Outgrowing Stages

Different people get sentimental about different things that their children outgrow.

For some, it's when they outgrow items, like a pacifier & bottle.

For some, it's when they outgrow milestones, like drinking from a bottle & crawling. 

For me?

It's when they become too old to wear certain types of clothing.

Heartbreaking. So Sad. Tears.

It first started with bubbles. I mean, I'm sorry, but I think a baby in a bubble is the cutest thing! (Robbie deeply disagreed & hated them.) Jake's going home outfit was a bubble. He was so cute & tiny in it (and proceeded to have a massive poop blowout in it during the 5 minute car ride home).

Robbie felt like once Jake was walking, I needed to move on from bubbles. I stretched it a few more months, but sadly, I gave up, agreed & packed away all of his cute little bubbles.

One of the last times he wore a bubble

Chunky legs coming out of a bubble?
Cutest thing ever (in my opinion, that I don't think many people agree with!).

Once Jake was walking good, I was SO EXCITED for him to wear white knee socks & Willits. Now, having a boy, there are not very many things you can get excited about him wearing. So forgive me, that the few things I could get excited about, I might have went overboard.

After chunky legs coming out of a bubble,
my next favorite is chunky legs with knee socks.

One of my other favorite boy's clothing? A jon-jon. Make it a smocked jon-jon and I'm in head-over-heels love. 

Not only are jon-jon's super cute, but they also worked really well for us. Jake is VERY hot natured and would pour sweat in the summer. Jon-jon's were the coolest thing he could wear. Plus the snaps at the bottom make diaper changing so much easier then pulling off shorts. It was a win-win combo.

I mean, if it's good enough for JFK Jr, then it's good enough for my kid to wear

Stick a peter pan collared shirt under it and turn the jon-jon into longalls and it could carry you year round.

 And then Jake outgrew jon-jons. And my heart wept.

So I moved on to collared shirts that button in the back. Preferably with a monogram or smocking.

 

 

And then came the sad day, after Jake's 4th birthday, that Robbie told me he felt like Jake was too old for that style. Again, my heart wept. Here he is at Christmas, his last time in an outfit like this.

And then lastly, it's the appliqued shirts & matching shorts. One of the few things that are cute on a boy. But sadly, I feel like Jake has outgrown this style as well. This was the last of cute little boy clothes. Tears.

Now, I realize that 99% of America does not agree with me & would think I was crazy. I realize that my dad some people would call the way I dressed Jake, as sissy. In my defense, it's not like I sent him to school in this. Just church, parties, special occasions, etc... I also felt like, Jake has the rest of his life to wear screen-printed licensed sleeveless tee-shirts and shorts in the color combination of green & brown. He'll want to wear stuff with a skateboard on it or skulls and nylon gym shorts. And that's okay. He's a boy, he's going to play hard, get dirty and not care about clothes. BUT, this small window of time, I can dress him how I want and dress him as a sweet little boy. So I took full advantage it.

 

To Robbie's credit, I know he didn't just always love the way I dressed Jake. But he picked his battles wisely, and for the most part, let me do it, because he knew that was important to me. He would have to be the one to politely remind me though, when Jake had outgrown a particular style of clothing.

 

And I always liked to remind him, that his mom dressed him like that as a little boy, and he turned out just fine.

 

4 1/2 Years Old

Jake is in school for longer hours and more days this summer, so I had the goal of updating the blog daily. I've got the time to update it now, but just no material. So I guess I will just stay updating it weekly.

I hope Jake appreciates that we gave him a very short first name &
he has a very short last name. It makes it easier when learning to
write your name!

This month, Jake is 4 & a half. Wow. We are just 6 months away from having a 5-year-old. He is what he is into:

