Jake is three~

Our little man turned 3 on Sunday! We woke up in Ogunquit Maine and spoiled him with a few presents and some donuts. He was more than excited and proclaimed "These are the best birthday presents ever !" We got up quickly and headed to the beach to walk Christians Lifeguard Dash..it was a great morning on the beach!!
Here are a few pics of the day.
Cheeseeee I'm three!

Wow!So excited her ripped the bag open...

.

Corey Jane joined the race...
Jake and Daddy ready to walk!




Laura and Zander starting off the race and holding a moment of silence for Christian..at which time Alex and I both teared up..He got soaked..butttt it was his birthday...how could we stop the fun?

Cuddle Bug

Jake was watching TV this am..and this is how close he gets to watch tv and cuddle..I love it! So, I went through the photobooth on my computer and found some good ones..












Three years later...still my cuddlebug.

J-A-K-E spells...

Jake! He can now spell his name..not that I have drilled it into him, over and over or anything. Now, if we could get him to pee on the potty - watch our world!

Summer is here and we are loving hanging in the back yard and running through the sprinkler. Jake thought it was hilarious last night to chase me with it! Not so funny. He also loves the playground, kicking the soccer ball around and riding his new bike..although i think his favorite part is the helmet!

He is also starting to love to play on his own and making up stories with different voices as he plays. At night or just in the car he will say "tell me a story" and he seems to be getting his imagination going more and more lately. If we start telling a random story he will ask for a story with mommy, daddy, jake and kitty in it..or Mia. He loves his big cousin and gets so excited to see her! If we go somewhere he will sometimes ask "Is Mia coming?"..if only Mia didn't live so far away!

June will be a busy month for us..and it's the month our little bug was born! It's really hard to believe that he will be 3. I look at him lately and he looks so tall and grown up. We look forward to lots of family and friends celebrating his birthday this month.
Whats better than spending your birthday at the beach? Jake will be walking/running Ogunquit beach for his birthday this year..we cannot wait! We will be walking/running that day in memory of one of my other favorite boys..Christian. It's always great to go back to O, I just wish it wasn't for these reasons. But again, I cannot think of a better way to celebrate our little guy and a not so little boy who used to amaze me just as much as Jake does. I literally don't stop thinking about Christian lately with all the milestones Jake is hitting.. it doesn't seem like 13 years ago I was experiencing Christian and his brothers feats! Time does fly..

Have a happy June..enjoy the beauty (or beauties) that surround you!

May flour.

Tonight we were making homemade pizzas and Alex turned to Jake and told him he needed more flour..Jake said "Oh, there's flowers outside!" Cuteness.

Its been a month since I have blogged - it was quite the month! School took over my life and without my amazing husband to take care of Jake on the weekends when the last thing I wanted to do was write papers and my awesome mother in law who picked Jake up at least twice a week from school while I went to class..I never would have been able to do it! I am so very thankful it is over and I am already dreading next year - my final year!!

Easter came and went and we spent it in NH with lots of family..Jake was spoiled by the easter bunny at YaYa's house, MiMi;s and ours.

Mothers day was great..we spent it with Mimi for breakfast and YaYa, Mia and Auntie Courtney in the afternoon. I even got to join Court's soccer team and we played together indoor..it was so great to play together again..its been about 15 years? Wow!

Rain has been a part of the forecast for many days now...but we are making the most of our vaca together. We hit up Mystic aquarium this week and Jake had a blast seeing all the "animals". We spent the night at Foxwoods in a suite, thanks to Papa..and had a blast playing in the arcade!

We are looking forward to the summer and the fun things ahead..a couple trips to Maine hopefully and our vaca in August.

From the mouth of..JtG

"Daddy needs a new belly button, his has a hole in it."

Dear Jake

Two posts in one day. Wow..

Today as Jake, Alex and I were going about our day I thought there are just so many things (cute, and not sometimes not so cute) that he does, and I try so hard to remember them to write them down, but we dont. I thought this may help in the future.

