Watching the Noles!

Jack loves watching his Noles! He is even learning the "oohhhh oh oh oh" and the (two arm) chop :)

Happy Rivalry Day!

Here at the Crosby house we (well, Jack and I) are very excited for Rivalry Day... go Jackets and go Noles!! Jack is gearing up for a big afternoon of football watching by taking a nap. This morning, however, we had to get in our visit with Santa (Santa needed to know what Jack wants for Christmas!!)

First, here is the "official" (read: $24.99) picture:

"No really, why did you hand me to this guy??"

Last year, Jack was amazing. He had a great time visiting with Santa and loved every second of his time on Santa's lap. This year was a different story.

Daddy taking me to see the super cool helicopter at Brookstone.

Waiting on Santa...apprehensi ve of this whole thing.

"Daddy, why are you handing me off like a football??"

"Santa may be alright if he reads me stories."

Refusing to smile.

Daddy took me on the carousel to make up for being mean
and handing me off to Santa.

Mommy tried to get good pictures, but the horses
were moving very fast!!

Hopefully next year we get a smiley Jack. I was convinced that he would scream and kick and thrash - so at least he isn't yelling! :) Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and let's hope for some good games today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jack helped me type this post. He says:

"ghkhgftb gfxwer367yuujiki090p.;., vf dfsawsw2qw5t"

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Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving! We are looking forward to enjoying the parade, the Purina dog show, and most importantly, the TURKEY today!

One of Jack's favorite things is to play with my necklaces. He loooves to pull them out of the closet and decorate himself. Here are some pics from yesterday morning:





Cheesing it up on Thanksgiving morning!!!



We also discovered last night that Jack has a new talent for tunring around and around in circles just to fall down dizzy. It's pretty hilarious as we had never seen him do it before!! Every day is a new adventure, that's for sure...

We are so, so thankful for our little guy - because of how long we waited and wished and hoped for him, and because of how much joy he brings us today. We cannot wait to share him with all of our family again very soon!!

A temper tantrum at its finest... (and it was PJ Day at school
and raining...no he doesn't dress like that every day!)

Happy outside in the 27 degree weather...

Jack has multiple personalities. No, really. One second he is my sweet, adorable little boy who likes to pet Mommy's face because he thinks it's funny. The next, he's kicking and screaming, throwing himself on the floor and yelling like someone cut off a limb. Usually this is over something small, like the fact that I make him put on a jacket, or (heaven forbid) take a something sharp or dangerous out of his hands.

Even in the midst of these terrible, tumultuous times, we find moments of sheer joy with him. Yesterday I almost wet my pants as Justin told me the following story:

"This morning, I ran out to start the car before I loaded Jack in. When I came back in the door, he came tearing down the hall, looking guilty as sin, and his whole hand and arm were soaking wet. I thought, 'this means one of two things. One, he went crawling around in the shower or two, he stuck his hand in the toilet." At this point I am smiling - Jack does love exploring the potty.

Justin continued, "I went into the bathroom trying to see how I can figure out what he did, and I opened the toilet lid. There floating on the top was Jack's waffle. Apparently he was not happy with his waffle this morning and decided it needed to be banished to the toilet??"

I almost died laughing. We regularly find things "hidden" throughout the house - the can opener in the hall, the whisk under his crib, and balls everywhere. But he's never thrown anything in the toilet and then run away - thinking it was the most hysterical thing ever. He's so funny sometimes!

Jack's Expanding Vocabulary

Our little guy has always been loud, proud, and in charge - but now he's learning many more words and phrases. Some of his newest ones include:

• "Elmo" ... which comes out more like "Ma mo" because he can't quite say it right. I bought him this super cute book, Elmo's Twelve Days of Christmas, where you flip through and it gets harder and harder to find Elmo on each page. Jack and I can spend hours on the floor together flipping through this book with him hunting for "Ma Mo" and then laughing hysterically when he can point him out.
• Odd syllables, like "qu" and "baw." He babbles a lot, repeating the same syllable over and over again, like he's rolling it around on his tongue until it comes out just right. I don't know what words he's trying to immitate but he definitely knows new sounds!
• "Duck" - which he actually says quite well. He can also point out a duck in any situation and yells it over and over again.
• "Water" - still not too good at this one, it comes out more like "waaaaaa qua" ... but he's usually pointing at the sink or the fridge, so he definitely knows what it is.
• Various other short words and phrases. He amazes me when he mimicks my sounds when I am talking to him (I keep up a steady stream of chatter to him at most times because that's what the doctor said increases his speech patterns.)

