Jack, 2 Years

JACK IS TWO, PEOPLE! Can you believe it?!?!  Man, there is so, so much I could say about our little Jack, there is no way I'm going to be able to write it all in this blog post. I wish there was some way I could just freeze him at this age, or at least be able to remember every single little thing about him. He's just growing up too fast, y'all.

Jack is the most polite two year old you will ever meet. He always says "bless you" after a sneeze, "excuse me" when he needs to squeeze by, "please" when he wants something, he'll shake your hand and say "nice to meet you", and most recently he's started saying "no thank you" when he doesn't want something. The other night in his sleep I even heard him whisper, "thank you, you're welcome" as he rolled over in bed. I have a pretty incredible little boy.

Jack has an AMAZING vocabulary.... And I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom. He speaks in full sentences like, "mom, I need to go outside, for just a minute, and play in the rocks". It's been really helpful to be able to communicate with him so clearly. He is such a bright boy.

Jack has a really funny sense of humor. He says things like "holy guacamole", "oh nuts", "what the heck", and "oh my gosh", and most recently "holy cow" and "holy crap" (that's one I'm not so pleased with and have no idea where he picked it up). He'll use them in the proper context, and he will never hesitate to tell you if something is "hilarious", "embarrassing", or "awesome".

Jack is so, so loving. He's always trying to give someone a hug or a kiss. We're gonna have to watch out for him when he's a teenager. He's particularly sweet to Charlie, always wanting to give him loves.  One night last week, while I was singing his bed time lullaby, he turned around, put both hands on either side of my face, looked me right in the eyes, and said "I sure love you, Mama." Oh my gosh, it was just one of those moments when your heart melts completely into a puddle.

Jack's most favorite thing to do in the entire world is swing at the park. A close runner up is going to the mall and looking at the puppies in the pet store.

Sometimes, Jack will open the fridge and drink straight from the bottle of lemon juice, while simultaneously trying to convince me that it's "too tasty".

Jack loves the color yellow. He loves even more when he can spot a yellow tractor or car while driving.

He is SUCH a smart guy. He can recite entire books and songs to me. He can count 1-11 without missing any numbers and he can sing the entire alphabet.

Jack is really into matchbox cars these days. He spends a lot of time lining them up in pefect little rows. When he does this, he says he's making "a parking lot".

Jack finally started watching movies. He just wasn't interested in it before, but have to tell you that it came at the perfect time for me. Judge me if you will, but Disney movies have done a lot of babysitting for me while I've been nursing Charlie or cleaning. Jack will go in phases where he only wants to watch the same movie over and over. First it was Tangled, he would ask for "the girl with long hair" all. day. long. He was stuck on that one for a long time. I think Gordy and I could quote that entire movie and sing you all of the songs. We got pretty sick of that one. It took some convincing, but he finally moved on to watching Mega Mind, then Up, and now he's currently obsessed with Shrek.

Jack's favorite foods are pizza, cherry tomatoes, black berries, french fries, mac and cheese, and ravioli or anything "noodles". Mostly kid standard foods. He's also been known to enjoy a good salad too, so I can't really complain. He really does love his vegetables and fruit. He'll even eat tuna and onions... He has a pretty sophisticated pallet for the two year old.

Jack likes for me to sing Angel Lullaby to him when he goes to sleep.

His favorite books are "One Fish Two Fish" or really anything Dr. Suess, "Where the Wild Things Are", and  "I'll Love you Forever". With a little prompting, he can recite almost every page back to you word for word.

He is CONSTANTLY on the go. I swear this kid has more energy than any other kid I've ever known. He's always so, so busy. Which makes for one tired Mama.

We're still having a little bit of an issue getting him to go to nursery by himself. He has pretty bad separation anxiety. It breaks my heart because I never want him to be scared, but I do want him to develop autonomy and be independent. It's a struggle that I'm still trying to figure out.

While we were at my parents house last week, and after getting out of the bath, Jack ran upstairs with no diaper on, and peed right off of the cat walk. Unfortunately, I was standing right under him, but he had his back arched in such a way, that the stream was flying over my head. That kid had a full bladder, and he got some distance on that stream... but at least that allowed me to run under the cat walk without getting peed on. Of course, I screamed. My dad, who was on the couch yelled "what is it?" and I yelled back "He's PEEING!!!!" So my mom, who was holding Charlie, ran out of one of the bedrooms and tried catching the pee in her cupped hands. The whole thing was a hilarious disaster. Every time Jack turned his back we were all laughing. Having a little boy is such an adventure.

Jack has started this screaming phase. It's not necessarily a tantrum, although he does do that too. It's more of like screaming for the sake of screaming, or just to hear himself do it. It's SUPER annoying and hopefully this passes soon.

Well, the next six months are going to bring some big changes with Jack. We're going to finally get rid of the binky, move Jack from his crib to a big boy bed since he will be sharing his room with Charlie soon, and hopefully we'll be getting him potty trained (fingers crossed).  Like I said, big things in store.

Jack is such a smart, sweet, and energetic little boy. I am so glad he is our first kid because I know that he will set an amazing example for his younger siblings. I am so excited to see what the future holds in store for Jack, I believe the world truly is his oyster.