Jake's Second Birthday

Here are some pictures from Jake's second birthday party, which was held a few days late (one day before my own birthday) because I was traveling on his actual birthday.

Jake really enjoyed opening his presents this year.

What do you get the third of 3 boys whose birthday is 2 weeks before Christmas?  Since we figured we had enough toys already, Mike and I decided to get Jake his own real putter.  He was definitely excited about it, and wanted to head downstairs to the putting green to practice right away.  In fact, it took A LOT of convincing to get Jake to come back upstairs for cake.  He must be his father's kid!

Jake decided he wanted an Elmo cake for his second birthday.  Amazingly, I have never done an Elmo cake before.  I didn't want to do the entire cake in red frosting, and I found this great YouTube video that showed an alternate way to do cakes that allowed me to just do Elmo's face on a regular 9x13 cake.  It worked very well and I was happy with how it turned out.  Jake was thrilled with it and still talks about it, so I'd consider it a success.

Really, though, can somebody please explain how we went so quickly from this

to this????

Is it possible that 2 years have already flown by??  My little guy is so big now.  I just can't believe it.

In fact, at his doctor's appointment (which was about a month after his birthday, due to a big winter storm and the holidays) we found out that Jake is 26 lbs 6 oz. (Drew was the same weight at 2 years; Zach was 4 oz. more), which is just the 27th percentile for weight.  That is the highest percentile he's been in since 4 months, though, so I guess that's good.  He also is 36 inches tall, which puts him in the 82nd percentile for height.  That is 2 whole inches taller than Zach was at 2 and one inch taller than Drew was, and it means that Jake grew 3 inches in 7 months!  Maybe we will have one tall kid afterall.

As far as what Jake is doing these days, hmmm, that's hard to say.  He talks all the time, knows some of his colors (green, blue, brown, sometimes red, though usually he calls it blue), a few numbers and letters (but can't actually count beyond 3 or clearly say the entire alphabet from start to finish), loves Mickey Mouse, the Avengers, sports, and whatever his brothers are playing with.  Usually when you ask Jake how old he is, he either happily replies with either "Three!" or "Nine!"  I'm not sure where he got those two ideas in his head, but it's especially funny when he tells random strangers that he's nine.

Jake is also still quite opinionated.  He gets mad at Drew most often, and probably me a close second (it's probably no coincidence that he spends most of his time with Drew and me), and can often be heard saying, "Bad Drew!" or "Bad Mommy!" although yesterday he did say, "Mommy, you awesome."  That makes up for him calling me bad, or, like he did today, telling me, "I not yike you, Mommy!" (Thank you, Drew, for teaching him that one.)

Jake has also gotten the hang of time-outs on the steps and no longer needs to sit on the barstool (where I used to put him because he couldn't get down).  He sits there for his 2 minutes and usually apologizes for his crimes upon my return.  He probably deserves more time-outs than his brothers ever got at this age, because it seems like he is often hitting, pushing, pinching, or doing something to Drew (seriously, I have only seen him go after Zach a couple of times, whereas Drew is a couple of times every hour, it seems), but Drew usually deserves it, so I admit that I sometimes admit I saw nothing and just let the two of them work it out.  Drew and Jake also play together really nicely a lot of the time, honestly.  Sometimes Drew is a great helper with Jake for things like washing hands before meals and entertaining him so I can prepare meals.

Speaking of meals, Jake is a pretty good eater, though sometimes he just doesn't feel like eating whatever I've given him, and for some reason, Zach and Drew encouraging him to take a bite before the monster comes seems to get him eating.  Am I the monster?  I'm not really sure.  His favorite foods are frozen blueberries and pomegranate seeds, and he loves toast with peanut butter.  For some reason at the table he likes to lounge back in his chair or push away from the table, and he often complains that his knees hurt, even though they don't even touch the underside of the table.  It's kind of his go-to complaint, just like Drew used to always complain (and still does sometimes) about his seatbelt being too tight.  It's gotten better, but it used to be pretty much every meal we'd hear, "Knees hurt, knees hurt."

Jake still is a great napper and often asks to take his nap right after lunch.  He never fights it, which is nice.  He still uses his binky and wants his blanket for sleeping, though he recently switched to wanting me to lay out his blanket on his sheet so he can put his head on it.  That is funny to me because I used to make my parents fold my blanket and put it on my pillow so the pillow wouldn't make my head itch. I figure we'll move him to a big boy bed this summer and get rid of the binky either then or by his third birthday.

We also aren't really tackling potty-training yet, though he does think wearing underwear (or underpants, as he calls them) is pretty neat.  He still poops on the potty 98% of the time rather than in his diaper, but he is much better about telling me that he needs to poop than he is about telling anyone else.  Which, works out pretty well for me, because it means I pretty much never have to change a poopy diaper.  I think I could work with him on potty training, but I think it might still be a lot of work at this point, and I just don't really feel like dealing with it.  I kinda figure in the next couple of months we'll tackle it, as my goal is to be diaper-free (except at night, I guess) by summertime.

I got totally sidetracked in a way that seems to happen a lot when I blog.  Mike is always griping at me about not writing down enough stuff about Jake (despite my arguments that at least Jake has something, anything, written about him at all, because as I've said before, my mom once told me that "third children don't usually get baby books, blog posts, or new clothes." Okay, maybe that's not an exact quote, but pretty close.), so I want to make sure I get some stuff written before we forget everything.

Back to the birthday party- Jake got to sit by Uncle Sam for cake.  We are pretty lucky to have all of Mike's family so close by and able to to celebrate the boys' birthdays with us.

And that was it.  A wonderful second birthday for my littlest boy.  And I got this post done just in time to prepare for Drew's birthday in a month.  I have a lot more to post before then!

Punta Cana

In December I got to do something I've never done before- go on a girls trip that was more than just a weekend and was not within driving distance.  This trip was planned way back in July by some girlfriends of mine, and there ended up being 17 of us.  We headed out early on a Thursday morning, Dec. 6, and returned on Monday, Dec. 10.  Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, was our destination.

Since the kids have been born, I've flown on a plane without them about twice, so I was looking forward to that as much as anything, honestly.  Being able to just sit and read or talk or sleep and not worry at all about whether or not somebody with me will have a meltdown was great.  Unfortunately, about 2 and a half hours into our second flight (which was 3 hours long, I think), the little girl sitting behind me started vomiting.  Thankfully she seemed to make it into a bag almost every time, and I couldn't smell anything.

Anyway, my girlfriends and I stayed at the Hard Rock Punta Cana.  It was a nice and very big resort.  I can't say that we did much while we were there.  We had heard that the Dominican Republic isn't very safe if you go off the resort, so we made no plans to do so.  So the vacation consisted of hanging out on the beach, hanging out at the pools, working out (for me, anyway), and not much else.  My friend and roommate (also my neighbor at home) Molly and I did do one little horseback riding excursion that was nice, but nothing too extravagant.

I hardly took any pictures at all, which is kinda a bummer.  In fact, the only pictures I took with any people in them were of Molly and me on our horseback riding excursion.  So some of these are from my phone, and some are pictures friends posted on Facebook.

Here's the view from our room.  This place was HUGE.  I'd say maybe half to two-thirds of it was being used while we were there.

The white sandy beach was awesome, and the water was beautiful.  Lots of decent waves.

This was the whole crew before our one night at the club that is on the property.  It was a fun night, but  dance clubs really aren't my thing.

These next few pictures are from when Molly and I went horseback riding.  Here is a guy getting a coconut down for us.  

Then the guy used his machete to cut off the top of the coconut and Molly and I got to drink the milk from inside and taste the flesh.  It was... interesting, I guess.  I like the dried stuff I buy in a bag at the grocery store better, though.

Here I am on my horse.  For this ride we went just off resort property, and it was amazing and sad to see the state of the beach off the resort.  Still the white sandy beach, except you could hardly see the sand for all the litter that had washed up on the shore.  I mean, I think I probably could have counted at least a hundred shoes (and that may be a very low estimate; I can't hardly remember anymore) and a thousand plastic bottles.  Maybe a lot of junk from cruise ships?

Though we didn't try often to have all 17 of us girls together, we did manage to eat dinner together most of the nights, or at least at the same restaurant if not at the same table.  On the last night we ate at the steak house on the resort.  Since our last dinner there was on the 9th, it was just 6 days before my birthday, and just 3 days before my friend Sarah's birthday on the 12th.  Our friends told the restaurant staff that it was our birthdays, so we got sung to.  All I can say is that I am so glad I wasn't the only birthday girl in the group, because I would have been that much more mortified by this whole singing deal.  At least this way it wasn't all eyes on me; it was all eyes on us.  In this picture you can sort of see how embarrassed I am.  I'm not sure what the guy behind me was doing.  The other birthday Sarah is to my right in green.  I never noticed before how this picture almost looks symmetrical because of the 2 ladies in green and their hands.

Here are the rest of the girls at dinner that night- this is (L-R) Kelly (a new friend who lives in TX that we all (except for her friend who invited her) met for the first time on this trip), Jenn (whose husband is my long-distance running partner), Molly (my good friend & neighbor), and Melissa (my friend Susan & Sarah's sister-in-law, and the wife of a guy Mike went to high school with).

Susan (one of my best friends) and her awesome sister Sarah.

Sarah, me, Anna, and my very good friend Kim.

My good friend Katie, Kim H., Kelly, and Jenn.

It was a great time and a great trip.  I would do a girls trip again, though I definitely would not do it just before Christmas, and Jake's birthday.  In fact, we returned on Jake's birthday, so I felt pretty bad about that.  But, I didn't pick the dates of the trip, and I wasn't going to fly home by myself.  And I don't think that Jake noticed.

I also don't think I need to go to the Dominican Republic again.  It was nice and beautiful and everything, but the food was just okay and I prefer to do more stuff on vacation than just lay around.  It was great to relax, read, and reconnect with girlfriends, but I would like to go see the place I'm visiting, and since the D.R. is apparently not that safe of a place, I'd rather go somewhere where I can go exploring.

I did miss the kids and Mike while I was gone.  I was able to do FaceTime with them every day, so that was helpful.  Both Mike's mom and dad helped out while I was gone by watching the boys one day each, and Mike took one day off of work as well.  I am incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to do something like this and to have had the help at home to make it possible.

While I was gone, Zach and Drew got to have a sleepover with Dad,

eat a bunch of crap and hardly any veggies, watch at least one Star Wars movie, eat donuts, and all 3 boys got to play in the first snow of the season.

I think they missed me, but not too much. :-)

Another catch-up

I said I'd be better about blogging, but I guess I lied. So here's another random photo update.

The boys testing out some sweet shades in Dillard's.

Thanksgiving at Grandma Linda and Grandpa Curt's house.  We always celebrate Christmas with them then, so the boys are always extra excited!

Drew asked me this past summer if he could play basketball this year, so we agreed and I signed him up.  About halfway through the season, he was ready to retire (those were his words).

It was pretty interesting watching all those 4 year-olds play basketball.  I swear Zach had more of a clue when he started playing basketball at age 4.  I just have a feeling that Drew's not going to be our sports fiend...

Avengers fever has taken over our household.  I'm honestly not sure at all how it got started, but Drew seems to have really caught it, and therefore Jake has it, too.  The Hulk and Captain America seem to be the favorites, although Thor is right up there, and Iron Man isn't far behind.  One day the Hulk even got to go for a walk with us.

Since we don't actually have any sort of a Thor costume, Jake and Drew just make do with the things we do have, like their superhero capes, the hats Mike and I got at the Warrior Dash this summer, and usually a pair of cowboy boots.  Here are my two mighty Thors (one is even pants-less).

Since I started working out at Crossfit, the boys have heard me talk about WODs, or Workouts Of the Day.  They are different every day, and when I get to the gym, the WOD is written on the whiteboard.  They are always timed.  The boys have gotten into doing their own WODs, so we will sometimes write a WOD on the easel down in the basement.  They love burpees, which surely means they are not doing them correctly.  Here are some action shots of one WOD.  Oh, and for some reason, they often think WODs need to be done in nothing but skivvies, but that is not the case at my gym.

Drew got to go to our friend Cooper's birthday party at Build-a-Bear.  Cooper is closest to the camera in the wheelchair, and Drew is right there in the striped shirt.

This was the best group shot we could get.  It was a fun time.

Zach and Jake snuggling while watching a show.

Some attempts to get a good Christmas card photo with the boys and the dogs.  Not an easy task.

The boys also made gingerbread houses.  I had to miss this event for a race I was running.  I was kinda bummed to miss it, but it seems like all the boys had a great time with Dad!

Also, Mike is bugging me to blog more often to have a record of cute things Jake is doing/saying.   A couple I can remember from this past week:

-I got 2 new pairs of snow boots, with the intention of sending the pair I like least back.  Jake saw me open the boxes and heard me say that one pair was cute.  He walked over, looked at the boots, and in his sweet little voice said, "Aww, coot boot, Mom!"
-Although we got rid of Zach and Drew's pacifiers at about 13 months, we haven't taken Jake's away yet.  So now at night, after I lay out his blanket so he can put his head on it (just like I used to like as a kid), he grabs the binky that is not in his mouth and says, "Case I need it, Mom."

That's all for now, folks!

Halloween 2012

About a week and a half before Halloween, Sandy and Anders came to visit and we took the boys to a pumpkin patch.  This was a new pumpkin patch for us this year, one that advertised themselves as being organic and less circus-y than others, both things that appealed to Sandy and me.  Plus, the place is owned and run by some patients of Mike's, so he also recommended it.  

