The last two weeks have flown by. We had your two-week check up and you gained about 6 ounces on top of your birth weight. From the first day I held you in the hospital I have referred to you as "squirrely" because of how long and squirmy you are. All of your features are really petite except for your long fingers and feet (your mom is a poet). Just like when you were in my stomach, you still love to kick and punch your feet and hands every chance you get.
You are so expressive. My favorite look is the dreamy eyes you get when you are super content. But you also make this I'm-scared-of-the-world face that makes me laugh every time. But no matter the face, your eyes are always the size of saucers.
You love to sleep, but you have a hard time getting yourself to sleep. You fight it and fight it and if mom or dad give up on bouncing/rocking you, we hear about it. Right before you cry, you do quick and heavy breathing through your nose which your big brother copies and makes fun of you for. If we hear it start, we know a loud cry is about to follow. Your favorite way to sleep is on mom's chest after a good feeding.
You love your changing table and getting your diaper changed. You could be in a right fit, and the minute we start changing your diaper, you get quiet and happy. It could be that you love to be clean or that you love the little breeze, I'm not sure.
Every morning Jack wakes up and we go get him from his crib together. I put you in there with him and you guys both hang out for a bit. Jack always lies down next to you as close as he can and we sing some songs while you stare. You are super lucky to have a big brother who loves you so much. I hope you guys always stay close.
We are glad you are here and hope you stay a while :)
Love you always,
Mom
J,
You are two years old! I'm not sure how else to describe this age except that you are constantly running around screaming about your happiness or your woes or your spilled cup or whatever else. Always screaming.
You are a lot of fun. You learn a new word every day it seems, copying what we have to say and creating phrases all on your own. It's gotten to the point where I've lost track because you seem to say it all. Your most common phrase these days is "mumatime" (one more time) as you hold one finger next to your face. You want a song sung "mumatime" or a book read "mumatime." Your other favorites are "cow," "neck" (finishing out that -ck sound as if you are choking), "tool" (stool), "puffs" (pirate's booty), "Jake" (fruit snacks), "munt" (mint), "moon," and "peese dada" (please, dad--You know who the softy is around here).
Your interests are very much on par with the typical 2-year-old boy: dinosaurs, trains, trucks, blocks, the iPad. You love to grab our hands and lead us places, usually to your playroom to play "choo-choos" (trains) or to the fridge for a snack.
Your favorite thing of all time, which I totally don't understand but that I love so much, is lying down in Mom and Dad's bed. You get very insistent and say "nap, nap, nap" until you get settled in on a pillow with the blankets covering you. Mom needs to be on your right side and Dad needs to be on your left. Then you just start chatting about all the different things going on in your brain. We ask you questions and you nonsensically respond. We put on little brother's projector and you point to all the animals on the ceiling and say bye-bye to them when they pass.
You love finding "owies" on yourself and then get a really concerned look on your face.
You love to brush your teeth at least three or four times a day. You demand your stool, bring it into the bathroom, stand on it, open the drawer, and start brushing away with water and toothpaste. You say "All done" and put everything away. Then you grab out your brush and start brushing at your hair. It's all very hygienic and cute. I approve.
You're doing this thing lately where you fake fall. I laugh every time. You go "whoa, whoa, whoa" while throwing your arms up and teetering on your feet and then you fall over. While you say "whoa" you have this half smile on your face because you know it's a funny joke.
You hate the following: car rides, jackets, pop-up ads on the iPad, your changing table, when someone finishes a song and they don't start singing it again immediately, when we have to put away your bubble machine.
Favorite food: pancakes
Favorite sport: basketball
Favorite tv show: Trotro
Favorite movie: Toy Story 3 or "Kick kua" (Sanjay's super team)
You have started to love to sing. You cling to every word when we sing you songs and try to sing along. You are getting pretty good and usually start in by singing the last word of every phrase. Your favorites are "Let it Go" (you can't seem to let it go), "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (tinkle, tinkle star), and "Itsy Bitsy Spider."
When I think about you and all the quirky little bits of your personality, it makes me incredibly happy. Love you to the moon and back, kid.
Mom
This is where I pretend I'm going to write more in my blog in 2016. It probably won't happen. I'll probably average about the same amount and miss most of the major holidays and events that happen throughout the year. But so it goes.
I was very excited about the new year, because I love that fresh-start feeling. It frees me from the guilt I feel over not doing stuff (this guilt plagues me again around January 7th).
Some of my goals:
1. Savings $$ goal.
2. FHE every Monday night.
3. Dinners at the table 4 nights a week (we might skip February for this one :)).
4, 90-day Book of Mormon challenge.
