Tuesdays with Jack

Today marks only one month until Little Man turns three. It’s amazing how quickly time flies by. It’s amazing how much can happen in what feels like such a short burst of time. Mommy has been updating this blog every week, albeit late as of lately, but in the recounting of life in a week by week format, life doesn’t always seem to sail by. However, when you take into account how quickly all of those days, weeks, months, and years add together, the passage of time seems completely surreal.

This week, Mommy and Daddy celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. Just like it’s hard to believe that our little baby Jack-man will be turning three in just a month, it’s hard to believe that Mommy and Daddy founded this family five years ago. It doesn’t seem nearly that long ago. That’s even taking into account that we’ve been together for over seven years. They say that time flies when you’re having fun and that must be true because the last five years have been the best, most amazing years of Mommy’s life and it all kicked off with a beautiful White Christmas themed wedding five years ago on December 9^th.

At that point in time, Mommy and Daddy hadn’t decided on if being a Mommy and a Daddy were in the cards for us. We were having so much fun as a couple that we couldn’t imagine sharing one another with another little being, let alone with another little being that would be as demanding as a child. What we did know was that we had found our best friend, our true love, and the one person we couldn’t live without. Of course, looking back on all of this now, with five years of perspective, it seemed inevitable that out of all that love the decision to have a child would be an obvious one. What can Mommy say, we were a little slow on the uptake, but once the decision was made, we had no doubts it was the right one.

The building of our family, the love we share, the fun we have, the memories we make, they are all experiences that, while shared by so many other families, are uniquely ours. Everything we do has a special spin that we put on it. Mommy and Daddy are not ashamed to say that we’re weird, dorky, and more than a little goofy, but that is who we are and that is the brand of family we’re building. Anything short of that would be disingenuous and just not us. Needless to say, our little Jackson Cooper fits in perfectly and we’re sure our Lil Miss will as well.

Our life is a never ending adventure that may not seem exciting or “normal”, but that’s us and we’re happy. Perhaps the only thing that would make Mommy and Daddy happier is if time would slow down a little bit, but that’s why we do our best to not rush from one thing to another, but to savor each moment as much as possible. So, with five years of marriage and nearly three years of Little Man, here’s to the goofy smiles, the dorky fun, but most importantly, the awesome love that fill our days and make them worth counting.

Jack is finally at an age where he is actively creating memories. He’s also at an age where he can grasp the concept of what holidays are or at least begin anticipating them as they’re explained. This is one of the reasons Mommy and Daddy have been doing our best to make sure this is an amazing holiday season for Little Man. Not only is the first Christmas that he might be able to remember when he’s older, thus potentially setting the stage for his warm fuzzy feelings about Christmas, but this is also the last holiday season that our little family will consist of just Mommy, Daddy, and Jack. If all goes according to plan, Jack will be greeting his new baby sister on December 29^th, a day in which our family dynamic will change forever.

So, not only are Mommy and Daddy doing everything in our power to make this a memorable and awesome holiday because we just love Christmas, but also because we want to make sure Jack has an amazing Christmas as well. One of the ways we’ve been doing this is thinking about the great parts of our own childhood holidays and seeing what we can do to incorporate those events into Jack’s Christmas experience. For Daddy, one of the best Christmas memories he has includes the picking out of a real Christmas tree. Unfortunately, Mommy and Daddy haven’t had a real Christmas trees together and it’s been since we were kids that we’ve participated in a Christmas in which a live Christmas tree was even present. So, Daddy had the great idea that we would take Jack to pick out and buy a Christmas tree.

This week, picking out a Christmas tree was our big holiday event for the week. Rather than going to a tree farm, which we thought Jack might be a little to young for yet, we opted for our neighborhood Home Depot. This worked on several levels. First, it’s just aroundt he corner from our house. This is great because if Jack’s mood started to take a turn for the worse, we were only a few minutes from his comfort zone, second, if the tree happened to fall off of the top of the car, Daddy wouldn’t have far to walk it. (Daddy likes to be prepared for such events). Also, Home Depot carries not only trees, but a few other items we needed to pick up. It seemed like the perfect location for our tree purchase.

