Jack's First Day Of Kindergarten

Jack was so ready for his first day at "big kid school"

He wasn't nervous at all

Walking up to school, donning his new super cool Darth Vader backpack

Looking way too grown up here

So excited, he was first in line!

On his way in...

Jack had a great first day!

BFF

While Annabelle was telling me all about her 2nd day of school she kept mentioning Ella, a little girl in her class. So I asked Annabelle if Ella was her new bud, as in buddy, and she said, in a completely sarcastic duhmomyoursostupidforevenasking kind of tone, "uh, I think you mean bff."

and in that instant, I realized my baby girl had taken yet another step towards preteen hell...

Annabelle's First Day of 1st Grade

Everyone was very excited for Annabelle's first day of school, especially Jack!

He couldn't wait to give his big sister a giant send off hug.

Very excited on her way in!

Even more excited on her way out. And look, the sun is shining!

Hanging out with some friends in the school yard

After school we walked over to the ice cream shop where everyone decided they needed to get pinwheels. All in all, a great first day of school!

Three Months

At three months old Oliver is still the best. He is a very low maintenance, happy baby!

He is pretty much doing the same stuff that he did at 2 months only, spending more time awake during the day and more time sleeping at night.

He has started to get a little bit louder - he's voicing his opinion more, babbling and laughing out loud. Even his cries are louder.

He has also started to roll to the side. Gone are the days of leaving him unattended on the couch or bed for a second, for fear he may decide to roll all the way over.

For Love of Country or Whatever

Ever since the World Cup, back in June, Jack has been completely fascinated with England. I blame Nick. The majority of the World Cup games coincidentally fell upon Nick's two week paternity leave so, he and Jack spent a lot of time watching the matches while I took care of the new baby and Annabelle was still in school. During that time, Nick drilled it into Jack's impressionable young brain that England is THE BEST... A statement that Jack really took to heart.

One thing that Jack really enjoyed about watching the World Cup was the flags. He loved seeing the different flags for all of the different countries and before long, had them all memorized. He even mastered drawing some of them. So, to show his support for England, Jack quickly began making flags and taping them all over the house.

Although we thought Jack's devotion to England was pretty comical, it was getting a little out of control. Jack started trash talking other countries and getting into arguments with his friends. At a play date last month Jack caused a big commotion by drawing the England flag all over a driveway with chalk. The other boys weren't too happy about that and began drawing American flags. After a lot of back and forth over which country/flag was better, it ended with everyone ganging up on Jack, dumping water on his flag drawings and screaming, "kill England!" It was all a bit messy.

A couple of weeks ago I overheard him telling a friend, "England is the bestest country in the world and America is rubbish." When I later asked Jack why he thinks America is so rubbish he told me "it is rubbish because Granny doesn't live here"... awww.

Well, it's been two months since the World Cup obsession and Jack is still drawing his flags left and right. Yesterday morning he came into our bedroom and taped an England flag to the wall above our bed. He was very proud of himself as he sat there, patiently waiting for Nick to get out of the shower, so he could show his Daddy what he had done. Nick, of course, was pleased to see Jack proclaiming his love for England but said to Jack, "you do know you are half American, right?" Jack paused as he thought about this for a second, then he gave Nick a look and said "whatever" as he walked out of the room!

Swingaaaah

...because it's been a while since I've posted about Jack

Two Months

Another month has flown by and Oliver is now 2 months old. He has been growing like a weed! At his 2 month check up he weighed 13 lbs. 7 ozs. and was 23 1/4 inches long.

He has officially outgrown the bassinet and is now sleeping in his crib. Last week I thought he was gigantic when I looked at him in the bassinet but now he seems so tiny in comparison. He's been doing really well in the sleep department, going for about 6-7 hours at a time-yay!

Oliver has been the perfect baby. He is an extremely good natured little boy and pretty much only cries when he's hungry, tired or needs a diaper change.

He still sleeps a lot during the day but when he's awake, he's been quite the smiley little lad. He has started cooing and smiling more and even laughed out loud the other day.

Oliver has been holding his head up more and more so we tried him out in a Bumbo seat. He really likes the Bumbo but he can't stay in it for very long right now- after about ten minutes his head starts to flop from side to side. I'm sure by next month he'll be Bumbo ready.

I guess that's about it. There really isn't much more that 2 month old babies can do...

Tennis

Annabelle had a week of tennis lessons at our local boys and girls club, last week. She had been wanting to play tennis for a while so she was really excited about the lessons. She did great and loved every minute of it... Even though it was in the high 90's and extremely humid every day. She was a trooper, she didn't complain once about the heat!

One Month

Happy one month birthday, Oliver!

This past month has gone by sooo fast, I can't believe how much Oliver has grown already! At his one month check up he weighed in at 11lbs. 3oz and was 22 inches long!

