Pictures from the Party

Smore's cupcakes from Sugar Mama's www.facebook.com/sugarmamassweetsandtreats

                                                   

The brothers in the cozy coupe

The birthday boy!

My attempt at a photo booth at the party.

Caity and Will were the only ones that made it in.

Treasure hunt

Pinata time!!

 

Time for some of Poppa's special homemade cake. 

Still figuring out how to add pics and edit them to fit the page....bear with me ;)

Technical Difficulties

Just a quick note-I typed Jack's birthday post in a word document while I had no internet access but was stuck at our house for the packing and moving. For some reason when I copied and pasted it into the blog it came underlined as a hyperlink. I couldn't figure out how to fix it! :) Aaahh my computer skills were maxed out!

A pirate turns 3!!

We still can’t believe that it has been 3 years since Jack was born. The time has flown by. For his first birthday Tom created a photo montage representing his first year and set it to the three songs-Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears, Show Me What I’m Looking For by Carolina Liar and When You Were Young by The Killers. We played it for all of our family at his 1st birthday party, which fell on Thanksgiving! On Saturday, while Will napped, the three of us sat down and watched it again (I can admit that I have watched it a few times since the first airing J). Jack thought every picture was of Will while Tom and I couldn’t get over the fact that we were looking at the same person. Boy has he changed!

At three, he is a very sweet, sensitive, happy little boy. Made up of equal parts mischief and sweetness. He has a very expansive vocabulary and speaks very well for his age (that’s what people tell us). He works the ipad and our iphones better than we do. He says “Hi” to everyone he sees and makes friends wherever he goes. He loves to tell knock knock jokes. He knows 3: Knock, Knock. Who’s there? Boo. Boo who? Don’t cry it is only a joke. And Knock, knock. Who’s there? Olive. Olive who? I LOVE YOU TOO. And finally, knock knock. Who’s there? Banana. Banana who? Knock knock. Who’s there? Orange. Orange, who? Aren’t you glad I didn’t say banana (that one is drawn out much more and sometimes the fruit gets messed up, but you get the hint). If something scares him, he says “Oh Mama, I don’t think this is right for me.” or “I don’t know about that”. His imagination is amazing. He is always pretending to be one thing or another, or taking us on one kind of adventure or another. We have gone to the center of the earth, to mars in a rocket ship, on a pirate ship looking for treasure and on and on. I know he gets some of his “ideas” from the Backyardigans and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but boy does he go with it, believe it is real and want you to be a part of it. I love to see his mind working. We made him a rocket ship out of a huge box that delivered diapers to us. It was a staple in our living room for a few weeks until it took a ride into outerspace and never returned (translation-I hid it in the garage and then took it apart). He is very stubborn and knows what he likes, doesn’t like and will be sure you know too. He will not do anything he doesn’t want to. We are quickly seeing that this fierce independence is a wonderful thing, but an exhausting one. In the weeks leading up to turning three we have seen this ugly beast rear it’s head. I was told once during a terrible two’s temper tantrum that 3 is much worse than 2 and I am seeing that now. In a fit of frustration and stubbornness he will start swinging his arms, kicking his legs and going crazy. We have learned that the more we get upset, the funnier he thinks it is and the madder we get….a vicious cycle! Now we just ignore him and try our best to carry on with the activity whether it is putting him in his car seat or getting dressed or putting a jacket or shoes on. He doesn’t like being ignored and stops instantly. Time out is our friend for particularly bad behavior too.

But three isn’t all bad….Jack loves to make people laugh, especially Will. He will make funny faces or do a funny dance just to get a reaction from Will. Will in turn participates and finds his big brother hysterical. I love watching them together. He loves to give Will hugs and kisses and for the most part is very gentle with him. Jack is so snuggly and loveable. I know that this won’t last forever, so I take all that I can get now! Every morning starts with him in our bed snuggling and “watching a show” with some milk. On the days when I would have to jump out of bed to get ready for work, he would beg me to get back in “just for a minute” to snuggle. I love it!!

Jack continues to be a very picky eater. He has a large sweet tooth and will call out when we are passing by a Dunkin Donuts to tell me it is a “perfect day for a munchkin” or that his “tummy needs a munchkin in it”. Who can resist that cute little face? J He can count to 15 and say his ABC’s. He loves to sing and dance. He sings along to “Someone Like You” by Adele, “Life is a Highway “ (the lightening McQueen song) by Rascal Flats, “Bubbly Toes” by Jack Johnson (Caity’s song), “Cowboy Take Me Away” by The Dixie Chicks and a multitude of others while we are in the car. It makes my heart so happy to hear him start in on a song that is a favorite of mine and sing along.

Don’t be fooled-HE IS ALL BOY! He loves cars, trucks, guns, swords and “fighting”. He told me once that I don’t make the right gun or car noises-I guess only boys can do that. I just started laughing! J He loves taking a bath, which is good because he gets really dirty. We tell him he must have had a good day because he has a ton of “fun” under his nails when they are really dirty. George is his night time buddy. We read a story from a Curious George collection book he has before bed and then he snuggles up to a wonderfully soft stuffed George. I found decals online at Pottery Barn Kids of George that decorate his walls. I don’t know if they will make the move, but Great Grammy painted 3 wooden plaques with George for Jack and Will that will come with us. I am trying to wait patiently for the matching sheets to go on sale, but I might have to splurge and buy them once we get to SC.

