Dear God

During the past couple of weeks, Jack's prayers have gotten longer and so cute. A couple of weeks ago he would only say, "Dear God, Thanks food. Amen."

And then last night at dinner he says, "Dear God, Thanks this Mommy, Daddy, soup, grapes, cornbread, milk..." Then he proceeded to name everything on the table until I couldn't keep my laughing quiet anymore and I so rudely interrupted him. I couldn't help it -- it was hilarious.

We thought he started expanding his prayers on his own, but then one of his Sunday school teachers told me they had a lesson a couple weeks ago on being thankful. I guess he took it to heart!

I will post some pictures soon. We played in the kitchen sink with bubbles yesterday and I have some good pictures from that. He also woke up with a cold this morning so he isn't feeling the best today. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a dreaded ear infection.

Sometimes Life is Tough

Well, Jack is having a bit of a rough day. First, we went to Harvey's Barbershop on the square so Jack could get a haircut. I was hopeful this second haircut would be a bit less traumatic than the first... However, my hopes were dashed when his big brown eyes filled up with tears as soon as we stepped foot into the barbershop. Things went downhill from there. Let's just say Jack doesn't like getting haircuts, and no amount of treats, talking or begging will make him sit in the chair by himself and stop screaming. By the end, he had the quite the cute little haircut but he also had snot all over his face and was breathing pretty hard from all of his screaming. But, if you ask him if he likes getting his hair cut, he'll tell you "yes."

Life got much better after his haircut because he got to go eat lunch and play with his friends Sophie, Ben, Sam, Zach and Luke. But little did we know, trouble was on the horizon. About five minutes after I put him down for his nap he started screaming bloody murder. I went upstairs and peeked in his door to find him standing up, screaming, with his pants down around his ankles. Apparently it seemed like a good idea to pull his pants down, but after he did it he was not happy. I didn't go in to pull up his pants because he decided to lay down pretty soon after I peeked in the door. So poor Jack is asleep upstairs right now, with his pants around his ankles. I guess sometimes it's just tough being a little boy who is almost two.

Funny Guy

Jack is cracking us up lately. He just says the funniest things. One of his favorites lately is, "What you doing guys?". He knows it makes us laugh so then he keeps saying it over and over again. Yesterday he was praying before breakfast and he said, "Dear God, Thanks for Mommy and Daddy and food. Amen." Then today it was "Thanks for everyone." He also told me he wanted an appetizer for breakfast the other day.

His current favorite toy is his Little People farm and petting zoo. We get it out every day and play with it several times. But his favorite part of the day is playing with Daddy after supper. He ran around so much tonight he was sweating and his little face was all red. Here are some recent pictures...

Wearing Grandpa's old hunting boots and holding his ever-present wooden spoons.


Relaxing while eating his banana "like a monkey."


All dressed up for sledding and snowman making with Daddy. And then his crazy hair after we took his hat off. And today, by the way, we played outside and he chased me around the whole time throwing snow at me.

Last, but not least, wearing his awesome sunglasses!

O Chris Tree

We put our Christmas tree up last Sunday and Jack hasn't stopped talking about the "Chris tree" since. He can say Christmas tree, but it takes too long so he settles for the short version. He enjoyed helping us put ornaments on the tree and is slowly learning the difference between touching them (and taking them off the tree) and pointing at them. He was also a big fan of the sugar cookies we made.

He has his own tree in his room, which he calls "your tree" because that's what he hears us call it. He loves it and insists on plugging the lights in every time we go in his room. He is also loving our Advent calendar and knows that every night after dinner he gets to do the calendar for the day. Here are some pictures of the tree and a couple random ones I hadn't ever posted. You'll have to excuse his lovely outfit in the picture of the tree in is room -- he still had his pajama pants on from his nap.

We've started doing Playdoh recently and he loves it! He'll play with it for an hour.

