The Disney Reveal

So my husband and I waited for maybe a good week and a half since we made our Disney World reservations to tell our soon to be 5 year old that we are taking him there. I just wanted to create a simple card, made out of construction paper in the shape of the Mickey head,and say Surprise on it!! God bless my  husband. He was racking his brain, thinking of bringing in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to come into our house and play " When you wish upon a star" to make the big announcement. Well, not really but now that you are reading this Brian, don't you wish we would have done that?  That would have brought waterworks to last for days.

He decided to place a whole bunch of balloons in a huge box, wrap it up so when Jack opens the box, the surge of balloons comes rushing out of the box.

The card was attached to one of the balloons, so Jack had to find it and read the card. Now here is where it got tricky. I made the card too small, so writing Surprise on it was sort of squished on the front. Then in making the card, I panicked a bit as I knew this was not just an ordinary birthday card. The message inside the card was " You are going to Disney World". I wrote it in white crayon and didn't come out as stellar looking as I thought it would look. It's crayon. What was I expecting?

As Jack read the message, we all looked at him with these huge smiles. As anyone knows, Jack is not the type of kid that goes  "WWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW" and goes nuts. Jack is the most laid back and relaxed kid that we know. So after reading the card, we told him again that he was going to Disney World. 

"wow"

Just a quiet wow. Then he said thank you and that was it. Fanfare over. It wasn't til we started telling him of what he was going to see in Disney World and it wasn't til he talked to his cousin Nathalie that the WWWOOOOOWWW came out. Now Jack knows and we are less than a week from our trip. 

Happy Birthday Jack. You deserve this and soooo much more. 

The Letter Of The Dream

Dear Jack,
Do you wonder why there has been so many kisses to you lately? One more hug than usual? One more tight squeeze before you go to bed?
2007, your papa and I wondered what you would look like, what you will sound like when you start talking. Then when we found out you were going to be a boy, then we imagined if you would like anything specific. Trains? Cars? Bears? Turns out you ended up liking trains. A lot, And hey, Disney World has that huge steam train that you can take around the park? Wouldn't that be fun to take our kid there? Wouldn't it be great to take our kid there on his 5th birthday? He would be able to go on a lot of rides right?

So right then, your papa and I got stuck with this idea that when it's your 5th birthday, we should take this HUGE Disney trip. Everyone should come along, as we should all celebrate your huge milestone of turning 5. Years pass, and it seemed like the Disney trip wasn't going to work. Your papa and I never mentioned it to each other, but we felt that silent crush in our hearts that we wouldn't be going. We told ourselves we should go at least when Charlie was 3, just so we can go on rides together. We were going, just not on your birthday.

Then your papa said the magic words  "We have the means. Let's just do it. Let's go to Disney. It's Jack's birthday!"
This was planned a week before your birthday, as we will be there a week later. We couldn't be more happier for ourselves as a family - we worked so hard in 2012, there were so many sacrifices that were done for us, that we deserve this. We deserve this time for us, and you boys deserve to be treated to one of the best vacations of your lives so far. Our dream for your 5th birthday came true, and it makes us truly  happy to be your Mama and Papa.
Here we go my sweet Jacky boy. Off to Disney World!!

The Call

Proof that Jack loves phone calls, here is one that he had with his cousin Nathalie.

The Somewhat Awesome But Heartbreaking Moment

Brian and I were given a chance to see a movie on New Year's Eve.

Wait?? We had a chance to go out? We had a babysitter? God is good because he heard our prayers and gave us a chance to see Lincoln. Phew! Thanks God!!

But my heart however was torn. Just that morning, I told Jack that as soon as I came home from work that day, we would make cookies. Now we were told to go see a movie and I felt like a rat, breaking my promise to my son. Brian was getting ready to go out but I somewhat was still skipping around a bit. I still was thrown that we were actually going out so my mind was trying to catch up to the events that was happening at that moment. I looked at Jack and he was bouncing a yoga ball in the kitchen. I said " Ok Jack , Mama and Papa are going out on a date."

 Before I could say that we will be back for bedtime or even mention of some apology of the now defunct cookie time, Brian said " Happy New Year Jack.See you in the morning."
Jack said " Bye, Happy New Year." Just like that. No tears. No pleas of  "Stay with me!!!" .No mention of cookies and playing with the huge snow ball ( AKA the yoga ball) . Just like that , he let us go.

My thoughts went to my friends and all these cute events that they were doing with their kids to celebrate NYE. And here we were, just leaving Jack. I at least wanted to say something to Jack about NYE and celebrations and what people do.

Brian on the other hand was happy that Jack was Mr. Cool when we left. We mentioned on what a big boy he was to see us go and that was when I cried. Not full out sobs, but little tears came out. I cried because I wanted to bake the cookies with Jack. I haven't seen him all day, I was only home for 40 minutes and yet he was cool with me leaving him. I cried because I realized that Jack is now such a big boy. Brian said it is better to have him be cool than us leaving him crying and feeling guilty about it.

Yeah, but he is not my little baby anymore.

The Cutest Independent

Jack has gotten into this " I can do it all by myself" mode.

The way he says it is undeniably adorable. When a water bottle needs to be opened, cookie batter to be made, eggs to be cracked, Jack is there for you.

"I can do it aaaaaaaaalllllllllllll by myyyyself." ( he always emphasizes the "all")

Him saying this is a good reminder to me to let go a bit. There is no doubt that Jack is quickly growing out of his little boy face and is now developing this sort of grown up kid face. I hear it all the time when people look at photos of him and mention of how grown up he looks.
But Jack saying his phrase of the moment lets me know that he can do things on his own. I don't have to be there overlooking his shoulder every moment to make sure he is ok, to make sure he is doing fine or if he needs help. I guess this is the time where he starts doing things on his own. Dressing up by himself? He's got that, although it takes us to tell him about three times to get dressed. Going to sleep by himself? Sure, with a help of some friends and his now purely loved Dreamlites. Have you seen those commercials? Where the kid lights up the whole room with the help of a little stuffed animal with a built in light? That commercial is completely true. You cannot believe how lit up the room becomes with that toy. Jack loves it. That is all that matters to us.

His final claim that he is on independent road? He told us yesterday that he misses his school friends and he wants to go back to school and soon. This is the Jack who previously would want to spend 24/7 with his parents. Now he wants to spend his time with his friends. Wonderful for him.

Keep on wanting more Jack.  That will only lead to greater events in life.

The Christmas Weekend

The Christmas weekend of 2012 was filled with events. Working for a hotel chain means that I can get a small discount here and there, so off we went to stay at one the hotels that I work for. Jack loved everything about staying the night there. He didn't want to leave the next morning and wanted to stay there at least for a week. The boys even slept in til 8 am! Even Charlie. He never does that. I was happy that such a miracle happened.

We were happy to bring Mr. Elf ( yes, that is the name we gave him) along. I am sure he appreciated the lush digs himself. Lucky elf.

Charlie very much liked watching the buses go by and waved to the cars. 

Plus we made a stop to Do-Rite Donuts! My dream come true. Jack happily ate the chocolate, and now I regret eating it. Since now I know how extremely delicious it is and how close to my work it is.

We made a stop to the Hancock center to watch the trains go by. Trains. A sure fire way to keep your 5 and 1 year old still for a good 15 -20 minutes. Dinner afterwards was at Mity Nice Grill inside the Water Tower mall. I felt it was a little secret that I knew to take my family there, since the whole world goes to the Cheesecake Factory to eat. No line no wait at Mity Nice. Plus Brian had what was a very tasty chicken pot pie there.

Our next stop was to look at the tree by the Tribune building.It was at this point that Jack was feeling it. Feeling the tiredness that is.

Mama and Papa - happy to take a photo with their son. Jack - done for the night.

Onto the next morning where we went to the madness that is Winter Wonderland at Navy Pier. A day before Christmas? On a Sunday? You bet it was packed. 

Look at this crazy photo that Brian took of Jack in the bounce house. Looks like a superimposed photo. But look at that happy face. 

He was content to just look at the ice skaters around the ice. He didn't feel like giving it a try this year.

And here is how we ended our day at Navy Pier. With the two boys taking a ride around in the train. 

The Christmas of 2012

In the words of my husband " I know you kids have been good this year, but I didn't know you were that good." 

This is an indication as to how many presents the kids got. The presents were aplenty, but it was and always is really nice to see my parents and Brian's parents have a day when they are enjoying their time with their grand-kids the most. Christmas is the easiest holiday to celebrate with the families. The 24th is the day that we spend with my family, the 25th with my in- laws. I am proud to say also that I didn't go too crazy with eating like a nut this holiday season around. I did have two helpings of the deliciousness that you see below, and perhaps 2 1/2 mimosas, but hey, it's Christmas.

This lovely dinner that you see above is courtesy of my mom's cooking. Why is that no one can ever cook like your mom? My mom is a master in the kitchen. Her rice? Phenonmenal. Onion and tomato salad with lemon? Awesome. Let's not forget my husband as he made two turkeys for Christmas. We happily ate one and happily had the other as leftovers.

There is no one more deserving to have two grandsons than my dad. After living for almost 35 + years with daughters and a niece, along came the boys. We needed some boys to add to the family mix. Plus I think that my dad secretly needed someone to rough house around, which he happily does with the boys. 

A kiss for vovosito while my mom looks at the grandchildren calender we made for them. A simple gift that left them extremely happy.

And then came December 25th. Madness with presents. Over excitement over every present. And that was just the parents and grandparents. At one point, I couldn't see the floor. There was so much wrapping and presents everywhere. Charlie didn't really get the idea that you had to rip the paper to get to the present. He didn't even go nuts over ripping paper. He did like the idea of seeing a big present on the floor and sitting on top of it. That was his big joke for the holiday. Every time he sat on a gift, he would go " shda da!!" and would look at me and smile. That was his way of saying " ahaa! look at me!!"

I am sure that Max the dog at this point was saying " what the???"

 The kids get very festive in their holiday hats. A tradition that I hope it can continue way into their 30's.

Christmas is not Christmas until you get something Pixar-ish!! Can you believe this whole time that we have never had Toy Story 2? Well now we do! Thanks Santa!

 And to all a good night. Christmas is the one day where I can stay in my Pj's til 1 pm and just lay around and do absolutely nothing. Perfect.