An Interesting Turn of Events

Potty training is in the air! After having multiple conversations with friends who are potty training their children, I decided to let Jack give it a whirl yesterday. We were at home during the morning, which is a rarity for us, so Jack got the chance to run around the house in the buff. The purpose was to see if he gives any sort of signal before he pees. And he does! His signal is to stand still and throw his hands up in the air. Yes, it's an easy signal to see, but not as easy to get to in time when I'm busy with Finn. Needless to say, we're glad our carpet came with the Scotch Guard feature. After about 3 dribbles on the carpet, 10 complete urinary successes and two #2 victories, I'd say yesterday could be considered a toilet triumph! We're not getting our hopes too high, though, as we have heard of many such temporary thrills over potty training only for it to be found dull and overrated the next week. However, we're so proud of Jack! His interest in the training has been a pleasant surprise. And if I do say so myself, he looks so cute in his Elmo tighty whities.


Sitting backwards on the potty seems to be the rave these days. I think Jack feels some sort of comfort and security with the narrow end of the seat towards his backside. Fortunately the only items that we've gone toilet diving for are baby ducky (who did get a washing machine bath afterwards) and Jack's glasses, which we thoroughly cleaned. Flushing the toilet multiple times is also a fun pass time. Another favorite is peeing for about 2 seconds, flushing, screaming "All done!", washing his hands ("with thoap"), drying his hands, and then returning to the bathroom to repeat the scene 5 more times.


Here's what Finn does all day when we're running to and from the bathroom with Jack. No, he just sat here for a few minutes so we could eat breakfast the other morning. Finn is still drinking from bottles. No food yet. I'm sure there will be some bloggable pictures from that experience. I think we may try food at 5 months.

The weather has been nice for the past two days here, so we've been maximizing our time in the great outdoors. John did a fabulous job rearranging the garage a few weeks ago, so now all of Jack's riding toys are all in one place. He's able to see the toys when we pull into the garage. Some days I hear, "Mommy! Wide bithicle!". Somedays it's, "Wide thcootuh!" Today was a scooter day. When Jack tries to put his helmet on himself, he puts it on backwards. It looks very aerodynamic and very Tour de France-ish.

This is one of Finn's many good angles. Today he managed to collapse his play gym on top of his face. He's getting better at grabbing onto things, and his kicking is coming along as well.

And Finley has definitely mastered the art of drooling. I think my friend, Heather, titled these types of pictures best when she called him "Teethy McTeetherton" Hands in the mouth, drool collar at all times....yep. Let the teething olympics begin!

Sugar, Part Deux

Thanks to wikipedia.com, Jack's current state of behavior has a definition.  It's called "sugar rush." A sugar rush is defined as a 'temporary rush of energy caused by a recent consumption of sugar or another saccharide.'  The only non-applicable part of the definition is term 'temporary.' 

Jack went to Gracen's 3rd birthday party this morning at Color Me Mine, which is a local pottery painting place.  It was such a fun, cute party!  The kids got to choose a piece of pottery to paint and we'll get to pick it up in a few days after they fire it in the oven.  I was secretly excited about the location and theme (princess) of the party because, having sons, I'll never be able to throw one of those myself.  Unless it's for me.  Which isn't completely a bad idea....hmmm.  

Gracen got a lot of princess loot and enjoyed her day.  Happy Birthday, Gracen!!!  We're so happy to be a part of your life and see you grow!

We had to leave the party early to make it to Jack's hair cut appointment.  (Somehow throwing the word 'cut' into that sentence made it much less girly.)  And what happened as soon as he sat in the chair?  "LOLLIPOP!!!"  Unfortunately he associated the chair with yet another dose of sugar.  So I weighed the options of enhanced sugar high vs. flailing 2 year old in chair yelling for a lollipop and getting cut with the lady's wielded shears.  Lollipop obviously won.  We've entered the 2nd weekend in a row of sugar insanity.   You're welcome, dentists!

Below is a picture of Finn and his new trick.  There's obviously no audio  to actually hear what the new trick is, but I thought this visual might help some.  He's into making this awful dinosaur-ish sound.  I'm not quite sure what sound a velociraptor made, but I'm thinking it may have been similar to Finn's new sound.  It's the kind of noise where you're not quite sure if he's happy or sad.  When we take him out in public, everyone says, 'Oh, poor thing.  He's upset."  Oh no.  He's just Finn.  Loud Finn.