First Haircut

Today Jack got his first big boy haircut at the barbershop. It was quite a traumatic experience for him, so he had to scream and cry for a good portion of the haircut (after being forced to sit down in the chair and then held down pretty much the entire time).

After his haircut, Grandma and Grandpa took him to the toystore and he got a bulldozer for being a big boy. He has recovered now and will tell you that Larry gave him a haircut. He even gave both Larry's (Larry senior and Larry junior) a high five when he left the barbershop. We went to the same barber that Dad, Glenny and Will have gone to for 15 years.

Here are some pictures of his new look. The first one is him sleeping some more after he got up from his nap. All of his crying wore him out.

Neewollah 2009

Last weekend was Neewollah, my favorite holiday of the year. That is Halloween spelled backwards for those of you not familiar with Neewollah. It is the largest outdoor festival in Kansas and happens in my grandparents' town of Independence.

Jack got to be in his first kiddie parade, although it was very cold so he had to wear a sweatshirt over his blue crayon costume. That night he handed out candy to trick or treaters with Uncle Glenny, the kind of scary clown. The next morning he loved the grand parade and snuggled with Great-Grandma Pat for about half of it.

Neewollah definitely wore him out though, especially since he didn't have a normal nap for two days. And this week while we waited in line outside for his H1N1 vaccine for almost three hours I just told him he was in a parade. He thought that was great and the wait wasn't all that bad! Here are a few pictures of his costume.


And here he is at the parade with Great Grandma Pat.

Swimming Lessons

Jack finished his first swimming lessons last week. He had a bit of a rocky start to swimming lessons, crying the whole time (fake crying that is) and saying, "All done" and "Get out." But by his last few lessons he was having lots of fun and loved his teacher. He even gave her a kiss after his last class. It also helped that Aunt Lindsay got to come to one lesson and he liked showing off for her. She also took these pictures for us.

Trip to Independence

This week, Jack and I went with my mom to Independence, KS to see Great Grandma Pat and Great Grandpa Bill. Independence has a really great city park, complete with a carousel (costs only a nickel) and a train (costs only a dime). The park also has a zoo, a great playground and a special little kids play area called Kiddie Land. I grew up going to the park so I was very excited to take Jack.

Before we went to the park, Jack had to get his strength up so he ate one entire ear of corn all by himself. He then ate almost half of another ear to make sure he was full.

That night at the park he rode the carousel and the train. He was quite overwhelmed by everything and was pretty serious while he was riding both of them. I don't think he was sure if he should smile or not.

The next morning he went with Grandpa to coffee at McDonald's and met all of Grandpa's friends.

Then it was off to Kiddie Land and the zoo. This teepee was a bit hit because he was able to play his favorite game, hide and seek, in it.

Before we left we had to eat lunch at Braum's, another favorite in Independence. Jack enjoyed his first milkshake and got his first kiddie meal, although he ate his banana instead of the food from Braum's. I guess he did eat the ketchup from Braum's. He won't eat french fries, but he will lick ketchup off of them all day.

Poor Jack

Little Jack has his first ear infection. A couple of days ago he started being really fussy and clingy, and by the end of the day yesterday I knew something was bothering him. So this morning we went to the doctor and found out his left ear is infected. He is not a huge fan of amoxicillin and so far we are having to force him to take the medicine. Hopefully he will start feeling better soon. I got him a tent tonight at the Just Between Friends consignment sale, so he'll be very excited to play in it tomorrow I'm sure.

Next week I'll have a more exciting post because we are going to Great-Grandma and Grandpa's house in Independence to visit the park. It has a carousel and train, and lots of other fun things so we'll have great pictures to share.

Lord of the Dance

Jack goes through dancing phases. Sometimes he really likes it, and then he's over it. Luckily a few weeks ago we got some very funny footage of him in a dancing phase. It started at dinner and kept going after he got down. During dinner he really had to concentrate because he was dancing and shoving watermelon in his mouth as fast as he could. Enjoy!