Jack Lately...

I've gotten a little behind on the blog.  In an effort to catch up, here is a recap of what has been going on lately....

August 20th, Jack started school at Grace School.  Grace School is a private christian school very close to our house.  The school goes from 2-year-olds through 8th grade.  So far we are very pleased with the school and Jack really enjoys going.  He goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:45 AM to 2:45 PM.

 One of Jack's favorite hobbies right now is basketball.  Pretty much everyday he asks to go outside and play "basket ball-ball."  As long as the weather is nice, I just open up the back door and let him play.  His basketball goal is on our back porch and he could spend hours out there playing!

 For Halloween this year Jack was a cute little clown.  My mom (Jack's Nanny) made is clown costume.  We went trick-or-treating with some friends of ours and Jack really had a great time.  He was pretty excited to walk around and collect candy from everyone.  He was even more excited to eat the candy!

Jack loves to ride in the car carts at the grocery store!  HEB has the best car carts.  Now that he has discovered the car carts he gets a little upset if we don't get one.  As much as I don't like pushing that giant cart with the car attached to it through the store, it keeps him happy and the shopping trip is more pleasant for me too!  Plus, I consider it a workout!

For Labor Day weekend, we joined my family in Sheridan, TX for a fun day at Splashway Water Park.  Here is Jack with his Aunt Kylie "Ky KY".  He had so much fun riding the slides at the water park!

Jack also graduated to a toddler bed recently.  Some friends of ours loaned us this cute bed and it worked great with his crib mattress and crib bedding.  He transitioned very well into the toddler bed and now he is ready for a real big boy bed!

Here are a few of Jack's 2-year-old photos.  Of course I think every photo of my sweet boy is perfect, but man it is hard to get a 2-year-old to sit still for a picture.  And getting them to smile while sitting still, impossible!  I give all the credit to our photographer, Laura Gilgen, because she is so patient and very good at photographing babies and kids.  Despite Jack's terrible two like attitude during his photo session, Laura managed to get some great pictures...of course we did feed him a giant lollipop and an entire bag of gummy bears in the process.  Sometimes you just do whatever it takes!

This fall, we attended most of Katie and Kylie's football games.  Jack has caught on to the the fact that his "Kay Kay" is the one cheering on the sideline and his "Ky Ky" is the one performing at halftime.  Now if he sees any type of cheerleader or acrobat in TV he thinks its "Kay Kay" and if he sees someone dancing on TV he says "Ky Ky!"    

Here are a few pictures from Jack's bouncy ball birthday party.  I still plan to do a separate post on that because I have a ton of photos!  We had a great day and Jack and all of  his friends really enjoyed the ball extravaganza!!

Jack has also recently transitioned from taking a bath to taking a shower.  He LOVES to shower!!  Every night he knows when it is shower time.  He will run around the house squealing "Shower time!!"  It really makes bathing easier for me too.  Our shower is a big walk in shower, so I just lower the shower head, turn it on and send him in.  When it's time for soap, he runs to the end of the shower and I just lather up his head and body and he runs right back into water to rinse off.  It is so much easier than hunching over a bath tub and he has a blast!!

Sometimes Jack surprises me with the grown up like things he does.  For example, I have always cut up his food for for him.  So I was shocked when one day he grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl and just started eating it like a grown up.  It was so cute.  He eats bananas the same way now.  I just help him peel it and he is good to go.  It is the little things that are so precious to me.  I always want to remember how cute my little man is when he eats an apple!! 

2 Years of Monthly Photos...The Recap!

 24 Months of monthly photos.  Finally complete!!

24 Months Old (aka 2 years old!!!)

September 4, 2013 - Jack Alexander is 2 years old!  I have completed my 24th and final monthly photo session!

Height: 37.5" (98%)
Weight: 32 lbs (89%)
Head Circumference: 19.49" (72%)

All about 2 year old Jack

• Favorite breakfast foods: green smoothie "moothie", blueberry muffins, Daddy's pancakes, cinnamon rolls, oatmeal, waffles, cheerios, nutrigrain bar
• Favorite lunch and dinner foods: grilled cheese sandwich, corn dogs, chicken, pasta, quesadilla, beef fajitas, steamed broccoli, corn, cheeseburger, pizza
• Favorite snacks "nacks": animal crackers, goldfish, raisins, strawberries, grapes, blueberries, chips, pirates booty, yogurt, applesauce, M&Ms, cookies (he calls a cooke a "rawr"???), ice cream
• Favorite activities: playing outside, going to the playground, the playroom at my gym, throwing balls, kicking balls, playing basketball, throwing away trash, riding in the car, running, jumping, squealing, talking, dancing, taking showers, eating
• Favorite toys: balls, toy cars and trucks, his "buddy" dog toy, anything with buttons (calculator, toy phone, toy laptop), his golf bag
• What does Jack say?: Even though he is now two, when I ask him how old he is he says "almost two!" and when I say "No, you ARE two" he says "no,no,no,no, almost two!"  He has also recently taken to the typical toddler phrases of "NO!" and "MINE!"  He knows all of his immediate family members and calls them by name.  He calls every dog he sees "Buddy."  He knows that cows say "moo" and ducks say "quack quack" and kitty cats say "meow" but for some reason when I ask him what do sheep say? He says something that sounds like "sh*t!"  Not sure where that came from, we might be able to correct him if we could just stop laughing every time he says it.  

Funny facts about 2 year old Jack:  

• He loves to play ring around the rosy and when its time to "fall down" he will go and grab onto a piece of furniture first.  
• He is very particular about his shoes and socks, sometimes he has to have them on, sometimes he has to have them off, he always lets me know his preference.  
• He just started sleeping in a toddler bed, and when he wakes up he immediately gets out of bed, walks over to his dresser and puts his pacifiers (they are only allowed in bed) in the drawer of the dresser.  Then he starts talking to himself until I come and get him.  
• Once he gets up from his nap in the afternoon he is on alert for when Daddy comes home.  If the dogs bark or he hears the door alarm chime he goes running and screaming "Daddy, Daddy!"  Sometimes it is just the UPS guy and he inevitably comes running back to me crying.
• If we are in a parking lot and he sees a black SUV he assumes it is his Daddy's car and again crying ensues when Daddy does not appear
• Although he is generally a sweet and loving little boy, lately he has been a bit of a bully.  Recently I have caught him pushing his friends down during play group or music class.  Ed and I are still trying to find an effective way to get him to stop doing this.

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