5. Read 75 books in 2016.
6. Have a baby.
After a sick-filled and kind of hectic and hard December, we were blessed the last week to have a lot of fun. Everyone was happy and healthy, and Matt worked from home most of the days. We love having Dad home. Jack turned into a little chatter box. It's like he decided 2016 was the year for conversations. His vocabulary has already doubled, it seems, just in the last week or so. Unfortunately, so has his ability to stay up late into the night (a talent he has always excelled at). On New Year's Eve, we had the pleasure of hearing his chatter until 1:30 am. The next day he stayed up until 12:30 am, so it was then when I decided we needed to skip naps. It's a decision I didn't make lightly because not having that quiet time in the middle of the day for myself when he naps has already been hard, but I just couldn't do these eccentrically late bed times any more. We've had two days of nap skipping, and we now have a boy that goes to bed by 9:30. Celebration. I think his schedule will always be a work in progress. Jack also starts gymnastics tomorrow, which already makes me laugh. He got a trampoline for Christmas and loves to do his tricks.
We start the countdown for baby boy 2 at exactly one month from today. It's getting real. It's hard to explain how someone can feel so ready and so completely not ready at the exact same time. That's an accurate statement, though. He's very active, which keeps me awake at night and limits me to very few sitting positions during the day. Having a toddler to chase around, hold down, rock, lift, carry adds a whole other dimension to pregnancy. The bigger I get, the harder it is to handle both boys. But we are loving it.
This month we will be doing a lot of prep, organization, and cleaning as well as enjoying our little family of 3.
We tried several times previous to Halloween night to get Jack to be happy in his costume. He wouldn't have it. He's too smart. He knew wearing a fuzzy lion costume wasn't "cool," but "cute," which he isn't into these days. We went to the Porter Halloween party (Matty's family has a party every year) in Delta the weekend before and he cried and cried and pulled at it until we eventually gave in and took it off.
But there was magic present on Halloween night. He woke up from a nap and as I proceeded to put on the costume while Matt distracted him, there were no tears or fuss. Just a ride in the wagon like any other day, right? Except what? We stop at doors and get candy?! Jack caught on really fast. He took the candy out of the people's bowls and held on to them. Some of our neighbors let him grab one after the other as he gently placed them into his bucket. Then he would hop back into the wagon to go to the next house. We went to about a dozen houses. Jack loved seeing all the kids running around and even saw his best friend Lucas! We got back and put on Hocus Pocus to watch (of course) and passed out candy. We get a lot of kids every year and we know most of them from the ward so it was fun. Every time the doorbell rang, Jack would run to the door to see the kids and then run back to the spot where the candy bowl was supposed to go and slap the spot until we put it back in its proper place.
Earlier that day we went to Cornbelly's (second time) because we had some bounce back passes. It was a really fun day to go. Jack stayed on the jumping pillows for maybe 45 minutes before we had to pull him off crying because he wanted to get back on them.
I think in your 19 month post I talked about your obsession with the alphabet. Turns out that was just a dramatic tease by mom. But this time I mean it. OBSESSED. You want the song sung over and over. You know all the letters now and can point to each of them when asked. You can say about half of them: X, T, O, P, S, A, E, H, L, M, D, I, F. You point out all the letters you see anywhere we go. Your favorite is the EXIT signs you see in stores. "X, X, X, T, T, T." You also point to the tiles on the floor and see that they make an X pattern, so you say "X, X, X." (X is still your favorite letter.) When you want to do your letters you say "O, P" because that's the part of the ABC song you remember and can sing along to. You soak it all up like a sponge, my boy.
Your other obsessions are basketball and football. You will point to the tv and cry "boopball" (football) over and over again until we put on a game of football. It got so bad that we actually had to record a football game, because you didn't understand that football doesn't air 24 hours a day. Just picture it: me and you, home alone at noon watching espn. If I put on a disney movie, sometimes you will point to the screen and say "No nemo. Boopball." You love to throw and catch the football, too, and you catch it every single time. You still love to play basketball. Dad takes you to the park to play on the big hoop, and in between you play with your indoor one. You still call it "ta, ta, ta" which is hard to type out, but it's the sound of the ball going through the hoop.
You joined a play group a few months ago with some of the neighborhood boys. There are four of you total, and we take turns having it at each of the mom's houses. It's probably your favorite time of the week. You love running around with them, screaming, dancing, playing. You're such a social kid and you love having friends. When you see them at church or around the neighborhood, you guys all get excited to see each other and they all yell "Jack!" Your social circle is expanding beyond mom and dad, and it's strange but super cute.
You have been the biggest mama's boy lately. You love to grab both of your favorite blankets, pile them in a ball, and run over to mom for hugs. Sometimes you will just demand that it's me that helps you open up a snack or put together a toy that has fallen apart, even if Dad is right there willing to help. You say "No. Mama." It's hard sometimes when mom needs a break, but mostly I'm so glad you are going through this little stage. When I'm leaving (even the room), sometimes your mouth goes down and you start saying in the sweetest, saddest little voice "mama." You like to help me cook and put laundry into the dryer, and you even sit next to me when I'm sewing. My little buddy.
You love chalk. Currently our entire back porch is covered in chalk drawings (mostly of "boopballs" and letters). You have an upright chalkboard in your new play room that you also spend a lot of time at. You also love cars and dinosaurs. You like to tuck in all of your action figures in for naps. You fold up your blanket and stick them underneath, all the while saying "nap, nap, nap."
