-goo?
Another great thing that happened this month - Jack told Charlie that he loves him. Unprovoked and sincere.

The Recovery

Once the baby was born, the the hard part comes in. And this part I was waaaayy too familiar with and I didn't want to go through three days of recovering, getting the anesthesia off of my body, forcing my body to move and walk, which is incredibly hard since there is a huge incision that is trying to heal by my belly.
If you have seen Kill Bill, there is a great scene where Uma Thurman is trying to get her body back to moving after a 4 year coma. That was me. My will was strong and I just wanted to get out of the recovery room, into my hospital room where I can start the process of ending my stay there.
A whole new me came about on November 14. Laying in the recovery room, I really wanted to see my new son, so I forced with every energy that I had to get my legs moving. This is a hard task as anesthesia wears off slowly. About 20 minutes in there, the nurse wanted to see how I was progressing. I ended up moving my whole legs and crossed them. Her face was shocked and she said "oookay! That is a first. Wow!"
That is what I needed to hear. If I can do that, I can recover from anything. Seeing Jack later that day was my extra boost. Never did I want more than to just jump, hold him and run down the halls with him. His little face made me ache to be at home and to just relax with him. I hated when the nurses and the doctors came in, cause that just took away the extra seconds that I needed to be with Jack. After the second night, when Jack was told that I still needed to be at the hospital, he cried and said "I want to be with Mama." Those words hurt me and when he left, I just looked at Charlie, who was sleeping in his bed, and just let out a huge sob. I cried as if someone had died, and this sadness that I couldn't be with Jack was unbelievable. It was huge and there was no way that someone was going to tell my son that Mama needed to stay at the hospital another night and not with him.
The morning of day 3 came and when I woke up, the first thing that I thought was - I am getting out of here today.
I convinced the docs that I was walking ok, and I was. The docs that looked at Charlie said he was healthy and looked great, which was another incentive for us to leave. There was really no need to stay so at 1 pm, we were discharged. I still hobbled a bit, but with some regular Motrin at home, I would be ok.
And here we are two weeks later, the pain is almost gone,my back is recovering nicely, my limbs work once again, we have Charlie on a sleeping schedule and I get to see my little Jack every day.

Jack - you were my recovery. All the pain meds in the world wouldn't have done what your spirit did to me at the hospital. Thank you for being my good little boy while I was away. I am and will always be so proud of you.

The Labor

Be careful for what you wish for cause you just might get it.

I never understood why that phrase was always used so negatively. Careful what you wish for- so if I wanted a whole new Gap wardrobe ( i need one desperately) and I wished for it, and if it came true, then that is not a bad thing. It would be a terrific thing to happen.

I wished for my labor for my second child to be very different than Jack's. Jack was very simple; no contractions, straight to the hospital,have a baby via c-section 2 hrs. later. Round 2 was a whole lot different. Those contractions are extremely intense, and I have a whooooole lot of respect and admiration for women that give birth naturally.
I couldn't do it naturally however as I couldn't think or see straight when my contractions happened. My body tensed up, I couldn't breathe, I was almost at the point of hyperventilation. I needed something to just make my body relax and gave in to the epidural. Blugh.
All the while cursing myself that I wasn't strong enough to take the pain and do it naturally, as how I wanted to do it in the beginning. My mind went from "this epidural will make things a whole lot better" to " be strong! This will be over soon! You don't need this!!! Tell these docs that you changed your mind. NOW!!!"
In labor, you really need to have a Plan B or Plan C. I think I knew all along that in the end, Baby #2 would be another c-section. Something haunted me all along to ask my doctor every possible question of "what will you do when this happens? Say I don't dilate enough and I have been in labor for 20 hrs? Then what?"
Every possible scenario that I brought to my doctor happened on November 13. In the end, a c-section did happen, I was given more drugs to calm myself from screaming in the operation room. When I awoke, I saw my husband holding a baby. Our baby?
I asked him what do we have and he said "We have a boy". A boy?????? Whatever happened to all those sweet cupcake and cake cravings that I was having for the past 9 months? Everyone said that I was having a girl. In the end, I expected a girl so when I heard boy I wanted to laugh. But my tired body and mind told me to pass out again so I did. Only to wake up about 4 more times and ask my husband over and over "What did we have? "

We have another boy, born just 15 minutes past midnight and we couldn't be happier. He's healthy, he's well, and that is what we wanted the most and wished for the most.
So, be careful what you wish for cause you just might get it.
I wished for a healthy baby - and now we have one.

