Conversations with Jack

Jack: Today at school we learned about wrinkled hearts.
Me: Oh yeah? What is a wrinkled heart?
Jack: When someone says something bad or mean it wrinkles our heart.
Me: Oh, I see. So what can we do to heal a wrinkled heart?
Jack: There is a button right on the heart and it says "Make wrinkled heart all better." You just push it!

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Jack: There is a giant in our house!! I have to go kill him with my shoe!
Me: Oh no! How did a giant get in here?
Jack: I don't know but he's from Dallas, Texas!

Graham- 19 Months

Another month has flown by in the life of Graham. Our little wild man is still keeping us on our toes. It seems he never stops moving except to grab a quick hug here and there. One of the biggest changes for Graham this month is that Randy and I have started more actively disciplining him. He is old enough to comprehend when we tell him that behaviors are not acceptable so when he chooses those behaviors anyway he now receives a one minute time out. His most common offences include hitting and throwing, but time out is torture for our active guy so he is learning quickly!

Other milestones:

- He continues to add new words to his vocabulary every day. Some recent additions include: sorry, Elmo, Bert, Ernie, Cookie, duck, Graham (GRMM), park, outside, and show. He loves TV so lately he will hand me the remote control and say, "SHOOOOW!!!)

- He is loving books more and more each day and now he likes to say the words along with me. A new favorite is called Bubbles, Bubble and it features the Sesame Street characters as babies taking a bubble bath. He loves to pretend to pop all the bubbles and to quack like Ernie's rubber duckie.

- He still loves singing and music so I try to incorporate music in our activities. Some new favorite songs include the Hokie Pokie, I'm a Little Teapot, and Skidamarink.

- Even when he's not saying actual words, Graham is ALWAYS talking. He jabbers on and on and on and I know he thinks he's really saying something. It is so fun to see him "tell us a story" and watch how animated he gets, sometimes serious, sometimes smiling. I wish I knew what he was saying!

- He's become kind of a guy's guy. Jack was always a mommy's boy at this age but Graham is definitely a daddy's boy. He also really loves his Grandad and really took to Uncle Daniel this weekend even though he hadn't seen him in months. I think it's sweet that he loves being with the boys, but I do kind of miss having a little baby who always wants his mommy! :(

Overall, G continues to be a strong, brave, active little guy. We've had a great summer and I'm looking forward to the fall because we have tons of activities and new experiences planned for our sweet guy!

First Day of Pre-K!

Jack started school today and I couldn't be more excited! Don't get me wrong. I love and cherish every minute of my time with sweet Jack at home. He is my first born, my buddy, my mommy's boy and I am going to miss him so much this year and am already a little freaked out about all day Kindergarten next year. BUT, I just know that he is going to learn so much, make so many new friends, and be loved on all year by his awesome teachers. It is a great feeling knowing that your child is in good hands and confidently trusting in the teaching and philosophy of the school. We are blessed by Crossings in so many ways and this is just another example.

Jack's teacher is Miss Jill. Thankfully, he already knows her because her class is next door to Miss Darcy's class, who taught Jack last year. Plus, we see her most Sundays as she ushers in the gym service. Still, Jack has been a little nervous about going back to school. I was surprised by this because he loved school so much last year. So, for the past week or so he has been saying repeatedly, "I am never going to Miss Jill's class..." This made me a little nervous too but I knew that once he got into that classroom he would remember how much he loves school. Thankfully, I was right! After orientation, Randy and I really talked up Miss Jill, the classroom, all the fun things he'll get to do, etc. He continued to say that he would "never go to Miss Jill's class" but we noticed that it was with less conviction. His eyes were lighting up as we described upcoming school events. Then today when he woke up he ran to get me (bright eyed and smiling I might add) and tell me it was the first day of school. He then said that he would never go. When we got to the church he put on his backpack and literally ran down the hall to the classroom. Actions speak louder than words, right? He was so excited but I think he didn't want to admit it because of that stubborn streak. He had to stick to his original story so as to not be wrong. Wonder where he gets that?! :)

When I picked him up at carpool, he was so giddy and excited to tell me everything that they did today. He loves Miss Jill and cannot wait for Tuesday and for all the upcoming activities this year. It fills me with so much joy to see how much he loves school! I pray that he will continue to love school and learning as he gets older.