So far Oliver has been the best baby; he is a very low maintenance, easy going little boy. He still sleeps a lot during the day but is becoming increasingly more alert during his small bouts of awake time. He is lifting his head, looking around, batting at things and moving around more in general. He is also starting to recognize my voice and smile.

Oliver has been sleeping pretty well at night- doing about a 4-5 hour stretch, waking to feed and then going back down again pretty quickly for another few hours.

One thing I've noticed about Oliver is that, unlike his brother and sister when they were babies, he doesn't seem to have a fussy time. I remember both Annabelle and Jack, without fail, would become fussy around 7pm every night. Oliver, not so much. It's early yet so I'm not ruling it out but rather, remaining hopeful!

Annabelle's Kindergarten Graduation

Kindergarten is over and Annabelle is officially a 1st grader!! She had a great first year at "big kid" school; not only did she have the best class and most wonderful teachers, she also learned some stuff too!

Annabelle receives her diploma!

Just a few members of the gang

Annabelle and Lila

It's amazing how much of a change has occurred in one short year. Annabelle seems so much older to me all of a sudden. She's always been very independent but now that she's reading and writing it's like a whole new level of "grown up!" It's a little scary...

One Week

Oliver is the sweetest little boy, ever! Apart from being adorable, thus far he has been a fantastic baby. He is still in the "sleepy newborn" phase and has been very dozy most days. During the night he has typically been sleeping for about 4 hour stretches, waking to feed and then pretty much going right back to sleep! He seems to only cry when he is either hungry or being changed. I could not have wished for a better baby!!

At his one week weight check, he went from his "hospital discharge" weight of 7lbs. 3 ozs. to 8lbs. 4ozs.! He is a breastfeeding champ.

Happy Birthday Monkey #3!!

Oliver John born June 7, 2010 @12:27am

7lbs. 11ozs. 19 inches long

Three Little Monkeys

Go Jack!

Jack had his first attempt at riding a bike without training wheels! He did pretty well for his first try; he managed to pedal a few feet without any assistance and didn't fall once. I think after a few more lessons on the mini bike, aka "Rhino" we'll be ready to take the training wheels off of his regular bike!

Memorial Day Concert

Annabelle's school put on a concert in honor of Memorial Day. During this event, the Kindergarten class joined together with the 2nd and 4th grades for their portion of the concert. The concert took place in the school gym and it was incredibly crowded, incredibly hot and incredibly hard to hear a thing. Jack and I ended up having to sit on the floor as not one person thought to give up a seat to the woman who is 9 months pregnant. All around, it was pretty miserable. As we sat on the floor, unable to actually see Annabelle, listening to the concert, I heard Jack mumble "this is the boringest song ever" and then he fell asleep, right there, squashed in the middle of the gym floor with his head on my lap.

The only pleasant part of this whole event was being able to see the glow on my daughter's face as she sat next to her love, Nicholas!

Graduation Day!

Jack has officially graduated from preschool (even though he has a week of school left)!

His school had a little graduation ceremony in the auditorium and then an after party on the school grounds. During the ceremony each class sang a couple of songs (on stage) and then each child received a diploma. Jack was not overly keen on the performance part of the ceremony and moaned a lot in the beginning (in his defense, it was about 95 degrees outside and there was no air conditioning in the auditorium) but he perked up towards the end and even participated in the second song.

At the after party, they had the usual: snacks, pony rides, face painting, tye dye station and crafts. Jack was only interested in the snacks and playing. Annabelle, however, had to try everything, including the pony... THREE times!

All in all I think the kids had a good time. They even had a special guest appearance from Auntie Kristen who extended her visit from Virginia just to see Jackie graduate!

Congratulations, Jackie!!! Next stop, Kindergarten!

The Countdown Begins!

Well, I met with my doctor this morning and it looks like we will be having this baby in less than 2 weeks... Unless I go before then, we have an induction scheduled for June 6th!!

Oh Lordy

We are letting Annabelle take this Wednesday off from school to attend Jack's preschool graduation. This morning I found this note on the dining room table:

Translation: Nick, I will be absent on Wednesday. I'm sorry. Love, Annabelle.

I suppose actually telling him in person would have been too much to handle.

I also found this one:

Not sure if they are mountain climbing or ice skating. My favorite bit; the matching "I love you" t-shirts!

Here We Go, Again

Annabelle is in LOOOOOVE.... This week it's with a boy named Nicholas. Over the weekend, she made Nicholas a heart shaped love note which she brought to school yesterday. According to Annabelle, Nicholas loved the heart and told her she was beautiful. Apparently, Nicholas is planning to marry Annabelle, when she is 20.

This morning when Annabelle came into my room, fully dressed, I could smell the hair spray she had just been using. After she announced that she carefully chose an outfit she thought Nicholas would like, she left the room and went downstairs to make him another note. Sadly, she forgot to take the note to school with her today... and evil Mommy found it!

