It's a Small, Small World

Today proved indeed how small the world really is. Jack and I made a morning run to Target to pick up diapers and as we were walking out of the store, I heard a woman say "Oh my gosh, Elaina!?!?" I looked up and it was my high school classmate, Juli. I knew she lived out here; however, she lives on the other side of the state, and the odds that I would run into her at that Target, at the exact same time  were very low. I can't tell you how comforting it felt to stumble upon a familiar face from home. It truly made my day and I definetly took it as a sign from above. We made plans to get together for drinks when I get back from Minnesota in June.

Two!

April Favorites

Here are some things that Jack and I were loving in the month of April...

Jack's Favorites...

The Fisher Price Little People Wheelies Loops 'n Swoops Amusement Park. We have had this toy for about a year now and it has by far been Jack's most loved toy and has provided hours upon hours of entertainment. Since I rotate his toys, this was brought back out at the start of April, making it "like new" again. Rather than using the cars that are made for it, we use Hot Wheels and Match Box Cars. It's so fun for Jack to race his cars down the track. An added bonus is that this is something special for Matt and Jack to do together and Matt actually gets enjoyment out of it as well, because he has had a blast building up Jack's Hot Wheel collection. 

Mega Bloks First Builders Big Building Bag. Until recently, Jack has never been too interested in playing with these and when he did, they would only hold his attention for a short period of time. I think the reason for this is because they were tucked away on his shelf in the playroom amongst all of his other toys. I recently brought the bucket out into the living room, where they are more visible and not competing with the other toys. Best. Decision. Ever. It's a great distraction for when I'm cleaning or making dinner. On a good day these will hold his attention for a solid 20 minutes, which in toddler world is an eternity.

Crayola Bathtub Crayons.  Jack received these in his Easter basket and they've sure made a big splash in the tub. Jack has never been big into coloring, until these. Our bathtub has never seen so much color and I enjoy seeing his adorable scribbles every time I set foot into the bathroom. He also enjoys to sort them on the rim of the tub, as well as put them into a cup and dump them out all at once into the water over and over again.

Melissa and Doug Ball Pounder. We found this for him at Home goods for a great price. I prefer to buy toys that Jack can grow with and I definitely think this is one of them. Right now he is completely entertained by hammering the balls down the holes and watching them come out the bottom. But I think as he gets older he will enjoy matching the color of the balls to the colors on the side of each hole, as well as, counting the number of balls as they go down. I, on the other hand, find the clinking noise of the wood to be somewhat therapeutic and get excited every time he chooses to play with it.

My Favorites For Jack...

Honest Kids Organic Juice Drink.  Don't ask me why, but I've always felt extremely guilty about giving Jack juice. I've also worried that if I give him too much juice, he won't want to drink anything else, so up until the past few months I've made every effort to avoid it all together and just offer him milk or water. But now that he is older, I thought it would be fun to give it a try. I don't give it to him on a daily basis and it's more like a special treat. I love this brand because for starters it's organic and also because there is no added sugar. It's sweetened only from fruit juice. It tastes more like flavored water than juice, which also makes me feel better about giving it to him. It's a little more spendy than other juices on the market, but totally worth it.

My Favorites...

Shark Professional Steam Mop. As you know, we recently installed hardwood floors and I was on the hunt for a mop that was quick, easy, Eco-friendly, and free of harsh chemicals. This is absolutely perfect because the pads are washable and the only thing it requires is water. It claims to sanitize and clean with the power of steam and I totally believe it. It's so cool to see the steam come out of it as I clean the floors. It takes me less than 10 minutes to mop the entire main floor of our house. The only downfall is that it's not cordless; however, the cord itself is really long. I also purchased a gallon of distilled water to use with it, to avoid water marks on the floor. The entire gallon should last me a really long time, as it only uses a small amount of water each time.

Ninja Professional Blender. In an effort to eat healthier, I decided to supplement one meal a day with a green smoothie. Our old blender was really crappy and did a horrible job chopping up the fruit and it took forever, making it super inconvenient and not worth my time. I decided to use the money that my in-laws gave me for my birthday and splurge on this one. I. Love. It. It's super quick and easy and chops up anything I decide to add in seconds.

