School Field Trip to Eckert's Orchard

Jack's class had their first field trip today. It's apple-picking time at Eckerts. It's the neatest place. They have a country restaurant, a market and an orchard for picking apples and pumpkins in the Fall. Peaches and strawberries in the summer, other things in Spring, Christmas trees in the winter. They take you out to the orchard in a tractor-pulled wagon and it's so much fun. Before we did our apple-picking, we toured the grounds where they had a ton of animals. Later, we sat on bleachers and listened to "Tommy Appleseed" tell us all about Eckerts and the orchard. Unfortunately, I only got pictures of the beginning of the trip as I didn't charge the camera battery the night before. But, luckily the teachers took lots of pictures and promised to send me some. I will post apple-picking pictures when I get them. Jack had so much fun and wore himself out. Here are the shots I did get:


He got to ride the yellow bus with his teachers and friends.

The tractor.

















Baby pig



















My little apple-picker.

Tractor style tricycles

These are really small camels, although they don't look like it.


















These looked like little kangaroos.
























I swear these little goats were really trying to escape - bless 'em.

Good times!

Misc. pictures and catch up

These are just shots of Jack this past week. He has really enjoyed taking walks and playing in his clubhouse. The weather has been so mild and nice. I feel like I've been slacking on picture-taking lately.





















Head-first sliding.


















Out for pizza.

Out for a walk with our lawnmower.

Jack and Mommy to the Doctor

Jack went for his three-year-old appointment two days ago. He is 80th percentile for weight, 70th for height. I coached him about what the doctor would do and he and I practiced opening his mouth and saying "ah", etc. If he was a good boy, he was going to get a special treat - which he did get. He was a jewel. The next day, I had a doctor appointment (yeseterday). At breakfast, I asked Jack, "where does mommy have to go today?" He said, "The doctor". He of course is thinking this over for a few moments and then says, "You be a good girl at the doctor. You're gonna get a special treat if you're a good girl. You're going to get a sucker." When I picked him up from our neighbor's house after my appointment, the first thing he asked was, "did you get a sucker?" He makes me laugh.

Jack Reading

Jack made a book at school called, "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, Who Do You See?". The teachers took pictures of the kids in class and put one student on each page. Jack has read it at least 30 times since Friday (and today is Saturday). I was fortunate to catch him reading.

A Funny Conversation with Jack

I need to first give a little background on this conversation. I was very sick yesterday and Sam had to come home and take care of Jack. When Jack came home from school, he came up to my room to see me. I wanted to hear all about school. I asked my usual questions; who'd you play with? What did you do in circle time? Did you play outside? Were all your teachers there? And apparently, he was getting tired of the 20 questions and finally this is what he says:

"Mommy, it's getting really hard to talk to you. Okay, here it goes: Mrs. Holan was there today. I'm going to go downstairs and watch a little bit of Ratatouille and then I'll come back and talk to you later."

I just laughed and asked why it was hard to talk to me. And his response to that was, "Mrs. Holan was there". Clearly he was done visiting me. I thought it was hilarious, but yet scary, too. Is he already blowing me off?


















This is not a paci but a whistle he got at school. He wouldn't take it out of his mouth the entire day.

Memom

This is the only picture of Jack and Memom that I managed to take. Mom is going to hate it, of course. Memom was so helpful and selfless while she was here. She cooked, cleaned, mopped, did laundry, vacuumed, grocery shopped, weeded in the yard, etc. I could go on and on. Thanks, Memom!

Feet

I'm soooo not a feet person. But there's something about your children's feet that is very tolerable. The other night, Jack was watching TV and had his feet sticking out of a blanket, laying on Sam's lap. They looked so sweet - I had to take a picture.

These are shots of Jack after he tipped over his "thinking chair" to make a table to play cars.

Jack and his Friends

After dinner, Jack wanted to play with Brendan and Niko. They were over at Brendan's house and Jack made himself at home in the sandbox and swingset. Here are the pictures our neighbor, Matt, took of them playing. Jack had a wonderful time!

Swimming Fun with Daddy

Poor Sam was worn out from pulling Jack back and forth, back and forth. Jack had a blast.


















Fishy float

Precious little back.

Happy boy

Watchin' a little tube after the fun at the pool.

I think he's so handsome here.

