If all playdates went this well. . .

. . . we'd try to have one everyday. At times, Jack struggles with sharing and being aggressive when playing with others. So when Jack and Niko played at our house a couple of weeks ago (yes I'm very late posting), they played so well together the entire time. Jack was so thrilled to have him over; he was anxious to share, hold hands - just do whatever Niko wanted. Here are the pictures of them playing together.

They were chompin' at the bit to get upstairs and I couldn't get the camera focused. Here they're holding hands on their way up.

Still holding hands

Kids crack me up at how busy they get when they're playing. Niko was so busy playing with toys that are new to him.

Here is Jack after a three-hour-nap. I had to wake him up and he was grumpy and tired the rest of the evening. Again, I need to have more playdates if this is the type of nap we get out of it:)

Video one is an example of how well they were playing together. The second is Jack dancing and freezing.

End of the month clean-up

What I mean by end-of-the-month clean-up, I'm referring to pictures I've taken and not used on the blog. Here's a smattering.

Jack doing a downward-dog on Sam during "Fort time".
































Last week before all the snow, we had a day that was about 50 degrees. Jack and I went outside for a bit and he wanted to ride his, too-small-for-him, four-wheeler. I guess it'll be perfect for his brother in about a year.

Snow Days!

In the posting below, "Makin' Pizza for Dinner", I commented that we were supposed to get snow and ice and we sure did. Jack has had two snow days in a row. It sleeted and snowed all day yesterday so we didn't venture out to play. Today, it was sunny and about 17 degrees. Logically, today was the better day to play outdoors:)

A view from across the court.

Jack was completely entertained by just throwing snowballs.

His pants and gloves were NOT water proof, poor fella.

We met up with several neighbors. Here Jack and Aiden are playing on the snow pile and throwing snow into Aiden's sled.

Round 2. When we came in from the morning round of playing in the snow, we ate lunch and Jack was so tired, he took a three hour nap. I had to wake him up. As soon as he was remotely awake he said, "I'm ready to play in the snow again!" Here he's ready except for his coat. This time I put on waterproof pants.

Back to picking snow off the ground and then throwing it back on the ground in a different spot.

For those who can't understand what Jack is saying here, he is saying, "If I throw snowballs on people, I'll just have to go straight back inside." I had been lecturing him all day about not throwing snow on people (which he thought was a riot). I told him if he threw it on people, we'd have to go in. He finally got it and that is when throwing it on the ground became the important mission.

Makin' Pizza for Dinner

This cold weather is killing us! Yesterday, Jack and Sam made homeade cookies, tonight, Jack and I made pizza (which turned out so delicious). I didn't get any pictures of them making cookies, but here are a couple of pics of the pizza-making. He was so into it. The cold weather is giving us mid-winter cabin fever. We're due to get a snow/ice storm tonight and tomorrow. Great.

Our day-to-day stuff

I've been bad about posting any new pictures lately. I've been having trouble getting around and blogging is taking a backseat to everything else around the house. Here are some pictures from last week and weekend. Jack is really into wanting us to 'get the camera and take a picture of me'.


Memom came for a four-day visit and we did alot of painting upstairs. Here I'm taking a break and Jack sat on my lap. He was laying his head on my belly, but by the time Sam fetched the camera, he just had his little hand on it.

We bought new big-boy underwear. Lightning McQueen were the first to be worn and he said, "go get the camera and take a picture of my new big-boy underwear."

Close-up!

We had Dairy Queen one night and Jack had an ice-cream mustache. He wanted a picture taken of it.

Reading with Daddy

Sunday morning after breakfast, Jack didn't want to watch a show, he wanted to go up to his room to read books. This is out of the ordinary (he always wants to take his left-over milk to the living room to watch Mickey or something). He loves reading, but he has "set" times of the day that we usually read. While Sam and I cleaned up breakfast, Jack waited for us at the top of the steps.



















When he planted himself behind Sam, I knew I had to run and get the camera.

