My Little Boy

Jack seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. I can pretty much have a several sentence conversation with him and he is also becoming quite the character. I was nervous that he was going to be painfully shy but he is proving me wrong. For the first time this week he is responding to strangers. He offers his name, how old he is and what he is doing. Last night, DirectTV was here and Jack told him he drank all of the water out of Dad's blue cup. Today he went on the big boy swings, said excuse me to another boy whom he was trying to pass and sang all of his night-night songs himself when going to bed. He also has developed an amazing imagination. All of his Little People toys have a name and they play together and kiss a lot (mostly hello). I love when I am in the kitchen and I hear "HMMMM MA". Last night Jack "gave" Terry a violin, a guitar for me and he played the drums on a cardboard box. Later he wanted Terry to sing Bingo and for me to sing Twinkle Twinkle as he played the piano. I find myself staring at him and wondering where my little baby went. All of a sudden he is a little boy dressed in 12 - 18 month old clothes!
Here are a few goofy pictures of him. In one he is making fun of me for laying on the couch (I am 8 months pregnant!), the second is his sad face and the last one is a coat I bought for a birthday this weekend but now I like it for Jack.

The Dougherty's

Jack and I got to spend the day at the Children's Museum with Anne and James (college friends) and their 3 kids Seamus 4, Finn 2 and MJ 4 months. I don't think I have seen Anne and James since our wedding but luckily with our blogs we quickly caught up and enjoyed a great time together. The boys played well and I got to hold little MJ who was all smiles.
Jack had about a 20 minutes melt down when leaving the museum which seems to be his way the last 2 weeks. He quickly recovered when his juice and pizza arrived at lunch and seemed to do well the rest of the day. He took a great nap in the car which I was really hoping for.
Traffic was awful and I forgot to go to the bathroom before I left. Thank goodness Terry was at his office so we made a pit stop. Terry sat with Jack and I quickly ran in.
As soon as we got home, Jack's eyes opened and he looked like he could use another hour of sleep. I got really scared but then my mom came out (she is still painting) and he was all smiles.

No Eat. See Ricky.

Jack was so excited to spend the day with his favorite uncle that instead of getting there at 10:00 am, we were there at 9:15. He was dressed with his hat on by 8:00 and did not want to stop to eat. He wanted to see Ricky now.
Our day was very fun. We watched a bobcat take a sidewalk apart and dump it into a dump truck. We visited the firehouse and walked across the train tracks. Jack could not get enough of Ricky and was sad to leave at the end of the day.
Jack is really starting to talk in complete sentences and is such a riot. I asked him if he wanted to take the police car (cozy coupe) to Ricky's house and he said "no, let's take mom's car" as if I was going to walk all the way to Western Springs. When we got home today he ran into the house to see dad. He told Terry "I saw a train. I saw people get off train. People going to see their babies." This was a conversation that we had about 20 minutes beforehand. It is so exciting to listen to him and it is so funny to know now what is going through his head.

Murphy's Law

A two day project has developed into two weeks and counting. As my mom patiently painted the baby's room for the last couple of weeks she encountered wall paper, mold, water damage, 2 cans of bad paint and paint spots on the new carpet. The icing on the cake was that when we ran out of Jack-O-Lantern, the paint color, my mom discovered that the paint on the walls is not Jack-O-Lantern (a mistake of the store). So now the room is Custom Orange which, thankfully, we all love. The room looks great and Jack has been able to see his Grandma Johnson almost every day for the past two weeks. I will have to find more projects for her because we will miss her frequent visits.
Terry and I went to the 32 week ultrasound today and everything looks good. The baby weighs 4 lbs 1 oz, exactly what Jack weighed at 32 weeks. He is in position and is ready. Let's just hope 8 weeks is enough time to get the room ready!

Poor Jack

These last two weeks have had their ups and downs. Starting with the labor day weekend, Terry and I handed Jack over to grandma and grandpa so we could organize the house and set up the baby's room. My parents, as always, were wonderful babysitters but a cold Jack had that week seemed to get worse over the weekend. He was not sleeping, eating and had a fever. I was sick with worry and could not focus for much of the weekend. Jack would have a bad night but would run around and smile during the day. When we picked him up on Monday he seemed great but a few days later we were in the doctor's office with an ear infection! I felt terrible that I let his happy disposition during the day cloud my judgement. The doctor said he probably has a high tolerance for pain and even my mom was surprized because he never pulled or touched his ear.
That following weekend Terry left for a bachelor party in Vegas and Jack and I had some quality time together. I was very nervous to be 7 months pregnant and alone with a toddler for three days but I really enjoyed the time. Jack spent one morning with Grandma Janet as I hit some block sales and we went to a great block party another night. Jack is also talking so much. I lost his sippy cup at the block party and he told me an hour later that he "put it on the table" and then walked me to the cup. He also can hold a pretty good conversation. I asked him where dad was and he said "in Tim's car". Tim and Terry drove together to the airport so I guess to Jack's knowledge dad is still in the car with Tim. It was an exhausting weekend but I really enjoyed the time with Jack. He is growing by leaps and bounds and can really make us laugh.
So just when things seemed to be getting back on track with Jack, he woke up yesterday morning with all of these red spots. I thought it was either a new fabric softner or the pajamas I did not wash before he wore them. So of course I waited a day and the rash is now worse. The doctor thinks he is allergic to amoxicillin, a medicine that he is taking for his ear. It has been 7 days and this is usually when a reaction will kick in. I felt like I had been poisoning my child but my mom said she recently had a similar reaction to penicillin and said the rash did not bother her nor did it itch so Jack is probably totally unaware. Thank God for mothers because I was starting to unravel with each new problem. Although Jack looks terrible we had a great day with Hayden and her new brother Declan. We went to the park, enjoyed the 70 degree weather and just had a great visit. Let's just hope the next week brings good health.
I don't really have any pictures from the past week but I do have a few from today of Declan, Hayden and Jack. Jack loves laying in the bouncer and even let my mom swaddle him and hold him like a baby for a while. I hope Jack realizes that this bouncer is for his brother come November!