My Favorite Jack-isms

Jack is just over two and a half now. Conversations with him are pretty funny, when it's a normal conversation and not a tantrum, that is. Those happen a lot, too.

I've had a running list of these words and phrases I wanted to get down running around in my head for weeks now. I have to get them down before he stops saying them! He's already dropped a few from his vocabulary (sniff!). I was so sad the first morning he actually asked for a banana. He must have learned that at school. I've been calling them meemas for about a year now.

Anyway, here they are, in random order. I might come back to this list and add to it.

Fun Phrases
"Daddy. What you doin', Daddy?"
"I'll be...RIGHT BACK!"
"Can I watch a wittle bit a Thomas?" (the tank engine, that is.)

Bulldozer fun
"Steam rolla!"
"Escavator" (excavators on the roads)
"Bob da Beelder" (Can we fix it? Bob da Beelder, YES, WE CAN!)

Food fun
"Meema" (banana)
"Yogo" (yogurt)
"Eggie"
"Wookie Charms" (Lucky Charms)
"Mamos" (tomatoes)
"Doot Dats" (fruit snacks)
"Hamberber"
"Dip dip" (ketchup, or "red dip dip." Not to be confused with "white dip dip" which is Ranch dressing).

Our Favorite Things
Brown Doggie
Big Doggie
Beep Beep (this was his pacifier, which he gave up before Thomas was born. But I miss him asking for Beep Beep!)

Thoughts about 2010 (two months late)

Note - I started this post at the beginning of January. Guess I should finish it...albeit two months later!

A year ago Lyle and I were the proud parents of a little boy who in many respects was still just a baby. Last year Jack could sit up under the Christmas tree - as I remember we have a photo of him in a Santa suit to prove it - but that was just about it. In a nutshell, 2010 witnessed the growth of our son into a toddler, which has been a life-changing experience, as well as the growth of our family with the birth of Thomas just before Thanksgiving. Here are the highlights of what I remember about the year...



January: We had gone through a bad phase for about two months starting in November where Jack would wake up in the middle of the night and be awake for about 2 hours for no particular reason. I remember just hanging out with him, usually from about 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., because he just seemed so wide awake, and I didn't know what else to do. It was the month of January where we started letting him "cry it out," and this changed our lives radically! It took only three nights, and we went from being insomniac parents to happily-sleeping parents. The first night Jack cried for 25 minutes, and I was miserable. The second night he cried for 10 minutes, the third night for 5, and by the fourth night, he stopped crying as soon as we shut the door. It was like a revelation for us. To give credit where credit is due, I have to say that it was Lyle who wanted us to try this, and he held me to it. My only regret afterward was that we didn't do it sooner.



February: We celebrated Jack's first birthday, and we wondered how a year had really gone by so quickly! Aunt Sarah and her family came to our house to celebrate. Jack also had a party at Primrose, too. The best story about his birthday was that Jack swiped a cupcake from one of the other kids at his party. Their high chairs were right next to each other, and the little boy was just holding his cupcake and looking at it. Quick as a wink, Jack swiped it and scarfed it in his mouth (they were little cupcakes, I should say). The mothers, teacher at Primrose Miss Mays, and myself all got a huge kick out of it, mostly because Jack's appetite was already well-known to his friends. This just proved it!



March: I got my belated Christmas present - a weekend for the two of us (me and Lyle, that is) for a weekend to Charleston. GloMom and JoPop came to stay with Jack. While it was difficult to be away from him for a weekend, it was N I C E to get away for a bit. The only downside was that when we got back, Jack had not only taken his first step, but he was taking about 3 or 4 at a time. I was so bummed to have missed it, but at least I know when it was, since I remember our weekend getaway was March 5-6.



April - June: In April we learned that we were expecting a baby (again!) I think that's why these three months were a blur. We were just in shock for a while trying to absorb the news that - Holy Cow! - before the holidays we'd have two little kiddos in the family to look after!

July: We went to Asheville for a wedding at Biltmore. It was one of Lyle's friends from Arkansas who was getting married on the estate grounds. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony, the weather was perfect, and we had a night out sans Jack. That was a fun weekend. Later on in July we flew to Texas for another wedding (Lyle's cousin Rachael). There were some record-setting days of heat even for Texas while we were there, but it was good to see the family, and I managed to catch up with some old friends in Houston as well.

August: We began to get super-excited about Amy's family moving to Georgia! Woo hoo! They live in Waynesboro now only a few miles away from Sarah's house. Now we can travel for two and a half hours and see everybody, which is awesome.