I love these pictures!

I can dance. . . to anything!

Tonight we had a variety of music in the CD player; several soundtracks, Janet Jackson, and Jazz. Sam and Jack were doing the usual fort thing and suddenly Jack started dancing to the Gladiator soundtrack. Not Janet Jackson, Gladiator.

Haircut: Before and After

Jack has been in need of a haircut for weeks. His hair was hanging 3/4 of the way down his ears. It's fine when it's curly, but with the dry air, he wakes up with his hair everywhere. Last night I set up a stool for him to watch "Toy Story" while I snipped away. Here are the before and after shots:

Before. . .

After. . .

So handsome!

If I worked...

I might miss something. This morning, I am trying to get Jack's pjs off but he is more interested in "giving Florence some lovin'". He keeps rubbing his head on her and she is reciprocating. He says, "Florence is my buddy. She loves me." I said, "yeah, Florence is a good girl." Jack says, "yeah, she's a good girl - just like you, mommy". Ah, just melt my heart first thing in the morning!

Jack playing fort with Sam - laying on top of Sam here.

Christmas in Lexington

We had Christmas with my family on New Year's Eve this year. Jennifer came in from Virginia with Madison and Lauren. Mike was missed this year; he is heading to Iraq for a year deployment. We had a chili dinner and then opened gifts. I was very uncomfortable during the entire present-opening and my pictures aren't the greatest. Turns out that later that night is when the stomach flu hit. I thought it was just pregnancy.

Jack raked it in with Little People toys, cars, Diego stuff and a computer.






















Here he is sending out emails. He is often sending emails out these days.

Madison, Lauren and Nicholas.

Madison and Lauren with their new bags.

Neen, Nathaniel, Casey and Nicholas

This is a video from earlier in the day at Aunt Neen's house. The boys are dancing and just hyper.

I'd like to Bottle Time

By no means do I believe that a 3-year-old is perfect. Anyone with one of their own knows that by personal experience. However, I do have the pleasure of some of the sweetest conversations I've ever had in my life. I unfortunately acquired the stomach flu that Jack came down with Christmas night. I didn't really see Jack for two and a half days because I was so sick. When I was better (just last night), I was sitting on the couch with him watching "Toy Story". He was smiling and giggling a bit and this was our conversation:

Jack, you're so giggly and smiley. Are you happy?
Yes, I'm happy.

What are you so happy about?
I'm happy about you.

He just missed me I guess. He greeted me in the bathroom this morning with the biggest smile and hug. He's wanted me to read books instead of daddy, wait on me to go downstairs this morning, etc. It feels so good to be missed.

Another conversation we had recently was about him getting older. I keep telling Sam that I hope my boys will call me more than once a week (he calls his mom once a week). I had a semi-serious talk with Jack about how I'd like it if he'd call me more than once a week when he is a grown-up man like daddy. Jack agreed that he would call more than once a week, etc. Sometimes now, out of the blue, we'll be in an up-close conversation and he'll say, I'll call you more than once a week, Mommy. It's not even the topic we'd been discussing. He remembers the talk we previously had and hopefully how important it is to me :-)

Jack goes to the Movies. . . sort of

Sam only worked a half day on Christmas eve so we decided to take Jack to his first movie. We have tried to go on other occasions but something kept us and it never worked out. And, once again, it didn't quite work out. We woke Jack up early from his nap and he wasn't happy at all. We get to the movies to see "Madagascar 2" and he's so excited about popcorn. We're in our seats ready to roll and the previews start and it was just too loud for him. He starts crying and there is NO consoling him. I usually pride myself on preparing him ahead of time for new events, but I didn't talk to him about how loud it would be (not sure if it would've made a difference or not in this case). We had to leave the theater but we did get a refund on our tickets. So, we left the movies with the most expensive bag of "to go" popcorn ever.

On the way - not happy about being woke-up early.



















All is well at this point. Just eating popcorn.





































All is well, out of the theater and taking the popcorn with him.