It is impossible for me to believe that exactly two years ago right now I was lying in recovery at St. Joseph’s hospital while Joe paraded a brand new Jack around to our families.

And one year ago Jack was shoving cake into his mouth.

And here he is yesterday at his party:

My how he has grown.

I have many more pictures to share from the last few days, but I wanted to get a special Happy Birthday post up for our guy.

It is impossible to describe to anyone how tired I am right now. I am 35 weeks pregnant and Jack will be two on Monday. I think this is the equivalent to competing in the Ironman Triathlon every day for weeks and weeks on end. Motherhood is an endurance sport, and my endurance is waning.

That being said, Jack is more fun and interesting every single day. He knows all the letters of the alphabet and can sort-of count to ten. He marches around saying new words each day (today’s words include lap and scotch), and he is a wonderful boy to be around.

Weekend before last he went to spend the night with Joe’s parents and they took some pictures of his latest adventures. Here he is checking out the Christmas tree:















Apparently he went around the entire bottom of the tree accepting or rejecting ornaments on a whim. He is a very particular toddler.















The funniest thing he has done lately is attempt to differentiate his grandparents. Both of our families call grandparents the same thing – Grandma and Grandpa. Instead of making one family change, we have just always called both sides the same and let him figure it out. Well, he finally did last week. We now have Grandma Car and Grandpa Snocone (my parents) and Grandma Christmas Tree and Grandpa Guitar. It is now easy for him to know who we are talking about at any given time. Isn’t he clever?

As you are aware, his great love at the time is zoo animals. He can’t get enough. So Gloria bought him a set of small animals and made him a little box terrarium to arrange them and play. As you can see, he adored it.











































Back at home, Jack tested out his new tub crayons.












And he also spent some time in the baby’s tub “washing” his cow:



































And what would a blog post be without photos of the zoo? Last week Joe was traveling for work but was lucky enough to get home a day early. So Friday morning we all loaded up and went to the zoo. It was fun to see Jack showing his dad all the animals. We started at the new stingray exhibit. Here are the boys waiting for the rays to swim by:













I’m not sure how clear this picture will show it, but the rays are in the water swooping past:















Of course we had to visit the rhino:















And the orangutan:












It was a fun family outing and the weather was perfect. Since we went on a weekday morning it wasn’t nearly as crowded. I fear it will be my last trip to the zoo for a while, however, because lugging this belly up those hills proved to be quite taxing.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I will certainly post pictures of our celebration this week.

Last weekend Jack went to visit my parents. He’s actually been trading off going to my parents and Joe’s parents for a while now on the weekends just to give us a break. It is wonderful to sleep in, especially knowing that soon I will not be sleeping much at all.

As you can see, he’s a budding artist who prefers to work shirtless:





























He also spent some time planting in the desert with my dad:














When we went to pick him up he was happy to see us. As you can tell it is not so easy for me to hold him with my big belly sticking out:














My dad wanted a picture of the two of us and he specifically didn’t tell me so I couldn’t dress for the occasion.





























Check out that belly. Hard to believe we still have five weeks until the baby gets here.

Here are the only two pictures I’ve taken this week. Jack is now eating at the big table:



































It’s been a tough week around here. Joe has been traveling for work and I am getting more and more tired as each day passes. We didn’t even make it to the zoo this week. Jack went through a spell where he wouldn’t go to sleep before 10 and he was up at 5:15 – that’s not even enough sleep for me much less a growing boy. He seems to be back to normal now so hopefully next week will be a little easier!

Yesterday we took yet another trip to the zoo. This time I was wise enough to drag my parents along so I did not have push Mr. Friendly up those long hills. Jack really enjoyed showing his grandparents all of his favorite animals and telling them how scary the baboons can be.

We started at the most important exhibit – Starbucks. Caffeine may be the only reason I have survived this pregnancy.














Next we met up with the giraffe. I can’t believe how close you can get to these animals. Jack likes to point out that they are tall.














I think this is a great picture – it pays to have a fancier camera along.














Of course we had to stop at the friendly Rhinos. Once again, Jack mentioned that these animals are heavy.














The animals were the highlight of the trip, but there was also some fun to be had by having three adults around constantly catering to Jack’s every whim. Like jumping in the air:














He hasn’t quite mastered the two-footed jump on his own, and the charts say he is supposed to have this skill by the age of two. He practices every day so he can show off for the doctor at his two year check up. The word he says for “jump” sounds more like “punch”, but I know what he means because he crouches way down, pops up, and then takes little steps with his feet. Obviously it is easier if two people grab your arms.

We saw more animals – the orangutan of course:














The elephant:














And the tortoise:














There was lots of walking














And more walking:














And more happy-boy animal viewing:














The day ended just as it was starting to warm up and get a little crowded. Everyone was tired and ready for a nap.














I have a few more cute pictures from Halloween. Here Jack is telling you that his pumpkin is hot:














And here he is gazing off into the distance:















It appears everyone here is on the mend, at least I hope so. We have to get the house healthy for our new arrival in a mere six weeks.

Jack has kept us all very busy lately, and he doesn’t slow down for anything. Joe and I have both been sick, but Mr. Friendly is still up bright and early every day, raring to go. One morning he got up around five and I asked him why he was getting up so early. “Not sleepy” was his answer. So there you have it.

I’ll start with the Halloween shots and work backwards, since I know his fans are dying to see the little lion. Unfortunately he wasn’t a huge fan of the costume and tried to get me to take it off several times. I was lucky enough to get a few pictures before changing to pjs.

This pretty much sums up how he felt about the headdress:


























I was able to get one photo of him wearing the hat:


















But mostly he just did this:


















We went outside to admire the pumpkins and see what the neighbors were up to, and here you can see where the hat ended up:















Now I’ll back up to pumpkin carving the previous evening. Joe gave Jack a crayon and some direction as to where to put the eyes, nose and mouth, and this is the drawing Jack created:
















Joe helped a little by connecting some of the dots, but for the most part it was Jack’s. He was quite proud:

















Then he went to work coloring his little brother’s pumpkin. Since he is still camping out inside and we can’t yet see his face, his pumpkin will remain uncarved:















After the drawing was complete, Joe performed the necessary surgery:















Jack was impressed with the results:




















I think he was trying to mimic the expression of his newly carved Jack O’lantern:
















After his bath, we set up the Jack O’lanterns outside. He was particularly interested in the candle placement:















And he wanted to open the lids and pronounce each one “HOT” before replacing the lid:












And of course, the now-traditional, Halloween Eve, pose on the front porch in your pjs shot:



















Prior to the festivities, Jack and I had a battle regarding crayon on the door frame. I say “Crayon is only for the paper”, he repeats “Paper”, yet the minute my back is turned, there he goes coloring the door. Thank you Crayola for developing washable crayons. I gave him a wash cloth to clean up the mess, but I’m afraid it was more fun than I expected. I think he’s now motivated to color on the wall so he can then clean it up.





























Certainly doesn’t look like punishment, does it?

My mom and I spent the day getting the nursery ready, and Jack found the perfect place to have a snack:
















Nevermind that I can’t get him to sit still in a high chair for all the tea in China. I suppose if I put the high chair in a closet I would have better luck.

And just to sign off, here is a video of our little gem and his ability to change moods in an instant.



I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween!