Jack is Two!!!

I love:

• the way he laughs when he is doing something naughty
• the way he cuddles when he is tired
• how much he loves his little sister (violently at times)
• the new words he says on a daily basis
• how much he wants to help
• the way he brings me my shoes and socks
• the way he says "toes"
• how he wrestles with his daddy
• how much he loves hot dogs
• watching his face light up when he wants something
• how he helps me push the basket in the store
• the way he throws his daddy's hat on the ground
• how much he loves trucks
• how he runs
• when he says "hup, hup, HUP!" when he needs help
• his eyes
• his bad coughs and bad baby burps
• reading him many many stories
• his obsession with singing greeting cards
• buying him new hot wheels cars
• the way he walks on grass
• how much he loves "bees"
• that he still loves his "boo"
• when he sings in the morning when he wakes up
• the way he smells after a bath
• going new places with him
• his smile
• watching him run away from me when he's naked
• that he is sleeping through the night
• his face when he eats something cold
• how he calls anything green a "tee"
• how he looks with his big boy hair cut
• everything about him

I love my little guy so so much!  He is my life and I couldn't possibly list everything that I love about him, I just hit some highlights!  He makes me happy and I want to wish him a very happy birthday!

Johnny had to work, so we had a little party for Jack at my parents house tonight.  The big party is going to be on Saturday.  He opened a present from mommy, blew out his candles 11 times, and then ate a cupcake!

The Incident

I am a firm believer that kids need a mommy and a daddy!!!  They learn such different and unique things from each one and things that Johnny does with our children, I would never think to do, and vice versa.  In general, mommies are more compassionate and daddies are more rough and tumble, although I wrestle with Jack plenty and Johnny is good at cuddling with Audrey.  Well the following incident took place on a day that Johnny was watching the kids while I was at work.  We try to limit Jack's sugar intake and as you can see from the pictures, he was having a grand ol' time when given lots and lots!  The pictures pretty much tell the rest of the story!

Grandpa's Sugar Cookies

When I was a little girl, we used to get very excited when we heard my dad was going to make cookies.  We would first ask him what kind.  My dad made all kinds of great cookies but when he said sugar cookies, we would then ask, "The roll out kind?!"  Oh if he said yes, we would get so excited!  Making cookies with my dad was a very very fun thing to do!  Well yesterday, my dad called and asked if I thought Jack would be interested in making cookies with him.  I was very interested, and we thought it would be worth a shot with Jack!  I was hoping Jack would be interested because I have such fond memories of it!  So my dad made the dough and got it all ready for our Sunday evening activity!  We pulled up a chair and started the fun!

The first step is put on an apron.  Jack emptied the drawer and yet somehow we never got an apron on him!

The second step is to put the flour on the counter.  My dad did it first and then let Jack take a handful and put it on the counter.  It immediately got on his face and he used his whole arm to smooth it around.  But my dad didn't mind and told him what a good job he was doing.

The next step is to put the dough out and get it flattened

Then you pull out the rolling pin and get it just so

One of the steps in here was to get a little taste, Jack had a hard time moving past this step and would continue to take little pinches of the dough and quickly shove them in his mouth.  By the end, he was trying to grab handfuls!  We had to put a stop to that which made him not too happy!

Then we pull out the cookie cutters and make shapes and letters, etc.  Jack got to spell his name.  We couldn't find the "C" so we used an "O" and took part of it out.

Then we added some sprinkles before they went into the oven

We got a couple shots before we cleaned up

While the cookies were baking, Jack played with his daddy and then enjoyed "reading" the many wonderful books my parents have!

Afterwards we got to enjoy our spoils.  Jack ate his "J" before I could get a picture of the finished product!

All in all it was a real hit and Jack even went to bed on time after eating a lot of cookie dough and cookies!  We love our ba-pah (Grandpa Stayner) and look forward to many other wonderful things he will pass on to his grandkids!