When we arrived, Little Man was ecstatic! Since his signing vocabulary has been growing leaps and bounds, he was thrilled to be in a store with so many things that he recognized and could comment on. He was also pretty stoked about there being dogs in the store. For some odd reason there were quite a few people visiting Home Depot with their pets, which Jack was more than happy to comment on. As we passed a dog, a door, a toilet, a faucet, anything that he knew the sign for, Jack would squeal with delight and begin to sign what the object was. It was so thrilling for Mommy and Daddy to see.

By the time we reached the trees, Jack was practically in a signing frenzy. Then, he saw the trees, which, because they weren’t in the ground, growing straight and tall, he though they all had “owies” and were “broken”. So, he began to convey these thoughts with his signs. . .

After smelling and touching the various trees, eventually Jack picked out a tree that he liked. He pointed, Daddy inspected, and so went the picking of our first, live, family Christmas tree.

Soon, it was time for Daddy to strap the selected, Jack approved tree, to the top of the car. Jack thought the entire event was thrilling. Mommy and Daddy had a great time because any time Little Man is happy, we’re happy. . . On a side note, it was Mommy’s job on the way home to watch the shadow of the tree while we drove to make sure it wasn’t falling off the car. Fortunately, despite a little shifting, Daddy didn’t have to walk the tree home.

Once we arrived home, Mommy turned on the Christmas music while Daddy hauled in the tree and ornaments. With help from Little Man, soon we had a completely decorated tree in time for us to head out to look at Christmas lights as a family.

Driving around while looking at Christmas lights has always been one of our favorite activities. In fact, it’s one of those things that Mommy and Daddy looked forward to doing with Jack for as long as there has been even the idea of Jack. However, this was the first year that Jack actually seemed to see and register the lights. In years past Mommy and Daddy have often wondered if he understood what we were doing or if he found the activity enjoyable. This year, there’s no question, Jack loves looking at Christmas lights.

As we drove around, listening to Christmas favorites, many of which played and Mommy and Daddy’s wedding and wedding reception, Jack could hardly contain himself. Every time he saw a light display, whether it be elaborate or few strands strung atop a commercial building, he would yell with excitement and point until Mommy or Daddy commented on the lights and acknowledged that, yes, we too, saw these fun lights. This made for a fun, albeit very loud Christmas adventure. To top off the amazing evening, we stopped off at Dairy Queen for some dessert. Jack had his very first, very own soft serve ice cream and Mommy and Daddy had their favorite Blizzards, Oreo for Daddy, and Snickers for Mommy. It probably goes without saying that Jack ate his with great zest and zeal, but then again, a picture is worth a thousand words. . .

By the time Little Man was finished with his ice cream, the treat was all over his face, hands, and shirt. Most of that was a result of him planting himself face first into his cup in an attempt to get as much ice cream as possible as quickly as possible. Thankfully we were headed home to deposit Jack into a nice, warm, and cleansing bath.

It’s moments like these that give Mommy and Daddy new reasons for loving the holidays and being a Mommy and Daddy.

Quick Jack Facts

• Ask anyone, especially Daddy, and you’ll hear that Mommy loves chocolate and I love cookies, although, with the exception of when I’m pregnant, this love comes in moderation. However, other than snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorite cookies. So, it’s no surprise that one of my favorite activities is baking cookies with Jack. He has also inherited my love of chocolate and he certainly loves baking/cooking, and just helping Mommy in general in the kitchen. So, when Mommy has a craving, Jack needs a distraction, or it just sounds like a good idea, Mommy will bust out a quick muffin or cookie mix for us to make together. This week, we made some chocolate chip cookies. The funny thing was that despite Jack’s enthusiasm for the task and obvious anticipation he showed as he waited for the cookies to emerge from the oven, he didn’t care to eat any of the cookies. Granted, he gave it the old college try, but apparently chocolate chip cookies are just not for him. If I weren’t there for his birth, I might have to actually question if he were mine. . .

Holidays in our home are always on the verge of controlled chaos. Between cooking, cleaning, shopping, and wrangling Little Man, it’s a wonder there aren’t more injuries, but this Thanksgiving was amazing, albeit one of us lost a piece of his pinkie in the process (Daddy).

