20 Months

I have been terrible at keeping up with these posts.  Part of the problem was I guess I post too many pictures and didn't realize that there is a limit to how much storage you have.  So I decided to create a blog book using blurb.com.  I just now finished that and sent it to get printed today.  It should arrive just in time for Jack's 2nd birthday.  This is fine since I decided to do a book each year.  Now I have deleted almost all of 2010 posts so that I can start posting in 2012.

I don't have any facts and can't tell you all the new words Jack is saying or things he is doing.  (I'm writing this at the beginning of May) but I have started a better system of capturing these little milestones.  A piece of paper taped to the fridge so we can write these things down.  So, when I am ready and in the mood to blog, I'll have information to blog about.

January 1st is my annual day to put up the Christmas decorations.  Jack was helping me pack up wearing his Aggie Santa hat.  

One of the toys that Jack got was this Sesame Street playhouse.  Ben really wanted to get this for Jack even though Jack doesn't watch Sesame street.  Somehow he still knows all of the character names.

Even to this day, Jack is very OCD/particular about where each character goes.  Ernie, Burt, Cookie Monster, Elmo, and somehow Alvin (from Alvin and the chipmunks) have their own spot in this play house. If you try to put them in a different spot, he grabs them and puts them back in their "correct" place.  Just recently Jack got Big Bird and Abbie to add to this playhouse and I guess since they were not there originally, they do not have a place.  If you try and put them in the playhouse, he takes them and throws them "outside" of the playhouse.  He also loves to open the front door put in one character close the door and repeat with each character.

Jack climbed up in this chair all by himself.  Takes a lot of arm strength to do this.  Plus turn around and get situated without falling off since the bear is so big.

Jack loves to go to Grandpa and Sissy's house.  He has so many rooms and things to explore.  I'm pretty sure he wears them out.  He goes from playing in the truck in the garage, to playing the piano, to going outside either backyard or frontyard, to the "clock" room (it's really the Dr. Pepper room, has tons of antique Dr. Pepper stuff in it but also a lot of Dr. Pepper clocks), to sitting on the couch.

Jack found this flashlight in the garage and said "flashlight".  Then all he wanted to do was turn it on and off.

You can put in your own caption here.

One night while waiting for daddy to get home, Jack found a set of PJ's and decided to put them on...himself.  I was a little surprised.  Didn't know he could do that.

He thought it was the funniest thing.

This winter was very mild.  Jack loved being able to go "ou-side".

Having fun with his bear

Yippeee

I was trying to get Jack to read this book so that I could take a picture and put it on facebook as the way we announced we were expecting Baby #2.  At first he didn't want anything to do with it.  Then I found the page where the big brother was playing basketball and asked Jack "What is he doing?" and he pointed and said "Basketball"  I knew that would work.

Baseball Progression

Jack got a T-ball set for Christmas and we were curious to see how he would do with it.  Here is Jack and his progression of baseball skills hitting the ball.  (we already knew he can throw the ball well)

Here is Jack playing "t-ball" on an old metal t-ball stump before he even got his T-ball set.  November 7, 2011 (17 months)

Here is Jack playing with the actual T-ball set when it was warm enough to go outside.  January 14, 2012 (almost 20 months)

This is Jack the very next day.  Notice the difference?  In one day...crazy.  January 15, 2012 (almost 20 months)

Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandpa and Sissy's house.  Jack opened many presents but seemed interested in sitting on his new found "car" (chair).  Grandpa and Sissy's big gift was a manly kitchen.  Jack's teachers had been saying how much he loved the home center so we thought it would be perfect for him.  I'll post a picture below to show him playing with his new kitchen.

Christmas Eve night was spent watching "White Christmas" and helping Santa put together Jack's gift.  We also put together Jack's kitchen so he could play with it in the morning.  We also had the excitement of knowing we were going to tell our parents the next day about Baby #2..

Christmas Morning...Santa came!!!

Jack playing in his playroom, showing Grandpa and Sissy his Racetrack

The walk down the stairs to see what Santa brought.

This year was mommy's turn.

"Look Jack!"

Jack's first thrill was putting the lid on and off of the paint pen.

Drawing with his paint pen

It was time to open the stockings and see what other things Santa had brought.  Jack pulled out a small basketball net with 3 balls to go in the bathtub.

Here he is looking at the orange basketball fish.

Opening his new Elmo book

This is a cute pose

Another snack trapper.  These come in handy in the car.

Showing Jack some more lavender bubble bath.  

Scribble Scribble, an artist at work

Grandpa and Sissy watching Jack play with his new toy

Before breakfast we had my dad and Sherry open one gift that morning.  It was a book that said "I'm a new Big Brother".  My dad was shocked, I think this is his "Wow, I'm so surprised, I don't know what to say laugh".  They were happy for us.

As everyone was sitting down for breakfast Jack played with his new kitchen (the one Grandpa and Sissy gave him)

Checking everything out, cooking some tomatoes on the stove

Taking the food out and putting it back in.