The Circus

The Time Outs

Time outs are horrible for me. If I could just snap my fingers and magically, my son would understand on what he did was wrong. that would be the only magic power that I would want to possess. Jack rarely gets time outs, and when he does, it is for something quite severe.

Jack, if you are reading this when you are older, please know that it pains your mom to give you a time out. And it hurts even more now that you have perfected the pouty sad face. I want to cry right along with you but I have to be the strong one.


Jack yesterday was in rare form, and I had him in a time out. We sat at the stairs and I wanted him to just be uncomfortable there enough to:
a. know what he did was wrong
b. say that he was sorry ( and quickly) because I was uncomfortable sitting there. A stair is not enough room for someone who is almost 39 weeks pregnant.

We sat there for about 20 minutes. A 5 minute time out turned into 20. In those 20 minutes, I explained to him in every which way possible of what he did was wrong, why it was wrong and what happens when we act in bad form. All this time, he didn't want to say he was sorry and when he saw that Brian had to leave to do something , that was when the pouty face became the crying face. I asked Jack if he was sad, and he said yes. That was when I just held him close to me and let my tears flow with his. It killed me to see my son admit that he was sad.

I am not the harshest person to put someone in a timeout. My theory is that if you gently talk to your child about what they did, all the while giving them comfort, they will get it. No need for shouts, no need for spankings. Just gentle words and understanding. And they do learn their lesson. Jack does learn his lesson when this happens. And it he seldom does the same bad thing twice, since he does remember on what a horrible time he had with his time out.

If you did something wrong, wouldn't you want to be held and caressed while at
the same time , someone is telling you that what you did was wrong? I know I would.

My theory was proven last night. In holding Jack, he in turn confessed to telling me on something that he did at daycare . Something that he wasn't supposed to. He didn't have to tell me that, but because he was understanding the difference in right and wrong at that point, he learned how to tell someone that he was sorry for what he did. I told him how proud I was that he told me that, and in an instant his little face brightened up a bit.

If it pains me to see my child unhappy, nothing makes me happier to see my child happy because I told him that I am proud of him. If he understands that and he does, then all the timeouts are worth it.

I held true to my word with the time out. We didn't play games, we didn't watch TV, we just read a book and he nestled into the sofa and drifted to sleep. The night started out roughly, ended up blissful.

And I have to do this with two kids soon? Incredible.

The Halloween of 2011

My son has unfortunately inherited my fear of all things scary come Halloween. He didn't like the masks , the goblins, the ghouls and the werewolves that wandered around the neighborhood. We tried to tell him that it was fake and that they were silly, something that he accepted as a reason last year.
This year, he finally realized that scary masks are indeed not normal and not fun to look at all. I hate them myself. To even look at a mask of a clown will make me sleepless for nights.
I was surprised that my son took the same sort of fear that I have. I have not shown him that I was scared of such things. Even when it came to look at bugs or spiders, of which I absolutely abhor, I made sure to point it out to Jack. Just so that he knows that it it something to not run away from.
I do, I want my son to not.
Do kids sense the fear inside? Interesting stuff, but if adults can sense an uneasy vibe in an office or at home, surely kids can sense the same no?
It did take a while for Jack to see that masks are not real, and after a good couple of minutes he would nervously laugh and say "Oh, that was just a kid."
All in all, a good Halloween was had. He got tons of candy and I am ready to hide that candy and hopefully think that he will forget it over time. Hopefully.

The Day Off

Thank you work for giving me a birthday day off and giving me an opportunity to spend it with my family.

