Going to the playground is a weekly event here in our house. Now that Boobie supplied us with our own mini playground for the yard it's everyday. Every time we go he has a blast on the slides, playing the Tic-Tac-Toe game, climbing the ladders, and hanging on the monkey bars. We have NEVER enjoyed going on the swings. We can't even get him to sit in it to try the darn thing. How do you convince a 2yr old to "just try it, you'll like it" ??? Then there was yesterday, while we were playing with side walk chalk, he just decided on his own it was time to try it out and then loved it!!! YEAH! And then we saw a rollie pollie bug and our day was complete. :-)
Friday, August 28, 2009
The swing
Posted by Niki at 9:57 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Ice Cream Bar
So if you have a yummy ice cream treat and it's on a stick, how would you eat it???
And here's Ty on his belly...
And our girls in their favorite napping spots....
Posted by Niki at 10:42 AM 2 comments
Sunday, August 23, 2009
My Surprise
I will be turning 30 in 12 days. Oh Boy! :-(
With this big day coming Tom had a surprise for me. It came early on Friday. Now I'm going to give you a little back story first... Tom is on the list for the next Major board (his next promotion) and with that he has to have a physical, lab work and an eye exam. So he scheduled his eye exam for Friday @ 3:30. So here it is before 3pm on Friday and he's acting weird. He's pacing a little bit and I ask him if he's bored and needs something to do, I ask him if he's worried about his eye test (he had corrective eye surgery a few years ago) Blah blah blah.... He then tells me that after his eye appt he's going the store to shop for my present. No problem-o! However, I wanted to stop him from going to the store because I was pretty sure what I was getting....a steam mop. I've been wanting a steam mop for a while now. Now I know a steam mop as a birthday present, especially for the big 3-0 birthday present is....LAME! But I really wouldn't mind it. I saw the one I wanted on Ebay for $75. So I wanted to save him the hassle of paying more for it in the store but I didn't say a thing to ruin it. So away he went.... When Tom got home I was feeding Ty and Jack was playing. He walked in and was all weird again. He told me his eyes were fine and made up a bunch of other lies :-). After about 3 minutes of him being goofy and anxious he told me that my present turned out to be bigger than he thought so he would have to give it to me now. He told me to go to our room so he could get it from the car. So I took Ty with me and Jack went with Tom. I'm sitting in our room thinking....how big is a steam mop?? and Why can't he hide it somewhere for 2 weeks? Whatever.... So in he walks with nothing in his hands and no shirt on. I look at him and say..."why is your shirt off"??? I'm holding Ty and Jack's walking with him so I'm REALLY confused at this point. He turns around and I see a bandage on his left shoulder blade and I freak out......he got a TATTOO! Not just any old tattoo. A tattoo that represents us. Us as a family. See people....I LOVE tattoos!! I'm patiently waiting until I'm done breastfeeding to get my next one. I know my family think's I'm nuts and a lot of people out there don't like tattoos but I'm fascinated by them. It's the coolest form of art. I'm not talking about the little flower you'd get on spring break in Mexico, I'm talking about tattoos that have such depth and meaning that you're willing to endure the pain to permanently put it on your body to have with you forever. I've been trying to get Tom to get one for YEARS now. He always said..."I have no desire to get one" or something about "needles and how it would hurt." I gave up but would still try to persuade him. The funny thing is I'm addicted to LA Ink on TLC and recently I got him hooked too. Anyway, my amazing husband gave me a gift that I get to see everyday, forever that reminds me how much I'm loved and how much he loves us.
Tom came up with the design. It's in Old English font. The M is obviously for our family name. My initial is on the left then on the right is a J for Jack, a T for Ty and there's a space for our next kiddo. Our plan is to have 3 children and he actually left a space for the next initial...how amazing? Under the M is "Est. MMIII", 2003 in Roman numerals, the year we were married. That matches the tattoo I have on my wrist that is Jack's birthday in Roman numerals. I can't explain how this makes me feel. I know tattoos don't appeal to everyone and some may not understand what the big deal is but for Tom to get this tattoo and for what the tattoo represents is beyond words for me. I love it. It's the best present he's ever given me other than our boys and I've never felt so loved in my life! Never, in a million years, would I have guessed this over a steam mop! :-)
Posted by Niki at 1:59 PM 7 comments
Friday, August 21, 2009
Exersaucer
We brought out the exersaucer this week for Ty. I know he's only 11 weeks but he holds his head up so well and loves being upright looking at everything. It totally brought back memories of Jack in the exersaucer. He loved that thing. Of course he's trying to climb in it now that Ty's using it, but I can't say I'm surprised. :-) Here's some exersaucer pictures....can you pick out which one is Jack???
Posted by Niki at 2:56 PM 4 comments
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Sir Elton Jack
I picked up this pair of sunglasses for Jack a long time ago. They were in a clearance bin at Target. Oh how I LOVE Target. Anyway its one of those toys that's been rediscovered and has been getting lots of love from Jack this week. I think they're hilarious!
My new favorite thing Jack says is "Spider Man Chewies". He saw Spider Man on the box of fruit chews the last time we went grocery shopping. He's a little obsessed with Spider Man and for no other reason than that orange light up shirt Boobie gave him. Being the great mom I am I bought him these chewies to support this obsession. I'm such an enabler...Hahahah!
Posted by Niki at 2:35 PM 4 comments
Friday, August 14, 2009
No more baby face
In going through old pictures today, it hit me that Jack no longer has a baby face. That cute little round, goofy toothed, pudgy baby face. He's now this little man who's surprising us with something new everyday. When did that happen?
Here's the serious Spider Man cupcake-eater... (He totally looks like his Uncle Luke in this picture)
The morning of his 2nd birthday.... (No babies were harmed in the taking of this photograph)
The morning of his 1st birthday....
And how weird is it that I somehow managed to get the same messy, cake-faced, pose as last year?
Posted by Niki at 9:57 PM 2 comments
Happy Birthday JACK!!!
Today is Jack's 2nd birthday. I seriously can't believe he's 2 years old. Yesterday I had a moment that I'm going to hold on to forever. I was sitting on the floor folding laundry. Jack was helping with the towels and every time he'd carry one down the hall to the closet he'd come back and wrap his arms around my neck and say "Love you Mommy". He did it 4 times and every time I welled up. How sweet is he? So I told Tom last night that will be the moment I reflect back on when he's going through that great phase of being a teenager. I wonder what "Aaawwww Moment" got my mom through my hellacious dramatic teen years? Sorry mom!! Hahahha Jack has been such an amazing kiddo I can't wait to see what he comes up with this year. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!!!!
Since I'm on a video kick.....here's a few clips of Jack opening presents. It was like Christmas here today, he got to open gifts first thing this morning since Tom has a crazy long day at school. We'll be celebrating with Spider Man cupcakes when his dad gets home. Sorry for the lengthy one, he really took his time with the wrapping paper. :-)
Thank you to all of our family for spoiling him and sending gifts! He's so lucky to have you all. I really wish that we could be closer and around everyone. I can't wait to get home for Christmas, this is the longest I've gone without a trip to PA. We miss you and love you all!! THANKS!!
Posted by Niki at 10:07 AM 4 comments
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
I need to talk to this kid's agent!
Ok, so we're in some serious competition with the Walter boys. Beth fired back with some down right funky moves and the boys were even in matching dance costumes. We have our work cut out for us. We have a Friday deadline to post our best moves and from what I caught on video this morning....we're in trouble! :-) It's so hard working with artists!
Posted by Niki at 11:48 AM 2 comments
Friday, August 7, 2009
A.K.A. "TUBS"
We've been calling Ty "Tubs" for a few weeks now. I now have medical results to back up the name. hahahaha. He has the thigh rolls and chubby cheeks. He's not the fattest baby I've ever seen.....
but he's well fed. Hahahaha. We went for his 2 month well baby appointment today. He's in the 75th percentile for his height measuring in at 23 1/2 inches. And for the big numbers.....he's 13 1/2 pounds to put him in the 90th percentile for weight. I of course had a blast waiting 2 freakin' hours at the clinic. What is it with this place??? ARGH!!! Every time! Anyway, he did get 3 shots which were not so much fun but after a super long morning nap he's back to himself.
This is Jack showing his "I wanna be the baby" side. We don't see too much of it, thank goodness! :-)
Posted by Niki at 7:36 PM 1 comments
Challenge Accepted!
Jack has been challenged to a Dance off by the Walter Boys. Now I would like to say Deacon and Zeke.... you are some pretty tough competition. Your moves are sweet and signing along earns you some major points! Jack's favorite songs is the 6 Little Ducks. Normally he lets it all out on the dance floor with this rockin' tune, but due to not knowing how many rounds this may go we're saving some of our best moves for later. Hahhahhaha! So we'd like you all to sit back and enjoy Jack's dance interpretation of 6 Little Ducks....and like we say in the video....Bring it on Zeke and Deacon!! :-) We love you guys and wish we were closer to have play dates!
Posted by Niki at 8:12 AM 2 comments
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
First smiles and Dance moves
Today I have videos! I love posting videos on here!
Ty's video is of his HUGE smile. I of course tried to capture this smile and cooing with about 12 unsuccessful video tries. Tom comes trotting in and gets him to smile immediately. It's like they were on the same page thinking...let's mess with mom.:-) Hahahaha...the smiles were worth it though!
Jack's video is of him at Kinder Jam class. We'll be attending this every Monday. It's a SKIES class here at Monterey. I used to be the director of this program and Ms. El is such a great instructor it's fun being on the other side of things. Jack loved this class (once I coaxed him into the room with a Starburst....don't judge me....sugar is magic!) The class is all about music and movement and learning the basics, ex: numbers, letters, colors etc. It was so great and he made a new friend, Auggie. Here's the video of Jack during the free-freeze dance. He really has great moves, this time he just enjoyed running. Hahaha!
Posted by Niki at 3:23 PM 4 comments