Dear Jake,

You are 2 years and 10 months old and each and every day you make us laugh. You're favorite activity at any meal is to "do favorites". You will ask Mommy and Daddy what our favorite parts of the day were and then say without fail "Do you want to ask me what my favorite part of today was?" Of course, we do! Another favorite game of yours right now is "I spy". You say in your cute voice "I spy with my little eyes.." and pick whatever is closest to you at the moment. You are pretty good at the game and love to play in the house or usually in the car to and from school. You love "us cream" and will eat it for any meal if we let you!

You have many friends at school who adore you and love to play with you. You love to turn the light switch on after nap and get a bit upset if its someone else's turn. You always want it to be YOUR turn.
You love to eat Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches and love to help us make them for you, without the crust of course. Other favorites are Chicken Nuggets, hot dogs, mac and cheese and perdue chicken.

It's been a struggle lately to get you to use the potty and Im starting to wonder if Ill be buying you diapers through college. I can't even imagine how expensive they will be at that point, so please just pee on the potty! We have tried every incentive: M&M's ice cream, money..you pass on it all and prefer diapers.

You love your Daddy. While I know you absolutely love your Mommy..you are indeed a Daddy's boy at heart. In the morning when you wake up, you yell for Daddy (you are ok if I go in to get you, but the first question out of your mouth is: "Where is my Daddy?". When you wake up from nap, you yell for Daddy. If Daddy is out of the house, you will ask where he is until he walks in the door. This is not to say that you are not a Mommy's Boy too...when you are sick or you get a boo-boo, you cry for Mommy. While it breaks my heart that you hurt, I love the idea that you need me at these times. I need you at those times too..I want to be the one who makes everything right for you. I promise to always do that for you, to the best of my ability.

Lately, you have been a trooper about going to sleep by yourself at night. Up until recently Daddy would rock you to sleep and then he would fall asleep on your bedroom floor. I wondered if this too would last through college. It has stopped and you are ok with it. No more tears at night, keep up the great work buddy!

Speaking of buddy..you have a slew of nicknames: Jake-Jake, Jakeman, Bubs, Bubba or Buddy..Jakeman being my favorite.
You are a sweet, affectionate little boy who loves to kiss and hug and say I love you. This makes your parents hearts melt, and we hope that you have this sweet side forever.

Daddy and I love you to the moon and back..again..and again..and again..and again...


XO,
Mommy

Spring is in the air!

Today we all got to get outside and play! Jake loves playing soccer, riding is Cozy Coup fire truck, riding his tricycle, collecting rocks and more. Lets hope that this weather continues and we get to get out and se "Mr Golden Sun" more and more...for now it's nap time..and nap time for Jake means school work time for Mommy.

Oh..and we are attempting to try to potty train again. I feel like every Saturday we start, get no where, so we quit. We are at it again and even offered to let Jake pee in the back yard. He didn't.

Tomorrow Jake has a date with Sidney to see Barney. While Jake is past the Barney stage (thankfully) his girlfriend Sidney loves him but does not love characters in costume. Jake graciously agreed to accompany Sidney to see the big guy in the purple suit. Lets hope Jake's presence helps her out! Let's also hope the show is short and sweet. :)


Happy Spring - get out and enjoy it!

Real world issues...

Jake and I were walking to my car after a trip to the YMCA and he commented that my car was broken - and I told him I'd like to buy a new car soon..he told me I should by a blue and he was going to buy a yellow one for himself..

Jake: I need to buy a car to go to work.
Me: Where do you work?
Jake: I work at school.
Me: What do you do at school for work?
Jake: At school I work...I test trucks

Well, couldn't argue with that!

Kangaroo

Jake told me lately that kangaroos and bunnies hop.. apparently so does Jake. I got a call on Monday that Jake had "taken a digger" and hit his head and was bleeding enough for them to believe he needed stitches or glue. I raced out of work and got to him ASAP...thinking I was going to walk into scoop up a screaming little boy who just wanted his Mommy. Nope. I walked very quickly into the school's office to find Jake sitting on the Asst. Director's lap reading a book. No tears. No crying. He simply told me "Mommy, I have to go to the Dr. and get a bandage". The cut looked like this:





The whole story is that Jake was jumping and fell off of a cot and hit his head on a table ( "a red table, Mommy").