The Countdown

Three weeks to go in this pregnancy. Besides the obvious of wanting to meet the little one, I am just anxious to run around again, and be active with my son.
It hurts me so much to say to Jack over and over again, Sorry Mami can't run with you. I am so tired Jack.
It didn's help that yesterday Jack asked both my husband and I to run around like crazy nuts, only to hear from both of us, we are so tired. Well, I guess my husband could have run around with him, but he already did almost an hour and a half's worth at the park, so naturally he was exhausted as well.
Where does Jack get his energy? Sheesh, four year olds are a wonder.

The Halloween Costume

Jack is wanting to be Diesel, the character from Thomas and Friends, for Halloween this year.

This broke me a bit since earlier this year , I was able to find a Buzz Lightyear costume for $2 and I thought I was set for life. I was realy happy that we wouldn't have to scramble at the last minute for a costume, or figure out to how make one and with what materials. Now , Jack has his opinion and became the "I want to be Diesel and be an engine for Halloween" kid.

We do have a Thomas the tank Engine costume and when I mentioned that to Jack, he said, that is not Diesel.

So now, I feel like we do have to scramble to figure out a way to make the costume, paint it black, make the face believable, and make it somewhat wearable for Jack to wear at least two hours while we trick or treat.
And here comes the questions - what kind of paint do you use to paint a cardboard box ? Because this train is being made from a box and I think that just drawing on the box and pretending it is Diesel isn't good enough.

I mentioned to my husband today that we have to figure out how to make this costume and I get an "urhg" from him. " We should make this a fun task right? We shouldn't go "urgh" and what?" if our child wanted to a different costume.
I remember my dad making my sister and I some cat tails and cat ears for Halloween once. I never heard an urhg from him and it turned out to be the cutest costume I had. Of all the ones that I had for Halloween, that was the one that stuck the most.
So here's to you Jack, I will make the train for you and will try to make it the best ever.

The Baby Test

Our friends recently had a baby so we went to go meet the little one this past Saturday.

When I first told Jack that they had the baby, he gave me a stone cold look. Half " I don't believe you" and half" what did you just say?"

He hasn't really been around little little infants too much, and when he does hang around kids younger than him, he will play with them for a bit but then search for the older kids. Like myself and my husband. I wondered how he would act , would he be quiet, try to ask for our attention a lot while we cooed over the baby? How would I act towards Jack while holding the baby?

Turns out everything turned out splendid. Jack saw her, and just stared. DIdn't say much but when he saw that we were all sitting down, he jumped and said, I want to read some books to the baby.

That melted my heart. When he reads he is a quiet reader, he makes up his own stories and kind of looks around to see who is looking at him. While he read the stories, he was looking at her. Plus I think that he liked looking at books that he hasn't seen at all. He did fancy one book that was about trains, and my mind quickly went to a thought as Jack would read his Thomas books to his brother or sister in the future.
After the book reading, was the playtime. He took out a little stuffed lamb and a camera, and said" I want to give these toys to the baby."

All in all, he was very happy to be next to her. The initiative that he took to read to her was most surprising and was a relief to my husband and I. We think he may be alright with the new baby on board that is coming soon.
At one point, the baby sneezed and that gave Jack a huge laugh. I think that will the be the part that Jack will love the most about his brother or sister, the baby noises and the ability to laugh.
5 more weeks.

The September Fall Festival

A true midwestern photo - burnt corn on the cob, but loving every minute of it.

The Homecoming

Last week, Jack's old sitter called Brian and wanted to know if we would like to come over for dinner ? Sure! It was a nice gesture. I was hoping that some of the parents that we used to hang with would be there, just so Jack can have a mini homecoming with his old pals.

His sitter also told us that her daughter has been incessantly asking for Jack for awhile since she misses him. I thought that was nice, and of course she misses him. He is too cute to be forgotten.

We got there last Friday and this little girl had the look of love as soon as she saw him. She was starstruck and it was funny to see at first. I have never seen such a case of puppy love, and it was being directed toward our son! And of course when we got there, he was pulling his " I'm so tired, I'm cranky, leave me alone" routine. And ON TOP of that, he thought that he was being left at the sitter's and thought Brian and I were going somewhere without him. All this just had him in a bad mood so he clung to me for the first 10 minutes we were there.
As I held him, the little girl never left our side and she stared at him as if he were a movie star. Finally he broke out of his funk and went to play with the train table downstairs. The starstruck fan followed him down there and watched as he played.