• He loves to watch movies. He goes through a time period where he LOVES a movie for 2 weeks. He'll watch it every day or every chance he gets. Then at the end of that 2 weeks, he is done. This week's movie is A Goofy Movie. He completely cracks up watching it. 2 weeks ago, it was the old school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. And before that, it was anything super hero. And 2 weeks before that, it was the TV show Max & Ruby.
• He loves for you to read to him. His favorite is still the "If You Give..." books. (If You Give a Pig a Party, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, etc...) For Christmas, he got the book Pete the Cat I Love My New Shoes. He loves it & it is such a cute book! He also loves the Look & See books.
• He is learning so much in his summer school. The other day he was telling me about the flag & how it had 50 stars on it. And he was telling me about the Christian flag. They are learning about Moses this week, so I've heard TONS about Moses. I love it.
• He can count to 100, sort of. He has of course 1-20 down, and he knows after that, it is twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety then 100. But usually by the time he gets to the 40's, he starts getting all out of wack. Then its a jumbled mess and then he says 100. He never does it the same consistently. One time, he'll leave out 30-50 and another time he'll leave out 60-80. He also insists on counting EVERYTHING, so it can take a while to do things.
• He loves shapes. He will talk & talk about shapes and what makes that shape. He loves to point out circles, triangles, squares, octagons, etc...
• He loves to ride his bike. He wants us to take his training wheels off because he thinks that because Robbie doesn't fall off, its because he doesn't have training wheels. So if we take the training wheels off his bike, he won't fall off either. We've tried explaining that's not how it works, but that's like explaining something to a rock. Robbie did raise the training wheels, so technically, he is riding on only 3 wheels. We are trying to teach him to balance on only 2 wheels. Work in progress.
• He loves the pool. He is much more outgoing this summer than he was last summer (his mom isn't, but at least he is). He is also braver. The swimming lessons helped, even though he doesn't swim as good for us as he did for his teacher. We certainly don't trust him in the deep in without his puddle jumper. He is getting braver about putting his face underwater, so that's a huge improvement as well.
• He sleeps with a little puppy lovee (that is appropriately named Puppy) that we would love to break him of. But every time we discuss it, he completely freaks out. I'm a fan of doing things cold turkey before they become habit. The pacifier, bottle, etc.... But I think we waited too long with Puppy and now he is super attached. Puppy has to stay in Jake's bed and the only time Jake can have him is when he sleeps. But how long should you let a child sleep with an item like that?
• I don't understand his memory. It is either horrible or great. Every day when I pick him up from school, it is like pulling teeth to get him to remember anything. I'll ask "what did you do today", he'll answer "I don't know". I'll ask "who did you play with today, what was their name", he'll answer "I don't know". It drives us crazy! I just start bringing up random topics, and finally it will jog his memory and he'll tell us a little. But then other things, he remembers like an elephant. A few weeks ago, we mentioned that his friend Grant was going to come up & see him in August. So Jake has asked every single day if Grant was coming up today. How do you remember something discussed weeks ago, but don't remember something you did 2 hours ago? It drives me bonkers!

I have to say, right now, he is at a pretty easy going stage. He is old enough to do things on his own (I don't have to do EVERYTHING for him) but he is still young enough to be cute. Each day I see him becoming more & more of a boy and not my little preschooler. Because we are scared this could be our only, I just want to soak up every single moment with him. And he makes it pretty easy. He loves to cuddle, he's sweet and affectionate. And he may just be a tad bit spoiled:). I adore this little boy and am just grateful that he is here with us.

Weekend

Our second weekend in a row in town with no plans. This was also our first weekend in a long time in the house, just as a family of 3.  My in-laws & their cat have been living with us since February while their house was gutted & rebuilt due to Chinese drywall. The house is finally finished & the Bush's signed off on it last week. While we have loved having them here, it was nice to get back to our normal routine & having a household of 3 again. And we know that they are super excited to be back in their own house!

Enjoying some sidewalk chalk

 On Saturday, our friend Summer from Auburn was in town with her 2 boys - Henry & Owen. They are part of our fall tailgating group in Auburn, so we see them in the fall a lot, but not as much year round. So we love getting to see them outside of football season! Allison & her 2 girls - Madeline & Mary met us at the park as well. Robbie, Summer & Allison all went to Auburn together. Love these families!

We had a picnic lunch

 

The kids!
Henry, Jake, Mary, Madeline & Owen
Owen refused to scoot in closer to the group. Ha!
And yes, Jake's hair badly needs to be cut.

Madeline & Jake swinging

 

Henry & Jake

 

Sweet little Mary

We got home from the park & decided to cool off with the sprinkler 

 And play a little soccer with daddy

 I had made white garlic chicken pizza for dinner last weekend (see previous post) and the package came with 2 pizza dough rounds. So this Saturday night, we made BBQ Chicken pizza with the 2nd piece of dough.

Before going on the grill

 

After the grill
I have no idea why I'm on a "taking pictures of our food" kick

Sunday after church we took Jake to see Monster's University. Such a cute movie! He did fine until about the last 30 minutes, when he declared he was ready to go. But he says he loved it. He was so funny during the movie. He was pumping his fist & getting so excited during certain parts. So cute!

Father's Day Weekend

What a wonderful father's day weekend! We had no plans, so we just hung out & played everything by ear. Friday night we grilled out steaks & seafood. On Saturday, we slept in and then headed to the pool after lunch.

It was just a little bit crowded

 We spent the rest of the afternoon & night in the backyard.

Playing a little baseball with Daddy

YUM! White garlic chicken pizza.
This is one of the first meals I made for Robbie when we were dating.
I don't think I've made it since? I don't know why.
It was delicious!

We ended the night watching a movie on the back patio

Watching the movie iPad with Daddy

 On Sunday after church we went to the Birmingham Barron's baseball game. In typical fashion, Jake enjoyed the first 30 minutes. But then he got bored & declared he was ready to leave. About 30 minutes later, the stadium's credit card machines & ATMs went down suddenly. Of course we had no cash. And it was super hot. So we decided to head to Tin Roof to cool off & to watch the end of the US Open. 