Jack is quite a character and I love watching his personality develop.
Some phrases we hear a lot of include:
“Can I watch another show?”-usually Backyardigans, or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but some of his other favorites are: Team Omi Zoomi, & Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He told Kay Kay once, when she was having trouble getting to one of his shows, “Just use On Demand”.
“I want some milk”-his favorite drink.
“Can I have the older one?” translation “Can I have the OTHER one?”
“Just give me one second.”
“And I will have a donut” in response to me placing my coffee order with Tom.

We are so proud of all that Jack can do, but most proud to say that he is fully potty trained. One day back in September I decided it was time and I was going to give it a go….and it worked! We are happy to report that he has had very few accidents and even wears his big boy undies overnight! No more diapers, no more pull ups.

So after a summer of pretending to be a pirate; of making people walk the plank and talk of scurvy pirates and gold dablumes, it was only fitting that Jack was not only a pirate for Halloween, but then had a pirate birthday party. It was a wonderful time and we even had a treasure hunt outside. The kids started by digging for special gold dablumes and then made a puzzle to give them their next clue. The next clue was found under a tree in a bottle. This clue lead them to the finale-a large treasure chest filled with streamers and balloons that revealed small treasure chests on the bottom. Finally, they swung at a treasure chest piñata and collected all the pirate booty that they could. We held the party at Gramma and Poppa’s (Tom’s parents) and had all Jack’s cousins over along with all our of family. It was a crazy, wonderful night. In the end it turned into an impromptu going away party too. It was a great way to end the insanity of one week, before the start of another!

So that is our Jack. He makes my heart happy. Every night when I kiss him good night I whisper to him that he is a good boy and that he makes me so happy. I hope he knows how true that is and how wonderful he has made our lives and all those around us.


Here’s to making it through year 3! ;)

A new house....A new beginning....

After a LOOOONG 3 day trip to SC, Tom and I found a house. The search had started weeks before at home in RI. Together we did countless internet searches seeking properties in a multitude of cities and towns from Greenville, SC to Charlotte, NC. It was equal parts excitement and anxiety. By last weekend I had set up 9 appointments and assembled a folder with printouts of all the properties we wanted to see, a map indicating their locations and comments on what i thought of them while looking online. I thought we were all ready to hit the road running....and then we arrived! We kissed our babies goodbye and began our search. The area is so much broader than I had expected. Stuff I thought was "close" ended up being far and I was instantly feeling overwhelmed and scared that all my hard work was going to leave us no better off. I was afraid we would just spend the whole time driving in circles and not find anything. The first afternoon we had an appointment in a neighborhood that we ended up falling in love with. There were lots of kids playing outside, there was a playground and a pool in the subdivision and the whole area just seemed right for us! We spent ALL day Wednesday in the pouring rain going from property to property. Midway through the day we saw a property in our "desired" neighborhood. This place didn't show very well online, but in person we loved it! The price was right, the size was right. Once we had seen everything on Wednesday, we had our decision. We returned to the real estate office first thing Thursday morning and secured it! Our trip was a HUGE success! We texted pics home to Kay Kay so she could show Jack his "new house" and "new playground". Jack kept repeating "I'm ready to go to South Carolina" the whole time we were away.

I still can't believe we are going...the whole thing overwhelms me at times. I am truly excited, but I feel like I have so much to do and so little time to do it. At least for now I can check house hunting off the list. The movers are set to come here on November 28th and pack us up. We will probably leave by Thursday of that week to start driving down.

For now, I am going to take a few days to take in the holiday season, spend some quality time with family, love on my babies and try to RELAX! Next week is a new week with a new list to check off!

Let the games begin...

When I was pregnant with my first son, Jack, I was inspired to write my own blog to tell my story-how I threw up every day, how I burnt my belly making pancakes one morning, not realizing how big it had gotten and ultimately how he came into the world. I continued to write about Jack as he grew and changed...and then he started moving, ALOT. The time that I had to blog seemed to disappear and I lost touch with my old friend. I have recently been inspired again and it comes at a time when our lives are changing and changing BIG! We have now welcomed our second son, Will, into the world, Jack is about to turn 3 and we are packing up and moving from Rhode Island to Greenville, SC. Tom and I have always called RI our home. We have lived in a few other places, but have always found a way back "home". We know that this is a great opportunity for our family, but it is one that is filled with mixed emotions.

I thought "this is it...the perfect time to start this up again"-to give our friends and family a window into our "new" life and to record for Will some of the important milestones of HIS life. Most importantly, I want this blog to be a reminder of the simple, seemingly insignificant day to day occurrences that make us laugh, make us cry, make us feel crazy, make us feel loved and take us on this adventure we call life.

AND AWAY WE GO....