This is what to do when you are in the car and BORED!

Apparently Jack became very bored in the car today and he started saying "I wear it. I wear it." When we turned around, this is what we found! His dog backpack doubles as ear muffs!

His Middle Name Should Be "Mischievous"

While Mommy and Daddy were driving home the other day, Jack got very quiet in the backseat. Mommy finally looked in the rear view mirror and this is what she saw. Jack decided he wanted to wear Mommy's lip gloss!!!

Stylin'

This is what happens when Aunt Tricia is left alone with Jack for a few minutes!

Guess Where We Were!

This is the paradise that we went this past weekend. Guess where it is. Caribbean? Nope. Florida? Nope. Mexico? Nope. It is our beautiful city--Chicago! The Windy City has some incredible shoreline and we spent Sunday walking along the lake and having lunch at Oak Street Beach.



It was the perfect way to spend a day together as a family.

Apparently He Potty-trained Himself!!

We bought Jack a potty several months ago and it has been sitting around since then. He actually uses it as a step stool in the bathroom to wash his hands but he knows that it is where you go "pee-pee" and sometimes he points to it and it says "Pee pee, Pee pee." We intended to start full-on potty training next month but it seems that Jack became impatient and went ahead and did it himself.

Last night while I (Mommy) was making dinner, Jack was running back and forth between the kitchen and living room. He helped me unload the dishwasher and brought me his Lightning McQueen and Mater cars and then I heard him push some toy into the living room. He was very quiet for a few minutes so from the kitchen I asked, "Jack what are you doing?" He replied, "I pee pee!"

I walked into the living room and this is what I found...He had pushed his potty from the bathroom into the living room in front to the television. He then proceeded to take off his pants and diaper and sat down. I thought this was so cute so I quickly grabbed the camera. He kept saying "I pee pee, I pee pee" and it finally dawned on me that he may have actually gone pee pee.

I told him to stand up and I saw the inside of the potty was wet!!!
As you'll see in the above pictures (and as I quickly realized) he had taken the bowl out of the potty and left it in the bathroom so when he went pee pee, he actually peed straight through the potty onto the carpet!!!!

He was so proud of himself and I jumped up and down with him and praised him. As I bent down to hug him, he patted ME on the back and said "I did it!" Man oh man, do I love this little man.

I Did It!

Jack does and says the cutest things sometimes. Lately, he gets very proud of himself when he does something on his own. He says "I did it" while raising his hands above his head, all with the biggest smile on his face. I managed to capture him doing this exact thing the other day while he was playing with his Magnadoodle. He was really proud of himself for making shapes and he spent about 10 minutes doing it and repeatedly saying "I did it!" Don't worry, the video isn't 10 minutes long!!!!

(Sorry for the poor quality video. I took it with my cell phone so I wouldn't miss anything)

Next Thing We Know, We'll Be Sending Him Off to College!!!

Jack started preschool last week (sniff, sniff, sniff). Mommy and Daddy were so worried about whether or not Jack is too young and how he would handle 2 FULL days a week at school. On top of that, Mommy and Daddy were very sad that their sweet little boy was old enough to even be going to preschool! Mommy insisted on getting a picture before leaving for school.
Jack got a new Lightning McQueen backpack!
Posing with Daddy in front of his new school.
Checking out the new classroom and one of his teachers, Miss Maeve.
Playing with playdoh.
At the teacher's suggestion, Mommy decided to pick Jack up after lunch on the first day and ease him into going for a full day. The teacher said that it usually takes kids a few weeks to adjust. So Mommy and Daddy quietly snuck out of the room when Jack wasn't looking (mostly because they had just seen another little boy throw a HUGE crying fit when his Daddy dropped him off) and agreed that Mommy would come back at 12:30pm. When Mommy came back, all 3 teachers said Jack did great and that he was DEFINITELY ready to go for a full day! He never cried or asked for Mommy once (Mommy thinks he could have at least pretended a little bit that he missed her) and he had a blast. He loved everything about preschool and didn't want to leave. Mommy literally had to convince him to leave by telling him that he was coming back next week. To the contrary, the little boy that threw a fit in the morning started crying when I walked in the room and attached himself to my leg, asking if his Mommy was coming too :(

A funny story--when Mommy came to pick Jack up, she arrived a few minutes early so she could watch him in the two-way mirror. The kids were eating lunch and Jack looked so grown up sitting there with the other kids. When lunch was over the teachers told the kids to pick up their plates and put them in the trash. Jack picked his up and walked towards the trash but instantly became distracted by something else and proceeded to dump his entire plate of food on the ground. He just looked at it, said "ut oh" and then put the plate in the trash!

There is nothing better than ice cream in the summer with family!!

Jack inherited mommy's love of ice cream so we couldn't pass up an opportunity to go get ice cream while in Michigan. He's a pro!
Chyann's ice cream was bigger than her head!!

Daddy being silly...
Daddy being a little more serious...

Uncle Bob's Farm

Mama's Great Uncle Bob has a beautiful farm in Northern Michigan. He invited us over to give the kids a ride on one of his tractor. Unfortunately, Jack was a little bit afraid of the tractor so they went for a ride in Uncle Bob's vintage Harley Davidson golf cart.

Raven Hill Discovery Center

We took Jack and Chyann to the Raven Hill Discovery Center while we were in Michigan. Jack loved the animals exhibit. Here he is checking out the piranha in the tank. Yikes!
Much to Mama and Nana's dismay, there were many snakes in this small room and the lovely girl working there insisted on bringing them out in size order so the kids could touch them. At first Jack wasn't sure what to make of it but eventually he wanted to pet and touch all the snakes. Mommy stayed a good 10 feet away at all times!

See if you can see the gecko somewhere amongst the 8 hands!!!

After the animals we moved on to the rest of the center. Jack and Chyann really likes played the giant xylophone.

There was even a tree house in the shape of a maple leaf!

Golf--the best way to celebrate Jack's 2nd birthday!

On Jack's actual birthday we were in Michigan at Nana and Papa's lakehouse. Nana and Papa took us golfing to celebrate Jack's big day and he had a blast!

When Jack would hit the ball, he would yell "get in the hole!" He would then run after his ball, pick it up and drop it in the hole then cheer for himself :) An interesting note--Jack eventually started picking up everyone's balls and putting them all in the hole at once. He would then pass them back out to their respective owners. He remembered all 7 of us and which color our ball was!!!
Since Daddy had to stay in Chicago for work, we took this picture just to tell him we loved and missed him.
Papa loves having another boy in the family to play golf, even if it is just putt-putt right now. Jack loves his Papa so much!


Putt-putt at Pirates Cove would not be complete without eye patches!!!