This year Mommy and Daddy opted to host Thanksgiving at our house. With Lil Miss on the way, we’ve really been working on making sure this holiday season is super special for Jack and considering we’re such uber control freaks, Mommy and Daddy thought our place would be best. This of course meant that Daddy had a ton of grocery shopping to do and the house needed to be decorated for Christmas. Yes, yes, Thanksgiving is its very own holiday, but we’re such fans of Christmas around here, we like to have our decorations up for Thanksgiving. Plus, Mommy isn’t a fan of traditional birthday decorations, so, with my birthday falling on or around Thanksgiving every year, it works out nicely.

Over the course of a couple of days, we took our time decking the halls. Jack’s attention span and patience for the activity was fairly limited, he primarily enjoyed emptying the boxes of their contents and refilling them, so it took a lot longer than usual. Plus, we wanted to make sure it was fun. So, with holiday music playing, we began to craft our holiday season. Needless to say, Jack put his own spin on things. A personal favorite of mine was his interpretation of what one does with a cornucopia. . .

Given how incredibly cute he is, Mommy totally prefers this particular interpretation. I think that was his intention the entire time – to get me to give up the idea of a traditional cornucopia display. I’m almost certain he had designs on the plastic fruit and veggies that had resided his hat choice. How can Mommy resist those blue eyes? Jack now has his fake fruit. . .

Thanksgiving was a blast. Since Daddy is the culinary guru who masterfully plans and executes the feast, Little Man and Mommy just spent the day cleaning and spending time together. Occasionally Jack would saunter into the kitchen to catch a glimpse of what Daddy was chopping up or the mad whirlwind of food he was preparing.

The real excitement, however, occurred early on when Daddy was peeling potatoes. Apparently his pinky finger was feeling rather bad about participating in the activity and bravely sought to protect the skin of the Yukon Gold potato in his hand by sacrificing its own tip. Now, doesn’t that sound better than, Daddy is a klutz? I think so, but I digress. . .What resulted following this sacrifice was a lot of blood and band-aid searching, followed by the great antibacterial cream search with the entire event culminating in Jack doing his best to kiss the boo-boo better. In the past, Daddy’s boo-boos have been a point of great interest to Jack. Mommy thinks that is has a lot to do with the fact that Daddy tends to get more boo-boos than Mommy, despite popular family lore claiming Mommy is clumsy, but again, I digress. Whenever Jack sees that Daddy has a boo-boo, his first priority becomes kissing it all better, then “commenting” on the boo-boo for a few minutes. It’s incredibly sweet and cute. In fact, Jack will continue to comment on the boo-boo and look for it days after it has healed and disappeared. This time around, since Daddy has two pinkies, he would occasionally think Daddy was magic and had healed himself when he would mistake the healthy pinkie for the honorable, injured one.

Following the great potato debacle, the rest of dinner went off without a hitch. Daddy, per usual prepared a wonderful feast of a fabulous turkey, green bean casserole, butternut squash, cranberry compote, cream corn, and garlic mashed potatoes. To top off the whole meal were delicious rolls and pumpkin pie. Of course, Little Man’s favorite was the Cool Whip on the pie and the corn and mashed potatoes. Fortunately, the rest of the bunch, Oma, Papa, Aunt Ali, and Carson were more than happy to indulge in the rest. There was still plenty to go around so Daddy, being the thoughtful grandson, took a few plates of food over to his grandpa’s house. All was enjoyed. However, despite the yumminess of everything, Jack stuck with what he liked. . .

The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with family. Mommy had put on Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on in the playroom for the kids, but they seemed more happy to play Scene It with the adults. Cousin Carson was quite proud when he “won” the game. Yes, it wouldn’t be one of our holidays if we didn’t have the combination of great food and family fun. Of course, an added bonus was the laughter that took place following the realization that Aunt Ali has used a dark eye-liner as an eyebrow pencil resulting in a Groucho Marx makeover. . .

The holiday concluded with a visit from Aunt Shayla who was happy to see her little nephew. Jack, who was still riding high from his Cool Whip Thanksgiving, but was not about to turn down Aunt Shayla’s offer to share her slice of cheesecake. She was taking some yummy dessert over to her grandpa’s also. It was certainly a nice way to top off another Thanksgiving, even if Daddy was still missing part of his pinkie. By the time all was said done, Jack was a tuckered out Little Man.