September - October: Nothing memorable here, except an absolutely wretched trip to the beach, which I would honestly prefer to forget. Note to self: if you think your toddler is coming down with an ear infection, DO NOT TAKE HIM TO THE BEACH. Other than that fun getaway, the only thing I remember about these two months was that I was tired and cranky a lot as I got bigger. Being pregnant while chasing a toddler around...honestly, it's for the birds. One bright spot was that we started attending the Grove Church just after Labor Day. After four years of searching, I think we might just have found our church home.

November: Thomas Oliver (named after his great granddaddy Mahaffey) arrived on November 10. He weighed in at 8 pounds even, so not quite as big as Big Bubba, but he was also 5 days early, whereas Jack was 10 days late. Everything was so much easier this time...recovery, taking care of baby, knowing what the heck to expect...just everything. He did not look at all like Jack, which was probably a good thing, because I kept wanting to call him Jack at first, anyway! He was tough for the first few weeks, but then settled down into a very laid-back, super sweet baby. We celebrated a very low-key Thanksgiving at our house with Amy's family. We did not have a turkey, but I don't really like turkey, and it's a lot of work considering I had just had a baby about two weeks beforehand. It was a fun day.

December: We celebrated our first Christmas morning with just our immediate family - just me, Lyle, Jack, and Thomas. It was weird to be the only grown-ups in the group, but fun to realize that we're our own little family now and we can make our own traditions. Jack did not "get" the concept of Christmas this year, but he totally got the idea of presents! He loved his racecar set, his tool bench, and his new stuffed dog, appropriately christened, "Big Doggie." Later in the day, we went to Waynesboro to celebrate Christmas again. It was a really fun few days, and we even got snow, which is crazy in Georgia in December! One of my favorite memories from Christmas was going over to Sarah's house one night, and everyone (all 13 of us!) piled on the giant sofa and watched Despicable Me together. It was so fun to laugh together and hear all the children laughing, too. If you can't tell already, this was one of my most cherished Christmases that I can remember in a while.

So...that was our year in a nutshell. Better get it down before I forget it. We are blessed. Life is crazy these days with the children being small, working, taking care of the house, etc. etc, but it is a good kind of crazy. I don't think I would change a thing.

My Message to NBC

I sent an email to NBC today. It was a ridiculously small action considering how angry I still am about the incident, but still, I guess it was the only thing tangible I could do about it today. I offer no apologies if this offends you; at least then you'll know where I stand. Below was my message:

While channel surfing last night, I stopped for just a few moments on Last Comic Standing and was completely disgusted and appalled by what I saw. One of the female contestants was making jokes about the topic of abortion, having had an abortion, and saying that she is "pro-life" - for her own life, that is.

Shocked is not even a strong enough word to express the outrage and disgust that I felt. It is one thing that other disgusting issues like pornography and masturbation have become the topics of commonplace jokes on television, but to joke about abortion just goes beyond any sense of decency for network television. In case you haven't noticed, NBC, abortion is a deeply divisive issue in this country, and to those of us who believe that it constitutes the mass murder of children, in my mind her jokes were as awful, horrifying, and inappropriate as someone to joke about the Holocaust of World War II.

Is this what we are reduced as a society to laughing at? The murder of children? Are your programmers and writers so starved for something original that they must resort to such low-life inhumane tactics such as a "talent search" for truly talentless individuals?

Even as I recall this incident last night, I am filled with horror to think that my son has to grow up in a world where the value of human life is so cheap. Please, NBC, use a little sense next time. Why put such trash on network television? Can't you find something else for us to laugh at instead of topics that fill me with nausea at the thought of what they are implying?

As a side note, I also happen to be five months pregnant - and the little movements inside of me that I feel every day are a constant reminder of the life that is growing there: life that even though it is contained inside my body for the time being, should never, ever be treated so casually.

First Trip to the Zoo!

Last Saturday we took a fun trip to the Atlanta Zoo. We went on a morning that was cool and overcast, but we knew the weather was supposed to clear up that day. It actually worked out really well, because it was very pleasant when we got there and by the time the temperature was really heating up, we had seen just about everything we came to see!

I couldn't tell you if Jack had a favorite animal or not - he did seem intrigued by the otters because they moved so fast - but I really think he enjoyed just watching all the other children walking around and riding in strollers as much as any of the animals! He was quite the people watcher that day.

Here are some of our favorite moments...

Mother's Day

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." - Psalm 139:13

As you can probably imagine, Mother's Day for me is very bittersweet. It's so ironic that days designated to celebrate something specific can often bring joy to many and pain to some. Take Valentine's Day, for example. If you happen to be single, on Valentine's Day you feel single, but even more so. Boy, do I vividly remember those days!

