Jack 2: Electric Boogaloo

For some reason, whenever we talked about having another child, we referred to the theoretical baby as Jack 2 Electric Boogaloo.. Don't act like you didn't see the sequel to Break Dancing.. well, we didn't either but I guess it rhymed with Jack 2 better than Jack 2: the alien resurrection. It also lightened the mood of the conversation. We just felt like now was not a great time for many rational reasons: ryan works for a startup that doesn't actually have any "revenue" in the "Worst Economy We Have Ever Seen." Then there is the fact that I am planning to go to an incredibly demanding graduate program next year, and also, we don't have any space in our house for a second child.. since we didn't really have the space for the first. So we'd put it off but always return to the conversation. This is the only issue I have ever truly lost sleep over but once we decided, I was at peace. Such decisions are better made with the heart.

So here it is.. your first intro to Jack 2.. we should probably change that name pretty soon. I am a little more than 3 months along -- due in mid-september. This is one of the 12 week ultrasound shots from a few weeks ago.

Sunday afternoon fun

This is our family fun. It was pretty hilarious for us.

The negotiator

Lately Jack has been less willing to go to bed peacefully. A while ago, he started asking for water, then it was a snack -- since I always want him to eat more that worked for a long time. Until finally I figured out he was never going to eat the snack. Now when we say it's bedtime he says "Snuggle?" This always works. What parent can deny their child a snuggle? If Ryan is busy, we'll lie down together, Jack will be still for about a minute, then he'll wiggle out of bed. When I then say it's bedtime, he says "Dad Snuggle?" That also always works on Ryan. J is a clever little dude.



Here we are in front of his favorite park which we call Space Needle park:

Arizona in February

It's 80 degrees there. It's still a little strange to me that it can be so cold and rainy here yet so sunny and hot just 1500 miles south. We had a great time.. visited the zoo. Jack loves the giraffes although not so much that he wants to get too close to them. We mainly just hung out outside by the pool.





This is Jack danger. It's funny how he spent most of the time in the backyard inches away from the pool.. so I was inches behind him.



When not by the pool, he loved blowing bubbles or mainly putting the bubble blowing aparatus in his mouth. He won't touch a vegetable yet really enjoys soapy bubble fluid.

The Ga-deau

Jack's latest thing is that he is obsessed with the space needle. He calls it the ga-deau. He first noticed the space needle in a book we have about washington state given to Jack for his birthday. For a while, he talked about the gadeau but we didn't know what he was saying. We repeated the word gadeau and then he'd say it again and again until finally we figured it out and said "oh the space needle" Only then did he stop repeating gadeau. As Jack expands his vocabulary, he will say a word over and over until we repeat it correctly.. sometimes this leads to frustration. In any case, Jack sees the space needle everywhere. Last week, we visited the grandparents in arizona. When he walked into my mom's house, he immediately started saying gadeau and I said I don't think there is any space needle here. He continued to talk about it until I noticed that my mom has a space needle pepper shaker on her table. Jack has an eagle eye for the space needle.

Play it J

Olympic peninsula

Last weekend, we wanted a little break from city life so we went out to my mom's on the olympic peninsula. It was a beautiful weekend.. we mainly just hung out -- took a nice beach walk in pt townsend.



this is what Jack is looking at:





and later, this..




It was cold so we taught J to put his hands in his pockets:





my mom has a tv (we don't) so jack and ryan also watched the basketball game (for about 5 minutes until the zoned out look on jack's face freaked me out). Since then, every time Jack sees a TV he says "hoop!" and "ba-ket ball"




He does have a good memory..

Up hill both ways in the snow

On Christmas eve, the snow started about 3am. I know because I was awake. We were supposed to leave for arizona at 11am and I knew if it snowed, we would have an arduous journey to the airport. I would have walked all the way, if necessary, as I was determined to leave town after a week of being snow-bound.

We left the house at 7 with Jack on Ryan's back. I carried a backpack, a roller bag and our carry-on for the flight and Ryan carried his backpack on his front. There were no buses running on capitol hill and the roads were not driveable because we are surrounded by large hills. We walked two miles to the bus tunnel downtown in the snow. Then we waited for an hour for the airport bus. When the bus finally came, the 40 people who were assembled at the stop cheered. The ride to the airport was crazy as the bus slid all over the place but we made it. Our plane took off ontime and we arrived in sunny arizona in the afternoon.

We had a great time. We put our jackets away for the week and enjoyed lots of great time with family and friends. Jack loves it there because he gets lots of attention from the grandparents. We gathered with my high school friends. 3 of them had children this year.. a result of turning 35 I think.