Seventh Generation Natural Dish Soap. Let me let you in on a little secret. We do not have a dishwasher. That's right. I have to wash all of dishes by hand. It's extremely time consuming and a big pain in my butt, especially having a child that goes through countless dishes a day. I used to use Original Dawn, but I started to notice all Jack cups smelled like soap no matter how thoroughly I rinsed them out. The contents inside of the cup tasted like soap as well. It got me thinking about the ingredients in the soap and I just didn't feel comfortable with the idea of Jack potentially ingesting harmful chemicals on a daily basis. So I switched to this product, which is all natural and bio-degradable. To my surprise it actually cleans the dishes really well, if not better and I haven't had any problems with jack's cups since. It's also around the same price as Dawn, so I'm happy about not losing any money on it.

Old Navy Vintage V-neck T-shirts.These are so comfortable. Before discovering them, I bought a style similar to this at Target. I feel like these are more flattering for my body type. I usually get them when they are on sale, making them cheaper than the ones at Target. Bonus!

Here's the Scoop.

Diaper Boy.

My "Little Sasquatch." Matt's hockey coach had this specially made for Jack, since the entire team refers to Matt as "Sasquatch."

Sorry I missed a couple days. On Thursday night Matt and I got a babysitter, so we could go to his end of the season Men's League Hockey Party. Though it was nice to get out of the house and associate with other adults, I would have much rather spent our night out, which rarely ever happens, going to dinner and a movie. Hopefully when we go home in a few weeks, we will have an opportunity to go out a date. The best part about that will be our FREE babysitters. Last night, Jack threw his worst ever tantrum that left us both in tears right before bedtime. After that I had no energy and was in no mood to write a blog-post. I spent the rest of the night cooling-down and praying that today would be better. So far, so good.

Jack's 22 Month Update

Can we please hit the rewind button and go back to a time when my son wasn't going to be two years old in less than 2 months!? Just saying that makes my heart feel heavy. Today one of my friends on Facebook, who just recently had a baby made a post asking when she will get to sleep again and though I will admit that I do love getting a decent nights rest, I would give anything to go back in time and have the chance to hold Jack in my arms and watch him sleep. I wish I knew then what I know now. That every minute spent with your child is something to be cherished, not endured. I wish I didn't complain to Matt about how lucky he was that he didn't have to wake up and nurse the baby 3 times a night, because the truth is, I was lucky one. I had something to offer Jack that no one else could. Knowing how this feels, I will spend our future time together cherishing all of the little things and ensuring that every day is a memory in the making.

At 22 months Jack is...

- repeating a lot of what we say. If I ask him to say something, he usually will attempt to repeat the word without hesitation and gets really proud of himself when it actually sounds like what I asked him to say. For example, the other day when we were reading a book about animals and I asked him to say the word "horse," not only did he repeat it, but he used the "s" sound as well, something that I had never heard until then. There are still a lot of times where we have no clue what he is trying to tell us, but I have noticed a significant improvement this past month. I have recently become a little concerned by the fact that Jack is not yet using 2-word sentences, something that he should be able to do by age 2. With that said, I am aware that boys are a little slower to catch on to speech than girls and also that a lot can happen in 2 months in the world of a toddler. Now that I think of it, He has said a few phrases that I would consider two-word sentences, including "check-out," "Love You" and "Hair cut."

- fascinated by how things work. He loves taking things apart and putting them back together, such as blocks, stacking cups and container lids. He also loves to pour things from one container to another such as water in the bath tub and matchbox cars, food, I even saw him doing this with forks and spoons the other night at dinner.

- on the verge of jumping. In fact, just tonight when Jack was on Skype with Matt's parents, doing the actions to "Wheels on the Bus" his feet were actually off the floor and slightly elevated. It was pretty cool to see.

- only using a "Gaga" at nap time and bed time. Immediately upon waking up, I have him put it in a porcelain jar that we call "the boot," because it resembles a pair of baby booties. At first he didn;t like the idea, but now it has become a game to put it in the jar and he actually looks forward to getting to wave and say "good bye" to his "Gaga."

- able to distinguish and point to all of the colors of the rainbow, as well as clearly naming most of them, especially blue, yellow and purple.

