Grandpa??

When we pulled in the driveway after school, Jack started asking for grandpa!  I’m not sure why he thought he’d be at our house, but he was very concerned about “where’d he go?”!

And check out the just-off-the-playground-sweaty-head hair!  Love him!

Our little water boy

Jack loves to be outside, and he loves playing in the water, so free reign of the water hose is right up his alley! I’m so thankful for my camera. If I didn’t have it, and the tons of pictures I take with it, I may not remember that our first born often plays with his tongue hanging out of his mouth! I love having the opportunity to go back through the past months and find pictures of moments like this one. Mark was chasing Jack, so the smart little one with the water hose turned around and started chasing his daddy-with the water! I can hear that sweet little laugh when I look at this!And of course his daddy got him back-much to his delight!! Mr. Hard-at-Work……and then back to play! It’s the simple things!! :)

The after party

Jack had such a great time at Lucy’s party that he was fast asleep before we pulled out of Baxter!  When we got home, he was ready to play again, so we changed out of his party clothes and started by reading some books.We played in the chair and climbed on the ottoman, kissed Corduroy, stacked blocks,and just had fun! And yes, he’s a Gamecock (for now at least!), so this shirt will never be worn on a Saturday!

Happy 1st Birthday, Lucy Loo!

Happy, happy 1st birthday to you, sweet girl!  We had a great time celebrating with you today, and we just wish we could be with you and your sisters more often!  Thanks for having us at your super cute party!! We love you, Rabbs!!
Mark, Michelle, and Jack

One week down, and he’s doing great!

--a reminder to my future self, because Jack and his future siblings will continue to grow up, and there’s nothing I can do about it!--

The new school year at the Day School started on Monday, and Jack moved to the Turning Two classroom.  There were no first day of school pictures, because mommy and Jack had a really tough morning!  I think he was crying a bit harder, but mommy cried much longer.  Starting in this class, they take one nap, from 11:00 to 2:00, instead of two, and that nap is on a little cot instead of in a crib!  I really didn’t believe Jack would stay on a cot-and sleep!  And when we got there, they were giving the kids milk in a cup, not a sippy cup, a cup!  He’s only 18 months old!!  His teachers told me I didn’t need to bring sippy cups each day.  I don’t know why I had such a hard time dropping him off in this new classroom, but I did!

After Ms. Tracey pried him out of my arms (him from me or me from him I’m not sure), I went to Mark’s office, and he talked through it with me, and we both knew he’d be just fine.  This mommy is just not good with change, especially when it involves my t-tiny growing up!

Ms. Tracey called me around 12:00 during their nap time and told me that Jack was doing great!  I think she could tell I needed it, and I really appreciated it!  She said he went down for his nap just fine and was still sleeping.  I asked her how he did with the cup, and she said they went back to sippy cups-the kids are still too young!

Each day we receive a daily progress sheet, and Jack’s reports have been great!  They’ve had comments on them such as:

“Jack had a great morning!  He sat well in circle time, listened well to the stories, and did the hand movements while singing songs.”
”Jack had so much fun playing outside with Hane and his other friends!  He loves to be outside!”
”Jack is so verbal and is doing a great job using his words to tell us what he wants.  He’s very friendly and always says, Hi!!”
“Jack had fun pointing out the birds, trees, and butterflies on our tour of the State House grounds!” (Our church is across the street from the State House grounds, so today they strolled over for a visit.)

I still can’t believe that Jack will stay on his cot to nap, so I left my camera yesterday and asked his teachers to take pictures.  Sure enough-look at him!And today I picked up your first piece of art work of the school year.  When I looked at it with you and told you how great it was, you kept saying, “Paint!  Paint!”We’re so proud of you sweet boy!  Thanks for being such a good boy at school-you’re so fun at home, we didn’t expect anything different!

My cute niece!

Kendall and Linds came up to do some shopping today, so I got to spend a little bit of time with them-what a treat!  Thanks for making the trip, and we can’t wait to see you again soon!!

He asked me to take his picture!