Jake & Daddy

 

Talking baseball with Daddy

 Dinner at daddy's favorite local restaurant & then ended the night with watermelon.

 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!



This week....

On Sunday, we tried going to the Birmingham Barron's baseball game. This is their first season in their new stadium downtown, which is soooooooo nice. Robbie's been before, but this was mine & Jake's first time at the new stadium.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and the game was rained out. We are going to try it again this Sunday though!

Jake was so sad about the game being rained out

So we decided to go out the eat to a fun dinner Sunday night. 

Daddy & Jake watching the waterfall from our table at dinner

On Monday, Jake started his new school for summer. (His regular Mother's Day Out program is off in the summer,  so we have to find a summer school/daycare/program for him.) Last year he attended a place that was close by, offered part-time & was pretty affordable. Jake hated it though. He would cry when we dropped off and when we would pick him up he would say he didn't want to go back. He never gave us a reason, he just said that he wanted to go to his regular school. I figured it was just because it was a new school with new teachers & friends, but he just never found his groove at the school. There were a few things that I wasn't pleased with either, so we just rode it out until our regular school started back up in September. So we prayed about what we would do this summer. A new school/daycare opened in the fall not far from our house. The facility is beautiful, they are Christian based and I've heard great things about their other campuses in Birmingham. So Jake & I stopped by to check it out. Jake loved it, which had me sold. And I of course fell for everything they were saying hook, line & sinker. They are heavily curriculum based, so he has a schedule and set times that he has to be there (which is an adjustment for us!). I do think they go a "wee bit" overboard with it, but hey, he is learning a lot more than if he was home with me watching TV! We just finished up week 1 and Jake had a great time. He is learning a lot and having a lot of fun. And he is happy. Which is all that matters to me. 

First Day at Summer School

Things that happened his first week at summer school: This week was storybook week, so on Wednesday, the kids got to dress up like their favorite character or hero. Jake choose to wear his Batman shirt. On Thursday, the snow cone mobile stopped by and all the kids got snow cones. Then today they had splash pad day. They got to bring their swimsuits and play on the splash pad. What a fun week!

 

Okay, I don't expect anyone to really care about these videos other than the grandparents, but I wanted them to see what Jake learned to do! Jake finished up his last swim lesson on Thursday. We didn't expect him to learn to completely swim on his own in 5 lessons. We just wanted him to learn the basics and get more comfortable in the water. He did so good and I was very excited to watch him do this...

 

 

 

Now we just have to work on getting his arms out of the water and for him to kick higher. But we are so proud of what all he has learned so far!

 

Hayley's Baby Shower

On Saturday, I helped host a baby shower in Troy for our friend Hayley. I love baby & wedding showers because it is a chance for me to see all of my friends from college. It was a great morning, I loved catching up with my friends and especially celebrating the new baby girl that will join us in August!

 

The food table



 

 

 

So of course once the shower started, I only ended up taking 2 pictures.

Sweet little girls

The hostesses with Hayley (in the middle in the long green dress)

 

 

What we've been up to since the beach...

Going to church

Jake found one of these old party hats. He insisted on wearing it all day long.

While watching movies

While playing with toys.
He seriously wore it all day long.

June 3 - First Day of Swim Lessons!

Our neighborhood pool's lifeguards are through our local YMCA. So they offer private swimming lessons at our pool. We were pleasantly surprised that they are actually cheaper than taking group lessons at the Y's location. Yea! So we signed Jake up.

Jake & his teacher

 Jake did really well. I think it helped that we had just gotten back from the beach, so he was familiar with water. He says he loves it & he already seems much more comfortable in the water this year verses last year. We have 3 more sessions this week. I don't think that he'll be swimming on his own by the end of the sessions (he'll only have had 5), but I think they have laid the groundwork for the rest of summer. We've been very pleased.

Jake & his soccer trophy. It is a wonder that trophy is still in one piece. Jake plays with it all.the.time. He brought it upstairs the other day while I was working & asked me to take his picture with his trophy. Um, okay?

I was helping host a shower in Troy Saturday morning, so Jake & I headed down to my parent's to spend Friday night. (That would shave an hour off my morning drive, plus Jake could spend the day with my parents.) When we got there Friday night, they had decided that they were going to have a campout with their oldest 3 grandchildren. 

The tents all setup

Roasting marshmallows

Jake with his flashlight on his head.
He had a very serious face while wearing this.

A little late night campsite football

And of course running around scaring each other

Maddox & Marrell in their tent

Jake & Gran in their tent
(My brother was in the 3rd tent)

 Mom & I left the campers and headed into the house. We had bets on how long they would stay out there. They made it until 10. Dad swears he thinks they could make it through the whole night, he's just got to find an actual camping tent large enough. So this will be the first of many campouts!