The day following Thanksgiving, often called Black Friday, wasn’t a huge shopping day for us, but it was Mommy’s 29^th birthday. I probably would have made more sense for me to turn the big 3-0 on Black Friday, but such is life. The morning started out great with Mommy being allowed to sleep in. After all of the turkey consumed the previous day, Mommy certainly appreciated the snooze session. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the best birthday gift ever, a Kindle Fire. Mommy loves getting neat gadgets, but this particular gadget is by far, my favorite because it does almost everything. Daddy and Jack are so great at picking birthday gifts for Mommy.

While hanging out at home was super awesome, especially when you have a fantastic gift to play with (Jack can certainly attest to this), we decided to head out to Babies R Us to take advantage of the day of deals in order to snag a few items we needed for Lil Miss, i.e. a frog shaped humidifier, bottles, and a baby sling. Jack, of course, enjoyed our trip. He’s always a huge fan of checking out baby items and Babies R Us in general. What made the trip even more special is that Jack has been making the connection between the sign for “baby” and what a baby is, so whenever we passed someone who had a baby or a picture of a baby, he was more than happy to point out and sign that he saw a baby. It was super cute. We finished up our shopping trip, headed out to pick up some sushi for Mommy’s birthday dinner, and headed home. It was a great day spent with my favorite people.

Speech in Progress

One of the fantastic developments in Jack’s speech this week has been his use of the word “no”. Up until now, Jack has pretty much be relegated to saying “ma”, “yeah”, or “yuck” and signing with outbursts of indistinguishable yells or various unique animal/machine noises. However, as if a connection was suddenly made, over the course of a few days, Jack went from saying “Oooh” and shaking his head to saying “no”. The word has now become a mainstay in his vocabulary. While most parents get annoyed with the arrival of this word and its constant use, Mommy and Daddy have been more than excited. Any expansion in Jack’s vocabulary is something to celebrated and thankful for, so its arrival was aptly timed.

Quick Jack Facts

• One of Daddy’s favorite toys as a little boy were stuffed dogs. He didn’t have pets growing up, but Daddy has always been an animal person, so he was always happy to have one of his fluffy puppy companions in tow. He loved two in particular so much that he took exceptional care of them so he could give them to his own little boy. However, despite having quite the collection of stuffed animals from both Mommy and Daddy, Jack hasn’t been all too interested in playing with any of them. At least, not until this week.

  As is often the case, I was rounding the corner from the kitchen into the living room when I found Little Man doing something new: playing with some of his stuffed animal puppies. He was having them cuddle with each other and even treating them like real puppies, but ones who don’t run off in fear when confronted with extensive fascination and affection. The sight warmed Mommy’s heart and reminded me how much a little Jared our Jack can be. He is so much like his Daddy at times that it fills me with joy and awe because Mommy can’t think of a better man for Jack to be like than his own Daddy.

One of the most challenging aspects of Jack not speaking at the level that his peer group communicates at is that Mommy and Daddy have been in a state of constant confusion as to what goes on in his little mind. From the moments when he completely melts down for unknown reasons to the moments that he exclaims with glee over something that is unseen to us, we are always wanting to know what’s going on in his head. Over the past few weeks we have been granted ever growing access to that which we have longed for. Jack has begun communicating with us beyond just his wants and needs, but he’s been using his signs in full sentences to tell us stories or to draw our attention to things that captivate his interest and imagination. Mommy and Daddy are ecstatic.

For the longest time Jack has been using simple sentences like “Mommy up” or “More milk”, but that was the extent at which he wished to communicate. He didn’t seems very interested in learning signs about people or animals, but mainly about food he wanted to eat or forms of flying technology. Based solely on the signs he was interested in learning and using, one would think that Jack only cared about juice, cookies, airplanes, and rocket ships. Regardless of his lackluster interest, I did my best to encourage the use of signing or speaking for other items.

For example, Jack loves when Mommy draws pictures for him and usually he will tell me what he wants me to draw by pointing at objects, then one day I started using signs and asking him to tell me with his words or signs. He was frustrated at first, but then he began to connect the dots, if he uses the sign for car, Mommy will draw him a picture of a car. Since we seemed to be on a bit of a signing hot streak, I did my best to drag out the activity as long as I could by asking him to tell me what parts of the car I should draw, “Does Jack want Mommy to draw lights on the car?” and then I would sign “lights”. He would begin to nod his head and I encouraged him to use the sign. He would then use the sign and I would ask him, “Should they be big lights or small lights?” and he responded with a sign indicating big lights or small lights. This was a huge breakthrough. It was as if Jack suddenly understood that he could use signs to communicate and the more signs he used, the better the results. Since playing this drawing game, Jack has been on a signing frenzy.