He also has some funny new personality quirks. When we are driving home at night from daycare, I usually listen to a few of the same CD's. As I scroll through the songs, he will say "no" to the ones he doesn't want to hear... and then bob his head up and down ("dancing") to the ones he likes. It's adorable!

He loves his bath so much now that when we go to get his towel down from the hook, he literally SWIMS over to the other side of the tub and then hunches all up so that it's impossible to grab him. This is usually followed by a lot of loud screaming as we get him out of the tub.

And finally ... how, you ask, is the weaning going?

Well ... partially good. We have successfully done away with the morning bottle and switched to a sippy cup. He doesn't seem to mind all that much. We are still struggling to get him off the right-before-bed bottle, but we are hoping that in the next week he will be totally off them. What can I say - you win some, you lose some.

Buried in Leaves!!!

Fall is definitely here in New England. In fact, we are forecasted to get our first bit of snow tomorrow morning, with a high of 39 tomorrow...so actually, winter's probably almost here. We spent the weekend trying to dig out from under the mounds and mounds of leaves! We even rented a dumpster to do some fall cleanup both inside and outside...which we all know was much needed!! (They brought us a much bigger dumpster than we could use...so I am sure all of our neighbors think we are gutting our entire house!)

Jack got the memo about daylight savings time, and woke up late - and in a very happy mood :)

Then it was time to do some serious cleanup. Daddy has been hard at work gathering things in the garage that needed to be trashed, and his buddy Chris from work was coming over to help later. Thank goodness...because I could NOT lift those drywall pieces again to save my life!

GIANT dumpster.

Daddy tried to blow many of the leaves into a pile so that he could tarp them up. Jack thought this was pretty much the coolest thing he had ever seen:

"Whoa, Dad, that's a LOT of leaves!!"

"Look, they come up to my waist!...
shut up, Mom, that is still pretty high!"

Yelling at Daddy to blow them towards him. Absolutely hilarious!

"Dad, you aren't doing a satisfactory job.
I am coming in to show you how it's done."

Sidetracked by the water in the candle...
always a no-no, always a Jack magnet.

Literally buried in leaves.

"A little to the right...I SAID RIGHT!!!"

Ok, this is pretty cool.

Halloween 2010... May The Force Be With You

Jack's second Halloween (can you believe it??) was great! He was in a much better mood than on Friday at daycare, mainly because he took a nap from 11:45am - 2:45pm. So he was pumped up and ready to tackle the neighborhood.

The only downside to Halloween this year was that it was 43 degrees, and breezy, when we started out. Our very gracious neighbors up Bantry Drive, the DeMichaels, hosted the annual Halloween block party. We all had to move it inside because it was so cold. (Unlike last year - we were all in shorts and it was 78 degrees! You know what they say about New England weather - "if you don't like it, wait 5 minutes.") Anyway, here we are arriving at the party:

After pizza and snacks, everyone headed outside for the pinata before trick or treating. Jack was really jealous that he didn't get a whack and wanted to make sure he got in on the candy. (Notice the kid in orange on the ground - the older kids were literally diving and fighting over the candy - and Jack waltzed his way right in!)

No fear here, that's for sure!! After the pinata was effectively destroyed, Mommy and Jack ventured out into the night while Daddy stayed behind to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids. At this point it was about 38 degrees outside. Jack had to wear his fleece-lined jeans, his thermal shirt and jacket, AND his fleece costume, and he was still cold!

Jack suited up, ready to trick or treat. Look, it's a perfect match!!

This was his standard pose for going up to someone's door...look at them, then his bucket, then them, then his bucket, like "this thing ain't going to fill itself!" Let's face it, we are all just lucky that he didn't trip over his cape.

I cannot believe that we forgot his green light saber!!! That would have completed his ensemble. Justin said we should just hang onto it, because as he pointed out, Jack probably still won't be tall enough for this costume next year. :)

He really had a great time. We loaded him up into the wagon and off we went! We only lasted for a few houses, though, because it was cold and almost bedtime. But we are all really looking forward to next year because Jack will be so excited and fully aware of what's going on. We just hope it's warmer!

Here is Jack after we got home...trying to figure out why I put a lit candle inside the pumpkin...in totally flammable robes that are way too big for him. We are the best parents ever!!!

Either way, it was a great time for all of us. Justin even managed to give away most of our candy so we don't have bags and bags leftover this year. Now... it's November and it's time to get Jack ready to be trained in the art of Thanksgiving....not just one meal, but three! I think he's already a natural. :)