Again, I didn't take that many pictures. One of my resolutions is to get better about that... Here is a random assortment.

My high school pals with all the kids:



Charlie holding a gun which is actually a lighter.. something probably only my dad would buy:




Katie and J:



Jack is playing in one of those plastic houses for kids.. I took this with my iphone which normally takes not-great photos but I liked the light.

Snow!

Last week it snowed a little bit and we had fun outside. It was cold enough for Jack to wear a snowsuit and the whole thing was novel and delightful.







Then on Thursday, it snowed for real. The snow is knee deep at our house and dressing up like astronauts to go outside has lost its novelty. On the bright side, we hunkered down at Bridget's house for the weekend with her family. We've also been watching people snowboard down our street. Crazy.

Jack and friends

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan's parents sent us an Elmo doll that is really more of an Elmo robot. Elmo has many routines.. jokes and stories that he tells depending on which part of his body you press. I thought Jack would be frightened by the talking monster but he is completely in love with him.




In other news about Jack's pals, Lily has the cutest clothes. Here are the kids in Lily's faboo winter coat:

And it's also true that I lost the map

On the way to Guemes, I was listening to Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville. I listened to it a lot in my 20's and haven't listened to it much since. When I listen to her now I wonder who discovered her because I think they had to be brilliant. She doesn't have a great voice but she wrote great songs. Her music was filled with anger, defiance, sadness, craziness and fun.. things that remind me of younger years. Then I listened to her later music and it's really, really boring in comparison. As I read a little about her life I learned the big change that happened between the two CDs was that she had a child. And suddenly, she became .. well.. kind of .. dull. She sounded happier though.

I was thinking about this after a couple of activities I had with friends who have no children. Their lives seem so full of adventure to me.. big trips to faraway places, staying up late.. sleeping in (maybe my standards are a little low for adventure). They know interesting things because they read .. books. There are many differences between the two paths and I don't think one is better than the other. However, my life focus is currently very small .. 33 inches and 25 pounds .. and it feels small.. very rich but small. I am pleased with my decision. I imagine Liz Phair feels the same.

happy birthday jack!

I cannot believe j is 2. This year seemed more like a month than a year. We had a little party at a local pizza place. Jack received lots of great gifts -- books and learning toys (what a great community of friends we have). He was a little overwhelmed by all the noise and attention. I can't believe this but I actually forgot my camera so I have no pictures. So sad.

But we have many pics of Jack from almost every other day in his life. Hopefully that makes up for my mistake. Since J's bday is so close to thanksgiving, I'll post those pics. We had a great time with friends and you can see Jack enjoyed the dessert as usual.





Then we headed off to Guemes Island where some friends built a very cool cabin overlooking the water. It was so peaceful and quiet. We loved it in spite of the gray weather.






The latest with Jack is that he is starting to talk in complete sentences. This morning he said "Where'd my dad go?" His favorite phrase is "where did my (fill in the blank) go?" He says that almost as much as he says "binky? binky!" or if he is in a room that has a guitar "Tar! Tar!" It is very entertaining until the 50 or 60th time then I am no longer entertained but I admire his tenacity.

Traditions

I attend a parent-child class at my local community college and I love this class. Every week, the parent-educator raises a different topic and we discuss as a group. This week, the topic was traditions. She asked what traditions we remember having as kids and what traditions we have created with our new families. I actually cannot remember one tradition in my family which may be a result of a poor memory of such things rather than an absence of them. Moms from the group had some lovely traditions. One woman's dad traveled a lot. Every year during berry season her mom picked a day he was out of town and took the kids to a local berry farm. They picked as much as they could, then went home and the mom made home-made ice cream. That night, that's what they all ate for dinner.. nothing else. Another family made pizza every Sunday night. Another family let the kids decorate the christmas tree by themselves with ornaments they made.

We have a few traditions.. one of my favorites is our Saturday morning walk. We choose a bakery somewhere in town then go to a nearby park for a walk. Last Saturday after our bakery run, we went to a park near our house. The weather started out crummy but then became another sunny beautiful fall day that we have been having a lot lately. Jack has really been digging the slide lately.. as you can see.

Happy Halloween!

