Easter

Super busy week, so this post will be short on words, but I did want to post pictures from the last 2 weekends. We hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Last weekend we were in Prattville for Easter. My parent's church had their Easter Egg hunt / Egg-citement. Jake was very excited about getting his picture taken (or as my dad said, his outfit).... He loved riding the ponyMy dad (Gran) & Jake

Cousins! Marrell, Maddox & Jake

Riding the train

Decorating cookies (Nana's booth)

Riding the merry-go-round

The bounce room

I didn't get a picture of him on his favorite thing.... a huge inflatable slide. He loved it. Those pictures are all on my parent's camera. I was too busy being terrified to take any pictures.

Later that day at Nana & Gran's. Watering the plants My mom & I found these goofy bunny glasses at Party City, so we bought them for the kids.

Warning: make sure your volume is turned WAY down.

Jake usually hates costumed figures. We figured that this year's Easter bunny would be no different. I guess it is part of the new brave Jake. He was so excited to see the Easter bunny. We had to hold him back. He went & jumped in his lap and smiled away.

This is why I don't like motorized trains

The Easter bunny came (I promise it was not as dinky as it looks. A lot of it just fit in his basket. Plus I am still loving the fact that I can get away with the Target $1 bin.)Easter morning we were in Birmingham. Mimi made his outfit. She did such an amazing job!! (We also learned that his Easter shoes were too small. So he had to wear his sandals. Therefore we had to hear 100 times "shoes too small" for the rest of the morning.)

He insisted on taking his picture by Mimi sitting down

Stop with the pictures mom!

He refused to smile for the camera

Finally a smile! Jake & Dad (very bad picture of myself, so I politely cropped myself out!)

Jake's new thing is jumping (actual jumping with both feet off the ground)

Weather

Robbie was out of town this weekend & my parents are watching Jake this week because I have to fly out of town for business. So, I figured I would go ahead & take Jake to my parent's this weekend & spend some time with them. My parent's live in a small community called Pine Level which is a few miles north of Prattville, AL. There had been warnings of bad weather all Friday evening. We would be under one tornado warning & about the time that one ended, we would have another one. I don't freak out about bad weather & I've never gone to a safe place when under a tornado warning. I've always had the naive thought of nothing bad is going to really happen to me. We all went to bed around 10:30 thinking that the worst was over. Around midnight the power went out, I could tell there was another storm. I just figured that the wind was blowing super hard. I got up & checked on Jake (in one of the other bedrooms) & he of course was sleeping right through it. So I went back to bed. After the storm seemed to die down, my dad took the trail wagon out to just check on the property. That's when he realized that something worse had happened then just a wind storm. In the morning, we all went out to examine the damage in daylight. It was horrible. Thankfully, the tornado turned and just skirted the back my parent's property, so they had no damage. But other's in the community were not as lucky. A very sweet family that I've known all my life, lost 3 members of the family. The church that I went to as a little girl was destroyed (we changed churches when I was in the 6th grade). Houses a few miles down from my parent's had trees fall on them. It was spooky to see the path of the tornado. All of the trees were either up-rooted or snapped in half. There was metal stuck high up in the trees. It completely freaked me out. I get an F in parenting for not having my child in a safe place. The electricity went out, so we had no idea that a tornado had touched down. I learned some very important things. 1) Invest in a weather radio; 2) Even if you are in a house or brick structure, you are still not completely safe (see the pictures below of what the storm did to the brick church; 3) You should get in a safe place in your house if you are in a tornado warning (if the tornado had not turned, it could have very easily hit my parent's house); 4) It can happen to you (I knew the 3 people that lost their lives). I will definitely take weather warnings a lot more seriously now.

I do ask that you keep all of the families affected by this storm (including those in the other states) in your prayers. While sometimes I may kid around about growing up in such a small community & I haven't lived there since high school, but to see how they are rallying around everyone is so touching. The community is one, that you know the people that you go to high school with your whole life. My dad went to high school with their parents and my grandparents went to high school with their grandparents. And when something bad happens, they all come together. It is like a family. And when there is so much heartbreak and sadness, it is a ray of sunlight & a reminder, that there is still good and there is still love. I am proud of the community and I'm proud that I was raised in such a special place.

Atlanta

Robbie & I spent 2 weekends in Atlanta. The first weekend was with some of our friends from Chattanooga. We had so much fun! Of course, I realized while there that our camera battery was dead. So the only picture from the weekend is from Zach & Kimberly's camera. Such a great time!

The 2nd weekend we were there was just Robbie & I and we were celebrating our 3 year anniversary. I made sure to bring a camera battery charger so we could take pictures that weekend. Too bad it was the wrong camera's battery charger. So no pictures from that weekend. But, we had a great time, so at least I have the memories! A big thank you to the grandparents for watching Jake both weekends.

Updates

So I've actually written this post about 1,000 times in my head over the last month, I just never found the time to actually type it. But Jake is changing so much so quickly, I'm scared that if I don't go ahead & put it in a blog entry, it will change by the next time I go to enter it! So, for my memory, here is what the little munchkin has been up to....

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Getting into EVERYTHING. Which is mostly funny, sometimes messy & a few times annoying. He will be playing contently, and then all of sudden sneak off, go in a room & close a door. Usually this happens when work runs late for me. (I try to get as much work done as possible while he is at MDO & finish up while he is napping. Lately though, I've still had to work once he is up from his nap.) One of his favorite things to do is to find his wipes, pull out 20 of them & "clean". He loves to wipe down anything. (Which is nice until it is the flat screen tv.) He'll say "I clean 'n". He also loves to take his Little Tykes hammer & bang things. He'll say "I fix it".