But this entry isn't a pity party for me. As much as I'd love to call my mom up and wish her a cheery "Happy Mother's Day" this afternoon, I know there are many, many others out there who ache today far more than I do: the countless women who would love to become moms but so far cannot, or the mothers out there who have lost a child.

Yes, this is not just about me, this is intended to be an encouragement to anyone out there who thinks God might have forgotten them today. Here's a story for you:

This is the fifth Mother's Day I am celebrating in my mom's absence here on earth, but I must say, the first one without her was by far the hardest. I was living in Boston at the time and just about to finish my Master's Degree. I was in the final stages of school and was working hard to finish my thesis. I was tired from school and planning a wedding, and I was ready to go back to Virginia. And I missed my family and Lyle. So I walked that morning to church - Mother's Day of 2006 - with a heavy heart. I didn't want to be celebrating anything that day - the pain was just too raw.

In the middle of the second set of hymns that morning at Christ the King Presbyterian in Cambridge, MA, as soon as I heard the opening chords of "Great is thy Faithfulness" the tears just began to slide down my cheeks. Some of you might remember that this is a song that has very special meaning to me: it's the one I sang at Mom's funeral. I felt then and there in church that God was whispering to me that He loved me and He hadn't forgotten about me at all. And what a beautiful way to deliver the message through that hymn! It was such a gift to hear that song on that day, and what made the gift even more unique was that in the previous 8 months I had been attending that church, we had never once sung that particular hymn. I don't know who or why someone there picked that song for Mother's Day, but I do know with all my heart I believe God had His hand in their decision, just because He wanted to give me a special gift and let me know how loved I am.

So to anyone needing encouragement - know you are loved by Almighty God who knit you together in your mother's womb. He loves you way too much to forget about you, today or any other day.

I can hear Jack upstairs waking up from his nap, so it's time to close. Motherly duties call!

Finally Feeling Better!

It is amazing how much brighter the world seems when you get to feeling well after a long illness. Not that I should really categorize the past 2 months as a "long illness" in the strictest sense, but boy, it sure feels like it!

Beginning in March, we kept going around and around with series of colds, ear infections, sinus infections, and then after that about 3 weeks ago Jack and I both caught a virus that literally knocked us flat for over a week. I learned that taking care of a sick toddler while being sick yourself was just about the toughest thing I've done for a while. There was one morning where instead of making my typical "to do" list, I just told myself..."All you have to do today is survive. That's it." And of course, we did.

We have finally started to fully recover, and in the mean time we're trying to get out and get back in contact with the outside world again. I feel like we fell off the face of the earth there for a while. We are having a good week, though. The weather has been beautiful here in Georgia lately - not too hot and humid yet - and Lyle, Jack, and I are back into our regular routines with work and daycare.

Speaking of daycare, Jack has recently moved from the baby class up to the "big boy" class. That's been quite a milestone. He's finally adjusting there, I think, and he seems to like all the activity, but it was a tough transition there for a while. There were a few mornings when I brought him into the class, stood him up on the floor, and he would just cling to my leg and cry. Is there really a worse feeling in the world than leaving your toddler when they're screaming, and all they want is YOU? I know they stop crying after a few minutes - those short attention spans really are good for something - but, oh, what a horrible way to start the day!

So I'm glad we're past that phase now, too. In a nutshell, March and April I would not want to repeat, although we did get some surprising good news during the month of March. But I shall save that for a future blog!

Jack's First Birthday - Party #1

This is called Party #1, because there were officially three days of celebration over the event of Jack's first birthday. The partying began on Thursday, February 25, a day before his actual birthday, and ended on Saturday when Aunt Sarah, Uncle Nathan, Cousin Lauren, and Cousin Benjamin could come to our house for a celebration.

Party #1 was in Jack's class at daycare. He was rather grumpy that day, unfortunately, and kept crawling away from me when I would approach him with a birthday hat. (Maybe he feels like with his helmet, that's the most hats he can wear at one time!)

We took pictures with his little classmates - Christina, Lauren, and Dane - then ate some lunch, but then the REAL partying began when we brought out the cupcakes. They were the tiny cupcakes that it takes an adult two bites to finish...or they can take Jack just one handful! He had the entire cupcake in his mouth before we'd even finished singing Happy Birthday!

The most memorable event was when the boy in the highchair next to him, Dane, was holding a cupcake in his hand, not quite sure what to do with it. Quick as a wink, Jack grabbed Dane's cupcake and put that one in his mouth, too! The moms all got a kick out of that one.

That's our Jack - the boy sure does like to eat.