Jack's 4th Birthday

Birthday boy-Jack! Hard to believe he is FOUR! Although he is almost the size of...ahem...a 6 1/2 year old (Noah)...I believe this is our 7th superhero birthday party so far, and I'm sure it won't be our last!
Jack didn't really like cake at the time, so he asked for a big cookie instead. He wanted Spiderman's face on it, but the spider was the best I could do. Fortunately, he's pretty easy to please and was thrilled with this homemade version :)

I bought this cool thing on Craigslist for a great price, because I'd gotten rid of the exersaucer-type toy we had with the previous younguns. They don't make them any more, but if you can get your hands on one, they are GREAT! (And 3 months later, even now that he can crawl, it is still a huge hit.)
As we did for Noah's last birthday, instead of splurging for the $250 all out party at Pump It Up (we did that once and it was fun and all, but YALL! that would be A THOUSAND DOLLARS a year if we did that for all 4 kids), we allowed Jack to pick 2 friends to have over to our house for cake, and then took them to a new bouncy place, BounceU, which is closer to our house and has a "Family Night" where you get pizza and a drink with your 2 hours of bouncing!
I cannot believe I got a picture of all 5 kids together!! L-R: Jack, Noah, Nathan W, Nathan S, & Madeline


Jack thoroughly enjoyed the Galaga game...not that he ever realized you were supposed to put money in it to play :)
This was something new we hadn't seen before, a tower with levels of stretchy "webs" that you could climb up and then fall back through without risk of injury. The kids really enjoyed this, and I think Jared did too.

Luke was a little overwhelmed at all the noise and activity!

Happy Birthday, Jack!!

Oh Wacky Jack, it is hard to capture in a blog post, or really at all, how full of life you are and There are so many lately, I've got to start keeping track again! His vocabulary has hit another big surge...

1. "tuwarious"--hilarious


2. "buhwicious"--delicious


3. "bisgusting"--disgusting (he says it correctly now and it's still funny!)


4. "oh, he's so adorable"--he says this for Luke almost every time he sees him and also for any other baby he sees


5. "Look, Mommy, I found a woley-poley. He's in a ball...I think he's scared of me!"


6. "butt"--belly button (This causes lots of confusion when he talks about showing people his butt...most recently he had Memaw worried that he was showing his butt until I asked him to show her his butt and he raised up his shirt and pointed to his belly button! Trust me, I am blue in the face from explaining to him that it is a belly button or navel. He is a stubborn boy!)


7. "kitcha wite"--kitchen light, he HAS to have this on to sleep. It is just about the only "currency" I have with him lately...he'll do anything to keep from losing his kitchen light at nap/bedtime!


8. Monsty--his (originally Noah's) doodle-monster, He sleeps with this and chose it to take for teddy bear day at preschool. He's attached to it, but usually doesn't take it with us when we go out of town and doesn't have any problem sleeping without it. He still relies heavily on the "suckin' thumb" for sleeping, though.


9. thumbs up--this is his new favorite thing to do...anytime I check on him or ask how he's doing, he gives me the thumbs up. Especially when he thinks he's made a good choice. He responds really well to making a choice between doing the right thing or the wrong thing. If I just tell him not to do something, he's likely to do it anyway, but if I ask him if something is right or wrong, he knows and chooses (usually) right.


10. He was playing with Luke's purple monkey chewtoy. He asked, "Is he full of nerds?" I think because he's purple and rattles? Then he told the monkey not to "push the button" which apparently he did because then he threw him off the side of the chair, looked at me and said, "Monkey is punished". Well, there you have it.


11. He found my insurance card and said, "Oooh, credit card!" and started swiping it through his hand like a credit card. We do not HAVE credit cards!!! We have debit cards, but pay for almost everything with CASH! I don't know where he gets this stuff!


12. We limit Hannah Montana stuff even for Madeline, but somehow Jack knows her songs! He is frequently heard singing, "I said, I said, I can't be Superman" (not exactly the right lyrics) and "You get da best a bo' worlds"...of course, this is often mixed in with humming the Darth Vader theme from Star Wars (dum dum dum, dum da-dum, dum da-dum) and "Teenager the Minja Turtles, dut, dut, dut, dut" (another argument I can't win...IT'S TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES...he will have NONE of that, thanks--and the dut's are counting time, Noah does this too...apparently my boys got rhythm).


13. Jack can make the most realistic sounding "throwing a Batarang" and "shooting a Spiderweb" sounds I have ever heard. Sounds exactly like the cartoons. I have video evidence on this.


14. Jack was in Ms. Gloria's Pre-K class like Noah was. Jack remembers Noah being in there so he thinks it is really cool that he is now, too. His favorite things are the spiders (pretend) and the fish tank. He thinks it's pretty cool that he gets to play computer, too, but was disappointed that he can't go to "kidswb-dot-com", since it only has games and not internet access (thank goodness!).


15. We were waiting on mom to get here to go to the adventure science center. Jack was looking out the window watching for her and said, "Dani's not here yet...I hope she's not in jail!" Yes, that would be the obvious explanation...