You've been out of the highchair for a few months and sit at a regular table and chair. You eat all the things, but especially like things that you can dip in "dippa" (ketchup/ranch/BBQ).
You talk all the time now and are saying new words constantly. Just yesterday you said "stars" perfectly (according to Dad...I wasn't there).
You have such a happy personality. You are always laughing and wanting to run around and play. Your face is always projecting happiness, and those eyes crinkle up and your chins double in volume when you laugh. It's the best. I keep thinking about what a great big brother you will be. We love you!
Mom
I had this dream over summer that one day I would feel like leaving the house again. So we planned a fall trip to Jackson, Wyoming. I've always wanted to go see the Tetons, and it was a short enough drive to be able to maintain sanity with a toddler in the back seat (a very important factor we always have to consider these days).
We had such a great nature-y trip. I'm really excited to have more kids and have those kids be older so they can enjoy the festivities. But at the same time, there is something cute and quiet about the little group we have now.
Since we didn't leave until about 4:30 on Wednesday night, we decided to stop at a hotel in Pocatello, Idaho (about half way). For some reason they upgraded our room to a suite so it had a kitchen and a living room with amazing views (not that there was a whole lot to look at in Pocatello, but it was still beautiful). We went to the hotel pool around 10pm because Jack looked like a little firecracker and we had to drain him of energy. I will never understand how he has that sort of energy that late at night. We all slept in (a perk of a night owl child) and made our way up the freeway. We went about an hour and stopped to see the Idaho Falls temple. That pit stop might have been my favorite, because we went to the temple visitor's center and took a stroll along the river.
We got to Jackson pretty early. It rained the first evening/night so we grabbed dinner and then stopped at this glorious little used bookstore. There was a St. Bernard dog named Louie that belongs to the shop owner, so Jack was loving playing with him. Even with the rain, we decided to explore the city. We even got ice cream because my sweet tooth cannot be controlled by weather. Jack got one of those small tester spoons and kept using it to dip into both our ice creams. He helped himself as we strolled along the streets.
On our first full day we took a ferry across Jenny lake and went on a 2 mile hike. There was a nice lookout, and a waterfall. Jack was in the toddler carrier on Matt's back, but every time we let him out he ran around entertaining the hikers and running through puddles. He did pretty good in the pack as long as there was a steady stream of snacks. The second hike we went on that day wasn't much of a hike but rather a walk around a historic cabin.
The next day we drove back into the Tetons. We saw a moose on the side of the road, which was pretty fantastic. It's weird seeing something so huge in the wild. The next hike we took was around Colter bay. We found a good spot, near a lake with a shore full of rocks. Jack wanted to throw rocks in the lake all day long. He might have if we let him. It gave us a great view of the Teton peaks. Just before our last hike, we found this perfect spot, right up against the mountains in a shady area. Jack, again, threw rocks in the lake for as long as let him while we just sat and talked and soaked up the quiet. Our last hike was a shorter one, and Jack actually fell asleep in the hiking pack. It was such a calm ending to our trip.
That night we visited Matt's Aunt Terry who lives just a few minutes from our hotel. It was a nice visit. They had this huge deer head on the wall (typical Wyoming decor, I've learned). If you flip a switch it actually moves and talks. Jack was so freaked out by this that he would just scream. It was super funny the first time, and we quickly shut it off. But the entire time he was there he would stare at the deer and make this sad face.
Our drive home consisted of a lot of pit stops and playgrounds. Hooray for travel.
I gave away the plot twist in the title. We are adding another boy to the family.
We were eagerly anticipating the 20 week ultrasound that had to be put off because the doctor wanted to wait until I was 21 weeks. I scheduled it on the day of Matt's birthday, mostly by coincidence, but then we oohed and awed about the cuteness of finding out the gender on his birthday. Matt was working but planned to meet us at the doctor's office. Jack and I went to the store and bought a blue sucker and a pink sucker. I figured Jack could celebrate and eat the specific color sucker when we found out. Not that he took it out of his mouth long enough to see the color, but it was just a silly way of me trying to pass the morning while waiting.
I almost didn't buy the blue sucker. I was 99% sure about the fact I was having a girl, so why waste that extra 50 cents on the blue? But I decided that I probably should, in case the unthinkable happened.
Matty's mom also met us there, and we got to see a very detailed ultrasound. I loved the ultrasound technician. We saw all the little baby parts, including the brain and the bladder. Each time she said "It looks great," I sent up a prayer of thanks. There are so many things that can go wrong in a human. It's such a miracle that everything is forming just perfectly.
When she was ready to reveal the gender, she found the perfect angle so that we all knew before she said a word. She confirmed it with "It's a boy" and Matt lit up like a Christmas tree. He was elated. It was such a shock, that I had trouble believing it. I wasn't smiling, I know that, but it was just because I was confused. "Wait, but it's a girl." So much for mother's intuition. Ha! Matt thought I was sad about the news, but I truly wasn't. I can't wait for jack to have a brother to play with and for us to see what other kind of boy look we can create. I love the mother-son relationship Jack and I have and want another one.
