No pizza for you!

Jack is serious bussiness when it comes to his pizza ...





Other foods Jack is into these days:
Chicken Nuggets
Graham Crackers
Goldfish
Toddler cookies
Ummmm .. did I mention Chicken Nuggets?

That is about it. He was a big fan of french fries until I tried to make him eat a green bean saying "Look! It's like a big green french fry!". After that he's not so much into french fries. Go figure.

Things Jack is doing these days:
**Counting to 10 in English(you know you want to watch the video again!)

**Counting to 6 in Spanish (Yes that is right IN SPANISH. I'll try to get it on video. He knows up to 10 in Spanish but will usually pause at 6, then jump to 8, then straight to 10.)

**Pronouncing all the letters in his ABC's much better

**Identifying most colors - but is most likely to do so correctly if you quiz him on something that is yellow. He's a huge fan of yellow. President and CEO of the "Yellow Fan Club".

**Identifying all of his basic shapes. (I mean, he doesn't know like "octagon" yet but I'm sure it's only a matter of days.)

**Saying "I missed you soooooooo much!" when he sees you. And not just after you've been gone a while - I'm talking even if you just went to the bathroom and came back. LOVE it.
He especially likes saying it to his Daddy. A few days ago we all rode home from work together. Mike pulled into the driveway and let Jack and I out of the car before pulling into the garage. Approximately .2 seconds later Mike got out of the car and gets "DADDDDDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! I miss you daddy I miss you soooooooooooo much I love you!". Swear.

**Saying about a million and one other words. We'll point to things in books thinking "no WAY he knows this one" and every.single.time he proves us wrong. The other day he correctly identified and came pretty close to correctly pronouncing .. are you ready for this ... an armadillo. Seriously I didn't even know what the heck it was.

**Using his manners! He says please and thank you all the time. Everytime I hand him something he says "thank you mama". Last night I was trying to get him to eat some turkey hot dog pieces for dinner. I put them on his tray and he immediately started going no no NOOOooo... then quickly stops. Looks at me and ever-so-clearly and slowly says: No thank you mama. Ahhhhh I about died it was so cute. Of course since he said it so nicely I took the hot dogs away and it was Ghraham crackers for dinner. Damn those manners.

**Manuplitaing the %&$# out of Mama.
When I want Jack to be patient (when I am putting on his clothes .. changing his diaper .. etc) I'll often say "Okay just one second! One second". So the other night I'm putting him to bed and as I'm walking out and saying goodnight and I hear:

Jack: "ONE second, okay? Okay! One second mama".

So of course I crack up and go back into his room. He throws his blanket over my head .. we play "where's mama?" .. I try to leave again and:

Jack: "ONE second, okay? Okay!!!"

Lordy! So back in I go. Give him a kiss. Play "where's mama". Cuddle. And once again I attempt to leave - and this time I am determined to stick to my guns.

Mama: Okay Jack I'm really going this time! No more one second, okay? You go to sleep now.
Jack: Okay!
Mama: (silently walking out)
Jack: Ummmmm Mama, big hug???

DAMN!

'Scuse me now. Must run out and buy an inkpad and a big 'ol "SUCKER" stamp for my forehead.

All together now ....

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!




There is NOTHING like some Gramps love to warm up a cold blustery day!!!

Snow!

So a week or two ago (yes I am slow to post. YES I know you're still waiting for Christmas pictures. Doesn't that make them all the more special tho when you finally see them. Doesn't it?) we got some snow/ice here in Northern VA. There was a brief period of time before the snow completly froze over that made for some good outside play time. It was Jack's first time playing in any kind of accumulation of the not-so-fluffy white stuff. Judging by Jack's reaction when I attempted to take him back inside ("NOOOOOOOOOOOOO inside. PEASE Mama. PEASE. Helllllllp. Hellllllllp. Outsiiiide OK? Hellllllllllp".)I'd say he very much enjoyed himself out there.


Slippery snow = Jack falling often. As you can see he did not seem to mind:



Doing his best "Supremes" impression



Stop! In the name of love ... before you break Jack's heart ...


Yes that is a rubber spatula he's playing with. Actually we call him (it?) Spatchy and Jack has become quite fond of him (it?). They met at Yaya's house and have been inseperable ever since.



Just to prove he doesn't have the pacifier in his mouth ALL the time



And one for the "my husband and child are both going to hate me for this one!" file:



That is Jack mid de-layering after coming inside. And I'll tell you what I told my protesting husband - those are NOT legwarmers. They are babylegs. Their pupopse it to keep drafts off their little legs when their pants hike up and/or cold air gets up their pant leg opening. They're functionable AND fashionable and have even been featured on Oprah. How could I NOT buy them?!