Now what are Graham and I going to do with all our time? We'll miss Jack for sure, but I am looking forward to bonding with Graham one on one like I was able to with Jack. He's my sweet little wild man so I'm sure we'll have lots of adventures!

Jack the Swimmer

I am so impressed with Jack's swimming this year that I am dedicating an entire blog post to it! At the beginning of the summer, Jack was very timid in the water. Even though he swam often last year, it had just been awhile and he was cautious. He did not want to put his face in the water and wasn't interested in jumping of the diving board (or off of anything for that matter!). But throughout the summer he has just amazed me. We signed up for one on one swimming lessons with a really great teacher. After just one session, he was already putting his face in the water, swimming without floaties, and jumping off the board. After two sessions he was starting to get braver even without Ms. Denise present. He was showing off his tricks to us and by now he was doing cannonballs and even trying to dive off the board. After four lessons, it was like he'd been swimming his whole life. He now jumps into the deep end without floaties and swims to the side all by himself. He likes to go to the bottom of the pool and touch the drain. He also loves trying new tricks like jumping backward off the board. Even his technique is improving, as he sees the benefits of using big arms and keeping his body up on the surface of the water to kick more effectively. He is our little fish and I'm so proud of him!!

Fun with Sidewalk Chalk

Graham's New Lovey

Graham has never been much of a cuddler. He is very sweet but very active so his hugs come and go quickly! When he does snuggle though, he usually snuggles up with Mommy or Daddy along with blankie. I've tried to put a couple other things in his bed thinking he might get attached to something that might be good for him when he needs comfort but he hadn't taken to anything. Until about a week ago. All of the sudden he decided he was in love with Elmo! This is surprising to me seeing as Graham hardly ever gets to watch Elmo's World. Jack watched it all the time when he was younger but Graham usually gets stuck watching what Jack chooses, so he hasn't had much exposure. Anyway, the heart wants what the heart wants, I guess! It's very cute to see him love on his sweet Elmo doll.





And here he is playing with the other Elmo doll:

Jack's Half Birthday

In case you weren't aware, last Tuesday, August 9th, was a big day. A day we had been counting down to for a month or so. Jack's HALF BIRTHDAY!!! I think I am responsible for the fact that we made such a big deal out of this day. A month or two ago, I made an offhand remark to Jack about the fact that he was almost 4 1/2. He didn't understand what that even meant so I explained that in August, he will be halfway between four and five years old and so that will be his half birthday. He got very excited about this and asked me if there would be a party, cake, balloons, etc. Of course I said no, but I did say that we would celebrate somehow. It turned out that Randy needed to use some vacation days that week anyway, so he stayed home and we took the kids to Bouncin' Craze and then to Chick-fil-a for lunch. And at dinner Jack got a brownie complete with four and a half candles. What a day it was! Somehow over the course of the next year I'll have to make sure Jack knows that Daddy doesn't take off work every year for half birthdays... and there is no way I'm taking the boys to Bouncin' Craze by myself!!

Graham Growing!

We took Graham in to see Dr. Garrison today for his 18 month checkup. I had been putting it off because I knew he had to get one shot, but now that he's almost 19 months, I figured we better just get it over with. His visit went well! He was very brave and was easily comforted after the shot by Elmo, blankie, Mommy, and big brother. Graham is ahead of schedule in the verbal department and is advanced in his motor skills (that wasn't news to us!). He looks perfectly healthy and is growing well. He weighs 29 pounds 4 ounces, which is in the 80th percentile. He's 75% for height, measuring 33 1/2 inches. What a big boy!!

Playdate!

Last weekend, we had our monthly playdate with the Barkers and the Spurgeons at my mom and dad's pool. The boys had such a great time together as always. I'm so glad the boys have such good friends to spend time with. Next month... Thomas the Tank Engine!!

Graham Singing

Graham just loves to sing. One of the sweetest moments of my day is when I put Graham to bed at night. He drinks his milk while I read Goodnight Moon. Then I sing to him and cuddle before putting him in bed. In the past few weeks, he's started singing along with me and it is just so precious. I don't have a video of that, but we did get him to help Randy sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star the other night: