Just Jack

Oh, our sweet Baby Jack.  He really is such a nice boy.  Very busy, very talkative.  Still makes us laugh every day.  It's amazing to see him make connections and pull things together as he gets older and older.  I can't believe he's going to be three and a half years old at the end of this month.

Here's what he's been up to lately:

We told Jack that if he behaved really well for Ryan's wedding, we'd get him a Batman toy that he'd been asking us about.  While at the Outer Banks, we traveled to the local Wal-Mart one night to get said toy.  Thank goodness, they had one left.  It would have been a rough night if they hadn't.  On the way back to our hotel, we were talking about what a lucky boy Jack was that they had one left just for him.  After thinking about it for a few seconds, he said, "So if someone else goes to get a Batman toy, they'll be so sad.  They'll have to get it online."

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The other day, Jack's teacher told me that Jack had a rough day at school.  During circle time, he got really upset and was crying, but she couldn't get him to tell her why he was so upset.  When I asked him about it at bedtime, he told me he didn't want to go to the treasure box.  Apparently, Jack answered a question, and the teacher told him "to go to the treasure box," which must have sounded a little like, "go to timeout" for our little man because he thought the treasure box was a bad thing!  Poor guy:(  We talked about how the treasure box is a good thing and that the teacher wanted to give him a prize.  The next day, he came home with a little, rubber lizard:)

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On the way to swimming last week, Jack was looking out the car window at the moon when he announced that he wanted to go there and go fishing.  When I asked him why he wanted to go fishing on the moon and where he got an idea like that, he said, "I want to go fishing like the little man on the moon."

Me: What little man on the moon?

Jack: You know, the little man that goes fishing on the moon?

Then it dawned on me.  Baby Jack was talking about the Dreamworks logo that he's seen on his movies.  And he came up with that all on his own.

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Jack is learning his letters!  So far here's what we're working on:

J is for...Jack
M is for...Mommy
X is for...X marks the spot
O is for...Octopus
S is for...Spectacular Spiderman
D is for...Daddy
H is for...Hannah
G is for...Giraffe and G is for...Gorilla (which he pronounces Bagrilla)

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Jack is adjusting to my back to work schedule (more on that later), so instead of us having snuggle time every morning, we can only snuggle on the weekends because during the week, I'm already finished getting cleaned up when I have to wake Jack up.  The first morning I had to wake him up, he pulled the blankets up close to his chin and mumbled, "Goodnight, Mama."  When I told him it was time to get up, he said, "No, not yet," just like what I'd expect from a teenage boy.

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Last Saturday when he came in to wake me up, he was all smiles and declared, "Mama, I took a good nap."  Probably because we always ask if he slept well whenever he wakes up:)

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Whenever Jack wants us to do something for him, he tries to make it sound like it's something we want to do for ourselves.  For example, if he wants some orange juice, he might say, "Mama, can you get me some orange juice?  You can do that if you want to."  Why, thank you, Baby Jack.

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Can you guess where Jack gets this from?

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Just this week, Jack commented on the fact that some of our neighbors have Christmas lights up already.  "Are you kidding me?" he said.  I laughed out loud.  Clearly, he's heard someone else say this.  He still occasionally asks me, "Is that serious?" if he doesn't quite think things are as they should be.  I've even gotten, "Is that weird?"

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Jack doesn't really like sweets, although he keeps trying different kinds.  After Halloween, he tried a Tootsie Pop which he really liked until he came to the chocolate center.  Then he spit it out and announced that he didn't like it.  After that, he decided to try Dots.  But here's what he had to say about those:

"That doesn't feel good, Mama."

No son, it doesn't feel good to have extra chewy candy stuck in your teeth.  I know exactly what you mean.

But the third times a charm because then he tried a Jolly Rancher fruit chew and quickly announced, "Oh, those are my favorite."

Too funny!

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One night before bed I was snuggling Jack when I asked, "Who loves you more than anyone else in the world?" expecting him to say me and Daddy.

Without missing a beat, Jack responds, "Grandma and Grandpa."

I didn't pout, although I wanted to; I just quickly said, "Yes, you're right, Grandma and Grandpa love you more than anyone else and so do Mommy and Daddy."

Brad and I just communicated via facial expressions over his tiny little head.  You just have to laugh!

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On the way to school one morning, Jack said, "I don't like it when you work, Mama.  I like it when you stay home."  Broke this Mama's heart:(

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One night, while I was cooking dinner, Jack came into the kitchen and announced there was a snake on him.  After trying to contain a freak out session, I said, "Don't be silly, there's not a snake on you."

But then he corrected me and said, "No Mama, there's a snake in my body."

"What?!?!"

It was then that Jack turned around, backed up to me, and said, "See, feel," and put his little paw on his spine:)

We had a little chat about bones, and then for the rest of the evening, he pointed out all of his other bones that he could find.

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On the way to the beach, we had to go through a fairly long tunnel under a body of water.  About halfway through the tunnel, we hear from the backseat, "This is like the way to Bruce Wayne's house!"

You know.  Bruce Wayne.  Batman.  The Bat Cave.  Yeah, that house.

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Here's what was written on Jack's progress sheet a couple of weeks ago:

Jack is progressing with his cutting and tracing skills.  He understood the "signs of fall" concept of how leaves change colors and fall off the trees.  Jack continues to work on his art projects without becoming upset if things are not perfect.  We talked about how all art creations are different.

Uh oh.  Clearly, he's gotten some of our perfectionist ways.  This is something we're going to have to work on!  Any ideas?

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 And that, my friends, is what our sweet, little boy has been up.  And those are just the things I can remember:)