merry christmas!

what a crazy holiday it has been. my poor little guy has been very sick. so sick, that we took him to albany medical center's pediatric er. thankfully, he is ok and it wasn't what they were thinking it may be. the best christmas present in my book:)

speaking of christmas, jack received some awesome gifts this year from santa, his parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles...he really is a lucky boy.

here are some pics from the past week or so...

making his way towards his presents!

his santa gift...


even not feeling well he's so cute

he kept his tie on the entire day...he's all business;)

the best family gift we could get!?

playing a little "chest" as jack calls it!

this was the day he started to get really sick...you could tell he wasn't feeling well,
but i had to get his smoothie "mustache"

do we have enough ice?

we had our first "snowfall" this week. if you can call a half inch of actual snow accumulation!? on the eve of the fall, i surprised jack and let him head out after dinner with mike to play some hockey (it was way too cold to take little d out during the day, but jack was dying to play in the snow). they had so much fun! jack associated the snow as "ice" for the game (hockey, of course!). so now he is always asking if we have enough "ice?" to play!? he is just too cute.

oh brotherly/sisterly love...

or is he secretly trying to kill her?! i kid, sort of:/

jack goes back and forth between loving his sister and tackling her. like all things, he loves hard and plays hard, but what he doesn't realize is that he is much stronger than her. regardless of whether it's a hug or a tackle, he practically bowls her over every time! i literally have to ask him to stop about 40 times a day. nothing actually seems to stop him, and i secretly think he is doing it for attention.

here is a cute moment i caught of the two of them over the weekend. it was an early morning for us...6:30 i think, hence their crazy hair/puffy eyes (both of which i'm afraid they've inherited from me unfortunately. the hair at least, for obvious reasons;)

daley now insists on her own snack trap of cereal in the a.m.
i can't believe she's got it figured out already!

it's beginning to look a lot like...

christmas!

as per tradition, we cut our tree down the weekend after thanksgiving. this year there was no snow, but it was certainly cold. in typical fashion, one of our children decided not to cooperate, and about 5 minutes from the tree farm daley fell asleep!? so mike hung back in the car while jack and i set out to find the perfect tree! we also helped mimi and apa find there perfect tree as well.

we took about 10 "family" pictures...yup this is the best of the bunch?!

smiling next to "our" tree:)

ice skating!

jack has been dying to get out on the ice. he absolutely loves hockey, and if he's going to play i suppose learning to skate is the first step! who better to take him out on the ice than uncle timmy, and daddy of course! they went yesterday, and jack had a blast. here are some fun pictures from the day...

just for fun:)

jack and i had some time to play outside the other day while d was napping. you know we played a little hockey, frisbee, basketball...you name a sport and we were probably playing it!? i did catch jack attempting to climb this tree in my parent's front yard--he saw uncle greg do it so now of course he has to do it too (umm, thanks greg, hope you're paying for the inevitable er visit;)

never a dull moment...

a jack funny:)

he went to the bathroom this morning, and his new thing is that he has to close door, because to put it in his words, he needs some privacy!? anyway, he had been in there for a while and i heard the water running, so daley and i decided to go and check on him. i opened the door and jack looks up at me with bubbles all over his face...i asked him what was up, and he looks at me and said "mom, i just wanted to see how soap tastes!?" he had decided to eat the hand soap and he quickly decided that it didn't taste good and could i please go get him some water-lol!?

oh the joys!

"let's get bowling!"

you can really insert just about any sport into that phrase these days with jack. he is absolutely sports obsessed!? ironically, while mike and i both love sports, we really didn't purposely influence jack in any way. he took to them on his own and i have to say he is pretty good at some of them for being three!

however, we took jack bowling for the first time over the weekend, and he loved it! mike and jack played, while i took pictures (i am admittedly not a good bowler and the competitive person that i am doesn't like to lose so i gracefully bowed out;). it was really fun and jack thought he won every turn, which was so cute as he went around high "fiveing" us!

here are some cute pics...and you may be surprised by the final score!

