Cakes!

There is a reason we nick-named Jack to "Baby Cakes". And check out his awesome utensil skills. He's practically a grown up!

SoccerTots Part Deux!

Who needs pants?! Pants are overrated!

Well, SoccerTots was an interesting experience. We arrived to the stadium around 9:50am where Jack proceeded to play with the other kids. At 10am class started and first we raced all of the kids across the indoor soccer field. Jack decided he wanted to sit on the floor and not participate so I played without him. Once he saw the other kids do it though, he joined in. Next we played Red Light/Green Light and that didn't go very well either because Jack didn't really understand the red light part and it kept making him mad when everyone would stop running. Afterwards, we played Farmer and The Fox where the kids have to chase the parents and grab their tails (we had fake tails on) and Jack really liked that game. Then it was onto balloons and the game was to keep the balloons in the air without touching them with their hands. Not one kid understood so I felt better that mine wasn't the only one. Then they had to throw the balloons through hoops which Jack enjoyed, until he threw a hoop at another kid which landed him in the naughty spot. Follow the leader was a bust and Jack had a good cry through that one. The coach (that 19 year old) was so good with the kids and told me not to worry about Jack not getting it like the others. I'm sure he could see the frustration in my face. At the end though, Jack pushed a little girl down and then hit a little boy and let me tell you, I grabbed Jack and we apologized to each child (even though they had no clue what was going on) and then I made Jack sit out on the last game while the other kids got to play. He gave me a good head butt to the throat for that, and that's when I packed up our stuff. The coach came over to say bye to Jack and give him a stamp but Jack didn't want one and just gave him the stink-eye.

I am completely frustrated with this entire thing. I am at a total loss of what to do about Jack. I mean, he can't go around hitting other kids and the naughty spot thing that everyone raves about just isn't working. I'm also concerned that every kid in there was able to follow the rules and pay attention to the coach while mine just screamed and threw a fit. I feel like I can't even go back there and that we're just ruining the fun for the other kids. I don't know what to do. Help!

Bouncing Off Walls

There's this place here in Bend called Bouncing Off the Walls. It's the huge play center for kids that has bouncy rooms and toys, along with ginormous slides. So, Laura had a bunch of free tickets and invited Jack and I to go with her and her three kids. We met them there at 10am last Friday and ohmygoodness! I think I was more overwhelmed with everything then Jack!

Now, as much as my child loves a good slide, he wasn't really interested in going down the big one. In fact, he wasn't really interested in any of the amusement rides. He was, however, all about the play kitchen they had there. The same EXACT kitchen Laura has for her kids that he plays with all the time. So I'm like, totally frustrated because here we have free tickets to go on anything and Jack wants to play with the kitchen. So, I decided to adopt Pippa and Will for the morning and play with them. Laura had Oliver in her kangaroo front pouch thing, and my goodness, that woman is amazing making sure of all the kid's locations (including mine) and making sure they were being safe. She took Pip and Oliver to the bathroom and within 5 seconds of being gone I lost William and Jack. Then I found Jack, and had a panic attack because I couldn't find Will. Luckily he had made his way to the bouncy room and was safe. How Laura does it, I'll never know.

Ok, so if you look at the pictures really closely you will see dots. Those dots are William, Pip, and Jack. Pip is the pink dot, Will is the green/grey dot, and Jack is the denim/dark grey dot. Seriously, these rides were huge! William and Pippa really got their money's worth (well, if they had paid, they would have gotten their money's worth). Jack, well, he's just more of an independent kind of tot.

They do birthday parties there and I was thinking about throwing Jack's second birthday there. However, besides Pippa and Will, he doesn't really know any other kids to invite. And, August is several months away, so why am I planning his birthday now? I also am planning our Halloween costumes now. I love themes so I'm guessing that's why I'm being so insane. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics.

The Sniffles

Poor Jack-Jack! He has a horrible cold/diarrhea. Yesterday morning when he woke up his nose was running, he was coughing and sneezing, and he had a fever. Kevin made him french toast and bacon, which is Jack's favorite, and Jack threw his bacon at me and started to cry. I scooped him up and he laid on me while we watched Monster's Inc and Cars. For lunch, he refused to eat his chicken nuggets, and at 5pm Kevin put him down for bed. I know, that's really early, but Jack was just wiped out and feeling awful. It breaks my heart when he's sick, but secretly inside I'm kind of happy because he cuddles me and wants to be held by me. I know, I'm secretly evil, but I'm ok with that.

Last night I decided to sleep in Jack's room because I was really worried about him. He woke up around 1am and was crying and crying. He was so sick and nothing could cheer him up. Around 4:30am he finally fell asleep, thanks to one awesome back rub care of his mama, and then I got to go to sleep. Kevin got up with Jack at 7:30am and gave him a bath because the junk in Jack's trunk is very sore from the squirts (teeheehee, I have so many words for poop, this is going to be a fun blog). Then, Kevin keeps yapping at me about giving him pedialite and don't forget this and don't forget that so I snap at him telling him I know how to be a mom. Then he tells me, "Then you may want to plug the toaster in if you want that toast. Your bread has been sitting it there for 20 minutes." Kevin: 1, Christina: 0.

This past weekend before Jack was sick, we took him to the park down the street from our house. He got into a screaming competition which he totally won against a bunch of 12 year olds. They were all screaming at each other and Jack out-screamed all of them. Then they just stared at us. Jack also has learned how to say, "Ready! Set! Go!" and when he says it, he sounds like a little angel. It's more like, "Wedee, Setttt, Gooooooo!" What a ham!

So, fear not! my dear Grandmas, GrAunts, Aunts, friends, and everyone in between. I got a banana & toast in Jack, plenty of liquids like water and pedialite, and he's resting comfortably on the couch with Blue Bunny.

I Heart Jack

I know all of you are completely torn up about Adam Lambert not winning American Idol last night, so I've posted some adorable pictures of Jack from the other day to help cheer you up. *Enjoy!*

SoccerTots... A Bust!

This morning Jack and I woke up pumped because today was supposed to be Jack's first day at SoccerTots. I got him all dressed up (I even bought him an adorable outfit!), his snack bag packed, water bottle filled, and we were off to the soccer center for practice at 11am. So, we show up with about 10 other parents/toddlers, and the guy in charge, who I'm pretty sure is 19 at most, tells us that the schedule was printed wrong and that class was at 10am, not 11am. Wow, would have been nice to know, eh? So, he assures us that there will be a make up class in July since the kids couldn't have it today. Now, imagine this, there are ten 18 month - 3 year olds standing in the middle of an indoor soccer arena, surrounded by HUNDREDS of assorted sized and colored balls, toys, hoola hoops, slides, and tunnels. Now, imagine these ten toddlers so excited to be playing in the arena, and then being told they couldn't play with all of the toys that surrounded them. Yeah, there were a lot of screaming and crying tots, mine included. Jack just kept saying, "No! No! Nooooo!" as I carried him out of the soccer arena. It just broke my heart and every other mom there. So, to make it up to him, I took him to Port of Subs for lunch and we went over to daddy's work and had a nice lunch with him. We just got home now, and Jack has gone down for a nap, but I promised him that as soon as he wakes up, I'll take him to the park to play. Poor guy, he was so excited about his first day at SoccerTots and now he has to wait an entire week to get started again .

Oh Cookie Monster!

I decided to make peanut butter cookies with chocolate drizzle on Thursday. Most are already eaten, and as you can tell, Jack was a big fan of them. The center of each cookie has melted chocolate chips that have rehardened in it. Jack likes to dig the chocolate out of it and will spend about 40 minutes to an hour getting every last bit of chocolatey heaven out of the cookie. Then, he throws the peanut butter portion of the cookie at me. No really, no matter where I am in the house, he comes and finds me to throw the cookie at me. So you would probably think I would stop giving him the cookies, but I don't. I tried giving him just the chocolate part but he wants the entire cookie because he likes the process of extracting the chocolate. So, I suck it up and deal with a face full of crumbs. Well, if that's the worst part of my day, then I'm having a pretty darn good day.