After Grandpa and Sissy left, Ben, Jack, and I opened our presents to each other.  The timing all seemed to go well.  Christmas this year was on Sunday, not my favorite day to have Christmas although I know Ben totally disagrees with me.  But we were able to do Santa gifts, eat breakfast and open our family gifts, get dressed and ready for church and leave on time.  I already had the car packed because we had a full day ahead of us. 

Jack got some more art supplies from mommy and daddy.  Santa gave them a hint of what Jack would be getting.  He got some paints, brushes, finger paints and large crayons.

Jack of course just wanted to take the finger paints out of the box and then back in.

After church we headed over to KK and Papa's house.  There we had lunch although it was WAY past Jack's normal lunch.  Then we put him down for a nap.  Jack gets night terrors if he doesn't get a good amount of sleep during the day.  While he was sleeping we did stockings, opened some presents and ate dessert.  Then Jack woke up and opened his presents.

Jack has started to enjoy playing on KK's piano's.  He's very precise...he can play soft and then he can play loud.

Goodyear family picture.  Jack was extremely tired at this point and we hadn't eaten yet.  I who hadn't announced that I was pregnant to them yet was STARVING!

KK got Jack his own cell phone as well as they got him this cool Toy Story chair that pulls out into a "bed".  He loves it!  It currently sits in front of our couch at home and he'll sit on it with his puppy next to him.

Watching and listening to the puppy dog on his phone.

So focused, furrowing his eyebrows.

KK opened the "I'm a big brother" book.  Excited, can you tell?

After KK and Papa's we traveled two streets over to Mimi and Papa Steves house.  There we met up with my Aunt Linda and Sherwin and we ate dinner with them.  

Jack sitting on top of his big gift.  

Papa Steve and Mimi gave Jack a Black and Decker Tool Bench.  I thought it was neat because it reminded me of my Granddaddy.  He was always working with tools on some project.  Although, since this cool new toy was still in the box and had some assembly required to it, Jack loved playing on top of the big box.

These are some after Christmas pics of Jack enjoying some of his new toys.

Here is a video of Jack playing with his tool bench:

A Month of Christmas Festivities

So the month of December was pretty full of getting ready for Christmas.  Jack was a lot more fun to watch this year experience everything.

Jack playing basketball in the house

Yogurt time!

Reindeer outfit with his Santa and reindeer placemat

Ready to go somewhere

Maybe out to ride his tricycle

Jack's preschool had a Santa and cookies night.  So we knew this was going to be our one time, for only $4, to get Jack's picture with Santa.  We knew he wouldn't be happy so we thought spending $4 was better than the $25 it costs at the mall.  We got there right as the "older" kids were finishing their program so we were second in line to see Santa.  This was good because Jack also doesn't like to wait.  

Here is Jack's picture with Santa...hilarious!

After his picture, he got to decorate cookies.

His favorite part was eating the sprinkles.  Mommy and Daddy iced the cookies, then ate them later.

Decorating the cookies with sprinkles

One day Jack got a hold of Mimi's Scarf and loved playing with it.  It was furry like his bear that he loves so he liked the way it felt.

Posing

One night we went to church to hear Dr. Wiles tell the Christmas story to all of the preschoolers.  We decided that we would go a little early and take some pictures of Jack in front of some of the decorations at the church, hoping that we would use them for our Christmas card.  

* That, in the end, did not happen.  I was in my early first trimester and did not feel good the whole month of December so I had no desire to get a Christmas card out.  So, don't feel like you weren't special this year, no one was  :)

Before we went to church Jack had some dinner.

Yummm

Gicken (chicken)

Jack by the BIG tree

Bear

Gircle (circle)

A runaway elf

heheheheheh

Stairs!

Jack had his first Christmas party at school this year.  I tried to get a picture of him in his cute outfit to send to Ben but this was as best as I could do.  He was ready to GO, GO, GO!

Another night, our church had a Family Night.  A Christmas concert for families.  We decided to arrive about 30 minutes early.  Mostly so we could get a good seat and so that Jack could "run" around the church, get some energy out and be ready to sit and watch the show.  

The background for the show

One of the cool things was they had a goody bag for the kids. In each bag they had this glow stick, crayons, a coloring book and a few other things.  This was great for times when there was more dialogue than Jack preferred.  He'd turn around facing the seat and color.

There were a few songs that caught his attention.  This was one of the times when Jack was into the Fresh Beat Band so it was like he was watching them live.

After the concert Jack explored the stained glass windows.

Cheese

One of the things I was most worried about this Christmas season was Jack messing with the Christmas tree.  Surprisingly, he never really messed with it.  There were maybe 5 times total where we would have to say "Uh oh, just look, no touch" otherwise it seems like he totally ignored it.  I posted this video below because about a few days before it was taken Jack had randomly gone up to the Aggie ornament and said "Aggie".  Ben and I were totally shocked. 

 One of the things that I wanted to make sure I did with Jack was to bake Christmas cookies so he could decorate them.  So one day I made some and wanted to see what he would do.  I also thought this would get him used to using spoons more.

So... it looks like Jack has iced some cookies....

...but really ALL he did was eat the icing...pure sugar

Here are the finished products

I thought I'd include this...his teachers made this as a Christmas present to us.

I don't really know what this hat is, a Santa hat? elf hat?  I don't know but it was cute.