Our Jack Man is TWO!

Our sweet boy is two today.

When we first found out we were having another baby, Kate was about 18 months old. She was our whole world. We loved our little family of three. We were happy. Content.

We cried the night before we went to the hospital because we were worried our little family wouldn't be the same, feel the same, or Kate wouldn't adjust well. Looking back, it seems so silly now.

At 4:05 p.m. on January 29, 2010, our little family was changed. But, oh... for the better!

Our sweet little Jack instantly brought us so much joy we could hardly stand it. He just fit right into our family like he had always been there. We needed him.

He was such a laid back, calm baby. He went with the flow. He let his sister poke all over him.

Fast forward. That laid back, calm disposition pretty much flew out the window around 18 months. "Laid back" is not really on his radar these days. But, he STILL brings us so much joy we can hardly stand it.

Jack can usually be found upside down, or in a cabinet, or on top of a table, or wearing Sissy's dress up shoes, or digging in Daddy's drawer for the razor, or playing in the toilet, or unrolling all of the toilet paper, or eating things that were NEVER meant to be eaten, or banging on the flat screen, or falling down stairs, or hitting, or biting, or scratching... I could add about a million "or's" to that statement.



In short, he is ALL boy (besides his cross dressing tendencies).

If I make it to his fifth birthday without having a heart attack, I will consider myself successful.

Jack is hilarious. He is goofy as all get out. His brain never stops working. You can literally almost see the wheels turning in his head. "What can I break? What should I get into next?" If I wasn't worried about what might happen to my house (or him for that matter), I would love to just spend the day sitting and watching all of his antics.



His vocabulary is still relatively small. He is at the stage where he knows what he wants to say, but can't, and that's just frustrating on both ends.

His most favorite words of all time are "no" and "mine". Typical two year old, right? He also says:

Uh-oh
Mama
Da-ee (Daddy)
Kee (Kate)
aeeck (snack)
Go!
Bee bee (baby)
Mu (while signing "more")
Di-Di (nigh-night)
Guy! (He points to random people at the store and yells, "Guy!)
Ca-ca (cracker)
bum-ba (gumball)
Dool (when he wants to sit on the stool)
Shhhh (with his finger to his mouth)
No-No!
He knows a lot of animal sounds and when asked what Mommy says, he points his finger and says, "No-no!" ha!



He is sweet by nature. He is so loving and tender hearted. At Christmas time, if Mark was having a hard time opening a box, Jack would go to the kitchen, open the drawer and pull out a spoon and bring it to him. Ha! I guess he thought any utensil would work.

I stubbed my toe (hard) on the bottom of the couch, and he immediately ran off and came back with toenail clippers. Haha!



He loves to snuggle with his mama. He is a TOTAL mama's boy!! Mark will go to put him to bed. He'll say, "Tell mommy ni-ni". Right away, Jack starts crying and yelling, "Ma-ma, Ma-ma" with his arms out for me.



And let me just tell you, thank goodness the boy sleeps. When he goes to bed at night, I could literally fall in a heap on the couch and not do one more thing for the rest of the night.

He keeps me on my toes, that's for sure.



The other day, Mark couldn't get the X-Box to work. Something was obviously jammed in there. After taking the thing apart, he found a bunch of pennies stuck in there. Jack!

I was vacuuming under the couch cushions the other day and found a butter knife tucked down in the side of the couch. Jack!

He throws things under the gate down the basement steps like it's a challenge. Jack!

He found my glue gun and plugged it in without me knowing. I saw him holding it, touching it for a couple seconds at a time saying "Ow, ow". JACK!!!!

I must say his name a bazillion times a day.



He still has a fierce love affair with the toilet. Unless, of course, you are trying to actually get him to use it the right way, and then he hates it.

He was brushing his teeth, and went over to the toilet to spit. It was so unexpected, (but kinda logical since we were all using the sink) that we just had to laugh.

One day, he found a half eaten pretzel rod in the bathroom trashcan. He fished it out (GROSS!), dunked it in the toilet (SICK!!!!) and then ate it (Are you kidding me?!?!?!).





He still sucks his thumb. It's pretty much the cutest thing ever. I know we won't say that when he's five. But, for right now, when he puts his thumb in his mouth and puts his little lovey up to his face, it's precious.



My, oh my, there are so many things I could say about our Jack Man.

He is trouble with a capital T. He is sweet as can be. He is so funny.

He has made our days better, our house louder, our smiles brighter, and our hearts bigger. He is the best.



We love you, Jack Ryan!! Happy 2nd birthday!!

Here's to the "terrible two's" not being so terrible!! I'll need a pinky promise on that one, Jack!