Stinkin' Cute Skunk

Yes, we did dress Jack up for Halloween this year and take him trick or treating. Sadly, Paul is in Virginia so he had to miss the festivities. Our neighbors gave us a costume a few months ago and since it fit him and it was free I decided that we could go out trick or treating this year. However, I sorta thought it seemed silly for just Jack and I to go so we went with our friends in their neighborhood and it turned out to be a nice time. Jack was a skunk, Darby was June, and Elena was Annie both from the Little Einsteins. Chanda made their costumes and they were really cute. Unfortunately it was quite chilly when we went out so coats covered up a lot of their costumes. As far as my son....oh my....he knew that he made an stinkin' cute skunk. I taught him how to wave his hand in front of his nose when asked what a skunk says, cause I really wasn't sure what a skunk says. He drew looks and comments everywhere he went. And he loved to go running wildly down the sidewalk. He did a good job collecting candy and really had a lot of fun with the whole thing. After trick or treating we all donned tin foil and went for a free dinner at Chipotle. For dinner at Chipotle on Halloween if you are wearing at least some tin foil on yourself you can get free dinner. The funniest thing was when we walked in the restraunt after a minute or two of standing in line all the sudden nearly every eye was on us looking at Jack. He drew attention everywhere he went in his costume and he totally ate up the attention and put on the charm. The kid definitly knows how to work it.

Look How Cute I Am

He was so excited, I'm really not sure why.

Chasing after Darby...I mean June.

Trick or Treat!

Skunk Down!

Enjoying the fruits of his labor-M&Ms.

Side Notes from the Last Few Days

A few more pictures from our time in Morton this past week. We were fortunate to get to spend quite a bit of time with Kyle and Nicole. Kyle and Jack are incredibly exhausting when their together, but they play together pretty well and seem to enjoy each others company. They are sorta like monkeys, one does something good or bad and the other decides they must do it too. They enjoyed some time watching Curious George together, bouncing on the classic bouncy horse, vaccuming, ironing, pushing trucks around, playing in curtains, trying on adult sized shoes and so much more.

Another fun/cute thing that is recent is Jack's phone skills. With Paul being gone Jack has had several phone conversations with his Daddy. And surprisingly he actually seems to be having a conversation. Paul will ask what a doggy says and Jack will tell him. Paul says something funny and Jack laughs. Paul asks a question and Jack says yup. And then at the end Jack says bye bye and blows kisses. It is so cute. The first picture here Jack was talking to his Grandma and the second picture he was talking to his Daddy.

Leaf Party with Grandpa

Sunday after church Jack and I had a wonderful time playing outdoors at my parents house. The weather was beautiful and the fall leaves were abundant to say the least. Dad was working on raking to try and keep the leaves out of the pond so Jack and I pitched in to help out. It ended up being a fabulous time of hanging out with a wonderful Dad and Grandpa. Jack had a great time helping put the leaves in the wheelborrow, running through the piles we worked so hard to rake, and taking wheelborrow rides. He also tried to feed the neighbor horses some leaves and did a little exploring around my parents house. It felt good to be out in the fresh air working hard and spending time with Dad. Perhaps we can do things like this more often and Dad's hard work ethic will rub off on Jack!

P.S. It was a little sad that the next morning so many more leaves had fallen that you could hardly telll we'd raked 75 wheelborrows full of leaves.

Farmer Jack Pictures

Little Farmer

Jack and I took a fun trip to the Quad Cities on Saturday to visit Megan and Dennis. Paul, Amanda, Hailey and Micah were supposed to join us for the fun filled day but unfortunately sickness got the best of them. Well, not Amanda but the kids. Paul was in Virginia for work when the cold he'd been trying to fight off all week finally caught up with him plus he missed his flight home, so sadly he wasn't able to join us. Despite all of that we did have a really good time and Mom was able to make it last minute so that was fun. Megan and Dennis took us to the John Deere headquarters and the John Deere Pavilion. Both places have many tractors of all types and sizes on display and open for climbing in and exploring. I was a little concerned that Jack would be overwhelmed and not want to sit in the tractors or enjoy them, but thankfully he absolutely loved it. He ran from one tractor to another, climbing in, driving and pushing buttons and then moving on to the next one every minute or so. Jack was so cute running around in his boots and plaid farmer shirt. He looked and acted the part of a real tractor driver. All of the pictures from the day are on Megan and Dennis' camera, so I'll post some after the email them to me.

