Kissing Cousins

Jack, Sam & Lily loving the beach

Very often, I tell myself how lucky I am to have married into such a wonderful family. We all have such a great time together and it is so fun to have tons of little kids underfoot!

In our family, we have 3 rowdy nephews and 1 very precocious niece. Part of this weekend and the last couple of days have been spent up in the Chicago suburbs with at Scott's parents house where his older sister Heather and her two kids, Lily and Sam are staying for the week. There were 3 boys born within 5 months of each other in '07/08, Drew, Jack and Sam...so we are in for some very fun and ornery times ahead!

It was a fun weekend and the kids got along great. A trip to the ice cream store, swinging outside, rides on the mower, time at the beach - the start to a great summer!

The boys POST their treat of chocolate pudding. As you can see, Sam has good table manners and my rascal does not...yes, he usually eats shirtless for obvious reasons!

Facts About My Jack

I was thinking this week about all the fun things that Jack is up to and I wanted to compile a list of the funny things that he is into:

**His new OBSESSION with transportation/automobiles of any sort. He WIGS OUT when he sees one, points and jabbers. His new favorites are cement mixers, mowers, and buses. We pass 6 el tracks on the way to school and he signs "help" and "more" everytime we pass one to try to make them come back. His favorite book is his "Big Truck Book." All Boy.
**The way that he pummels food into his mouth with two full hands. I hope that he is a foodie like his Momma.
**How he leans his head back every day when we are going up the stairs for me to kiss his under his neck.
**He loves to look through his family book and name all of the people inside - Heather "Deader", "Pappaw", "Gammy", Drew "Dew"...
**His new "cheese" smile that he does on command with eyes closed.
**He loves to sit on my lap on the floor and eat snack...my favorite.
**How he loves to put belts on Scott in the morning.
**His love of the water- bathtime is so much fun and he is now enjoying putting his mouth under the running water and blowing bubbles. He also really loves the treat of taking a shower with Daddy.
**How he loves his new running shoes - he got this from his Dad - he just started wearing them the other day and he keeps wanting to put them on and keeps looking at his feet. So cute.
**How he now randomly comes up to us to give us a kiss without being asked.
**That he is signing "thank you" without being asked - adorable. Also signing "please" which breaks my heart!
**His funny little flipover that he does in his crib every morning when he wakes up to greet us.
**How when he sees his BFF Sebastian at school, they run to each other and give high fives and laugh.
**He is learning to jump and it is the cutest thing ever - I am trying to video it.
**When Scott grabs his computer and keys in the morning he says "Bye, Bye" like a southern gentleman with a slow drawal.
**He calls his milk "Momma" and asks for it in the morning along with "Nana" (banana) - I love that he calls it Momma because he NEEDS it.

I just love this little guy so much - I find myself kissing him probably way too much and being too easy on him. But, it is so hard when he does something that he knows he isn't supposed to (and now says "No, No, No" and shakes his finger), he is just so darn cute that it is hard to discipline. I'm sure that will change...

So, we have been enjoying these fun months of expoloration and devleopment with our little man and are looking forward to more fun times ahead!!!

Ommm...

Yoga Baby!

Jack's teacher Miss Danielle snapped this photo yesterday at school - she said that he was doing this with her for 5 minutes!

The Incredible Edible Egg

Jack is now in full-fledged training to become the next Dallas Clark and he is starting by eating 2 scrambled eggs every morning.

He doesn't seem to mind the strict regimen.

Travelin' Man

Jack is getting very used to be in the car and I think that Scott & I have pretty much figured out how to deal with little upsets...SNACKS! I have his travel-bag down pat and it includes: Snacks (pretzel rods take a long time to eat), no-spill bubbles (he just likes to pull the wand in and out), books that make music, Ipod (loves the lights), my cell phone, flashcards, and of course, his paci & blankie. Overall, I have to say that he is a fun little traveler and does a great job! My left arm is pretty sore, however, from passing things back every 3 minutes...

We were off to the Cleveland area this past weekend to visit with Scott's Aunt Jan and his four wonderful cousins, Meredith, Emily, Robert and Ben. It was SO MUCH FUN! The kids are 16 year old triplets and a 13 year old and we had a great time - we played with their dog, watched a movie, took a 10pm trip to their local "teenage hang-out" - Handel's Ice Cream, went for walks, and took a trip to their swim club. We just keep telling each other that we need to sit down with his Aunt to see what her philosophy is on raising children, because they are all just so AWESOME, caring people - We hope that Jack turns out that well! We also went to visit with Scott's cousin Bobby, his wife Melissa and their cutie 9 month old daughter Carrie Belle. Great to catch up and enjoy the nice weather.

this was AFTER dinner - he was eating out of my take-out container; Jack was a maniac!

Jack enjoyed all of the extra attention and especially the trip to swim - his first time in the kiddie pool and he went CRAZY. View the video below and you will soon see what I mean...

Aunt Jan finally got him to sleep after the pool...she was very determined!

Thanks so much for the fun weekend, Gleichert and Candage family!!!

**BTW: I swear that swim-shirt is 18 months - obviously he needs an upgrade. I will get right on that...