One of Jack’s favorite things to sign about is Daddy. When asked who his favorite person is, he always responds with the sign for Daddy. When Daddy isn’t around, he’ll sign for Daddy and ask where he is. I’ll then respond with the appropriate answer, “Daddy at work”, “Daddy upstairs”, “Daddy downstairs”, Daddy in car”, “Daddy taking a bath”, etc. Now, when Jack asks where Daddy is, he’ll often ask if Daddy is any of those places. He gets so excited when it’s close to lunch time because he knows that Daddy will be home for lunch. So, he will begin to sign, “Daddy” and “eat”. Unfortunately, some days he begins to sign this at ten in the morning and I have to explain to him that it’s not lunch time yet. But Jack is always excited to see his Daddy. The moment he sees him drive up the driveway or walk towards the door, his face lights up, he signs Daddy, yells, and rushes to the door to open it.

Jack has become so adept at unlocking our doors and opening them that we’ve had to install latches where he can’t reach them to keep him from opening the door and rushing out without our knowledge. This inability to open doors at will now has prompted Jack to learn the sign for open and close door. Jack is so ravenous for words that if he needs a sign for something and Mommy can’t come up with it quick enough, he has started making up his own signs. In this instance with the open and closing of the door, Jack knows the ASL sign for “open” and “close”, but he made up his own sign for “door”, which is him pretending to knock on a door.

Most of the signs he comes up with are completely logical and practical. When Jack wants to indicate more than one of an item he simply puts up both of his pointer fingers. If he wants to count something, he puts up both of his pointer fingers and either signs for the object he wants to count or points to object he wants to count. The ASL dictionary doesn’t have a specific sign for yogurt, which is one of Jack’s favorite foods, so to indicate that he wants yogurt, Jack will waive his hand in the air, almost like a cross between the sign for “juice” and the sign for “milk”. When Jack wants to talk about both Mommy and Daddy, he puts his hands up to like a moose as if he’s creating his own plural sign. Some signs are difficult to discern, but for the most part they are easy to understand.

Mommy and Daddy have learned so much in the past few weeks about Jack and how he thinks. The level of nuance he understands is amazing, like the difference between a duck and bird and the difference between the two when signing. We’ve also learned that Jack loves to talk about animals. He loves to talk about lions, monkeys, fish, giraffes, elephants, dogs, sheep, birds, squirrels, ducks, snakes, etc. You name it and if he can see it, he’ll sign it and start telling you a story, like the fish are swimming in the bath or the duck has two eyes. Now that he knows he can communicate, it’s all the he wants to do.

One of his other favorite signs is “play”. Jack loves to ask Mommy and Daddy to play or to read stories. However, as his vocabulary grows, Jack prefers to read the stories to Mommy and Daddy. His favorite book right now is Goodnight Gorilla, which has a wide array of zoo animals and items and actions he can name. So, as we turn the pages, he will tell us how the gorilla is opening up the doors and how the mouse has a banana. Then he will want to count the doors and the lights on a specific pages and mimic the animals sleeping on others. He’ll wave “bye bye” to the animals when it’s time to tell them “goodnight”. Jack loves to read.

It’s amazing what a huge difference it makes to be able to understand what your child wants, needs, and loves. It’s amazing how fulfilling it is to get a glimpse into the mind of our little Jack. It’s simply amazing just to be able to talk with him and have little conversations. We’re still working on getting him to speak with his mouth, but right now, we’re ecstatic just to know what’s going on in his head. Mommy and Daddy look forward to Jack’s vocabulary growing even more, expanding the topics we can chat about, but without a doubt, the best phase that Jack knows, that his signs by making an “L” with his pointer and thumb is “I love you”. Mommy and Daddy have been waiting for nearly three years to hear that phrase and it doesn’t disappoint in the least.

So, this week Mommy had her baby shower for Little Man’s soon to be arriving little sister and while we aren’t terribly sure what Jack thinks about all of this baby business, he has been dropping hints here and there. For example, Jack seems to understand that Mommy has a baby in her tummy. While he knows the sign for “baby”, which is making a rocking motion with one’s arms, whenever someone mentions a baby, he points to his tummy. I’m thinking this is due in large part to me pointing to my ever growing tummy when I talk about the baby.