And yes..he is smiling..and still reading his Cat in the Hat book. We grabbed a quick snack on the way and headed to the Dr's office. Our pedi is fabulous and told us to just come right down with him and if they thought he needed stitches they'd send him next door to the ER (ugh). Thankfully, they took Jake in right away (I mean, who wants a kid dripping blood in the waiting room!). Jake could not have been more well behaved..First off he walked into the Dr's room and said "I'm Jake, what's your name?" he sat on the table and let the Dr. Bob wipe down his cut.

When Dr. Bob explained he'd be gluing Jake's cut, he was very interested in that. Arts and Crafts at the Dr's!. Jake sat in my lap and patiently waited while the Dr. put a few coats of Dermabond on his cut. I was amazed at how quickly it dried and that was that. No worrying about baths or even him playing and running around. Today, about 6 days later it has finally washed away and the cut looks fine. I am so happy that he did not have to have stitches..I am not sure I could have handled watching them work on his face like that.

After the arts and crafts at the Dr's we headed to get ice cream because of how well behaved he was and ..well..it was a long day - we both deserved a treat!
















Just minutes after eating his "us cream" cone...he was out.





I've been a bad blogger lately because I have been writing paper after paper for school and just do not have the energy to write more. I will try to be better about it in the future!!

Sing me a song

Jake and I were playing "roll the ball" back and forth to each other tonight and he came up with the great idea of singing songs. His first one was "oh diaper, diaper diaper, there you are" and his next (and my favorite)...

"My favorite girls name is Mommmmyy......I love her"

Melted my heart..

Love you to Jake-Jake.

Random

Asking Jake what is for dinner...

"Let's have lunch ice-creams"

AKA - lets have ice cream sandwiches for dinner.


"They are VERY good mommy, let's have them."

They just keep coming..

Normally Alex rocks Jake to sleep every night but tonight I did it as Alex is not feeling well.

Mommy and Jake are rocking in the chair and cuddling...

Jake: Tell me a story, Mommy.

Me: Sorry Jake, it's time for bed. (This SOUNDS mean, but this child will do anything and everything to push back bed time._including the Iamhungry.Iwantfood.Ihavetopee.Iwillpooponthepotty.readmeanotherbook.Letstellstories.letssingsongs line.

Jake: But Daddy ALWAYS tells me a story at nuh-night time. Daddy does that, he tells me stories. Daddy always tells me stories.


At 2.5 they do that?!!?

He has a point...

Jake had a hard time keeping his hands to himself at school today during lunch so the teacher put him in a highchair to eat.

The teacher told him: "Big boys don't touch other people's food!".

Jake's reply: "Big boys don't sit in high chairs!"

I am not thrilled that he was fresh...but you have to give the kid credit for trying!

:)

It's fixed

Part 2 of the moon puzzle...as we were leaving daycare today Jake said: "Look at the moon Mommy! It's FIXED!"

The Moon Puzxle

"Mommy, I see the moon..oh...it's missing pieces!" Jake's comment about the half moon tonight.

Winter Wonderland

We have been busy..shoveling and cuddling and trying to stay busy indoors with all the snow and ice falling outdoors! Not that I am complaining - out of a possible 4 classes I should have had the past two weeks, I have only had ONE with cancellations. I'm not complaining now..but...i'm sure it wont be fun when we have to play catchup. Oh well...such as life in New England.

Last week we too Jake to see Elmo and friends at Sesame Street live. We were joined by our good friends, Sarah, Kevin and their cutey patooty - Lilly.. Jake liked the show, but didn't like it so much when Elmo went off stage. If he couldn't see Elmo he'd ask where he went and then at one point yelled in his cute 2.5 year old voice "Elmmmoooo, where ARE you??"

A couple of weekends ago Auntie Courtney and Mia came for the weekend. Jake was on cloud nine! He absolutely loves Mia and will follow her around whenever we are with them. They played dress up, played in the tent and tunnels, sang, painted and even put on a little dance. The dance pretty much consisted of Mia dancing and Jake tailing her. I love that they are close already and enjoy playing together so much!

Latest updates for Jake..

He loves to count in Spanish..uno, dos, cuatro, tres...lol.. if we tell him to go slow, he can actually count to 5 in spanish by himself.