Then , all of a sudden, she said " Jack? Jaaaacccckkk??? I like you. I really like you. I love you Jack." With all the confidence and maturity of a 16 year old.

This threw me for a loop. It wasn't til she started blowing kisses at him and looked at me devilishly, well not so much a devil as just a very flirty girl, that I wanted to throw my arms around Jack and get the heck out of there. They are only 3! A couple months shy of turning 4 but is this what the preschool ages are? Love and kisses? What? I was so confused that all I could think of was to tell Jack to say thank you to her. He quickly looked up, said thanks, and went back to Thomas and Friends.

I went upstairs to tell the story and the girl's mom said" oh yeah, Jack is her boyfriend." She said so matter of factly like I was supposed to accept this and move on. Well ;

1. I think that Jack doesn't have to have a girlfriend right now. Too young to have one
2. I don't want him to be with a girl who so openly expresses her love and is ready to throw her arms around him
3. I am just not ready for this stuff period.

We all agreed to see each other again. I am curious to see what the little girl's next moves will be.

The Never-ending Question

This is a question that Jack has been asking constantly for over two weeks now. I am not sure where he learned it or from who, but whenever he does something that deems to be funny, he will ask

" Was that funny?"

He will ask it when you least expect it. When we are watching a movie, Tom and Jerry or just something that he has done.

That being said, if he does something that is sneaky or something that he shouldn't do, he will still ask " Was that funny?"

To which I go in serious Mom mode and I explain on why it is not funny. Such as, you shouldn't throw the remote control up in the air since something can potentially break.

He gets it and doesn't do it again.

One more question that he says, and he seems to say this when we are watching America's Funniest Home videos is "

" That's not nice, but it's funny."

He seems to say it on videos where people fall off the roofs or slam into a tree. I think he got that phrase from me. And yes, it is not nice to laugh at people who slam into a bush while riding a bike, but it is funny just the same.

The Good Night Mama Series

The following is a series of photos that Brian sent to me while I went to see U2 back in July. We had a family day that day, and Jack being as tired as he was, passed out while we took a water taxi ride from Navy Pier to the museum campus. While Brian and Jack walked their way back to the hotel. Brian decided to take pics of Jack sleeping at the landmarks.

The text with the pics were Brian's words as he sent the pics.

G'night Mama.

G'night Mama pt. 2



G'night Mama. Take the train to the hotel. Don't walk.

The Eating Habits

Jack doesn't eat vegetables. We have no idea on how to make him eat it. One coworker told me that his mom used to put melted cheese on his broccoli. He learned to eat it then as a kid and eats it now. I got so happy when I heard that that I wanted to buy a big block of cheddar cheese, and melt it on every veggie that we served at the table. Not the most healthy, but whatever makes our son eat a green!!
It didn't work. Even his favorite cartoon, Special Agent Oso, claimed to have liked broccoli and chicken. Great, so will Jack right?
No.
I don't know where to go from here. I could mash up every single veggie and mix it with his marinara sauce next time he has pasta. But that is it for my creative ideas.
Anyone else have some? I would love to know.

The Reaction and Being Thankful

This second pregnancy has been a lot different. The pain, the discomfort, the movement in utero most of all. However the one aspect that I didn't expect was some people's reaction to this pregnancy. Call it a woman's intuition, call it being oversensitive, but the remarks and the reactions that I have received has been a bit shocking, and most of all upsetting.

I hate that I spent most of this pregnancy being upset for making others uncomfortable. I have felt some people move away when I approached them, has given me the sudden cold shoulder, and most of all, the neglect of asking on how I am, how my life has been. When I have always asked them on how they are. I don't know why people have reacted this way. I didn't expect for people to ALWAYS ask me on how I was, and how the baby has been. But do you think in these last eight months, I could have been asked at least once? Let it be known that I have remembered whatever has been going on in their lives. And the comments that people have made about my pregnancy;
Oh, so you're knocked up?
Stay away from me, you're pregnant.
You're pregnant? Why?
You're pregnant? Is this a good thing?
You're pregnant? Oh.