One of the big suggestions all of the experts give is that expectant parents should encourage the older sibling to feel the baby move inside of Mommy’s tummy. Perhaps these experts are used to children with a higher threshold for patience because unless Lil Miss is moving at the exact moment that Jack is touching my tummy, he has no desire to leave his hand there when there are more pressing matters at hand, like taking a sip of juice. However, Little Man has felt the baby move and even responded to her little kicks and bumps. These moments usually occur when Jack is sitting in Mommy’s lap and we’re cuddling or reading a book. The occasional jab with hit Jack square in the back or the side and he’ll turn to look at my tummy. After a few of these jabs, Jack has even been known to push back, albeit gently.

Occasionally, as a family at the end of the day before bath and bed, we’ll hang out in Lil Miss’ room. It’s fully decked out with all of the appropriate furnishings and accessories. While in this room, we talk about Jack becoming a big brother and talk to him about where the baby will go when she is out of Mommy’s tummy. We also use this time to introduce a toy baby for Jack to handle. This is another big suggestion, giving the soon to be sibling a baby doll to practice with. This suggestion offers a positive experience, but also gives Mommy and Daddy a little bit of terrifying insight into the myriad of possibilities of things that Jack could do to his little sister. While Jack has the ability to super sweet and gentle with the little baby that he helped Mommy swaddle, he would also, on occasion, run off to the other room with her or attempt to snatch her out of Mommy’s hands. Fortunately, Little Man helps to offset too many worries with other moments where he gently places her in bed and tucks her in or cradles her softly and gives her kisses.

Mommy and Daddy are certain that Jack will be an amazing big brother. He has a huge heart and has been sharing with others long before that was something he was even supposed to know how to do developmentally. He’s always offering to help and at the ready to kiss boo-boos and give loves. Mommy and Daddy are also fully aware that Little Man doesn’t take to change very well, but we’re hopeful that since he seems to be emerging from his terrible twos without too many battle scars, this change won’t be one wrought with too many difficulties. The most important thing for Mommy and Daddy and that Little Man know that we love him more than words and no matter who else becomes a member of our loving family, that fact will never, ever change.

Mommy and Daddy love Fall. In all honesty, we love any weather that isn’t extreme, although extreme snow is far prettier to look at than extreme heat. Unfortunately, this year, the Summer heat lasted all the way into October leaving what seemed to be a mere week of Fall to be enjoyed. Fortunately for Jack and Mommy, we were able to spend what would turn out to be the last day of Fall outside exploring together. . .

Just like his Daddy, Little Man adores the wilderness. That was one of the main reasons we chose our current home. The backyard is full of large mature trees and bushes that offer lots of nooks and crannies for little boys to explore. Some of Daddy’s fondest memories from childhood involving taking solo adventures into the woods behind his house and I imagine that in the eyes of a two year old, that’s exactly what parts of our back yard feels like.

Jack was so enthusiastic as we wondered around the branches and leaves. He would periodically grab a branch and begin to shake it to see if the leaves would come tumbling off. He picked up various leaves of varying colors and gingerly handed them to me for my inspection and explanation. Fortunately for Mommy, my limited knowledge of plant life at least allows me to explain some concepts, like leaves changing colors, to a toddler. Mommy has many strengths and a wide range of interesting facts and trivia that I can share, but when it comes to the natural world, Daddy will certainly bee the go to guy.

The look of utter joy and wonderment on Little Man’s face is the source of endless of happiness for Mommy. The way he lights up when he sees something that catches his eye is how Mommy feels when I see something beautiful, like a Christmas tree, or better yet, when I see him light up. Those moments are becoming even more invigorating for both of us as we’re able to put words and signs to things that interest him. Jack has recently picked up quite a number of signs for things that he enjoys talking about, like squirrels, dogs, and birds.

On this particular afternoon, as we were walking around, Jack exploring, me, doing my best to keep up and film what little portions I could, the air had only the hint of a nip. I remember thinking to myself that this was the perfect afternoon for just this type of activity and the only thing that would have made the afternoon complete was if Daddy could have joined us. However, Mommy must admit that while it’s awesome having Daddy around for as many moments as he can be, I feel insanely blessed to experience most of them. Time goes by so fast. Just as Fall passed us by in what seemed like the perfect afternoon outside, in the blink of an eye it seems as though Jack has turned from a baby into a little boy, longing for complete independence.

