The end of the pacifier

We had a goodbye pacifier (or binker, as Jack calls them) party a few weeks ago. We started off the evening by taking Jack to his first movie at the theatre (Madagascar) and making a big deal out of this being a "big boy" thing to do. We had been talking a lot about saying goodbye to the binkers and giving them to the babies because he was a big boy now.

When we got home, we collected all the binkers from around the house (or so we thought, as we have found at least 6 more in the subsequent weeks), put them in a bowl, and let Jack have one last time playing with them.

Then we closed up the bowl, and Jack put the binkers on the front porch. We ran around the house looking for the "binker fairy" while Corey snuck out and exchanged the bowl of binkers for a "big boy" present. When Corey got back in, we opened up the front door and the binkers were gone! The binker fairy had left Jack a new big boy truck:

He was very impressed that the binker fairy had come and talked about it quite a bit. He asked for the binkers a few times, but went to bed without any problems. Every time he asks about them, we remind him that the binker fairy came to take the binkers to the babies. He decided that the binker fairy took the binkers to one of Jack's favorite babies, Ella's little brother Matthew, and seemed quite happy to exchange the binkers for his new truck.

Next up: moving from the crib to his "big boy" bed.

Jack's words

No pictures in this post, but I wanted to remember some of the funny things that Jack has been saying lately, and since I'm even worse at keeping up the babybook than I am at blogging, I thought I'd write them down here:

His first full sentence: "Nana and pop-pop go on airplane to see Jack". I nearly fell off my chair when this popped out of his mouth. Now he says it EVERY time he sees/hears an airplane above us.

Every morning he wakes up and the first things he asks is "Where Daddy go?" Then he answers his own question by saying "oh, yea, Daddy go to work. Daddy-baseballs, Daddy-snacks, oh boy, daddy-work!" Whenever I take Jack up to see Corey at the office, Corey gives Jack some of the baseballs in his office collection to play with and they go out in the hall and throw the ball back and forth a few times. Then Corey takes Jack into the kitchen and lets him pick out a snack and get water from the dispenser. Jack thinks this is all the coolest thing ever and also thinks it's all Corey does all day.

Jack greets everyone by saying "hey, hey, how you doin'?"

Corey was hanging pictures the other day and Jack was so excited about Daddy using the hammer - he ran up to him and said "hi Daddy, what you doin'? Hammer? like Bob? Daddy, you build a road like Bob?" Jack has a "Bob the Builder" dvd that is all about building roads, so he associates any tools (or going to home depot and looking at tools) as something Bob does. He also says "hi, Bob!" and sings the bob the builder theme song and bob the builder "how do you build a road" song every time we go by a construction site. Which is rather frequently since we pass the I-64 construction at least 5 times a week.

Jack likes to yell at Lola "Lola, no barkin'", "Lola, eat biscuits", Lola, leave those kitties alone!" "Lola, quiet!", "Lola, no!" I never realized I yelled so much at Lola until Jack started doing it.

Lately Jack has been asking his own questions and answering them - like tonight when we were getting ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa's and Corey was telling him that he was going to ride with him in Daddy's car, Jack ran up to me and said "mommy go to memaw and bebaw's too? otay. " The answer to all his own questions is always "otay". "Jack go outside with Lola and play basketball? Otay." "Jack eat chocolate cookies? Otay." "Jack play baseball and not potty? Otay."

Oh, and he refers to himself in third person. Nothing else.

Happy Birthday, Henry Shaw!

Jack, Maddie, and Jacob (and their moms) all went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens for the birthday celebration of the Garden's founder, Henry Shaw. They loved watching the magician, feeding the huge Japanese goldfish, running through the Children's Garden, and hanging out on the blanket for snack time. Here's a picture of the group:

Escapee

WANTED

JACK FRANKLIN

FOR NOT SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT, GOING THROUGH THREE+ OUTFITS A DAY, CHASING THE DOG, AND HIDING OUR SHOES

GOT HIM! IF HIS LAST NAME WAS HILTON, HE'D BE OUT ALREADY

AH-HA! YOU CAN'T KEEP ME LOCKED UP FOR LONG!

(especially if you don't shut the door on me!)

(in case you can't tell, playing in Lola's crate is the highlight of Jack's day!)

Helping Mom

Jack and I sorted through and packed up all his 0-9 months baby clothes yesterday. He was a big help!

Magic House

Ok, so I don't have the video ready yet. But I do have more pictures! We took Jack to the Magic House (St. Louis Children's Museum) for his first visit and it was great fun! His favorites:

~climbing up the ramp and then going head-first down the slide (over and over again)

~playing with the ball drop toy

~watching dad's hair go up in the static electricity exhibit (sorry, no picture of this!)

~playing with mom in the water pit

He's not a baby anymore

Playtime now consists of Jack pulling everything off of his bookcase and throwing it all over the floor. It's kind of fun, actually. He really gets into it and ends up taking most of the books off the shelves, pulling everything out of the baskets, and then going back and forth between all his toys with a happy smile.

The other picture is of him on my great toy find! I got this little car for $2.70 at Babies R Us! For some odd reason, the store had gotten in a bunch of last year's model (yes, you read that correctly) and so they were marked down to super-clearance price. They weren't actually out on the shelves, because all the employees had taken them and put them behind the counter to buy themselves for gifts, etc.! I overheard two of them talking about this and how cheap they were, and so when I asked about it, the girl showed me the car and I promptly asked to have it added to my purchases. Her face was too funny - you could tell she didn't want to sell it! But she did, and Jack loves it.

This picture also shows our new carpet downstairs and on the steps! It's a really light sage green berber carpet, and I love it! It is much nicer than that ugly brown carpet and the room looks so much brighter. We also carpeted the stairs, which has been wonderful, especially since Jack now climbs up the entire flight of stairs, unassisted! (although we are right behind him the whole time). I love having this new carpet - I know the hardwood in the rest of the house is nice, but I love being able to walk around barefoot on the carpet. And it's so much nicer for Jack to crawl on and I don't worry about him hitting his head.

This is his "Don't mess with me" look

I'm a sucker for all the cute t-shirts with sayings on them. Nordstrom's had a whole line of them, including one that says "My mom doesn't do anything all day". I almost bought that one, but then realized that since I'm not doing anything all day, I don't have any money to buy the shirt with.

This one here is from Baby Gap - Jack likes to wear it with his "Ladies Man" Hat.

If Jack stops gaining weight and Lola gets really fat . . .

we'll know why. Lola's figured out that what Jack has is better than her dinner any night, and Jack's figured out that it's pretty funny to feed the dog.

Happy baby

Jack and Daddy at swim class

First tooth!

If you look close enough, you can see his first tooth! Jack actually has two of them now, both on the bottom, and he's working on the top two - you can feel them through his gums.