Finally 2!

Jack is now 2 years old! YEA! His birthday was June 7, and we celebrated his birthday on June 8, at his Grams and Grandaddy's house in Grenada. We had a Thomas themed birthday party and he had a BLAST. The family was there as well as some close family friends. Jack has been so great since the last post in April. He has mostly grown out of his terrible twos and has become such a big boy. It just makes me so sad to see how fast he is growing up. I think it is getting close to time for another. Maybe in a year or so. We will see. Mike says he is not ready to start over with the waking in the night and bottles and such. I kind of understand that, I guess. But that is not a good enough reason for me to not want another one. So that is where we are these days. I have included a few pictures from Jack's birthday party. How cute is he!!!!!

Terrible 2's......or terrible 22 months?

We all hear about children going through the "terrible 2's" but nobody tells you that this is just the average age for this "mini menopause". Wow what an attitude these small beings can have. Jack has been doing really well and growing so quickly. He is learning so many new things and saying almost everything we say. Yes, EVERYTHING! We are pretty good about not saying "everything" around him. Of course every once in a while things do slip out but we quickly change the subject in hopes that he will forget. He loves to scream. Yes scream and very loudly. He gets upset if I am in the kitchen cooking and not playing with him. He grabs my hand or pants and just pulls me as hard as he can to the den. That's ok though. It just reminds me of how much he loves me. Speaking of, he said "love you" for the first time today! We have been trying so hard to get him to say "I love you" and today he did. TO ME!!!!!!!! YEA!

Jack and I are going to Oxford tomorrow to meet Salley and spend the night at the condo. I am real excited to spend some time with her and for her to spend some time with Jack. Every time I am around her with Jack the rest of the family is there as well and she doesn't really get to spend time with us. We are going to have lunch on Tuesday and do a little window shopping. I will update you on how well the "window shopping" goes. Usually not very well. Anyway, I hope everyone is well. Hopefully I can keep up with my blog a little better for now on.

EEWWWW!

Ok, so when you go to the grocery store and purchase things such as pre packaged fruit cups and such, you really do expect it to be good. If the expiration date isn't for another year or so it is supposed to be good, right? Think again! I just had to share this. I was about to open a brand new package of Dole Pineapple fruit cups. When I picked up the box, I noticed something a little different. A little, well, darker. I noticed on the inside edge of the package where it said, "Look for Special Offer Inside." Wow! A special offer. But was it a brillo pad? At least that's what it looked like to me. This is what I saw. EEWWWWW!! Make sure you look closely at all products you buy from the grocery for now on, that's my motto.

Our First Playdate!

Could this be more exciting?! Jack and I had our very first play date today and it was so much fun. We went over to Tracie Melton McRee's and Jack played with her 3 year old Corbin and Tracie and I had a good visit. Even if we did talk mostly about children and children related things, it was still soooooooo nice to carry on a conversation with an adult! YEA!! I am looking forward to getting more involved in the Southaven/Olive Branch community and meeting other Moms like me. Jack seemed to play pretty well with Corbin. He seemed to be ok with sharing and there was no hitting or biting so I am really happy! Corbin is a little older than Jack so it was a little hard for them to communicate but they still seemed to have a good time. Hopefully we will have more dates in the near future.

Toot Toot! Choo Choo!

So for those of you who know little Jack Henry well, certainly know about his love for trains, especially Thomas the Tank Engine. Jack has many Thomas toys but his three favorite Thomas toys are actually bath toys of the characters Thomas, Percy and Salty. All from the Thomas stories. We don't actually play with them in the tub we play with them out of the tub. Anyway, the other day Jack would run across the room and get a train, one at a time, and bring it back to me. I was lying on the couch on my side so he would place each train on my thigh and then run to get another train. After lining up all 3 trains on my not so skinny thigh, he proceeded to push on my leg in turn making the trains move, of course cause by the wave motion my thigh was making! So, the trains are moving, Jack is yelling, "Toot Toot! Choo Choo!", and my thigh is jiggling! How could this day get any better?

The Terrible 2's

I guess I didn't know how early the "terrible 2's" really started. It seems like Jack just woke up a few days ago and was smack dab in the middle of them. He used to never get all upset if he was told no. He would just kind of accept it, maybe with a little protest, and move on. But now, not so much. He has spent the most of today in a pretty bad mood. This, of course, is hard on everybody. Everyone gets frustrated with everyone else and we all just feed off of each others frustrations. I know that we all just need to take a deep breath and work things out as they come. I know everything will be fine. I love that little boy more than anything and it's pretty easy for me to get over the momentary frustration of his upset. Like my Mama says, all parents have to go through it and he is just learning.

Just when you think your child is soooo good.....

When people ask me about Jack, I always brag about how good he always is. He rarely acts up, especially in public. He usually only gets upset if he is tired, hungry or not feeling well. Then comes a day like today. WOW! Jack and I have both been trying to get over a lingering cold so we haven't been getting out a lot in the last week or so. Today, I decided to take him to Tuesday Morning for a little after holiday shopping. You know, the shopping trips you go on just to see if there is something you might like to buy for yourself since you spent the last 3+ months buying for everybody else. Anyway, Jack was fine for the first 10 minutes or so after walking through the doors. Then, all of a sudden he spotted a Thomas the Tank Engine toy. I knew then and there the attitude was about to change. It was all about "toot toot! toot toot! toot toot!" Oh boy! Well, I did what many of you might do. I said........ "No." I had already put about 3 toys in my cart and I was supposed to be shopping for me for once. Well, he went into a screaming, raging fit with tears and all. I have never had to deal with this in public a day in my life. It was a little unnerving. So I handled it pretty well I think. I just talked to him as calmly as possible and we proceeded to the checkout to pay for what we had and move on. He did stop crying about 3 or 4 minutes later. At least it didn't last very long. Little did I know the "best" was yet to come.

On our way home he was acting ok so I decided we would try to stop at Books-A-Million to see if I could find a good Toddler Cookbook and let him hang out in the little kids section. You know, where they have the little table and chairs and children's books. Anyway, I decided to just carry him in since I had planned on letting him down to play a little. It took about 2 seconds for him to spot a book in the shape of a truck with wheels on it. I put him down and handed him the book. He took off running and there I was running after him. After catching him and attempting to pick him up, he, of course, threw himself on the floor in a screaming, raging tantrum in turn kicking the "truck book" in the middle of the main aisle. People stared and tried to act like it was ok but to be quite honest, I was pretty embarrassed. This wasn't a playground, it was a book store. A place of silence and relaxation right? Not today! Not at 2:00 pm. If you were there, sorry!

So that is the story of Jack's first public disturbance. Let's hope it doesn't happen again. HA HA!! Yeah right. But we love them anyway.