Seasons change and children grow up. I’m almost certain there are a millions songs that have been written about those very facts. When you’re a new parent, you can’t fathom how differently you will perceive life and the passage of time with a little one in your arms. You struggle to get enough sleep and despite how many times people say, “Enjoy every moment. It goes by so quickly,” you can’t help, but think that they’re being overly sentimental. Then, one day, you turn around and the one you used to carry with such great ease in the crook of your arm is climbing in and out of your refrigerator and dashing in and out of bushes as he attempts to track a squirrel.

As a mommy, my heart aches for the scent of milky peaches that I would inhale when I held my darling Jack as he napped in my arms, but those quiet moments of babyhood are replaced by perfect afternoons amongst the leaves. Before I know it, I’ll be aching for the little boy who would bring me fallen leaves and dandelions with a look of love and pride on his face because he adores giving gifts to his Mommy. If it were possible to top the passage of time, the changing of leaves, I’m a sure the first mother to cradle her child in her arms would have, but I’m comforted by the thought that the path that lay ahead is full of equally beautiful moments to cherish and eventually ache for. After all, I never could have imagined the exquisite splendor that would be found in a dewy Fall afternoon playing outside with my Jack and now that it has passed, I can’t imagine never having that moment. And again I say, I am so incredibly blessed.

Mommy and Daddy don’t shy away from the label of geek. In fact, Mommy and Daddy are quite proud of our geeky and dorky tendencies. These tendencies seem to have been passed on to our Little Man and of course, they color our holiday experiences.

Mommy and Daddy are very big on family traditions. Perhaps this love of tradition is reinforced by Jack’s desire for routine, but for the most part, we have always felt it important to build a strong foundation of activities and experiences that can be both anticipated and looked back on with fond memories. Some of these traditions were passed down to us from Mommy and Daddy’s parents and others are uniquely ours.

Mommy loves Halloween, but not the gross side of it – only the cute kid stuff and that’s the kind of stuff we want Jack to remember. It’s fun to get a little scare here and there, but when it comes down to it, we want all of the holidays to be fun and whimsical. So, those are the types of traditions we try to introduce. For example, Mommy and Daddy both remember watching It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown before Halloween. So, of course, part of our Halloween tradition is watching this cinematic holiday gem with Jack, which we did before we carved our pumpkin. Not only is this an easily repeated holiday tradition, but it helps us to introduce the idea of Halloween to our little guy in a kid friendly way. By the time Halloween was over, I think we watched this about ten times. Jack, appropriately enough, is a fan of pumpkins.

Carving a pumpkin, while not a unique Halloween tradition, it certainly is one of our favorites. This year, since he’s so much older and aware of the holiday, Jack designed the pumpkin entirely on his own and even cleaned it out! He was fascinated by all of the little tools that Daddy used and couldn’t wait to exclaim where he thought the pumpkin’s nose and eyes should go. Between the sliminess of the pumpkin insides squirming between his fingers and the joy that comes with holding the wedges of Jack-o-lanterns face, then tasting them, Jack had a full on Halloween sensory experience and we all loved every second of it.

Of course carving a pumpkin and watching a movie are just a few of our traditions. We have several others. A newer tradition appears to be a Halloween party at Nana and Grandad’s house. The past few years they have hosted one awesome party that is equally fun for adults and kiddos. While Mommy and Daddy didn’t dress in costume this year, Nana and Grandad certainly played the part as Morticia and Gomez Adams. Jack, who had been extremely excited about his Fire Chief outfit the night before, was reluctant to show it off at the party. Fortunately, Mommy is always thinking one step ahead and made sure Jack was wearing his Fire Chief t-shirt even if he wasn’t willing to wear his whole outfit. The highlights of the afternoon were Nana’s yummy sugar cookies, swinging at a ghost piñata, and swinging on the swing set.