Mr. Numbers

I am completely freaked out by Jack's mathematical ability! I was just putting him to bed and he asked me how many minutes there are in 12 hours... My first thought was, "I need a calculator!" but then we started to work it out:

Me: If there are 60 minutes in 1 hour, how many minutes are there in 2 hours?
Jack: 120
Me: Do you know how many minutes there are in 3 hours?
Jack: yes, 180
Me: What about 4 hours?
Jack: I don't know.
Me: Well, there are 60 minutes in 1 hour and there are 180 minutes in 3 hours so you would add 60 to 180.
Jack: Oh, 240.
Me: How many minutes are in 5 hours?
Jack: 300
Me: What about 6 hours?
Jack: I'm not sure.
Me: What is 300 plus 60?
Jack: 360, so that's how many minutes are in 6 hours?
Me: Yes. So to figure out 7 hours add 60 to that.
Jack: 420
Me: Add another 60 for 8 hours.
Jack: 480

The conversation went on like this until I stopped him at 14 hours! The cutest part about it is the way he pronounces the word "minutes"... He calls them "mimmits".

Happy 5th Birthday Jack!!

I'm a little late with this post, like almost a month, but I'll date it for the 21st of March, which is Jack's birthday. Better late than never...

Jack is awesome. He is a very, very bright little lad. He has this incredible natural ability to understand mathematics, it's pretty amazing. At 5 years of age he is capable of counting by 2's, 5's 10's, 100's, 200's etc... All the way to infinity and beyond, as he would say. I have actually watched him count to over 60,000 by 200's! He can also work out basic addition, subtraction and logic problems: Once he asked me what 1,000 minus 2 was and before I could answer, he shouted out 998! The other day we were driving in the car and Jack asked how long it would take to get to our destination- I said I wasn't sure but we could time it. I told him we left the house at 5:01pm and at 5:14pm he announced that we had been on the road for 13 minutes! Although we forgot to look at the time when we arrived, I am pretty certain he would have worked out our exact travel time.

Jack has an amazing imagination. Using any materials at hand (blocks, rocks, paper, chalk), he will often construct elaborate roads and ramp set ups for his cars or monster trucks. Last summer he was very keen on chalk and would create these huge roads and detailed cities for his cars. He kept our street and driveway both pretty much covered in chalk for the entire summer.

He also likes to write and create books. At the beginning of the school year, Jack went through a "book making" phase where he would produce about 3 to 4 books per day, mostly about rally cars. His books usually consisted of pictures and random letters, sometimes actual words, with numbered pages. He was always pretty good about his title page though- one could usually work out what the book was intended to be about because he would write things like, "Rally Car Book- 2009" on the cover. As of late, his book making seems to have slowed down- thankfully. Not that I want to discourage the book making BUT, he was burning through several reams of paper per week!

Jack is secretly learning to read on his own. When asked to read/sound out words he will not perform on cue but he pays close attention when being read to and sometimes, when Annabelle is reading a story and gets stumped on a word, Jack will tell her the correct word... He definitely recognizes many, many words.

Jack has recently discovered the world of video games, thanks Nick. He's not obsessed with them (yet) but he's getting pretty good at navigating his way around the world wide web. He likes to go on-line and play race car games or Webkinz, which seems to be "the thing" at the moment. He has been collecting various Webkinz stuffed animals... it's pretty funny watching him drag around his pink poodle with a bunch of monster trucks!

Jack is, for the most part, pretty easy going but can definitely be very strong willed about certain things, especially if it's something he does not want to do. At the same time, he can also be very sensitive- if he thinks someone is angry with him he gets very upset!

Jack is an extremely sweet little boy (except when angry!) and can be very cuddly, especially at bed time. Nick has, on occasion, referred to him as "kitten man!" Jack still sleeps with Teddy and Other Teddy- his stuffed bear friends he's had since birth.

Jack loves to swim. He has been taking swimming lessons for a while and is really getting quite good at it. Actually, he loves anything involving water, except drinking it!

Jack also loves music. When he finds a song he really likes he will often listen to it over and over again. For a while there, his favorite song was Playing For Change's version of "All You Need is Love" from a Starbucks compilation. One of Jack's teachers brought the CD to school for the kids and Jack loved it so much, he listened to that song whilst grooving in front of the CD player for an hour!

Several times I've asked Jack what he wants to be when he grows up and his response is always the same; "a Daddy." Currently, he has plans to have many children and a cat named Fisher. When he is a Daddy, he also wants to get a fat belly and lose all of his hair!

Jack's favorite color is red. Favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla. Favorite food is probably breakfast sausage, or just meat. At his 5 year check-up he was 44 inches tall and weighed in at 47.5 lbs.

Happy Birthday, little man! I love you!!