We got lucky and had a beautiful day for it.  The only bummer was that Jake was kinda crabby, and Drew and Anders had their moments, too, because they went to bed very late and got up early.

Drew had been asking me since late September to get pumpkins, and I kept telling him we would do it in October.  Then since we waited until Oct. 20, I was a little worried we wouldn't have a whole lot of pumpkins to choose from, but again, we were lucky.  This pumpkin patch had lots of regular pumpkins and some really neat white ones and also some very cool princess pumpkins, which are a deeper reddish-orange and have a flatter, wider shape.

True to form, Drew picked his pumpkin in about 3 minutes, and Zach hemmed and hawed and debated about probably 5 of them before finally settling on one.  Of course he wanted the biggest one he could find, but I was trying to steer him a little more toward medium to medium-large pumpkins.

In addition to picking pumpkins, we got to go on a little nature walk, a hayride, and we got to check out some goats and chickens.  We also had some delicious hot (or warm, in the boys' case) apple cider and some incredibly good cider donuts.

The following weekend, we got to carve our pumpkins.  I really enjoy carving pumpkins, and so far the boys do, too.  In this picture you can see the pumpkins and a couple of the little ghosts the boys and I made out of cheesecloth and fabric stiffener.

One of the difficult things about carving pumpkins with the boys is that they grossly overestimate my carving abilities.  They often want really elaborate designs, and I have to talk them out of them because they just seem too hard and too involved.  So Zach decided he wanted a scary face, and Drew decided he wanted a spider to go with Webby, his black plastic spider ring he got at preschool.  I found a picture online for both and just looked at them as I carved.  I took advantage of Jake's ignorance about jack-o-lanterns and just went with something super easy.  It's probably the last year I could get away with that.

Zach's scary face jack-o-lantern.

Drew's spider actually turned out better than I expected, although those skinny legs didn't hold up very well.  At least one was broken by the next day, and by Halloween a couple of days later, I think 2 were broken and he was sagging a little.  Oh, well.  Drew didn't mind at all.

Jake's easy and simple jack-o-lantern.

You might be wondering what kind of weight-lifting regimen we've had Drew on, but don't worry- it's just a Hulk costume he likes to play in.

We had dinner at a friend's house and then went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood (the friend just lives down the street) with our friends Anna, Lucy, Eli, Charlie, and Will.  This picture shows Lucy, Anna, and Zach by the door, Drew as the ghost, and Charlie and Jake  to his left.  Charlie is two and a half and was not interested in putting on a costume.  Eli and Will are too little to really trick-or-treat, so they didn't make it in the picture, I guess.

Here are my three boys- the ghost (easiest costume ever, I think, though it did get a little heavy on Drew), the tiger, and the ninja.

I love this picture of Drew because he really looks like a ghost, although one with red hands.  The sheet was fuller and more flowy, but we discovered that while that looked good, it made the sheet way too heavy, and it hurt Drew's neck.  So we cut a bunch off, and this was the finished product.  And, same thing as with the pumpkins (and everything else in life)- Drew knew 6 weeks before Halloween that he was going to be a ghost, and Zach changed his mind every day and then spent 20 minutes in the aisle at Target trying to figure it out.  And every time (with the pumpkin, too), he leaves the store/pumpkin patch thinking maybe he should have gotten something else.  Poor kid is just like his mom that way.

We had a great night for trick-or-treating.  Good weather with only mid-weight jackets needed.  Jake LOVED it!  We started at our friend's neighbors' house, which is at the bottom of our block but across the street, and then we turned up our street.  Jake immediately said, "No home, Mom. No home."  He did want to eat the candy immediately at first, but after the second house, I let him have one small thing, and then he was content to not eat after each house.  Jake walked the entire time until the very last house we went to.  He had just fallen down and was surely tired, so he wanted me to carry him.  It was a really fun Halloween!

Dancing? You bet!

Here's a little (or long, actually) video montage mostly of Jake dancing.  These videos are all from the summer.  The first part, in the car, was taken at about hour 8.5 of our 9.5 hour drive back from Colorado.  We were desperate to get through the drive!  And I think all of it is set to Zach and Drew's latest Vacation Bible School music.  I do love Jake's dancing and hope he never quits doing it!  Oh, and you even get treated to a little bit of singing by both Jake, Mike, and me.  Jake's singing is only slightly cuter than mine and Mike's.

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And, please note, this is the 2nd blog post in one week!