Jack

  

You know how before you have kids, you're all "Oh, my kids will never eat fast food." and "My kids will only watch 30 minutes of TV a day (if at all)".  And my personal favorite, "My kids will never act like that kid screaming his way through Target begging for everything and pulling things off the shelves." 

Then, along came a kid named Jack. Oh. My. Gosh.  This kid is non stop!!!  He doesn't like vegetables and eats chicken nuggets about 3 times a week. He watches approximately 80 hours of TV a week (ok, maybe that's an exaggeration) because for the LOVE OF GOD, it's the only thing that keeps him still for longer than say, a minute. And, I'd rather go shopping at midnight than have to take him to the store with me.  

But, he's just so stinking cute and he stops playing to say, "Me love you, Mommy."  

And when he's sad or hurt or sleepy, he wants me and only me.  He is an awesome snuggle bug! 

He is ALL boy.  His favorite words are booger, butt, wiener, and poop.  Seriously, is this stuff just ingrained in boys????  If I want to make him laugh, I just insert a potty word into a song and he's dying.  All the while, Kate is telling me how inappropriate it is. 

He has a temper like you wouldn't believe and boy, is he stubborn!! 

He also has quite the imagination.  He's always telling us, "You call me Batman." or the most random one, "You call me Ricky." One day, I was smack dab in the middle of disciplining him and we were having a talk and he says, "You call me Batman." 

He tells these funny little white lies to try to get what he wants.  He will come up to me (with Mark right there in the other room) and say, "Daddy say me have candy." when he really didn't.  He blames Kate for everything! 

One day, I caught him with a mouthful of cookies that I had laid out to take as a snack for the kids that day.  I said, "What are you eating?"  Knowing he would get in trouble if he said cookies, he said "a apple" (although he spit cookies when he said it because his mouth was so full).  I said, "Jack, we don't even have any apples... are you telling the truth?"  He stuck to his guns and swore we had apples and he was eating one... and then got put on the time out step for lying.  Poor kid. 

He has a very funny way of saying things.  We were at the mall ALL day getting everyone's Easter outfits lined up awhile back.  He begged me to leave the whole time.  Finally, I said, "Ok, it's time to go home."  He said, "Oh, man! Us go home? Dang it!" 

Speaking of Easter, on Easter Sunday after Kate got all ready, he came in and said, "Oh, there's my princess!  Dance with me, princess?" and then he slow danced with her!!  It was the cutest thing ever!

He had us dying laughing when he fell and scratched his hip.  He got up and said, "Ow, ow, ow... me hurt my side butt!" 

At the Cardinals Opening Day Rally, there was a lady painting baseball bats, baseballs, or Cardinal birds on the kids faces. When it was Jack's turn, she asked him what he wanted and he said, "Batman". 

If he spends time with the grandparents while I sub or something, I will say, "Did you miss me?" and he puts on this really sad face and says, "Me miss you."  One day, he said, "Me miss you all time. For 8 hours." 

Mothering a 3 year old boy is some of the hardest work I have EVER had to do (if not THE hardest). 

But, when I watch him pat his Sissy on the back and say, "Me love you, Kate" or hear him use his manners and tell me "Please and thank you are nice words" or tell me that Jesus lives in his heart or hear him pray at night for his family and thank God for his toys, I realize that allllllll the hard work is worth it.