Oh Jack, how we love you!!!

Let us list all the reasons why!

Jack loves to "Shoot the hoops." He's obsessed with playing basketball on either one of his two mini-hoops. He can do "Clyde the Glide", says "swish" after he makes a shot, and loves to pass out the assists, Stockton style, while he says "Daddy shoot". He also loves the basketball hoop at the pool in Circle C. He stands on the side and watches everyone shoot, while he waits until he has a chance to shoot his mini-ball. He thinks it's hilarious when others make it in the hoop. It's become quite difficult to get him to go to bed as he runs around his room throwing balls all over the place. He breathes heavily as he starts to wear himself out. It's entertaining enough that he usually gets us all involved and bedtime waits another half hour.


He absolutely loves swimming, and will put his arms in the air and basically do a belly-flop off the side of the pool into my arms. He even jumped off the swim team blocks at the Twin Creeks pool. He is basically fearless, which can be bad. But putting his head in the water doesn't bother him, and he enjoys blowing bubbles and trying to emulate Sadie's swimming motions.

His "no fear" attitude got him into trouble the other day. We were at a birthday party at the Knepp's pool and after seeing Jack was safe in the shallow end of the pool throwing rocks and dumping water in his buckets, I turned my head to watch Sadie go down the slide on the opposite side of the pool. Three seconds later I heard Jessica Knepp scream "baby in the pool" as she jumped in fully clothed to save our little Jack as he had made his way past the boulders dividing the shallow and deep end. It really shook me up. I was composed at the party but TOTALLY lost it when we got home and cried almost the rest of the afternoon. The thought of my precious Jack ever being harmed or hurt in any way was just too overwhelming for me and it KILLED me that he fell in under my watch. Made me feel pretty lousy, guilty and eternally grateful all at the same time that he was still alive and in our lives. We love him too much to let him go!!


Jack is the ultimate warrior wrestler. He loves to rough house with his Dad. He puts his arms in the air, and does a body slam right on top of Chase's chest. He usually laughs as he does it. And laughs even harder when Chase reacts with an "Owwwwwwww!".

Fumble!! Jack loves running around with the football, getting tackled, and then having Daddy knock the ball loose and yelling "Fumble!!" He then gets up and chases the ball down.

Loves to run into the kitchen and say: "Uh, snah. Snah." (Snacks.) He also loves to ask for "snahs" when we get in the car. Dinner happens to be his worst meal and we rarely get him to eat anything at the dinner table. He loves playing with the water at the sink and after telling us he's "hungee" and "play in da wa wa" we set him up with a stool and spoon feed him baby food. I can't believe he will still eat the stuff. He still asks for his "utmeal" every morning and has now requested that he sit on the counter while I mix ingredients so he can "I do it" himself. He'll pour the oatmeal, scoop in the formula, and flax seed mill. He's all about being involved these days.


Loves having Sadie chase him around the house or wherever. Hilarious to hear both of them running after each other and giggling uncontrollably. He likes to be chased but not caught by Sadie because it usually entails a longer hug than he prefers. They are both so cute as they run around the room chasing each other.

Another funny thing these two like to do is pretend to cough and ask one another if they are "ok." Jack has gotten to the point where he will cough and ask himself if he's ok. "jack ok?" It's adorable!! He's totally into looking at himself in the mirror as well and pointing as he exclaims "JACK!!"

He's always quite interested in where people have gone when they leave the room. Sadie's name sounds like "Sidi" and we love it when he asks.."wheh Sidi go?" Or if I'm calling for Sadie to come into the room Jack will do the same and yell "Sidi...Sidi!!" LOVE IT!! These two have really become the best and worst of friends. They love each other and drive each other nuts too. One of his favorite games is blowing small raspberries and having Sadie pretend to be startled by saying "ope!" Jack then follows with a chuckle so fantastic his shoulders move up and down with a big grin on his face.

Jack still takes a long two to three hour nap everyday and is usually so worn out he falls asleep in my arms when I sing him songs in the rocking chair. I love it when he falls asleep so I can just rock and stare at him and his long eyelashes. It's so rare to have him so still in my arms as he's such a wiggly little guy. He's very funny with his songs. I can only sing a select few. If I try to branch out and sing something different he raises his arm, turns his head at me and says "no! A-na-na song." His songs are "Jesus song" (Child of God), I love you, Baby Mine, A Dream, So this is Love, Stay Awake and anything else is forbidden! When I finish with a song he says "A-na-na song behind his blue binky." We sing songs at night as well and ONLY Mom can put him to bed. Chase tried one night and he kept screaming "ma ma song!!" with tears rolling down his face that I had no choice but to oblige. He's become very particular in his two years of life.

If he's still awake when I put him down at night it's very hard to leave him in his darkened room as he calls "ma ma" in the most desperate tone possible. I am such a softy with this kid! I go back in and we play "monkey" as he wraps his legs around my arm and traps it as he gets tickled. My arm goes from a fist to crazy monkey fingers and he laughs like a lunatic. It's hilarious and gets him all riled up before bed. Very bad habits we are forming around here.

He also does NOT like to be in time-out. He's usually pretty good but will sometimes just walk by Sadie and smack her on the head. When this happens we sit him down and he looks down with his lower lip sticking out and moves his eyes to the side as he knows he's in trouble. He never looks me in the eyes when he's being talked to in time-out. I hate putting him in there but it's pretty cute watching him look so remorseful.

He also DOES NOT like smoke alarms. They terrify him and sometimes when they "tweet", he'll run to me in fear of the world ending and screaming "loud beep!!" Sometimes parking garages have "beeps" that go off and it's just too much for him to handle as he buries his head in my shoulder.


He likes to do whatever Sadie does and one day as she was pretending to die from eating a "poisoned apple" he followed right along. He loves his big sis and is always interested in what she's up to.

His cheeks are still super round and chubby and they shake when he walks around.

He's started singing a little bit and when we clean up the play room he'll sing "kee up, kee up" while picking up his toys. He also has learned to sing a few lines of "happy birthday" too but I think only Mom knows what he's really singing. When I count next to him he'll fill in the numbers when I pause. I think he can count to ten but I can't get him to do it on his own yet but he certainly recognizes the numbers and their order. He's also finally into reading books. They have to be short board books or he gets bored (no pun intended).

I was a little worried that Jack was behind in the "talking" category but a few months ago he went from knowing just a few hand fulls of words to speaking in sentences. I've heard of this happening and it was amazing to see him all of a sudden talking!! His favorite phrases are "I hold it" when he wants something, "I dun wit dis" when he's all done with something, "Go to the wa wa or "play wit the wa wa" when he wants to go to the pool, "cola wit dis" when he sees Sadie coloring at her table and wants to join her, and "shoot hoops" when he doesn't want to go to bed, and others that I am already forgetting.

I guess I'm just one of those people who doesn't want to forget ANYTHING so I write all these little details down about these little people in my life because they make me happy and I figure one day when it will make them happy too when they are older and can read about how fantastic and entertaining they were.

We love you little Jack. Thanks for these incredible two years!!