The picture below was taken at our dinner table a few nights ago.  When we bow our heads to pray, this is what Jack does.  The image doesn't do it justice, but he usually spends the 30 seconds or so with his eyes tightly shut, moving his head all around.  He looks like he's writhing in pain.  It's insane looking.  The other insane part is that he's wearing his pajamas in this picture because he we ate so late that night, he went to bed right afterwards.  The 3rd insane thing is that I actually thought it was a good night to try and give Jack a big boy cup to drink out of.  A 'big boy' cup is a normal cup without a lid.  Pretty much add 'big boy' or 'big birl' to anything and that makes it adult-size and normal.  Needless to say, this is not the pair of PJs he wore to bed.  

Introducing....CHARLOTTE!!!

This is Charlotte Marie Hall.  Daughter of Erin and Josh Hall.  She was born on January 19th at 11:40pm.  She weighed 7lb 8oz at birth, but then the next day weighed 7lb 14oz.  If you're a mother, you're thinking, "How in the WORLD?" but...it was a new scale that had never been used, and they're thinking she weighed close to 8 pounds when she was born!  Way to go, Erin!!!  

Isn't she BEAUTIFUL?!?!?!?!

So, why am I blogging about Charlotte? 

Because she's awesome, that's why!  And so are her parents. Erin was one of my many incredible roommates at UNC and it's been such a blessing to have her as a friend for these past several years.  Now, we get to be mommies together!  It's strange the special feelings you have for your friends' children.  Of course you love your own more than the world itself, but your friends' kiddos hold a very special place in your heart, too.  A place where you hurt when they hurt, and you smile when they smile, and when they're being born you get so doggone anxious you can't sleep or eat or do ANYTHING but fire off a bunch of text messages hoping for an update.  

Sweet Charlotte, welcome to the world!  We can't wait to meet you in person.  We love you so much!

Oh, and be kind to your Mommy and Daddy.  In other words, SLEEP!!!

Pickles and Waffles

Our weekend consisted of three birthday parties, two sugar highs for Jack and one UNC loss:(. It was the good, the crazy and the ugly!

Finn got pumped for all of the party fun with a pre-party mohawk. He rocked it pretty well, wouldn't you say?


JP Reed turned 1 on the 13th and had his party on the 19th, which was his mommy's birthday! Those were our first two parties of the weekend and Jack's first sugar high. Kim's party was at Truffles, which is one of the yummiest places in Bluffton. We had a blast partying it down with the Reed family:)

On Sunday, Jack and I went to Kenzie's 2 year birthday party. Jack had so much fun bouncing in the jump castle. Even though the winds were whipping off of the water, making my hands and feet numb, Jack played like it was 70 degrees. Her party was Mickey-themed, which meant the cupcakes were a lovely shade of Mickey Mouse black, which meant that Jack stained his face!
You can see the remnant of the black icing stain if you look closely. Here's Jack taking a minute to wash the cake down with some ice cream. He loved every bit of it. All the way home he sang "Happy Birthday to You". He leaves out the "Happy Birthday Dear __________" verse and just sings "Happy Birthday To You" 100 times. After trying to explain to him that the party was over, I came home just before our small group met to watch the football games and what did they do, but bring yet another birthday cake to celebrate the January birthdays. Jack saw the cake and yelled, "HAPPY CAKE!!!"  Today he was disappointed to realize that yes, finally, the weekend long party had ended.
Today has been the coldest day in the lowcountry we've had so far this winter.  It's been sunny, but COLD!  I was honestly a little excited that I had some errands to run today because that meant I could bundle the boys up in clothes they have never worn before.  Finn must have felt pretty cozy in his bear outfit because in the short time that it took me to dress Jack, he fell asleep in the crib.  
Here's the 2 year old bundle of joy.  You can see his new favorite toy in his hand.  After all of the Christmas presents he got, he wants to play with this Toshiba calculator.  In fact, he and Gracen spent a lot of last night's small group fighting over the calculator that they referred to as their 'phone.'  After rediscovering the phone this morning, Jack began 'talking' on the phone to Gracen.  He said, "Hello, Gracen!  I love you!"

We went to Atlanta Bread Company yesterday after church.  On the way there, we gave Jack a pre-out to eat pep talk.  You know the bit...."We're going to eat in a restaurant"..."You have to make good choices."...etc.  To excite him even more, I told Jack that he could get a waffle with 'dip it' (syrup), and his response was, "What are you talking about?" (What you calking about?) Jack got the waffle, realized he didn't have a spoon, so he stole John's pickle and used it to scoop up his whipped cream.  The first bite passed.  The second bite brought on a "Ew...yucky!"  But that didn't stop him.  He finished the pickle, the whipped cream and 3/4 of his waffle.  Anything for more sugar.  

Family Fun

This past week has flown by! From doctor's appointments to quick visits from family to hanging out with our group of 4...it's been fun. And good.

I'm trying to do a better job about reading to Finn. Jack, being the first, had every book read to him twice a day it seemed. Now that there are two of them, one of me, and the firstborn happens to be a psychopath half of the time, the Finn reading time has been cut to an unfortunate minimum. This picture was taken after finishing a few books with Finley. Jack came in for part of the action. You can tell it's time for bed because this is the only time during the day that Jack doesn't wear his glasses.

Jack is showing me his car, Ramone. No, he didn't come up with that name on his own. It's one of the characters from the Disney movie "Cars". It's his current favorite, and we're not sure why. Jack will be playing with his toys, eating cereal, coloring, whatever...and suddenly will start wailing, "WHERE'S WAMONE?!?!?!" Even after finding Ramone, he won't actually play with him. He just wants him nearby like a little car compadre.

Finndorable had his 4 month check up on Monday. He's growing well and is a healthy little guy. He measured 15 pounds 12 ounces and 24 and 3/4 inches long! I was so pleased that he wasn't in the 'huge' category. Not that I would love him less or more, but IF this is our last baby, I'd enjoy him being small a little longer than Jack was. Finn managed the shots like a champ. Jack was the one who seemed bothered by them. The coat Finn is wearing is a new purchase from Sweet Beginnings. I had the 'new purchase haste' set in after bringing it home. Despite the coat being 18-24month size, I let it swallow my 4 month old for the chilly morning run to the doctor.

We were running out of things to entertain Jack the other night so John whipped out the trusty nasal wash and gave it a test run in front of Jack. Actually, John has been suffering from a sinus cold/infection-ish illness for over a week now and his mom graciously brought this nostril power washer to the house for him to try. John was leaning over the sink complaining that he had rinsed part of his brain out, and Jack was standing by laughing. He thought it was hilarious.

While John was sinus rinsing, Finley was getting loved on by his Gigi and Papa. Notice the nice drool necklace he created on his shirt. Ah...the days of teething have begun!

After John could breathe again, he and his Dad gave some attention to Jack. Jack has been requesting that we hold him recently by saying, "Hold you! Hold you!" all the time. Who can resist?

My uncle and brother came by this Wednesday for a quick business trip and were able to stop in and say hi. Jack managed to take a few seconds break from The Incredibles to interact with them, but Finn was up for some play time. It was good to see them both.

John cleaned out our garage and organized it last weekend, which was great for many reasons...but one main reason is that we found a lot of things we had been looking for. The exersaucer was one of those things. Finn is enjoying his 'new' toy, but gets frustrated once his arms fall to the side and get pinned into the seat. Then, he freaks! But it is nice to have just one more thing to entertain his growing brain. Jack likes to show him the parts around the edge. When Finn copies his brother's instructions, Jack will say, "Good job, Finn!"

After the nasal washing, John thought this week couldn't get worse. He was wrong. He learned it could get worse AND that wool is not to be dried. I was in our closet the other night and heard John at the door saying pitifully, "Oh no...". I turned to see him holding up his favorite sweater, now just a few sizes too big for Jack. Fortunately, I was not the one who did that load of laundry.

It's been cold and rainy here for the past few days. We had a playgroup with our small group babies yesterday to keep the cabin fever kiddos happy and the mommies happy, too. Jack and Gracen had fun playing and eating grapes on their new trays.

Hope all of you are doing well!!!

***Please continue to keep my uncle, Tim, in your prayers. (This is not the uncle Tim pictured above, but another uncle, Tim). His cancer has been identified as squamous cell carcinoma. He'll begin radiation treatments soon and chemotherapy at a later time. Pray that the treatments are effective, that he doesn't experience the pain that is predicted, and for peace and comfort for his family!!!! Thank you!