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He talks up a storm. He still isn't at a point where you can have a conversation with him, but you can for the most part understand him when he is telling you something. Some of his favorite sayings are "I stuck" (Which he says about everything. When you put sandals on his feet, when he is in his car seat, when he is swallowed by the sofa cushions, etc...), "see you layler [later]", "make happy" (He says this when you have actually made him happy. Things that make him happy are watching a particular Thomas movie, letting him have a snack, going to the park, etc...). Unfortunately, most of his favorite words are bossy words.....

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Jake is a MAJOR bossy britches. His teachers at school try to be sweet & say he is a leader & just assertive. AKA... bossy. So his other favorite sayings are "Don't do that", "no sir" (in a bossy way, not a polite way), "stop it", "enough!". He usually says these things to me when I go to change his diaper, tell him it's nap time & such. It's one thing when he is being bossy at home. It is embarrassing when it is in public. We were at the park the other day & he was playing with a steering wheel. A little boy came up wanting to play with the steering wheel. Jake pointed to the slide, and told him "go slide". The little boy left & went to go slide. Everything at the playground was "mine!" and if any kids tried to play with something he had, he directed them to something else. At first I just looked around like "whose bossy kid is that?" But then Jake's bossiness started getting meaner, so I knew I had to fess up it was my kid. I had to pull him away kicking & screaming. He was yelling at me "no ma'am". I'm a bit torn on how to handle it. His bossiness is not physical. He doesn't hit, bite or kick. He just says things that have been said to him. And I'm afraid he gets the bossiness from me. What part of it is being a typical 2-year-old & where do I need to step in & discipline him? I'm definitely trying to figure this out.

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He is bossy, but he can also be majorly sweet. He loves to give big hugs, kisses & snuggle. He says "I love too" [I love you]. I love to hear him say "mommy" & "daddy". He is very appreciative when you do something for him and I'm pretty proud of his manners.

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He watches some tv. Mostly when I'm working. One day, he was wanting to watch tv so he told me "mommy, go computer". We still mostly only watch PBS. His favorite shows are still the same. Curious George, Super Why, Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train & Cat in the Hat. I have to say, I've been pretty pleased with PBS. Their shows are somewhat educational & none of the ones that Jake watches has grown-ups dressed in crazy costumes dancing around. (For some reason, that just creeps me out.) He'll sometimes watch Thomas episodes, but what he really loves is the movies more. Actually, there are only 2 Thomas movies he'll watch. We downloaded several from Netflix, but he only likes 2 of them. And he LOVES them. His 2 favorite Thomas trains are Hiro & Dash, so he loves the 2 movies they are in. We've also branched out & started watching some Disney Junior shows. He likes Mickey Mouse, Jake the Pirate & Chuggington. He also, for some reason loves Spongebob. I don't know where that came from. But he picked it up somewhere & now talks about it all the time. For the most part, he'll watch tv for a little while, but then lose interest & start playing with his toys. Which is perfectly fine with me. But I have to admit, it has saved me a few times being able to turn on the tv to occupy him so I can take a conference call.

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He is obsessed with Trains. Any kind of train. He plays with them, talks about them, reads about them. A Day Out with Thomas is coming to Chattanooga in May, so I hope to take him to see it. (We were out of town both weekends it was in Birmingham.) He loves riding the train in the mall.

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He still loves to read. His favorites are still his favorites, but he has added a few more. New favorite additions are Freight Train, Wocket in My Pocket (Dr. Seuss) & Find Thomas (similar to an I Spy book). I know that he just has the pictures memorized, but he can read to you Freight Train & Pocket. I love to hear him read!! He knows his alphabet & he can pick out letters. I have to say that the Munchkin Bath Letters are awesome! My friend Stephanie suggested them & I'm so glad she did. Jake started being able to pick out letters within the week of us using them. He does pretty good. Sometimes he gets "k" & "x" mixed up and he gets "I" & "L" mixed up, things like that. But the for the most part, you can point to a letter & he will say it. The other day he saw a stop sign & said "S-T-O-P". I was very proud! It is also a great new way to entertain him. I'll give him a box of something to hold & he'll point out different letters. Of course, about the time I start bragging on him, he'll say something crazy or totally not get something. For instance, any time you give him a choice between 2 things, he just says "yea". He will never pick. He also randomly calls people the wrong name. Or you will ask him what a color is & he will say "moo". Sometimes I feel like he is Sean Connery on the Saturday Night Live skit Celebrity Jeopardy!. He will just give the most random answers.

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Sometimes a good eater, sometimes not. Loves milk, pizza, french fries, chicken & fruit. His favorite snacks are goldfish, gummy snacks (he calls them yummies) & yogurt.

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We got the pac-in-play back so he is back to being a good sleeper. Yea! I've never been so happy to see a device! Though, now, whenever we go to put him to bed in the crib, he points to the mattress (which is still on the floor) & tells us he wants to sleep "that bed". I just kiss his little head & tell him not until he is 10.

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Having a 2-year-old is a challenging time (I'm sure the first in many to come!), but, in the last few months, I've laughed more then I ever had in my life & have felt more love then I could ever imagine feeling. There is something so honest about their emotions, that when they are displaying love, it is the most amazing feeling. I love watching him explore, learn & discover. It is tiring & challenging, but such a fun fun time! And I'm so very thankful.

Sunday before church My little "helper". It makes projects so much easier to have 40 pounds hanging off your neck. He loves getting in Bruiser's dog cage at Mimi & Granddad's

Jake fell asleep reading his book

Playing in his tent. It has been a life saver in the apartment. I use it to throw all his toys in. He'll just sit in the tent & play with the toys then.

Watching TV in the morning with his friends George & Piggy

Watching his favorite Curious George DVD on "his computer" as he calls it

Reading while on the potty (we are NOWHERE near being potty trained)

I don't know why I think this is so funny, but he calls Cranky (from Thomas) "cookie".