Everyday Nothings

I wish I were posting pictures today but quite frankly I haven't taken many lately.  Life has been a bit on the hectic side to say the least.  We will be moving to Atlanta in just a few weeks (yikes, I really should be doing something other than blogging) for jobs at Greater Atlanta Christian School.  We are very excited (scared) and are hoping this will be a good opportunity for our family.  J will be able to start  going to school there for K3 and we get a 60% discount.  That being said, our discount is enough to bring the cost down to what full tuition is at ACA for high school.  We will be paying a lot, but I think the education will be very good.  If we make it for J to go to high school there, they have numerous (I think 19 and counting) AP programs.  He will have access to any sport, and instrument, any art form he pleases.  Although I am scared out of my mind, I think in the long run it will be very good for our family.  I'm not sure if we could afford more than one child there but all we need if for one of our kids to be a doctor, lawyer, CPA, so J will have to take care of us when we are old in gray.  I am really jumping ahead of myself, but hey that's what I do.

J has become quite the talker.  He takes after his momma.  He has begun talking about things without us prompting him.  He knows the majority of the major animals at the zoo and will talk about them quite freely.  He has a pet stuffed rat, thanks to a gentleman at church, that he named Papi.  Not sure why Papi, but I prefer that to "rat."  J sits Papi on his shoulder and walks around with him that way because that is what Mr. Randy showed him when he gave J the gift.  I don't know... While at my sister's this past week he walked her dog Roxy (pronounce "Rockies" by J) on the leash.  He would tell her "come on, come on."  I don't quite know where he got that, maybe me always trying to get him to come when he is told, but wherever it came from it is cute.  Today at Burger King he dropped his kids crown and said "come on crown, come on."  When we pulled in the drive at BK he yelled with excitement "Dink (a cherry icee he has decided is his favorite), burger, fries." Can you tell we eat way too much fast food?  He then saw the playplace to which I knew we would work off the calories climbing through the tunnels.

The word cute earlier reminded me of another story.  The other day J and I were shopping at the mall.  I had received a $10 off card from Victoria's Secret and decided to take a look around the store.  We went in the dressing room to try a few things on.  J sat in his stroller, picked up a bra, put it to his chest, and said "cute." Now, I can tell you I did not teach him that.  I about died laughing right then and there. 

He is growing more and more every day and is becoming such a little man.  I know I have said it before and I will probably say it again, I would give anything to just be able to record our daily life and play it back over and over.  Matthew always jokes on me about making sure we get the photo opps but my favorite things are the day to day nothings.  Jacob wearing his BK crown and sitting opposite me in our booth is a picture I pray will forever be ingrained in my mind. 

Easter 2011

 My boys

"Where did it go?"

School Easter Egg Hunt

I dropped Jacob off Thursday morning then waited for him and his class to come outside for their Easter egg hunt.  I loved watching all of the little kids running out and being so excited to see all of the eggs.  One little boy was helping all of the other children put eggs in their baskets.  He had me cracked up.  Jacob was more excited about dumping out all of his eggs rather than picking up new ones.  He has learned the "Clean Up" song and as he was dumping out his basket, he was singing "mean up, mean up."  We had a great time and it was good practice for the real Easter egg hunt we had today.

This Is What A Potty Is For Right?

A few days after I bought Jacob his potty he figured out it could be used as a step stool.  That is all it has been used for, and honestly I am fine with that.  He turns on the water full blast so I am sure I need to budget more for next month's water bill.  I don't want to discourage good hygenie though.  This kid loves to brush his teeth.  I may have to pull this picture back out one day to remind him of that.

Growing Up

I cannot even begin to tell you all of the new words/tasks Jacob has learned.  He surprises us everyday with new things.  I wake up every morning wondering what will come next.  Jacob now understands the concept of hugs and kisses so that is one of my favorite accomplishments.  I ask him for a kiss and he plants a slobbery kiss wherever he can reach.  He repeats everything, especially words said with inflection.  While driving down the road the other day, a driver cut me off to which I said "seriously?"  My little back seat driver yelled "seriously," and I just about died laughing.  He has learned how to do the Tomahawk Chop due to his daddy's love of Braves baseball.  We cannot wait to take him to a game this year.  A few of his other favorites are:
-Alright
-Ok
-Again
-Awesome
-What's that
-Here Kitty Kitty
-Oh no
-play
-potty (and other words associated with it which I will not mention)
-hush (to the dog or to his baby doll)
-NO Mine!
-He knows all of the words associated with the table like table, chair, plate, fork, spoon, cup, napkin, etc.
-diaper, wipe (His diapers now have Elmo on them so he calls them (melmo diapers)

The list above doesn't even take the cake (yes he knows that word too, and ice cream although I am not sure how since he cannot eat it) on the words he knows.  He sings so many songs at school and knows all of the hand motions and most of the words.  He can count to two (he claps when we get to three) and will sometimes say five.  Jacob knows a good bit of his alphabet and can tell you what a number of the letters say.  He can also point out the majority of his shapes, a few colors, and knows a ton of animals and their sounds.  I adore that child more and more each day.  This morning he came up to me without me prompting him and said the three magic words... "I love you."  Then I had to pick my heart up off the floor because it melted into pieces.

Peekta-Peekda Boo

I love this kid more than life.  He brings joy to every day, and a sense of adventure to everything.  I love exploring with him.

A Little Blue Bucket

Matthew had to preach one Sunday down in Andalusia which is halfway between our house and the beach.  We decided to be "spontaneous" and head down to the gulf after he was done preaching.  We picked the closest beach which happened to be Ft. Walton, and it was actually very pretty.  Matthew's favorite part was the lack of teenagers.  This was the same week as Spring Break which was our only hesitation for going.  We found a public beach, changed clothes, and took to the sand.  Jacob hit the ground running, or at least trying to as we all know how difficult it is to walk on sand let alone run on it.  You will see one of the pictures above where he is looking down at his hand.  He fell over right at the very begining and was quite concerned about the sand that was on his hand.  He dusted it off though and went right back to what he was doing.  I think my favorite part of the day was when he actually saw the water.  Now, if you have heard him get excited about something then you might be able to imagine just what he sounded like.  With great excitement he said "a Wah-r" (a water).  Matthew took him to it but the closer he got, the more anxious he became.  Matthew tried to ease him into the gulf by sitting him on his knee.  The first picture you see Jacob is smiling.  All was going well until a wave came...and splashed him straight in the face.  That was all she wrote.  Jacob started to cry, Matthew started to laugh, and I just took pictures trying my best to capture what happened.  Matthew stood up with Jacob, and Jacob with a wave said, "bye wah-r."  We died laughing.  He had had enough and was ready to do something else.  Luckily that morning I had thought to pack his little blue bucket and shovel.  That proved to be the best decision I made all day.  He finally did warm up to the water as you can see in the other pictures, but he really prefered playing in the sand.We had an awesome time and I cannot wait to have more family beach trips (maybe more than just one day)!

Bawoon Day...Oh and don't forget pancakes, candy, and chocolate cupcakes Mom!

Jacob woke up Valentine's Day morning to a wonderful surprise.  Waiting at his little table, he found a heart shaped balloon and heart that lights up (like a strobe light almost) from his daddy, and a play recorder (the kid likes whistles and that was all I could find), suckers, bendy straws, and other goodies from me.  He was ecstatic! He can say his own version of the word balloon, and it sounds like bawoon with a few other syllables to it.  We also took the time to make special heart shaped pancakes.  He had no idea they were anything special, but I did.

J's class party.  He is a big fan of cupcakes.

The classroom was full of balloons which of course he loved.  They had all kinds of goodies.  Jacob took homemade crayons shaped like hearts for his Valentines.  We broke crayons then melted them down into the heart shapes.  They were a bit hit.  I am starting to see a major pattern in my blog posts.  A majority of them are about food.  I guess that is why Jacob weighs 30lbs (ish). He is solid and loves to eat!

Such A Little Man

I found this clip on tie a long time ago at a consignment sale.  The tie reminded me of one Matthew has so I thought for $2 I should probably buy it.  I am so glad I did.  Jacob took a minute to get used to the tie, but when he did he worked it.  Everyone at church raved about how cute he is.  Can you blame them?

17 Months Old

Climbing Up His Slide

J loves the giraffe trike Aunt Amy got him.

Silly Face

Climbing takes concentration.

Done!  He was ready for me to put my lens cap on so he tried to help me out.

Where Else Would He Eat Crackers?

Hey Mom...

These crackers are good.

Jacob loves to sit in Sammie's bed.