Really??? To say this to me was distasteful, rude and downright upsetting. Even if this was a joke, it was horrible one at that. Why feel the need to be a shit when someone is pregnant? What is it about when a woman is carrying a child that all of a sudden everyone turns 12 years old and makes the most crass and stupidest jokes in the book. I was not amused. If you saw that my face was expressionless, now you know why. People like you have me made me feel like the last 8 months have been an extreme burden to you. I will be EXTREMELY glad when I have the baby and I am away from this bad aura for a awhile.

In saying this, the people in my life that have made my pregnancy much easier are my family and my husband. Bless my parents for always asking if I am ok every day, for giving the baby a cute nickname, and for just being there and helping.

I love my husband for always telling me on how excited he is about this baby. And he means it. He is genuinely happy that this little one is coming soon, as am I. I would just wish that everyone can feel the same happiness that we feel, and unfortunately they cannot. For whatever reason.

To those people, I do hope that you find the happiness and calmness that you seek for. And when you do, trust that I will be there to say "I am happy for you" and mean it.

The New Establishment

10 years ago, when I first met Brian's family, the majority of his cousins ranged from ages 14 - 2 years old. These kids were a cute bunch, and it was nice to see so many cousins playing with each other and hanging out. Most of my cousins live in Ecuador, so I never had a big group of cousins to be with at family parties.I have three that live here in the states. My memories of them are fond, but when I met Brian's family, I knew there was that little part of memories that could have been made that was missing.

Now that those cousins are in college, the new generation is slowly taking over. This group consists of the children of the cousins. Mainly, it is the three daughters of Brian's cousin, Jack and our niece Frances.

Almost everyone was over at my mother in law's yesterday for Labor Day, and it was nice to see us, the original young ones, now as the adults. While our kids now are the ones that are running around, playing, and calling for each other to play games.

It was a weird feeling for sure. When was I kicked out of the kid table come dinner time? When did I become the adult, with the husband, the kid and the SUV? Life moves too fast for sure. And here is my child, almost 4!! with another on the way. This is me??? The me who would listen to The Cure and write in her journal.
Here I am, a vision of my parents, now with a child of my own. It feels good. It feels very good.

The Thomas and BBQ on the lake weekend

We did our annual Day Out with Thomas this past weekend. I could have sworn that last year, Brian and I told ourselves that we would still go to the Thomas train fest, but not do the Thomas train ride, as it was not really worth the money.


A 20 minute ride for $18? Meh. How about giving us 40 minutes for a ride around Union , IL Thomas?

Little did we know that Jack would be older a year later, and he would remember that the Day out with Thomas happens sometime around August. A month ago, he kept asking" Hey, can we go to the Day out with Thomas? " Which led a month of us saying "Almost, almost. Pretty soon."

The closer we got to the Thomas date, Jack knew that he was going to ride on Thomas, and how can we say no? It was only one time a year that he can do this, so we did it. His cousin Nathalie came along this time, and it was a good day for all of us.

Sunday - BBQ on the lake. Brian , myself, about 7 of our friends and one little boy named Jack. As being the only kid of an all adult gathering, which is almost all the time, Jack is used to it. And loved just running around the tree, running into people, asking Brian or myself to run with him. I feel bad that Jack is the only kid, and sometimes I feel that he would have an even better time if there was someone his age to play with.

However, I do like it when that there comes a time when that one friend of ours happens to play with Jack. And that is what the newly christened "Uncle JB" did. He talked to him and played with him . As soon as you spin Jack around , he is your friend for life.

Thanks Uncle JB, for becoming Jack's new friend.

The Appreciation of Pain

It is no secret that this pregnancy has been a bit tougher than the first. Ask me how I am feeling ,and you will get an"Eh, I'm ok" response. Everything hurts now, socket joints, lower back, legs, the uncomfortable positions of sleeping. Everything has been a bit harder and with every day that I am pregnant, I ask myself" Are there ladies that do this three or four times? Unbelievably, the answer is yes.

Last week, I was at a point where I just couldn't take it. I looked at Brian, I had that pregnancy pose of having my two hands supporting my back, and said " I can't do this anymore. I am done with two kids." I wanted to cry, I wanted to collapse. I wanted a back transplant at that point cause my own back was about to give out.
Then Brian said something amazing and miraculous.

"Well, if this is your time being pregnant, then make the most of it. Since you will never be pregnant again. "

Then I really wanted to cry. He was right, this is my last time being pregnant. The last time that people will give me the special "She's having a baby!!!" look. The last time that I will feel kicks, slight punches, the occasional "ow! that was a good kick" face.

The last time that I will have a huge stomach, but having that huge stomach was my reminder that this special being is about to come into the world. The last time my husband and I will wonder for 9 - 10 months on who this baby is, and then finally meeting that person.

So I say this to you Baby M. Kick all you want. Join in the conversation next time you hear us talk. And kick with glee everytime you hear us laugh.

The Rare Moment

Jack NEVER takes naps anymore, so when he does it is a rare moment to see. And quite adorable I might add.

The Jumping off the Couch

I want to thank my husband, for always catching the great , small moments like these. This is what happens while I am at work.

The New Skill

It's a process for sure, but Jack has been learning to put on his shoes.

The Perfect Host

Jack has become buddies with our next door neighbors. Two little boys ages 6 and 4. It couldn't be more perfect.
They come over to ask if Jack can play, and every night before dinner, Jack will ask " Can I go over their house?" He does one of those scenes that you see in a movie, where he scarfs down his food, says thank you for dinner and then asks" Ok . now can we go over their house?"

Last night, the boys did come over. They stayed for 40 minutes which was enough for a late play time.
When they came in the house, Brian asked the boys if they wanted something to drink. They responded no, and Jack said" Yeah, what would you like? Would like you apple juice, orange juice? "
Brian pointed out what a perfect host Jack became at that moment, and my heart just went to butter. Here is my kid, who is learning on what manners are and how to treat people , and just showed to us without us even teaching him something small as offering a drink to your guests.

When they left, all his trains were on the floor, and even his small play table was tipped over. What were these kids playing? Being the host that Jack was, I guess he let his guests pretty much play with every toy and table that was in his room.

The Summer of 2011

Jack's cousin Nathalie

A portrait of us!!!

Jack's cousin Miss Frances, who is as fearless in the water as Jack is.

By far, this is my favorite picture of my favorite guys.

This is how I will always remember our summer. Swimming in the pool. Spending three hours just swimming back and forth with laughter. This was the year that Jack became fearless and jumped in the pool, wore his lifejacket with pride, and would try to swim in the deep end, just cause he wanted to swim beyond infinity.

The Perfect Smile

Last night when I came home, I came home to find.....an empty house. It was a strange feeling. It was even more strange since I knew my almost two year old niece was over too.

I ended up finding the two kiddies outside with my mother - in- law, trying to cause havoc in the sand box. When I said "Hey Jack!" , he turned and gave me the best and biggest smile, followed by a "Mama!"
He ran over to me and we both gave each other a hug, as if we haven't seen each other in months.

I love those hugs, I especially love that smile.

The Culprit

Jack has had some sleeping problems as of late. He wants to sleep in our bed and when we take him back to his bed, he starts to complain, cry and just say " I want Mami's and Papi's bed."

For awhile when this first started , we thought the culprit was Monster's Inc, the Pixar movie. Jack would say, There are no monsters in the closet or under the bed, and that was our clue that maybe he shouldn't see the movie. Even though it is cute, think about it, the premise of the movie is that monsters get their kicks out of scaring kids. We banned that movie , and he has not seen it in a long time. Which we thought that would take away the idea of monsters in the closet, but lately with Jack wanting to sleep in our bed more and more, he has claimed a new culprit that has been added to his fear of the night list.

Diesel 10 - a character from Thomas the Tank Engine.
This character is just mean, and in every episode that he is in, he is calling out the other engines "Spotty Boilers, Ratty engines, Stinky Steamies." All the while he growls every time he sees them - GGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

Jack never liked this character, but we would always tell him that Diesel 10 was just being silly and in the end, he would help out Thomas. Even when we would play, I would give Diesel a nice tone of voice. A c0uple of days ago, I asked Jack why he insisted on coming to our bed. He said cause Diesel 10 is there.
The countless episodes of Diesel growling is in Jack's head. How do you get out a bad idea out from a child's memory? We can tell Jack over and over again that Diesel is just a silly guy, he is not real, that he has a silly face. But that tiny fear that Jack has had toward this character since he was little is just there, and it doesn't go away.
At this point, Brian and I are not sure on what to do, and what is right and what is wrong when it comes to something like this.

The Real Name

Here is a spoiler - Jack's name is not his real name. That has been his nickname since Day 1 of life.
Brian and I always wondered when would be a good time to tell him what his real name is. do you tell him when he is a kid? What age? 6 years? 10 years old? I really wasn't sure of when to do it or how, but this has been solved for me already.

Somehow, Jack found out his real name. I never told him, never has Brian. About three weeks ago, I said " Hey Jack, let's put on your shoes." He responded back with, No,my name is not Jack, it's Jonathan."
I was thrown and said to myself "OK , here is your time." I asked him what he wanted to be called now, Jack or Jonathan.
He said Jonathan, which by the way, felt very strange to hear coming out of him. That lasted for about 5 minutes because I said something else, and he corrected me with "No, my name is Jack."


Now, if you ask him what his name is , he will say Jack. And if you ask him what his other name is, he might say Jonathan. Depends on his mood of the day.

The Love of Water

I cannot swim. Lie, yes I can. I have done it in the pool before. But I will not swim in the deep end. I am sure that I can do it if I go from one end of the pool to the other. But just the thought of being in water in that I cannot feel the ground freaks me out.
Jack was like me for about two years. He would hold on tight to one of us, or he would not like it if we just held his hands as we spun him around in the water.

This year has changed everything. I can't say what we exactly did, or what we said, but all of a sudden , our son loves the water. LOVES THE WATER.
He loves putting the life jacket on, loves just wading in the water, loves not feeling the ground and just moving his legs in the open water.
Is this my kid? Thankfully yes. Jack got his bravery from Brian for sure. We try to encourage him a lot in the water by throwing out a lot of compliments like we are so proud of him for being in the water, he is such a good swimmer, he is getting better every day.
And it is true. Nothing makes me more proud than to see my son just swim in the pool and have a huge smile on his face and enjoying every moment of it. I become even more proud when I see other parents trying to encourage their kids to swim and let go, and they see Jack and talk of him as an example -

See. look at that kid? He is swimming. He likes it.

Yes, everyone. Feel free to use my son as a positive role model. Also feel free to see us as the awesome parents of the awesome kid that loves to swim.

I am proud of you Jack. It may be only swimming to you, but to me, it just shows what an amazing son you are to us.

The Insult or the Joke?

I recently had my hair cut short, very short.

Jack was sitting with me on the couch last night when he turned around, looked at me and said

" Bwahahaaaaaa, look at your hair."

Was that an insult? Is my son making fun of my hair? Or was he just saying, hey look at your hair!

I was not sure what to make of it but I started to laugh and then just gave him a hug. You have three chances to make fun of your mother .
That was one.

The Bedtime Punishment

Tonight, Jack kept jumping on the sofa, and Brian and I kept telling him not to do it. He kept jumping anyways and when someone else tried to tell Jack on why he should not jump, he responded back with a " PPPPFFFFFTTTTT. A full on raspberry.
Funny Right?
Except I didn't find it so funny, as no kid of mine will respond to anyone in that matter. So I became the strict mom, took him to bed, and told him it was bedtime. All the while explaining to him on why you shouldn't do raspberries to anyone.
He gave me the saddest look, gave me the pouty face, and even tried to plead with me that he wanted to watch TV. I told him that this is what happens when you don't listen and you don't obey, you don't watch TV and you go straight to bed. I left him in his room and he fell asleep about 10 minutes later.