4 Months of Smiles

At 3:41am this morning, Finn turned four months old. I can and can't believe it. I can believe that I've made that many months worth of bottles. I can't believe that we're already past the sleepless nights phase and that he's such a great baby. Happy 1/3 year birthday, Finnster!

This was the look I got when singing to Finn the other night. He already thinks I'm crazy. You can just see his little brain thinking, "Geez, MOM! Not another picture." Maybe this is just a prep face for the middle school years when being seen with your parents is worse than electrocution.

Gigi and Papa stopped by the other night to say hi to the boys. Finley loves Gigi. She gets a lot of his big smiles.

And this is just one of those pictures that makes me smile. Even though I'm the one who dressed him and put this UNC pacifier in his mouth, I can tell that Finn feels awesome today because of his Tarheel paraphernalia. He was birthed from my womb afterall. We're hoping for a better performance against the Wolfpack today than we saw against Clemson last Sunday.

Some other things that make us smile:
1. Jack's continuing affection for "Baby Duckie" and "Big Duckie". He still has to sleep with both of them. This is Jack this morning with Big Duckie. Baby Duckie was "takin' nap" which means that Jack left him in the bed. Funny.
2. Trying to get a picture of Jack winking, but instead getting a picture of him trying to turn on the television. If there was audio to this picture you would have heard him say, "Heelth" because he wanted to watch the Tarheels play. He had a hard time grasping the concept of "No, baby. They play at noon." What's noon?

3. Jack working his puzzle this morning and purposely putting the pieces in the incorrect spot. He'd look at me and say "wrong!". Then he'd put the pieces in the correct spot and say, "RIGHT!!! YAY!!!"

4. Finn sleeping 11 hours at night!!!

5. Running on Pinckney Island yesterday with John and the boys. The running part doesn't make me smile, but the fact that John ran at my tortoise pace and pushed the jogging stroller does. Thank you, babe!!!

6. The fact that Jack cannot pronounce "truck" without saying the mother of all curse words, but that he can say Tyler Hansbrough pretty clearly.

7. The other night after a quick search for a quiet Jack, we found him in his room, sitting down with his UNC Basketball poster talking to the players' pictures. Sometimes he'll just carry the poster around with him.

8. The infamous Finn Grin.

9. John commenting that my cooking was good this week. I am proud to say that we ate in every night this week and had decent food for once. I even attempted crab cakes, which reached my goal of not making anyone sick.

10. The eye doctor telling us yesterday that Jack does not need surgery at this time! He'll probably wear the glasses until age 5-6 and then hopefully we'll be able to wean him from needing them.

11. The fact that my wonderful husband works his tail off so I can stay at home with the boys and be here to see them as they do these funny things.

12. Jack batting his eyes at us when asking for something that he wants that he know we will not give him without some sort of accomplishment (i.e. lollipops and 'big cookies' which are Nutrigrain Bars). And, no, batting the eyes does not count as an accomplishment.

13. Knowing that everyone who reads this will pray for my uncle, Tim, who was diagnosed with cancer yesterday. Please pray that God would heal him completely from this, that he'd remain positive and that the Lord will protect his wife, Lisa, and son, Adam. THANK YOU!!!!!

Big Small Group

When John and I started going to our church just 4 short years ago, we joined a small group. At the time, there were 3 couples in the small group. Others came and went. Some stuck to it. But over the past 2 years, we've picked up 3 other couples and have had 6 children between us all. It's been so fun to watch the group grow.

Here's Finnderful with his buddy, Pavin (Gracen's baby brother). Pavin is almost 2 months younger than Finn, but Pavin is longer! He's such a cute, big baby!!! I have a feeling they'll be good buddies. They seem to be a little calmer than their older siblings. For now.

Jack is trying to ignore the twirling that is going on behind him here. We were at a Small Group party on Sunday, and these two were going insane. I asked Gracen to strike a pose, and this is what I got. Jack chewed his fingers.

This is Anna sleeping on her mama, Jenny. If I had a picture of her daddy, Brian, you'd see how much she looks like him. Anna is 7 months old.


This is the baby gang at the playground on Monday. Starting at the far left and going clockwise, we have Anna, Pavin, Camden (1 year) and Finn rolling over. Gracen and Jack were elsewhere terrorizing the place.