He still loves the wheels on the bus song and asks us to sing it to him at night when we rock him to sleep. His favorite line "The Mommys, and the Daddys and the Jakes say i love you".. pure cuteness.

Jake loves the snow and loves to eat the snow and step on it. Last night we went out to dinner with friends and his little friend Sidney..while they were waiting for us each of our 2.5 year olds sat on top of the snow. Cute. Wet.

I have been feeling under the weather lately with sinus infections and Jake very sweetly will check on my if I am laying down. He also loves to get into our bed and have all of us get under the covers to hide from the crocodiles. He laughs so hard while we are all under there.

Speaking of laughing..this child still LOVES to be tickled. His laughter is too cute to not tickle him!

While he does love his mommy...he is at the moment a Daddy's boy! Some mornings the first thing he says is "Is Daddy here?" "Can I see Daddy?" He doesn't 100% favor him..but he always wants to be by his side and drags Alex into the playroom to play most of the time.



Here are a few pics from January...

Proof of the Monkey see, Monkey do...

Brrr

Baby, it's cold outside! Or..so I have heard, I have been in my jammies all day doing arts and crafts and such with the little man! I am trying to get as create as possible so that he enjoys what we are doing and stays on task..somedays it's tough because, he is after only only 2! Today we made a heart banner..so that was mostly mommy cutting hearts out and hole punching them..J man did help me by holding the string as I strung them..oh and he also attempted to stand on the 3 stacked 12 packs that I had attempted to stand on to hang the said banner. That was a "do as I say moment".. We also made hand puppets (he calls them muffets) out of socks..


These were a lot of fun!


We have been hit with some illness lately but we are up and at em' and ready once again for a new semester to start! Mommy has a lot on her plate for the next few months..but we can handle it!


For now..we are bundled in our home ready for yet another storm this week!

New Year!

2011! Here we are in the new year and ready for all the changes ahead! 2010 wasn't necessarily a horrendous year for us, but it wasn't the best either. Notably we lost someone close, my little guy Christian, who wasn't so little any more and turned into an amazing 16 year old who lost his life far too early. When I look back on 2010 I think..well it wasn't that bad..and then I remember 9/11 (honestly, does anything good ever happen on that day?) and my thoughts are - just because of that one day, 2010 sucked!
To this day I still think of the what if's..and I know you aren't suppose to live life that way but it's hard. It's hard because he was so loved and such a great person. I met Christian when he was 4, and knew right away that this little boy was special (as were his 3 brothers). When I think of him, I think of that sweet little 4 year old who could melt you're heart within minutes of meeting him. I think about what his brothers are missing as well as the rest of his family. I hate that it happened to such great people. I guess the lesson is..we are here, live like you don't know if tomorrow will come.

There are things that are going to change for us in 2011 and we welcome them. Alex is getting so close to one of his goals and I can't wait for him to complete it all, officially. The hard work will pay off, we pray!

Jake is already 2 and a half. Really? I know that everyone and their mother says kids grow up so quickly..but really..they do. What surprises me everyday with him lately is how verbal he is. He can tell you what he wants, how he feels, what he wants to do, or doesn't want to do. Not to mention his singing! Just tonight before bed he wanted us all to sing the Wonder Pet theme song..and then the Bob the Builder song..and then combined them! "What's gonna work? Teammmwork. Can we build it? YES WE CAN".

Toys..we have enough to last us the year, that's for sure! Jake asked tonight when Santa was coming with presents again! A LONG time!

New year..new opportunities..new challenges..new adventures...new goals... but it is up to us to accomplish what we want.

Can we do it? YES, we CAN.

For Auntie Kim...

Just chilling on Christmas Eve..ready to head to Aunt Shirley's and Uncle Dennis' house




Dressed up and ready to spread Christmas cheer...



WOW! Santa found us at Mimi & Grampy's house!


Helping Grampy open his presents..





Hanging out in our new sweatshirts! Go Merrimack & St A's!



Heading back to RI...



Up and ready! Santa came to our house TOO!




Go Patriots!









I think I am Buzz Light Year! To Infinity & Beyond....



Thankfully...Santa brought my suit!