My little beast!

So we recently started the Winter session at "The Little Gym"

("Because they are only young once..." Call 800-992-1996 for a FREE trial classes at a Little Gym near you! I'm going to try to work this advertisement into a discount off my registration fee, because the actual classes are about as far away from free as you can get.)

Jack, being 21 months now, graduated from the Birds class and moved up to the Beasts! (Ahhh how they grow. It's just a small hop from Beasts to Harvard Law.) On the last day of his Birds class they had a "show day" and a little graduation ceremony where Jack received a first place ribbon! Okay technically every child received the same exact ribbon, and none of them said first place but we all *know* that they would have put "1st place" on Jack's if they didn't think all the other parents would get too upset.

Here is Jack on show day, showing off his fancy footwork (uhh, buttwork?) on the beam with daddy:


Is he good or what!? Incidentally when I first saw that pic I saw "myself" in the background and thought WHAT in the world am I doing with my face to give myself that big 'ol double chin! Then I realized that wasn't me. Then I felt pretty good for me but bad for the girl I thought that about! Click on the pic to make it expand to the full version - you'll see what I mean. Incidentally that girl is very pretty and not at all heavy so not sure what happened there!


A handstand on the beam with his teacher Miss Sarah Lynn:


What talent!


During class they have ball time which Jack LOVES. After about 10 minutes or so of ball play it's time to put the balls away ("It's time to put the balls away .. balls away .. balls away it's TIME to put the balls away. At the Little Gym" Yep - that is our balls away song. Sung to the tune of London Bridge. Go ahead - try to get it out of your head). All the kids are always disappointed when it's balls away time. Most of the kids forget all about the balls approximately .5 seconds after the teacher puts the big can of balls back in the closet. And by "most" I mean all of the kids except Jack. Here he is attempting to break into the ball closet. Notice how he is actually trying to turn the key. What's the word I'm looking for here? Ummmmm .. it's ... OH YES.
GENIUS.




Here he is accepting his ribbon. He was all "First and foremost I'd like to thank God .....".




And a class shot. No small feat when you're talking about a class this size of kids ranging in age from 10 to 20 months. Notice who the ONLY child paying attention to the camera as instructed? Shall I break out the "G word" again?



And one more with Jack hamming it up for the paparazzi.





Bye bye big birds! Bye bye big birds! Bye bye big birds, it's time to say goodbye. (sung to the tune of ... uh ... I don't know. Call me and I'll hum it.)



Up next - snow**!


**As in the fluffy white stuff. Not to be confused with "Snow" the best white rapper to ever come out of Canada who hit us with his chart topping hit "Informer" back in 1993!



Off to ITunes to download ...

The Count!

Who is a genius???



Jack is!

I mean really, all the way to 10!?!? Next he'll be quoting Socrates and completing algebraic equations blindfolded.

Jack's first trip to Philly

Boys II Men once said (well, sang) "it's long overdue and now Philly is slammin!". That pretty much sums up Jack's trip up to Philadelphia - birthplace of America's democracy, the world's best cheesesteak and Jack's cousin, Evan.

We FINALLY made it up to the city of brotherly love to meet the newest and cutest Cronin. Philly will never be the same, nor will our waistlines. IF I see ONE more cheesesteak or slice of pizza I am going to ... I am going to ... oh who are we kidding, I am going to eat it.

Here is double trouble in their very first picture together. Evan looks none too pleased that we let the paparazzi in during his nap!

This one gives you a better view of Jack's super cool new shirt. He bought Evan a matching onesie. Big spender!

Is it me, or does Evan look like he is about the size of Jack's head????

Here are the boys with Evan's dad and Jack's uncle, the newly christened "Mama Mike".**

The other, non-mama Mike joins in the fun. I call this one "Tickle Me Evan"

The "sleeping around" series:

Sleeping with Mama ...

and with Aunt Kelly ...

and a sleeping close-up in the pack and play ...

This kid has the life!

He's awake!!!!!

But not for long ...

Big cuz sharing his goldfish ...

See!?

My favorite "open eye" picture

My favorite sleeping picture:

My favorite daddy-n-me picture

I like to put pictures in black and white b/c it looks more "artsy" thereby making me look like I have some actual talent. Tricky, no?

And last but not least, our "little" fish out of water. Tall about regression!

** Mama Mike explanation:

Upon arriving at Uncle Mike and Aunt Steph's house on Saturday:

Me: Jack go say hello to your Uncle Mike!

Jack: Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii MAMA MIKE!!!!!

And so a new nickname was born. Jack continued to use the moniker to refer to his uncle for the remainder of the weekend. We shall continue to use the moniker to refer to his uncle for the rest of his life. LOVE it.