They did stop the terror for this cute picture, though.

Jack has his pants rolled pedal-pusher style because he went for a good puddle stomp in the wet play area. Who would have known it was January! We could have gotten in the pool.

This is our form of child abuse: Forcing your child to stay up until 10:20 to finish watching a basketball game. Well, it's not as much forcing him to stay up as it was neither of us being willing to take a second away from the UNC/Clemson game. Jack was pretty attentive for most of the game, yelling "GO HEELS!" at everything. But once the overtime kicked in, he grabbed his ducks from his bed and fell into this position between the sofa and ottoman. We took the hint. I was pretty excited about his enthusiastic cheering for the Tarheels, but after hearing him yell "GO HEELS!" during the LSU/Ohio State game, I realized he doesn't quite get it yet.

Frigid

It is COLD here in Bluffton! This morning we woke up to a driveway and windshield full of of ice. Jack and Finn even had to wear their hats on the way to our weekly trip to Target. Jack loved his so much that he wore it around the store and announced to everyone that he was wearing a hat AND glasses. He continues to be such a little socialite when in public. He says to everyone, "Hi! I've got glasses!" As if they couldn't see them.


Here's proof that winter has made it to the lowcountry. I know...our versions of icicles are pretty pitiful, but I think they're the first I've seen after living here for 4 years. That has to count for something. The script is too small in the picture above the the arrow is pointing to the "Bluffton Icicles".

This is Finndorable doing his Tummy Time. For those of you unfamiliar with the phrase, it's what parents are guilted into doing to their screaming child 30 minutes a day for them to strengthen their back, arm, neck and all other upper body muscles. Finn's getting pretty good at it. Although, he is a fan of the side-roll/hand-in-mouth move. I figure our days of Tummy Time are numbered. He'll be rolling over more and more and have nothing to do with it soon.

Last night I found this hat to wear on my date with Mr. Jump Rope. My friend, Jen, and I battled the arctic temperatures and braved a fierce workout in the driveway. Jack found the unfamiliar cold weather gear to be quite entertaining as you can see. John said he looked like MushMouth from Fat Albert, and I'd say that's a good call. If times are too tough this year to purchase a Halloween costume, I think we might pull this South of the Border sweatshirt, orange pants and hat out of the closet for a nice hobo ensemble. Thanks to Jackie for the contribution of the sweatshirt. It's one of our favorites.

This is the milk-in-cheek face that Jack does when he's drinking. It's been the start of many battles with him because sometimes the next step is letting the milk fall onto the floor, his face and anything else in his path. Fortunately, this time, he swallowed.

HNY in ATL

We had a very Happy New Year by celebrating in Atlanta with our friends Phillip, Shannon, Carter, Jason, Lauren, Gary and Kathryn.  This is a picture of Carter and Jack:  new best buddies.  They had a great time playing together.  Carter is such a good little boy, and he's so smart!  We're still in search for a toddler whisperer for Jack because of his incredible high energy level.  In case you're wondering, that's code for insanity.  :)

Our weekend was very relaxing.  The girls went to see P.S I Love You, which was really good.  The guys took a day for fishing and paintballing, and we all convened for New Year's Eve for a nice dinner, some games and a viewing of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.  We all felt so sorry for him!  But then we felt sorry for ourselves having decided to stay up for midnight.  That's not something we EVER do now that we're parents.  

Happy New Years!  Here's to a year full of God's blessings in 2008!!!

A Man of Many Glasses

You've probably seen a few pictures on the past 2 blogs of Jack's new glasses. I figured it couldn't go without mentioning. After discovering that Jack learned to 'cheat' with the old pair by looking over the top of them, we thought it best to get something a little more durable and cheat-proof. Hence the new, sporty, goofy orange glasses. I must say that they do work pretty well though. They're very superhero chic.



We're taking a poll. Who does Jack most resemble in his new glasses?


Arthur the aardvark?  Smart, wise, good role model cartoon for kids....Not bad.
The late Cubs announcer, Harry Caray?  Take me out to the ballgame, anyone?
None other than Clark Kent..
Ralphie from "A Christmas Story"....
or Harry Potter.  

Maybe he'll take a little something from them all and be an incognito super hero who announces sports by day, casts magic spells by night, hangs out with his animal friends while sporting his Red Ryder BB gun.