Pumpkin Patch #2

This past Tuesday was playgroup day and our activity was going to the pumpkin patch. That makes two pumpkin patches for us in three days. Thankfully I remembered my lessons from Sunday and this trip was quite successful. Jack was in a great mood and had so much fun running around. I realized also that I have to keep in mind that weekends at places like this are so much more crowded. It's nice to go during the week when there aren't so many people. So anyway Jack loved climbing on the wooden play equipment they had. They had a train, truck and tractor and he loved them all. The slide from the tractor was a lot of fun but it was super fast and the first time Jack went down he went on his belly. He flew down the slide and it shot him off, he did a belly flop landing about a foot away from the end of the slide. Thankfully he thought it was funny and got up to go down again. It was pretty funny. Jack also enjoyed the petting zoo they had. The goats cracked him up and he really liked trying to pet them. The giraffes were cool but it was a little freaky to be that close to their heads and tongues especially. At one point we found a rebel bunny who had escaped. I caught him and let all the kids pet him which they loved. Jack really wanted to hold it. When I went to put it back I told one of the workers and she said go ahead and put him back but he'd probably get out again to spend some time with his friends the chickens, which is right where we'd found him. Too funny. So we didn't actually go get pumpkins at the patch this time, but the kids had a great time anyway.

Pumpkin Patch #1

So I'm a little behind on blogging again, but I promise I haven't abondoned you. This past Sunday we went to McHenry to a pumpkin patch with the Lyons family. I had a lot of hopes that this would be an awesome time full of fun and excitement and that Jack would love ever minute of it. I'm not sure why I momentarily forgot reality, but I did. So it was fun, but it wasn't all I hoped it would be. I underdressed Jack for the ride to the patch, for some reason I didn't consider the wind or clouds. So Jack was very cold and because of that didn't want to leave Paul's arms. After we got pumpkins and ate lunch we had grand plans to let the kids play. The farm had a small petting zoo, some inflatable bounce houses and slides, ponies to ride and stuff like that. The first thing we did was let them play in the corn boxes. Which apparantly they loved and didn't really need anything else. When we took Jack out of the corn he flipped and had a complete melt down. So we took him far away to look at tractors. He was interested but cried every time we tried to get him to sit on one. I guess he was more interested in admiring from a distance. Finally we got him on the barrell ride and he did love that but hated that he had to wait in line to go on it a second time. He kept trying to chase it down. Thankfully there was some country music being played over speakers and that was enough to distract Jack and get him dancing. So it was a good time and it was fun to spend time with friends and get to do stuff with Paul too, but we did have our moments. I learned that pushing naptime results in a super crabby Jack and I learned that I need to have more realistic expectations. Both of these things I have learned before but for some reason forgot this particular weekend. Below is a slideshow of our adventures.

Las Vegas

The post below is of my latest photo book. It's from our Las Vegas trip that we took in August with Nate and Tanya.

Las Vegas

Click here to view this photo book larger

Indoor Playground

For quite some time as I've browsed craigslist on an almost daily basis I have kept my eye out for a fold-up slide. I've seen them every once in a while for $15/20 and that's for the smaller, more common version. Then last week I saw the bigger version for $10! I was so excited, I emailed the people right away and picked up the slide this past Friday. So from then until this afternoon when we put the slide in the garage our living room as been a cramped little indoor playground for the buddy. He has totally loved it. He loved to slide down over and over again and we built a pillow landing pad that he likes to flop into face first. And he learned that he could send toys down it which is definitly a good time. It's been fun. I think I'll have to bring the slide in every once in a while during the coming winter months. Here are some pictures of our fun.

Jack clapping for the slide.

Jack hugging the slide.

Jack waving from the slide.

Jack sliding.

And Jack figuring out he can climb up the slide.