mike is probably going to kill me for posting this shot, but i couldn't resist:)

technically jack had a bumper, but he is only 3 and mike is 33!?

happy halloween!

i'm ashamed to admit that in all the craziness of getting the kids out the door for trick or treating, i got one lame picture of...super jack!

he looked so cute in his little superhero cape:)



we also went to sunnyside farms earlier in the day to ride "thomas." it was freezing and dreary, but jack had a fun time and was just mesmerized by the trains they had set up...

riding "thomas"



taking it all in...


two goofballs:)

party pics and well check...

i am woefully behind on the blog...between getting ready for jack's party, and both of the kids getting sick, time has just gotten away from me.

jack went in for his three year check up, and i am happy to report his iron levels are back to normal! what a relief because i was really starting to get concerned, considering some of his other vitamin levels are twice what they should be! his weight/height put him in the 75%, which is about what i expected. although i have to admit i thought he was kinda short, but i guess i was wrong!

he really likes his dr., and he always cracks her up when we go. he continually impresses her with his language, to which she always asks him if he ready for college! he's making mike and i look really good;)

on another note, we had a little birthday party for him. the theme was pirates, and i think judging by the pictures, he had a fun time! we were lucky to have a nice day weather-wise...

behold: the pinata!
it didn't take long for the kids to get into it!

pretty madison:)
who by the way, can certainly hold her own with the boys and had the best swings at the pinata!

digging for "buried treasure"

"i'm wearing big boys, ya know"

for those who have not spent any time with jack recently, you would be surprised to find that he is quite possibly the most talkative three year old i know. seriously, he will talk to just about anybody...in fact, the title of this post was what spurred this topic as this was the conversation he had with the checkout guy at whole foods yesterday!? he then proceeded to tell the guy that when he was done potty training he was going to use his money to buy a car (not a real one, obviously)!

this brings me to the aforementioned potty training, and the lack of motivation on jack's part. i decided that i had put it off long enough, and this past week we went for it...how is it going you might ask? well, let's put it this way...by 9:30 a.m. this morning we have already had one pee and poop accident. y'all would get a real kick out of the fact that mike nearly gagged and i had to take over the poop one;) this might all be too much information for anyone, so i'll get back to our "car" incentive...we decided to give jack money for his piggy bank each time he went successfully on the potty, and we told him that when he was completely potty trained he could take his money and buy something with it as his reward. sounds pretty good to me, but it unfortunately is not working. his issue is not that he can't go on the potty, his issue is that you cannot tell jack to do something if he doesn't want to, and well he's too busy to stop playing and would rather just go in his pants-oy!? perhaps said "car" incentive will work better when he's sixteen;) for the record, this was the part of parenting that i have been dreading and it is living up to its horrible reputation...we might never leave the house again for fear there will be an accident!

anywho...here are some pictures of a certain hard to photograph crazy kid:)

Guest Blog: Happy 3rd birthday, little man!

Dear Jack,

It is so hard for your mommy and I to get over the fact that three years ago today we welcomed you into the world. You have brought us so much happiness, and challenged us in so many ways, we cannot begin to tell you how great the past three years have been. However, let me give it a shot...

Top 10 reasons you are cool/we love you:
1. You have a better vocabulary than many of my co-workers.
2. You just want to hang around with us, nothing more, nothing less.
3. Your eyelashes. Period.
4. You are a great big brother -- always willing to help us with Daley, and always offering her your affection. (editorial note: please stop smothering her; she's fragile).
5. Vampire Weekend is your favorite band, which is pretty "hip" considering you are three.
6. You like to take Uncle Timmy to Uncommon Grounds to "check out the chicks...I mean the REAL ladies, Tim(s)."
7. You are a renaissance man (or "Homo Universalis" in Latin) -- you love classical music, art, and are a chiacchierone.
8. Your predictability. Every morning all you need to start the day is the "hat trick" -- a little snack, a little drink, and a show.
9. You are a man in a little boy's body...wise beyond your years.
10. You and I are going to make great golf partners.

Here are a few pics from today: