The Barn and the Smile

Jack's little face was priceless as he used a toothbrush to comb the bunny.

Now it is unto combing the cows.

We did not get this little girl's name, but she was nice enough to give Jack a brush so they can
brush the sheep together.

Only in the Midwest will you find a huge box of corn....

that acts as a "ball pit".....

so the kids can jump around and lie in. We did come home with
a few kernels in the pocket.

It was October and about 70 degrees. Perfection.

This is perfection x's 1,000.

Another Family portrait!

The Countdown

My birthday was October 8 and I celebrated a lovely 34.
My mind on my birthday now always resorts to Jack's birthday, and how close we are to that date. Do we really have to countdown to his third birthday? THIRD???? Sheesh, we are nowhere near close to completing potty training, and this kid will be three. My wish is that once he turns three, he will automatically say "Mother, I will now use the washroom."
He will close the door, do his business and flush, all without me or Brian trying to help him.
I feel that Jack has a baby face, and that he looks younger than other close to three year olds. I thought that by this age, he will sleep better and accept carrots, green beans and spinach.
No such luck.
The sleeping is another story on it's own, as he is still waking up in the middle of the night, not wanting to be in his own bed. I have this superstition that if I talk about any good tactics that we do to keep Jack sleeping the whole night, that is my jinx and whatever we worked on will go out the window. Sorry, no stories here.
I am proud to say that on my birthday, Jack blew out all the candles on my cake. He didnt' even give me chance to blow them myself. Nice job son.

The 1,000th Day

October 18, 2010 marked Jack's 1,000th day of life. Brian actually figured this out back around March, so we waited a long time for this day. We wanted to do something great. Something huge.
The 18th comes, it's a Monday and Brian tells me that he has some photography meeting to go to .
That is fine. I will pick up Jack from my dad's, go home and we will go have a celebration ourselves.
There is some cookie dough in the fridge, we will be fine.
As my dad and I walked home, Jack fell asleep. I thought for sure that Jack would wake up as soon as we got home. He did not. I set him on the couch and there he became more comfortable to sleep the whole night.
He had no dinner that night.
Brian was out.
My son was asleep since 6 pm , and I watched TV. Boring Monday TV.
I was thankful for the quietness however, and I had some me time just curled up on the couch with my son sleeping.
Happy 1,000 days Jack.

The Fall

And so begins another season for us - It started off with Brian being away from home for about 4 days. He was in Dallas and it wasn't so bad except for the nights when Jack would wake up crying in the middle of the night. I turned to do my usual - Brian wake up, when I realized he wasn't there. Oh, I guess I have to do this myself. That sucks. And I really didn't like reading the bedtime stories to Jack by myself. Brian is a much better story teller than I am.

I just missed his company. Of talking of everything and nothing with him. And being a threesome again.
So we took the opportunity of a free day when he came back. We went to go apple picking somewhere out in Indiana. It was a nice place, but it was nicer to be there together.


The apples weren't ripe for picking anyways. There were some, but because of some frost from last year! the apples aren't good this year.
So we walked away with some apples, a walk around the corn maze ( those things scare me a bit) and a ride around the tractor.

Now that I am looking at these pictures, I realize how huge Jack looks. He is such a beautiful little boy. Never did I ever think that whenever we would have a child, it would be like this.

I keep thinking, what next , what next.

Walking? Done. Saying Mami and Papi? Done.
Talking and conversations, we are there,almost. Potty training. Ugh. Not there yet. But if someone were to tell me that in a week Jack would be potty trained, a Hallelujah would come to mind.

The Letter

Dear Jack,
I am so sorry that I have not been keeping up with this blog at all in the past couple of months. Things have happened, good and bad. I can blame all of those reasons for my lack of creative writing. But the best excuse I can come up with at this time is pure tiredness. Is that a word? What is a better word than tiredness?
You have been waking up in the middle of the night for about a month now, for no reason. Your father and I thought that because you were watching “Monsters, Inc,” you began to think that there really were monsters in the closet.
There are not.
You haven’t seen that movie in soooo long now. Could it be possible that you are still scared of the closet? Or are you just growing up and are your sleeping habits changing? It has come to a point where I cannot sleep at all for the whole night. I get up at least once an hour, waiting for your cry. When I don’t, I go back to sleep, but not before I either wake up the next hour or you wake me up because you really are crying to get out of your room. I have no idea on what to do. I am tired and confused, as all mothers would be when they have three year olds.

Our plea is this – Please , please PLEASE! Go back to bed. Sleep the whole night. Dream of beautiful dreams. Wake up refreshed the next morning. What do I always say to you? If you have a bad dream, you wake up, you look around your room, and say to yourself, Oh, it was just a dream. I am back home where I belong.
I even changed your room for you!! I think it’s a nice set up. The bed doesn’t face the closet anymore. That’s a good thing, right?
Sleep little one. Sleep well. And I promise you, Mami and Papi will be there when you wake up.

We love you,
A very tired but always loving Mami and Papi.