Woodfield Mall Playtime

Jack is finally acting more like himself these days and I couldn't be more thankful for that. So we're back to our normal schedule of going to the Y and having fun. Yesterday I took Jack to the Woodfield Mall play area. We met Meghan, Caleb and Meredith there for a little playtime. The area is pretty cool with all sorts of opportunities for climbing. Don't be fooled by the glossy look, I know it seems like the stuff would be super slippery but really it's soft and a little squishy. Perfect for little kids running around. Jack really likes the slide and the Road Runner because the Road Runner says "beep, beep". And after Caleb showed Jack the wonders of sitting on the bike, Jack now loves the bike. Imagine that. We'll probably make many trips here during the winter months to help run off some energy. Look closely in the pictures for Jack, he's wearing camo. Paul had some spare time in Virginia this week and found himself at the Bass Pro Shop, came home with a little camo outfit for Jack.

Paul's gone again. But thankfully it's a really short trip. He left today and gets home tomorrow night. We had a really low key day yesterday. Watched a lot of football and tried to teach Jack a few moves. He learned how to say football and I think he knows that only the oblong brown ball with laces is a football, not all balls. He also learned how to hike the ball. That is super cute. Paul also fixed our computer for real this time and found my camera charger which had been missing for a while. What a good husband. He said he wanted to be my hero again, I'd say he is. This morning we spent some time playing outside at the Lyons house. We played tag and Jack would just run wildly down the sidewalk while screaming. It was pretty funny. The kids would hide in this tree with long hanging branches so once while they were all out chasing each other I snuck in there to hide from them. Unfortunately, I didn't consider that my height is significantly taller than the children's so while they can stand just fine under the tree, I cannot. I walked right into a branch that caught me on the forhead. And now I have bruise on my head. I think thankfully it hurst worse than it loooks. And then since Paul flew out this afternoon we got to all have lunch together before he was picked up. Jack loved seeing his daddy in the middle of the day. He just lights up when Paul is around.

Fun Day Saturday

It's so nice to have Paul home. He got to come home early (Friday afternoon instead of Saturday afternoon). I loved having the whole day with him. We spent some time at Monkey Joe's. I thought it would be fun for Paul to get to do something we do during the week while he is at work. We had a good time and did not get injured or yelled at this time. Though I did have to kick some older kids out of the 3 and under area. It's not really my style to say something but when the safety of my kid is at stake I have no problem kicking a few rule breakers out. After jumping and sliding we dropped Jack of at the Lyons' house and put him down for a nap. Then we left and went to the shooting range. Paul got a new gun recently and has been wanting to take me shooting. I've only ever shot a shotgun, so I wasn't sure what to expect with a pistol. It was a little scary and also a little fun. Though I did not like the gun some guys were using in a nearby stall. It was so loud. I jumped every time they took a shot. I thought I would be really bad, but I actually hit the target on my first round, mulitple times. And over the course of the half hour I hit a few bulls eyes! I was pretty impressed with myself and I was very glad our pistol wasn't nearly as loud or bone rattling as the one being used nearby.

Girls Night Out

Last night was such a good time. I went out with my playgroup friends sans children. There are six moms with 9 kids and 3 on the way. When the kids are all around there isn't really much grown up hang out time. So we planned a little night out for ourselves and went to the Melting Pot for some delicious fondue. We had such a great time laughing and enjoying each others company. It's such a blessing to have these women in my life.