- doing chunky puzzles and sorting shapes with ease. His favorite shape is a circle and gets excited every time he sees one in real life, such as, the icons on my phone. He also loves stars and loves to point them out when we are reading. Every time he points to a star, he follows up by signing "more," in reference to me singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Sleep Habits...

- Recently we decided that Jack was showing signs that he was ready to have a later bedtime. He now goes to bed at 8 and will usually sleep until at least 7:30 and lately has even gone as late as 8:45.

- I usually put him down for a nap at 12:30 and he usually wakes up around 3.

Favorite Foods...

-Apples
- homemade green smoothies

Stats...

- Jack weighs about 36 lbs, if not more. We will know for sure when we go in for his 2 year check-up.
- Size 7 1/2-8 Shoe
-3T in tops and 2T bottoms


Extra Curricular...

-Little Gym on Fridays with Dad. Matt reports that he prefers to sit on Ms. Kristin's lap during circle time, rather than sitting next to him.

- The Y Child-Watch Program 3 times a week for 1 hour. He is been doing significantly better this month, and even when he fusses a little at drop off, the teachers tell us that he stops crying immediately after we leave. Whenever we pick him up, we stand and observe him for a few seconds before we run in and scoop him up and he appears to be having a good time. It's obvious that he is a teachers pet, because he's always at their feet rather than playing with the other kids. Though they don't seem to mind and they find jack's antics to be very cute and entertaining.

Ta-Da!

Sorry I didn't write last night. I was watching game 6 of the playoffs (Wild vs. Avalanche) with my hockey addicted husband. I'm so glad I decided to tune in because it was a great game to watch and it actually managed to hold my attention from start to finish. Well that and the fact that Matt was rubbing my back most of the time. I'm so happy the wild won and believe it or not, I am looking forward to game 7 tomorrow night.

I guess I will start with The Tomorrow Fund Stroll, which took place this past Sunday. (I posted photos in that days entry.) With the money that we personally donated, our grand total came to a whopping $1060.00! It felt so good to be able to give back to a fund that helped us so much in the past.  It is a wonderful organization that was crucial to our family in such a difficult time. They did so much for us including, but not limited to, bringing various toys to our hospital room to keep our sick and fussy baby entertained, bringing up a swing to help him sleep better at night, giving us a parking pass, since we were in and out of the hospital so much, providing us with food vouchers for the hospital cafeteria, paying some of our expensive co-pays, and even a month of our mortgage during a particularly hard month, and they also tracked down a counselor for me to talk to once a week, since I was having a hard time coping with the situation. They made every effort to take away as much outside stress as possible, so we could focus on more important things, like taking care of our sick son, while he worked hard to kick cancers butt. Words can not express how thankful I am for them, as well as all the people who helped make it possible for us to give back and show our appreciation. It's comforting to know that other families will be receiving the same assistance, if not more depending on their situation, as we did, because of the generosity of others. The day itself was absolutely amazing. I cannot even begin to describe the energy of the crowd and the high you get from being part of such a wonderful cause. Jack's favorite part of the day was sitting in an old fire truck that had been transformed into a cancer awareness truck for patients with cancer to sign. He also enjoyed the live music, where he busted out a few of his own moves. A lot of families brought their dogs and every time he saw one he got super giddy. We will definitely continue to participate in the stroll as long as we are living here.

In other news, after his 2 month hiatus, Jack finally went potty in his potty chair again! He actually did this the same day as the stroll. It just goes to show what a great day it was. He really had no interest in going, until I plopped the seat on the living room floor and let him play with his blocks while he sat on it. When the pee started to pour out, he instantly stopped what he was doing and watched it pour out in amazement. When he was done, he proudly brought the bowl that held his urine to the bathroom, poured it in the toilet, and flushed it down. After we finsihed washing hands, he ran to the pantry closet, remembering past time when he successfully used the potty, I would reward him with 1 chocolate chip. Although, I was only planning on rewarding him with praise this time around, I just couldn't deny him in such an exciting moment.

Enjoying an apple after nap time.

I finally got around to taking him in for a trim.

Ta-da!

12th Annual Tomorrow Fund Stroll

Can you spot Jack's name?