Jack at 2 1/2

I'm pretty sure I've lost almost all readers by now, because I've turned into one of the world's worst bloggers!  I have lots of catching up to do, but I'm going to skip ahead for a while and work in the present while I catch up with the past posts.

I want to blog all about Jack at 2 1/2, because he's well on his way to turning.....3! (so hard to say)  This is such an adorable, sweet, fun age, and I want to remember as much as I can about him at this age.

Jack at 2

Jack and I are having an absolute blast while James is in Kindergarten.  We do miss James and are so happy to see him at 4:00, but having one on one time with him is heavenly!  Jack is so much easier without James around, so he's just a joyful, funny, sweet, and energetic little playmate.  He is also independent, so I have more down time during the day, which is great.

 Jack, like I said is independent.  He must do everything by himself, only using me as a last resort (like after trying to button his button for 10 minutes straight).  I was able to take him up to school with me for two days last week and work at a table greeting lots of grandparents, while he raced cars and his bus up and down the hallway for hours.  He will read books by himself, making up the story or trying to retell the story from memory, and he'll play pretend races happily by himself while I get ready.  If he ever does make it back to my bathroom, though, while I'm still getting ready, I'm in trouble, because he gets into everything!  Makeup, candles, cotton balls, gel, hairspray, etc.

Jack is very, very social.  Ever since he was a baby, he has been very into other people.  He loves my friends, he has tight bonds with his friends, and he loves babies (anybody littler than him).  We were getting out of the car this morning to go into MDO, and he saw my friend Susan.  He acted like he wanted to get out as fast as he could while he said hurridly, "I wanna say hi to Susan."  While getting out he saw my friend, Amber.  He stepped out of the car and said in his loud, deep voice, "HI AMBER, HI SUSAN!"  Nevermind all the kids going in, he just wanted to say hi to my friends!  While in Florida, he got attached to my friend, Denise, on the first day.  He wanted to sit in her lap most of the time and wanted to show her everything and tell her about everything.

He copies everything James does, move by move.  James will squat down and be looking at something on the ground, and Jack will get right next to him and squat just like him, and he'll keep checking to make sure he's doing the exact same thing.  It's so sweet!  James will run into a room, and the next time you know, Jack will run to the exact same spot.  James will fling himself onto the couch, and then Jack will do it the exact same way.  He also very willingly participates in any game that James makes up for him.  They have the silliest rules, and Jack won't question it at all.  He just loves the attention from James.

He is a smooth-moving romancer.  While at soccer practice, he lit up when he saw little Jentri (who's now 2).  He, with a huge smile, played with her the entire time, never breaking his focus on playing with her.  At one point, her mom started laughing so hard, because Jack went beside her and put his arm around her.  He has gotten over his kissing streak, where he kissed a lot of the girls at church, but he just likes to hug on them now.  He also still has his "girl-friend/future-wife", Avi.  They just adore each other.  They've almost moved on now from lovey-lovey to great friends. :)

He's a huge mama's boy.  He can be the sweetest, most loving thing with me.  When I ask him for a kiss, he gives me a big kiss and then says, "and a hug", and hugs me.  He looks lovingly into my eyes sometimes daily and says, "I love you in the whole world" with a sweet smile (meaning, I love you all the much in the world).  He'll also say "there's our sweet mommy" or "there's our sweet princess", while I'm walking toward him.  It's hard to describe, but all I about have to do is make eye contact with him with a smile, and he just gives me so much love back.  Last night he prayed, "Thank you for Daddy, thank you for James, thank you for myyyy mommy."

He's a boy of extremes.  Extremely loving, extremely passionate, extremely feisty at times, has an extremely loud voice, extremely my-way-or-the-highway at times, and extremely easy going at times.  That nursery rhyme, "When she was good she was very, very good, and when she was bad she was horrid" fits him well.  Although he's very easy to talk down when his temper is flaring.  It's usually with James, but I know he'll sometimes get into with friends, too, over things like crayons and toys.  He can be moody, and he will escalate into yelling what he wants....uh-uh...  I'm daily reminding him, "Can you ask me nicely, Jack?"  He also has a serious pouty face.  It's seriously cute, and I wish I could kiss it off of him, but of course I can't. :)

He has a distinct, well-pronunciated way of talking.  He uses big-kid sounding words and phrases and doesn't use many kid-invented words.  The pronounces his s's with "th", but it does not slow him down.  I love his cute way of talking!  He also has a cute raspy voice.