Riding the "White Bus" Home

Jack decided early on that he wanted to ride the bus home from school. I was sitting on that first day, waiting patiently with my camera, and up rolls a big white suburban with "Mascoutah School District" on it. Here is my video of Jack on the second day riding the bus as I was waiting on a yellow bus that first day. I missed it all together.

Walking in School Video

This is Jack walking in school. He insisted that I hold his hand so I apologize for the bouncy video as I'm walking, talking and taping.

Jack's First Day of School

Jack started pre-school last Friday. He was excited about it, not anxious as I anticipated. On the way to school he was quiet. Once we got in the parking lot and I was having trouble finding a parking place, he said, "lets just go home, mommy." I wanted to eat him up. He was being so brave but I think that was his way of saying, 'it's okay if we just skip this and go'. Here are pictures from the first day.


Heading out for school - first day!

Scott Elementary School

Jack's Locker (now it has his picture on it)
























Heading home

Jack indicated that he had a really good time at school. His favorite part was playing with cars and playing on the playground. He pee-peed in the potty for Mrs. Holan and got a big whale of a job sticker. Since it was Friday, I told Jack he'd be home for two days and then go back to school on Monday, to which he said, "okay, that sounds good mommy, okay that sounds good."

Meet and Greet at School

Jack and I went to his school the day before it officially started to meet his teacher and teacher aides. I wanted him to get familiar with the classroom so he wouldn't be going in cold turkey. He warmed up immediately, especially since his room had a drawer with cars in it. He found Lightning McQueen and life was good. He played with just about every toy in the room - all while holding on to Lightning.

Jack playing (his teacher in the background, Mrs. Holan)

Lockers in the background

What to do next?

St. Louis Zoo

Sam took Jack to the zoo on one of his days off. Jack had never been to the zoo before and I hated to miss it, but I couldn't fathom going and walking around. As Janeen would say, "I would need a jazzy chair" to get around. They had a wonderful time and were both worn out when they got home. Here are some pictures Sam took from the day:

Alligators

A break for Dippin' Dots

Not sure what this creature is

Fun in the Sun

Last week when I was having an okay afternoon, Jack wanted to play in his pool and sprinkler. It was so humid and hot (we didn't last very long). Here are some pictures of him playing. He ran from the pool to the sprinkler over and over. This first picture is really blurry because of condensation on the camera lens from the humidity, yuck.

Fishing pole around his neck

Got a little bit of grass on him here

"Emergency"

Sam was on-call for two straight weeks including weekends. Jack received a doctor kit back at Christmas that included a beeper. Jack needed to wear his beeper, too. Here are some pics of him and his "beeper". He walked around saying, "emergency, emergency".

Bye-Bye Paci!

Paci, Oh Paci. Why did you have to leave?

Oh but you knew I was going as soon as you turned three.

I know you're with a new baby - being put to good use.

Is that what your mama said? Sounds like a silly excuse.

Paci, Oh Paci, my naps will never be the same.

I understand, but I believe your mom is to blame.

Jack took his paci to the hospital labor/delivery floor and gave it to a new baby. Jack still took a paci at nap time. We wrapped it up in a nice bag and tissue paper. Here is our "ode to the paci".

Jack in the car ready to head to the hospital.

Jack on the elevator heading up to the 4th floor.

Jack trying to take the paci out of the bag (he didn't realize that the bag was part of the gift).




Jack watching the nurse take it down the hall to the mother/baby rooms.




All the nurses were just so taken with Jack. He took "Mater" and "Lightning McQueen" to show the new baby, but we weren't allowed to see any babies. He was okay with that. He was such a big boy.



In this video you can hear a nurse say, "you are so big" and he says, "no, I'm three".

Final Post from Our Lexington Trip...it's a good one!

Since I'm so sick I can hardly stand it, I thought now was as good a time as any to finally post my last video from Lexington. You can't hear what Jack comes in the kitchen to say because I couldn't get the camera turned on quick enough. But, what he says is. . .

"MY MOMMY HAS A BABY IN HER BELLY!" Enjoy watching everyone's reaction. This was at the beginning of his birthday party at Aunt Neen's house.

Since Jack found out that I have a baby in my belly, he keeps claiming to have one in his belly. He will walk over to me with his shirt raised and say, "I want you to see the baby in my belly". Yesterday, our neighbor walked over and Jack knew how bad I was feeling. He immediately told her, "the baby in my belly is making me sick". He's having a hard time with me being sick. He's not making it easy on Sam either.