Seriously, he did!  I had my camera on his table, and he grabbed it.  Mark asked him if he wanted me to take his picture, he said “yes”, and then “cheese!!”!  Oh, I love it!And then he wrestled with his daddy-and I love that, too!

Eighteen Months Old

Little love bug, it’s been a year and a half since we first laid eyes on you and you made us parents, and these past eighteen months have been nothing short of amazing! We love you more than we ever thought possible and do our best to show you that every day! You and I went to the Horseshoe today to run around and take pictures, and your little toddler self had a great time! School is back in, so when we got there, a group of students were playing frisbee. You’re eyes were locked in! One day {I know way quicker than I’ll be ready} you’ll be out there running around with your friends, too, little one!You are still quite the little explorer, so the Horseshoe was the perfect place for you to run around. Of course I kept an eye on you, but I let you walk all around and you loved it. Even though I still call you my t-tiny baby, I know you’re turning into more and more of a toddler right before my eyes. You still have a lot of babyness to you-still only eight teeth with a ninth starting to break through-so I’m kissing your t-tiny baby fingers and toes as often as I can.Right now you are such a silly, silly little boy! You love to hide. Your favorites spots right now are behind window treatments, behind clothes in the closet, or right behind your tiny little hands! You love to close your eyes and cover them-because we totally can’t see you when you do that! :)You love to talk, and even though we know what you’re saying, most of it is in your own language. You totally believe that you’re making perfect sense, though, and I love watching your expressions change as you tell your story!You’ve gotten good at two word sentences, my recent favorite is “I clean.” meaning you want to vacuum after I’m finished, and just the other morning you pieced together a pretty long one! There was a bird trapped on our back porch the night before, and daddy got it. At breakfast you said, “Bird. All gone. Daddy got it!” By the way, he’s your hero!And you’re such a social, friendly little guy! You say, “hi!” to everyone you see-I love that you make others smile! It’s polite, and nice and Southern!, to greet people you come across, so we’ll work on keeping that up! As a mom to a boy, I know I need to not freak out about bugs, but I’m not there yet. And thankfully, you’re not interested in them beyond just looking right now. Beetles don’t really bother me, so I let you take a pretty close look. And just look you did! Thank you for not touching…yet!You are more than we could ever have asked for little one, and we’re so very thankful to call you our son! Your smile is bigger than it ever has been-and so are ours!

We love you more than words can say, sweet boy!
Daddy and Mommy

Happy Half Birthday, Jack!!

Our little boy is one and a half today! Unbelievable, but a great reason to celebrate! After running around the Horseshoe for an hour, we came home and watched for daddy! I think this is one of Jack’s favorite times of day! Mine, and I’m sure Mark’s, too!He ate dinner, and then it was time for his half birthday cake and a present!He’d been asking for his cake since he saw it at breakfast, but when we lit the candles and sang to him, he started crying and wanted nothing to do with the cake-or blowing out one and a half candles! Nothing that a present couldn’t take care of, though, so he opened that first. His first little remote control car! The remote only has one button, so he figured that out quickly and had fun with it! He even figured out how to turn the car on and off!And then he wanted his cake, and boy was he ready! This was the look I got when I thought he had his fair share for the night-Happy half birthday, sweet boy! We’re so proud of the little one and a half year old that you’ve become!And I can’t take credit for the super cute half cake idea-Amy makes these for her kids’ half birthdays, and I love it! Half birthdays are going to be big around here with our second baby boy due so close to Christmas. I’m excited to borrow the idea and make it part of our little half birthday tradition.

It’s a…

We were so excited to have a few friends over for dinner tonight to share the news about Baby Thomas #2!  We kept it totally low key with salad and pizza and an extra special cake!Laura will be the baby’s Godmother, so we asked her to cut the cake… …and it’s a BOY!!!  We’re thrilled that Jack is going to have a brother and we can’t wait to meet this little guy in December!!  Until then, keep kicking away and keep growing strong and healthy sweet boy!  We love you SO much already!!