16. A box of diapers "fell" on Jack (he dumped them on himself) and he wallowed in them yelling, "diaper attack!"


17. This is annoying, but a Jack-ism nonetheless. He has started pointing and laughing at people randomly wherever we go. He'll say, "You're funny!" and he really means it as a compliment. He loves to be laughed at and can't understand (even though I've been over and over and over and over it) why others don't feel the same!


18. He also tells adults who are shorter than me (which is most, since I'm about 6') that they are "wittle". Usually, he's being so silly that they can't make out what he's saying so I just sort of mumble something else and move on. Again, he doesn't mean it in an ugly way, just in a factual way. Still, I'm tired of having the same conversation with him over and over and over...


19. "Ee-mazing"--amazing, he says this for many things, with great emphasis on the first (incorrect) syllable, funny!


20. He's all about cicadas.


21. "high five, bro!" He may have gotten this from watching Ninja Turtles.


22. rescape (escape) as in "You'll never-escape!" He tells me this when I tuck him in and he gives me a hug. For a long time he would say, "I neva let you go" and suddenly it changed to "You'll never rescape!" I love it. Also, the only way I can usually get a kiss from him when tucking him in is to kiss his forehead and tell him I took all his kisses and he'll have to kiss me to get them back. Sometimes he does it to me, although all it takes is one look at those poochy little lips to get a kiss out of me!


23. almost always puts his shoes on the wrong feet (I remember the other kids doing this), and almost always has either pants or shirt backwards. I suspect he does it on purpose sometimes. Maybe even all the time. He has control issues. As in, he wants to be in control of everything all the time. I have no idea where he might get that from.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight...

By some miracle, this costume has lasted through 8 years and 4 children!

Luke's first Trunk-or-Treat and he slept right through it! Which made my job a whole lot easier, considering I still had the other 3 crazies to keep up with. They were all pretty good and seemed to have fun. What's not to love?! Costumes and candy? You can't beat that with a stick!

Madeline is a Water Fairy, costume courtesy of Dani's Sewing School! Madeline and Dani (emphasis on the Dani) made the dress this summer together. Madeline was a little uncertain about wearing it because she was afraid her friends might think it was too babyish, but in the end, she was very proud of it (and I could tell she thought she looked pretty cute...which she did!). (Sidenote: Have you SEEN the trashy options for young girls this year in the Halloween department? Made me stop and be thankful my baby still wanted to be a fairy!)

Water Fairy Madeline, Iron Man Noah, Spiderman Jack, and Lion Luke:

Black cat sticker: 10 cents
Pink vampire teeth: 25 cents
Giving your brother bunny ears: PRICELESS!
Love the pile 'o kids and their expressions here:

This is one of my favorite pictures ever...I have no idea what she's laughing at, but I don't really even care!

Happy Halloween! (known around our house as "Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet")

The boy is nothing if not healthy

I miss blogging but have had neither time nor energy lately. My computer time is mostly limited to when I'm nursing Luke, so I'm free to browse but not so much to type :)

Speaking of the boy: He is large. And in charge. The kids were being extra loud at supper tonight (Daddy wasn't home and Mommy has a higher tolerance for noise) and Luke was in his "Intellitainer" (really, that's what it's called, but I highly doubt it is influencing his intelligence either way) and started yelling at the kids. Everytime they got to loud, he would squeal really loudly and they would all stop and look at him. He had total control over the entire crew and he seemed to know it. It was really funny to watch.

So back to the "large" part. Luke went for his 4 month checkup this week (a little late...hey, he's lucky I remembered at all) and weighed in at a whopping TWENTY ONE AND A HALF pounds (still off the charts, but actually closer than at 2 months). He's 27 inches long (95th percentile) and head size is also 95th percentile. He's just a big'un. He's wearing 12-18 month clothes. He's also rolling over both ways (front to back and back to front). Unlike the other kids, he LOVES to be on his tummy, so almost as soon as I put him down on his back (unless he's asleep), he rolls to his tummy and commences wiggling. He wants to get moving so badly! He is a very happy baby...who could blame him with all the entertainers at our house!? Jack still is very sweet with him and loves to find ways to make Luke laugh. The latest is throwing Luke's lovey (blankie) up in the air and catching it. Luke just cackles. And then so does Jack. They are fun to watch. It's amazing how long such a simple thing will keep the two of them entertained!

Inchworm

Little (big) 4 month old Luke is a mover and a shaker. And a squealer. We are in so much trouble. I'm trying to get a better video of this, but he can actually inch his way forward several feet, as well as rolling front to back (not in this video). He would not cooperate yesterday when I tried, but it's pretty cute anyway! (And don't miss the video below I just posted of Jack!)

A Jack-sighting

OH. MY. GOODNESS. While I was feeding Luke this morning, I looked over and Jack was thoroughly engrossed in reading Consumer Reports. And singing Blue Skies and Rainbows. I couldn't believe that my camera was actually within arms' reach to capture this scene. He never even noticed I was there. Precious-ness.