What killed me was the way he went to bed. We didn't read a story, we didn't do the lovely "Good night, I love you" routine that we always do. He went to bed sad, upset, and feeling left alone. His look alone killed me.
I know that there will be times when he will go to bed like this. He has had time outs before and he learns his lessons from them. But I always would prefer the time outs or the punishments to happen in the middle of the day. Because then we could have the rest of the day to make up for the fact that he had such a time out. I don't want him to go to bed sad. I know that I can't ever prevent that, but as a mom, there is this force, this emotional force that makes you go above and beyond to protect your child. Yes, even to protect your child from feeling bad while they get in trouble.
I did say I love you right before he closed his eyes. That makes me feel a bit better.

The Parental Invite

Brian and I are friendly people. And wherever we go, we seem to meet new people. Cool people that especially have cool kids that are about Jack's age.
Once we meet those people , we always ask these internal questions to ourselves" So, if this person is cool, and their kid seems to get along with my kid, do we ask for their number? Can we ask them to see them again?

It's kind of like Parental Dating. You see the parents,you like them, you seem to get along with them and have the same interests that they have. And your number one interest is that your kids get along. Which they do! So, when it is it a good time to ask to see them again? Because that great moment that your kid is having right now with their kid, he can have again and again and again.

Brian and I went thru these roller coasters last Sunday. Jack had a cough and perhaps an ear infection, so off to Urgent Aid we went. As we went into our second hour waiting there, who would come in but a mom, dad, and a child about Jack's age carrying Woody and Buzz from Toy Story. Well, of course Jack's eye lit up and immediately wanted to go over to play with the kid. We encouraged him , and the little boy loved that Jack was wearing a Thomas the tank engine shirt. Friendship soldified.

As the boys played in the waiting room, Brian talked with the dad ,I talked with the mom, and it was as if Brian and I were telepathically telling each other the same question ;

Alright, do we ask for a number this time?"

Before we could answer each other, we were called into the doc's office. By the time we came back out, the family was gone.

We talked about the situation over dinner and it continued onto Walgreens where we were waiting for our prescription for Jack. Who happened to walk down our aisle at that moment was the dad. The dad from the doc's office. At this moment, Brian and I gave each other the golden look, the look that said That is it. This is meant to be. So Brian did ask for his number, the dad got ours and we were left with a feeling of "WE DID IT!!! We got a friend for Jack - for life!

That was a week ago. We haven't called the parents yet. They haven't called us either. We figure we should call them soon before that memory of the doctor's office becomes a vague memory. Now that we have crossed that path and answered our own question of should we , shouldn't we, now we have to ask ourselves of when we , when shouldn't we call. Seems easy enough no?
Where is the book for parental rules on this one?

The 4th of July

Jack,

This was one of the most important milestones of your life so far. And it is not because you wanted to see fireworks, or because you are old enough to stay up late to see the fireworks. This 4th of July, you ended up loving the pool. You loved it so much that you wanted us to let you go as we held you and spun you around in the pool. You may be big, but you are not big enough to float in a 4 ft deep pool. You need floaties first my friend.
And you loved the lifejacket, and the donut floaty, and just basically swimming around by yourself. Clearly, you are your father's child, since your mom cannot stand the thought of floating in water where her feet cannot touch the ground. But you loved that weightlessness, the feeling of your feet being free in the water, and the way you just bobbed in the water with utter glee was the best moment that you could have given your dad and I.
I am glad that you were feeling fearless enough to jump in the water, to just semi swim as we held onto your one hand. You loved every moment of it, so let's take some time out to give thanks to Doug and Marcia Berg, for their fantastic party and their fantastic pool.
PS - They said we can go over whenever we want. Wink!

My favorite moment of this day was when the sun was setting, and Brian and Jack were the only ones in the pool. The orange sunset shone on their little faces and they just swam circles around each other. Putting that in the memory box for sure.

The Bath Time