We dressed Jack as John McEnroe for Halloween. Why? Because he has curly hair and throws some mean tantrums. Unfortunately, he would not keep his sweat band on so no one really knew who he was supposed to be.. Here's bridget subtly holding his arms down:



Lately Jack has been asserting his independence (euphemism for freaking out constantly when he doesn't get what he wants even if I don't know what he wants). It has been trying my patience. After dutifully avoiding the books, I needed some help. 'Positive Discipline' has been highly recommended by many people I respect so I consulted. Jack has been demanding to be carried a lot and the book gave some great advice: instead of picking him up, give him a hug. This works. Ryan and I sometimes follow Harvey Karp's advice and get on the floor with him as he throws the tantrums.. sometimes that helps. But I have realized that just like everyone else, Jack has good days and bad. Friday (Halloween) was horrible. We were at a kid-friendly restaurant and maybe J was tired, but he bit me really hard and I wanted to throw him. It was sad. Then this weekend has been great... The weather was amazing.. we spent lots of time outside. Reading the parenting book re-energized my spirit and reminded me that the skills it takes to be a good parent often do not come naturally. Luckily, I continue to enjoy parenting more and more. Jack's vocabulary and motor skills are expanding rapidly and it's a wonderful experience watching him discover his new world.

The walk-about

Jack's favorite activity these days is walking around our neighborhood. The walk has to be his idea and he has to lead the way.. None of our neighbors have gates around their front or back yards so Jack just explores it all. He generally first visits the slide, then the kitty, then the swings (not pictured), then the bigger slide in a different back yard. He also really likes standing under a tree when the leaves are falling on him .. Mom helps make the leaves fall too. We have tried to get a picture of him on his trike but he doesn't really ride it. He just gets on and off.

Kurt Vonnegut

Many, many years ago, I read Kurt Vonnegut's autobiography. He wrote about his divorce from his wife after 40 years together. He said their mistake was that each thought they could provide for the other what only a community of 100 people could provide. They thought they could be everything to each other, and inevitably, they failed. This was revelatory at the time and it's the only passage from the book I remember well.

Lately, I have been feeling guilty about spending time away from Jack. Besides work, I have had a few other activities that have required my attention in the evening so there have been a few days when I don't see Jack awake at all. This has been sad. However, I remind myself that I cannot be everything to Jack. I am just his mom and he needs lots of people to love him, not just me.

Jack loves Bridget and Gen. They love him. Every time Jack sees Bridget now, he runs up to her and gives her a big hug. I have a great video of it.. but sadly I am having problems uploading it. It's really cute.

The Inland Empire

We went to Spokane this weekend to visit friends. Eastern washington is just beautiful, and we had a great time. Several of my college friends live there -- they all have kids so it was fun to hang out in all of their very sunny, wide-open, unpopulated spaces. My friend Sarah has twin 4.5 year old boys who have many, many cool toys. Jack fell in love with their guitar and played it constantly.

Mr. Personality

Jack's personality seems to be evolving. I have described him as mellow but now he is much more jovial. He laughs all the time. He also seems like a bit of a ham. When meeting someone new, he likes to show them all of his tricks -- sticking out his tongue, clapping, kissing them, imitating a giraffe ( I have been trying to get that on video for such a long time -- I have hours of video of me following jack saying 'what does the giraffe say?' over and over). He also likes to imitate an elephant but that looks more like he is spitting and gets fewer laughs so he seems to be phasing that out. When meeting new kids, he's a little cautious but he eventually jumps into the action. He doesn't show other kids his tricks -- I imagine it's because they never react the way adults do. Adults have BIG reactions .. they are just delighted with his responsiveness to them. The other new-ish thing with him is that he thinks he is mr. independent. When we go places, he just walks off like he has a meeting or something. I try to give him a little space but I am still amazed at how far he will go without wondering where I am.

Another great monkey shirt

Our friend Erma brought this shirt all the way from Paris so Jack could have another stylin monkey tee. Thanks so much Erma!

Summer Vacay

We spent last week at the oregon coast. Except for the very beginning, we had a great time. We had our second ER visit the night we got there.. in fact, we drove all the way to portland so we could go to a children's hospital. Jack had a high fever and he was having these weird spasms (like full-body spasms) that had kept him up for 24 hours by the time we arrived. I called our own doctor since the spasms became more frequent and stronger. The long story short is that we got great care at the hospital .. the doctor felt that jack was not having seizures but rather myoclonal spasms which were probably a result of the high fever. Sure enough, the next day, after one more horrible night, his fever broke and he has been fine since.

My sister, her boyfriend and my brother joined us for the weekend.. and then a few other sets of friends joined us during the week. We basically just went to the beach and ate good food, returned to the beach, then ate some more. Jack loved the beach. He spent many hours sitting in the sand... usually throwing it.



WHen my family was visiting, we figured out where jack gets his faboo hair -- My bro on the right is the genetic influence, justin on the left is the style influence...



Sadly, I didn't take many pics... Something about vacationing on the beach makes me forget about the future..