His favorite thing in the world to play with is cars.  Actually all vehicles.  He also knows car types and people's cars better than I do.  My sister got a Traverse a while back, which I wasn't that familiar with beforehand, and every time Jack saw a Traverse around town, even if it was a different color, he'd say, "That's Bibi's car!"  I'd read the car type on the back, and it was always a Traverse.  Yesterday, he saw the rental car of our friends we went on vacation with two months ago and said, "There's the Turks' car!"  I'd already forgotten what they'd driven there until he pointed it out!

One of my favorite things about him is his million dollar smile that completely lights up his face.  He frequently has a huge smile on his face, giggling with such enthusiasm.  I never want to forget that smile, and the camera doesn't quite capture it the way you see it in real life.  I guess maybe because you can't reach over and kiss it and feel that soft skin and smell that sweet smell.

Jack's first day of school- 9/6/11

James and Jack continue to have a love/hate relationship.  They are either fighting about something, or they're having a blast together.  One of the best things in the world is when they go off together, and I just hear giggles and laughter.  Not much makes me happier.

Jack is a good tryer of food.  He doesn't eat everything in sight, but he'll put something in his mouth and try it out without any coaxing.

Jack likes to tell people what to do.  He is somewhat bossy, and he wants things a certain way.  He'll tell me, "Don't read that book.  Put it right here."  or "I want my yellow bar on the couch for Nesery Street (Sesame Street)".  He even bosses around his big brother.  Sometimes James ignore it, and sometimes he gets really mad and tells on him.  He's also particular about his shoes and clothes.  He'll bring me clothes that he wants to wear, and they don't remotely go together.

Jack loves to feel like a big kid.  He likes to help his Daddy and me around the house and yard and puffs out his chest with pride.  He will stand on his tippy toes and tell people, "I'm big."  He loves to go off and have special time with people.

He is an excellent sleeper.  He takes 2-3 hour naps every day, and he'll go to bed whenever I put him in there.  He'll sleep all night and wake up around 7:30.

That's about all I can think of to write about Jack!   There's so much more to him that I don't want to forget at this age, but it's hard to express it in words.  He just brings so much joy and sweetness to our family, and I couldn't be more thankful to God for blessing us with him.

Kindergarten!

First day of school!

My sweet 5-year-old is officially a school-aged kid!  He entered Kindergarten this past September and has been loving it ever since!  I didn't know what to expect going into this, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well he transitioned.  I think he was made for school.  He loves to learn, loves the social interaction, loves his teacher, and loves his recess time.  He was so excited going into Kindergarten, and even though I cried, he never shed a tear.  

We had been hearing that all of the Kindergarten teachers were awesome, but when I heard they were adding a new one, I just had a feeling we'd get the new one.  Sure enough, I was right.  It ended up being a blessing, though, because Ms. P. is absolutely wonderful.  We couldn't be happier with her and are truly more and more impressed with her with each encounter we have with her.  She's a brand new teacher, but is wise and mature beyond her years, very smart, and very professional.  She also has a mother who is a great 3rd grade teacher at the school as a great mentor.  She is laid-back and lets the "boys be boys", but has very good control of the class.

I also couldn't be happier with James' classmates.  He has a ton of really sweet kids that come from seemingly very sweet families.  There are a lot of boys in his class who he seems to get along great with.  James is sensitive and tells me anytime he gets his feelings hurt, but there is none of that going on in his class.  I'm so thankful for that.  He just comes home happily and tells me of the fun they had at recess playing chase or being spies.

During his first parent/teacher conference, Ms. P. told me that she had absolutely no complaints about James.  She said he was very curious, asking lots and lots of questions (that sounded very familiar!), and that she thought he was going to be a scientist when he grew up.  She said he likes to figure things out for himself and will keep working on it until he does.  She said that once he "gets it" (whatever it is they're working on), he will remember it from that moment on.  Ms. P. also told me that he excels in Math.  That surprised me, because I just didn't have any idea going into Kindergarten how he'd do with Math.  That was also interesting to me, because my doctor told me he was going to have do well in Math based on the way James tells very organized stories.  Ms. P. told me three times that he has a lot of energy! LOL:)  She said that some kids will get tired from time to time, but he never does.  She added to that that he also knows how to turn that energy off on a dime and will follow directions immediately.  She told me that he is very social and made a lot of friends right off the bat. She said that his table in particular gets along very well together.  They all have similar dispositions and are very sweet to one another.  His favorite friend in his class that he talks about a lot, Joe, sits right next to him.  Ms. P. said that they are very similar in the way that they have lots of fun but then turn it off and obey immediately.  I'm so thankful that he's surrounded by this sweet table to give him such a happy, sweet experience in Kindergarten.
James' teacher told them to write about the Mayflower.  Here is the translation of what he wrote...

"First they went to U.S.A.  Second they went to Plymouth Rock.  Third they went to a feast and fourth they friends for ever ever and ever and ever hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

James' first story to write all on his own.