This year, Halloween is super neat because there are so many more things that Jack understands and enjoys that he didn’t last year. The piñata at the party was just one such example. Jack, being Jack, certainly understands the concept of hitting one object with another. That is just one of those inherently ingrained toddler things. Not only did he enjoy hitting the piñata himself, with a little help from Grandad, but he loved watching the other kids take a whack at it. Other than Jack’s laughter and smile, the best part for Mommy was watching how great Jack was at sharing. While the older kids were scrounging for every toy and piece of candy that they could, all the while exclaiming, “That’s mine!”, Jack was picking up pieces of candy and giving them away because he wanted to help and to share. That’s just the sort of awesome little dude he is – a big sweetheart who wants to make sure everyone is happy. Mommy and Daddy were especially impressed considering he knew that candy was on the line and we all know how much Little Man loves his sweets.

A tradition that Oma passed down to Mommy is one of Jack’s favorite traditions – doughnuts for breakfast on Halloween! Mommy had Daddy pick up some doughnuts especially for the occasion and Daddy was certain to get Jack’s favorite, CHOCOLATE!

This, of course, was only the beginning of the sweets fest, but such is the life of a child on Halloween.

After dinner, the true Halloween festivities began. Little Man dressed in his Fire Chief garb and we headed out with Daddy to go visit Great Grandpa as our first Trick-or-Treating stop. When we arrived, Auntie Shayla and cousins Demeree and Jailynn were there with the same idea. When Jack saw Jailynn, he rushed up to her to give her a big hug. It was so sweet. Then, we all trotted up to the door together to surprise Great Grandpa. He was certainly happy to see his gaggle of not so ghoulish great grandkids. As usual quite appropriately enough, Fireman Jack was in a mad dash, as if to put out a fire, so the resulting photo is one of the child in motion.

Pretty soon, it was time for the three of us to be heading out for trick-or-treating. Since it was only 48 degrees out and Little Man is still trying to get over a cold, Mommy thought it would be best if we could keep our festivities in doors this year. So, as a result, when I heard that the Discovery Center was sponsoring an indoor, scientifically themed Halloween event and knowing that Little Man loves the Discovery Center, I knew that’s where we would be spending our evening.

Yes, yes, as Mommy mentioned before, we are a family of complete geeks and proud of it. Rather than spending the night out with other ghouls and goblins attempting to snag as much free candy as possible, we went to an interactive science center, that as it turns out, had very little candy and only about two pieces that were appropriate for a toddler to eat. But, Jack didn’t even seem to notice the lack of sweets as the moment he walked through the door, he was off with a huge smile on his face. At one point, he stopped running around, looked at me, and began to sign for bubbles. He wanted to know where his favorite bubble wall was. Jack just wanted to explore and Mommy and Daddy were more than happy to oblige.

From throwing marshmallows with Daddy to helping spotty dogs at the vet clinic, Jack had a great time. Jack even displayed some of his best sharing and turn taking behavior even amidst the craziness of awesome activities. Mommy was so proud when Jack was more than happy to share and take turns with a little girl and another little guy who were eager to try out an air blowing/ball activity center. The geektastic evening was a smashing success and while Little Man’s haul of candy was nothing short of sad, he didn’t seem to mind one bit. By the time we were all done, Jack had explored every inch of the science center. He was ready to munch on his smarties, which Mommy handed out one at a time, while we cruised around town looking at various Halloween displays before taking Jack home for a bath and bed.

Yes, holidays are an awesome part of life. It’s always exciting to indulge in out of the ordinary fun, especially when that fun is rooted in great family traditions. Mommy and Daddy have always prided ourselves in doing things that are uniquely appropriate for our family and our Halloween celebrations were certainly fit the description. As long as Jack had a blast, Mommy and Daddy are happy to explore new ways of celebrating holidays that emphasize alternate perspectives, activities, and fun. We are, after all, proud to be geeky dorks.

Quick Jack Facts

• Jack has discovered the meaning of “yucky”. This is the first term that Little Man has grabbed onto and run with. Whenever he sees something that he things is dirty, gross, or just out of place, he exclaims, “Yuck” and shakes his hand at it in an attempt to make it go away. This can be incredibly cute, helpful, or vaguely insulting depending on the context.

   

• Little Man has become a master of escape. He not only has managed to figure out how to unlock and open all of our house doors, but he has even mastered the baby proofing locks around the kitchen. At one point, Jack even opened the front door and began to walk outside to greet Daddy. So, to protect Little Man from his own adventurous nature and to give Mommy and Daddy some peace of mind, Daddy installed latches at the tops of the doors that Jack can’t reach.