On our way home!

Did he get more handsome while he was at school today?

Bye Mom time for school

Perserverance and Waiting on My World to Change

Our sweet neighbour has been traveling a lot and has not really spent any time with Jack since much earlier this year. Halloween night she could not get over how much better Jack is doing. It really made me think about the year he has had. 2008 has been quite a year for Jack. Four brain surgeries by the end of February! Hospitalized over Easter weekend for another shunt scare. Graduation from Early Intervention and The Bell Center. Diagnosed with optic nerve atrophy and discovering that he has little to no vision in his left eye (no surprise to him but it was upsetting to the rest of us). Starting preschool. He's growing. He's developing. He's such an amazing person. He continues to perservere through it all. Somehow I manage to get caught up in the "when will he do ___ (fill in the blank)? Oh no it seems everyone else can already ___ (fill in the blank)!" Thank God for other people to remind me what he's been through and how far he's come. He develops daily and I've got t!
o stop pl
aying the waiting game and try to enjoy where he is right now because it will all come soon enough. That's my prayer.

Top Gun Ready for Take Off

Jack's a fighter pilot this year. I did not think we could top last year's pirate but I was wrong!

Giddy up horsey!

We went to the pumpkin patch with Jack's school. This was his favorite part.

Lots of Stuff

We've been busy so I have not been able to post as timely or as much as I'd like...

A few weeks ago, Jack and I helped Lisa put on a baby shower for Jack's cousin, Alicia. Lisa pretty much did all the work and let me run a few errands. I make a pretty good errand girl, I think. :)

Here's Alicia opening up the gifts for her new little guy on the way.
Here's just some of the yummy food Lisa made.
Here's the beautiful cake that Stephanie made.
We played a few baby shower games and because Esther showed up it was an absolute blast. Notice how the baby is wearing the diaper in this picture. Esther was blindfolded when she diapered the baby but truly I'm not sure that that mattered.
This is what Jack did during the baby shower....

What'd you expect? He's a boy!



Here's Elise and Jack in their fall colors. Some people travel to places where the leaves change colors. Not me. I just watch the kids change their clothes.
You can see their cute faces better in this one. Here's Jack signing drive just before he started my car to head out to watch the game.

You're right I was just kidding...

Here's Jack and Elise swinging at the park.

After Elise was finished swinging, she invited me on a trip. I love her imagination! She always throws me for a loop. I said, "Oh we're going on a trip! Where should we go? How about the beach?" She says, "Okay but we're going somewhere else first." We rode in the car and first it was a regular car then it was a race car and then a boat and finally a regular old car again.





I just thought this picture was so cute.

He Signs, He Talks, He's

He Signs, He Talks, He's bossing me around! Sing! Run! Play! Movie! Ain't it grand? :)

Swing! 2008

Compare these latest pictures on that same old swing to these http://allaccesspasstojack.blogspot.com/2007/09/happy-jack-family-reunion-happy-jack.html taken just 1 year and 1 month and about 9 days ago.

Bye Bye

What happens to little boys whose mommies have to get dressed and leave before said little boy ever gets out of his pajamas?









KISSES KISSES KISSES KISSES


Oh Mommy, you're silly!


Wha? You're really gonna go now. Awwwwww..............

Thanks Ms. Christie!

"D"s mom made this cool little table for Jack. Well she decorated it. She did not actually mold the plastic. Isn't it cool? Jack loves it.

Picnic in the Park

Last Saturday, we got together with "D" and his folks again. First, we stopped by a "green" farmer's market that I did not know existed. Did I mention that they just got into town? And now they are showing me around? Funny....

As I said before, "D" and Jack seem to make a new friend everytime they see each other. I don't know if they ever formally introduced but Sidney and the other guy on the "fence" chilled out to some nice live music together. After the "green" farmer's market, I took them over to the plain old Farmer's Market which does not seem as huge now as it did when I was a kid. Was it a slow day, maybe?

All that hanging around looking at food made us hungry and we decided to have a picnic in the park. Here's Sidney with his dad, Kyle.
Da da da da.....it's Sophie's debut on the blog! Hey there cutie!
Of course, Jack got in some tree love while we were at the park.
Sweet!

"Cars and Wheeeeeeee!"

Back to Pump it Up we went and guess what? Jack and "D" (that's Jackspeak for Sidney) wanted to play with the cars more than anything else!

Jack kept trying to climb into the cars with other little kids. He actually climbed right in on top of Sidney who quickly exited his vehicle!

Game face? I don't know what was going on with this look.
Sidney says, "Beep beep."
After getting a good workout at Pump It Up, we were hungry so off to McDonald's but then we had to burn off all those calories. Even Sidney's Nana climbed right into the play thingy!
Here's the proof, Sidney climbed up through the play tubes and went down the slide with me.

Seems like every time Jack and Sid get together, they make a new friend. The cool kiddo in the red Halloween spider shirt is a four year old named Jeremy. At four, he came right out and said that he thought Sidney and Jack looked different from other people he knew. I thought his poor mother was going to die from embarassment. The rest of us? Well we know the boys look a bit different, been knowing that for a while now. We just played on!

Going through the play tubes is a bit more awkward when you've got looooong legs (yeah that's what you get for calling me that really short lady!). Seriously, I'm not much taller than the kids and it never occurred to me that an adult could get stuck in those tubes. It's a good thing Christie's kind of flexible.

I don't know how we managed to not get a picture of Jack going down the slides but, oh well. That will have to wait for another post.
And I don't know why we don't ever take pictures of Sophie on these outings. Sophie, sweetie, when you are older and you check out this blog, just know that you are so sweet and adorable yet very very quiet and at this stage you are still sleeping alot. It won't be long before we'll have pictures of you climbing all over the boys!!!

Back to the Zoo and Love love love

We went back to the zoo again and this time Jack actually really really looked at some of the animals.


Sleep! Ignore the mis-matched sheets and quilt and Mommy's bright pink blankie. And oh, yes those are boppy pillows. We don't want him rolling off the bed, do we? Life is good when the bipap mask fits well and Jack's heart rate and oxygen saturation are good. He looks like an angel in scuba gear. :)

Mommy's a Monkey

Yesterday's big owie overshadowed the more fun events of the day. Jack called me a monkey! We were watching Signing Time's Zoo Train and when they got to monkey, I said "Oh I know you can sign monkey 'cause you're a little monkey." He signed, "Nooooo, Mommy." He got my joke and made one of his own! How cool is that?

Sent from my Palm Treo

Owie!

I ruined the party :(. Jack was invited to a birthday party for one of his school friends at Pump It Up. I took him down the big slide and gave him an awful burn that tore the skin off his knee. Before you go trying to tell me it wasn't all my fault, let me fill you in. The big slides scare me (not Jack, me) so I wrapped my arms around him and then wrapped my legs over his. There is no way he would have gotten that burn without the additional weight of my legs. To top it off, I did not even realize why he was screaming until about 10 minutes later. I want to cry!

We found a new place to play....

with the same stuff we play with at home. :)

He's a boy and he loves cars. What can I say?
Seriously, David, Jack, and I all loved Pump It Up. What a blast!

Fun Weekend!

We started Friday after school hanging out with Jack's cool cousins McCahill and Jeanie. Too bad I did not get any pictures from Friday afternoon. We had a great time. We met them where they were picking pears to make Grandma's delicious pear preserves then McCahill cleaned out their pool so we could go swimming. We swam while Grandma fixed everybody some delicious German food--schnitzel, fried cabbage, and german potato salad. Yum, yum. By the time the food was ready, Jack's Aunt Bobby and Uncle Rob came home. After dinner, Uncle Rob entertained Jack with some silliness that got him to guffawing and Rob was thrilled.

On Saturday, we planned to go to this educational supply store that sent me an email flyer saying that McGruff the Crime Dog would be there. We went and bought a triangle (the musical instrument), a bell, and a magnetic Mr. Potato Head with our $10 gift certicate plus $7 for the overages and taxes. But there was no McGruff. I asked and the store employees had no idea. What a bummer! I had promised Jack we were going to go see the big dog and he was very excited.

I'm actually glad it did not work out, though. We ended up going to hang out with Sidney and his folks instead. Sidney and Jack swam in the pool until Sidney was so worn out that he actually fell asleep just being held upright in his Mommy's arms. While Sidney slept, Jack rode around on Sidney's plasma car. Since Jack liked it so much, I asked where to get one and lucky for us, Christie had seen one at a consignment shop the day before. We ran right out and bought it. When Sidney woke up, we all headed to the nearby park.

Sophie and Nana came too but they were chillin' out on a park bench while Jack, Sidney, Christie and I were riding the plasma cars and racing a little boy named Brendan who told us to call him Jones. Brendan/Jones--we did not really care what his name was. We just knew that he was a super cool kid who wanted to play!

I borrowed the Signing Time DVD Zoo Train from our local library since Jack loves animals. He loves watching the video and remember we got the zoo pass for Jack's birthday? This morning, we headed out to the zoo. Jack really enjoyed riding around in his little car.

He looked at the animals a little but I think riding around in a new environment was fun in and of itself. I am hoping that he'll pay more attention to the animals next time.
He enjoyed riding on the train
and he loved
splashing in the water!

We finished up the weekend by going to our home church where we found Michi waiting with delicious dairy free cookies who was not to be outdone by Pop who took Jack outside to play on Ms. Donna's porch.

A VERY LOOOONG Day and a couple others...

That very first day of preschool was sooooo long for......David and me. I really truly thought I might have a heart attack or at the very least a panic attack. I did not sleep well the few nights before (unrelated to the starting school except for the excitement of the night before). Much like Jack, I thrive on routine, consistency, and some type of perceived order. That first day of school was chaotic. It was hard to get Jack out of bed and he wanted some extra snuggling with Mommy. How could I refuse? Then we get to school and find out that the rules for dropping off any child who cannot get himself out of the car independently have changed. The way it was supposed to work was we pulled up to the curb, the teacher or aide helped Jack out of the car and he and his classmates walked to the classroom together. We got to the school and found true chaos as school officials scrambled to make room for parents of all preschoolers and kindergartners to park so we could walk our kids into the school. So David dropped off Jack and I and again we thought I would just walk Jack into the school where he would join his classmates to walk down the hall. I was all out of sorts as they directed me to go ahead and take him on down to the class. Like I said, I like consistency and now I was all confused. When we got very close to the classroom, Jack motioned for me to pick him up so I figured I would get in a few more cuddles. We got to the classroom and he did not want me to leave. It was awful. He was crying. I wanted to cry. Jack's teacher, Ms. Megan, said in answer to my question, "I know it's hard but yes you should go." I waited outside the door and I could hear Ms. Megan talking but Jack was no longer crying but would he make it a whole school day away from us?Well, uh, YES! When we went to pick him up, Ms. Megan was just gushing about what a great day they had and how much she enjoyed having him in the class and how much he enjoyed being there. He looked at us like, "What are you guys doing here?"
A few minutes into the car ride home Jack sacked out. Ms. Megan said that he rested quietly on his nap mat but did not sleep that first day.


It's Mommy and Baby happily reunited that evening!

That weekend, we went to Atlanta to see Jack's cousin, Jessica, get married. It was a loooong trip but Jessica was absolutely beautiful and Stephen was so handsome so it was worth it.

Last but not least, David and mini-Dave on our way to our first Open House at Big School.

Jack is really loving school.

We had a blast this weekend at Sophia's baby shower and then at Sidney's birthday party but Jack's slacker Mommy did not take her camera and Sidney and Sophia's slacker family have not yet passed along any pics. Yeah, you, you know who I'm talking about. :)