2 Major Explosions: Proceed with Caution

I'm not sure why I haven't posted much this week, possibly because we haven't done much. It's been a pretty low key week, Jack seems to be a little off for some reason so we've been kickin' it at home a lot. Tanya and I made curtains yesterday for her nursery. You won't be surprised to hear that what seemed like a simple project turned into something complicated. Though I can't say I'm to blame. I blame the manufacturers who say their product is one size, but in reality it is 2 inches longer. But we finished them up last night and I'm excited to see them hanging in the room. I think they turned out really cute. It was a fun project and it was even more fun to see how little Tanya knew about sewing. For instance, I asked her to set the sewing machine on the table and she picked up the peddle and said what's this? do we need it? He, he makes laugh. (sorry, Tanya). But she did a great job and even did some of the sewing and most of the ironing.
Here's a funny story about Jack from yesterday. Brace yourself it's a disgusting poop story, so feel free to skip this part if that sort of things doesn't interest you :-) As I mentioned, Jack has been a little off lately. Yesterday he was particulary off, just seemed cranky and uncomfortable all day long. During the morning sometime while he was playing I heard from across the room a liquid explosion. It sounded like a newborn when they really fill their pants. Super load and squirty. I knew we were in trouble, especially when the stench quickly made its way across the room. I quickly grabbed a diaper and wipes but in no time the horrendous mess was oozing out his diaper, up the back, out both sides, it was even creeping around his waist. Disgusting!!!! Later in the day we were at Hobby Lobby when of course I heard the same liquidy explosion go off in Jack's diaper. Naturally I had brought no diapers or wipes with me, so we went to check out. All the while this stench followed us. It could bring tears to your eyes and make you cover your nose instinctively. I felt so bad for all the people he kept walking around at the checkout counter. I could tell everyone could smell him, so I just kept apologizing. Those poor people.  Thankfully we made it home without oozing all over and after that Jack did seem a bit better. Hopefully we have no more incidents.

Mounds of Clothes with a Side of Peas

We had a pretty laid back day today. I got the organizing bug from helping Tanya yesterday and went through all of Jack's clothes. Managed to get through it all and found it interesting that the clothes that made the cut to be rehung and redrawered included every size from 3-6 month to 12-18 months. And I'm not talking just one or two pieces in 3-6 months, probably 3/4 of the onsies. Not sure if that means Jack is "shaped" or "sized" wierd or if clothes manufactures need to do a better job of sizing their clothing. I lean towards the latter, but one kid doesn't really qualify as a test market. You can all take bets on how long it will take me to actually box up the clothes that didn't make the cut and donate some others. My goal is to have it all cleaned up before Paul get's home on Saturday.
Oh yeah, and I have a sorta funny story about Jack from today too. Around 4:30 this afternoon I was trying clothes on Jack and he was running away from me. After him being in the dining room for an extended period I got up to check on what quiet activity he had found. Turns out he figured out how to climb up on his boosted up chair and was reaching into the bowl of leftover peas from lunch. Just sitting enjoying himself a snack of cold peas. Yum! I thought it was pretty funny. And no comments on why I still had peas sitting out from lunch...I mean how well do you know me? :-)

Paul leaves today for a week. Sniff, sniff. Looking forward to helping Tanya organize her baby stuff and saying a prayer that Jack takes a good nap at the Roth house this afternoon.

Swims Like a Fish

Couple things to tell you about this evening. Jack still has a fever according to the thermometer, but I can't tell it by touching him or by his behavior. So I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings. In "Mommy of the Year" fashion I took him to swimming lessons yesterday morning depsite his low fever. I figured we weren't touching anyone and we were in chlorine, plus he was not acting sick. So we went and I'm so glad we did. He had a break through swimming lesson. He learned how to keep himself upright while wearing his swim belt. I let go of him and he stayed up and even moved around quite a bit. It as a little frightening and really exciting. Today Jack and Paul hung out most of the day while I went to a baby shower for Tanya. They apparantly had some good bonding time at McDonalds and Chucky Cheese. Jack loves to spend time with his daddy. Paul leaves for California again tomorrow for a week, so it's nice that they got to spend a lot of time together.

Jack helping me in the kitchen.

Tanya's Baby Showerers

Sick Baby

So one really fun day, followed by one fairly cruddy day. Such is life sometimes. Jack had a miserable night last night, he was up for hours of and on with a lot of tossing and turning. Unfortunately, he got a fever sometime after he feel asleep. Poor guy was burning up and so uncomfortable. So I spent the night holding him, sitting by his bed holding his hand, letting him lay on me in my bed, trying to sleep in the recliner together and so on. As luck would have it, about the time one of us got comfortable and fell asleep the other one got uncomfortable and woke the first one up. It was a long night that even included me crawling out of his room on my hands and knees so he wouldn't realize I had left and closing his door only a smidge at a time so he wouldn't realize that his room was getting darker. Oh the things we do to keep a child sleeping. Or perhaps just the things I do.