Is it Spring?!?!

It was beautiful yesterday.  We finally had a taste of Spring.  Actually, it was pretty humid.  It makes me anxious for the real Spring, but dread the dead of summer and all the humidity it brings!  We had a great, and eventful,day. 

We were up early– big shocker– so we decided to try out a new breakfast joint about a half hour away.  It is a chain called First Watch that we first discovered in Kansas City and then found again in St. Louis.  There is one in Fairfax, so we headed over there for breakfast.  Ironically, on the way I pointed out that my friend Jessica lives really close to the restaurant.  Then while we were waiting to be seated, I looked up and there was Jessica with her family eating breakfast.  We hadn’t seen each other in months, so it was funny that we ran into them.  It was great to catch up and reaffirmed that we need to get together more often!  After we ate, we shopped a little and then headed back towards home to go to the park.

Yesterday morning I updated my facebook status wondering what fun outside activity we would do.  Our friend Morgan saw it and invited us to meet her and the Evans family at Fort Hunt Park for a picnic and to play.  Since we were already planning to head out to breakfast, we decided to meet them a little later and just hang out.  It was great.  The kids ran, played soccer, went on the swings and explored the fort.  Our Jack loves to play with the Evans kids and gets along really well with their Jack.  At one point, Travis was on the playground pushing Harry, Jack & Jack on the swings.  It was really cute.  We all explored the fort a little too.  The boys loved going up and down the stairs and yelling into the old cells.  Funny how the echo of their voices entertains from age 2 on.  Morgan & Toby brought all the fixin’s to make s’mores, so when the kids were starting to get worn down we made fired up the sterno and got roasting.  They were yummy!  Our Jack didn’t like them.  He just ate graham crackers.  I’m not sure if the texture of the marshmallows was too much for him or if they were too sweet, but he took one bite and asked for plain graham crackers.  That’s okay, it was more yummies for the rest of us!

Toby & MorganJack X2 Sophie & GarrettHeather, Paul & Garrett

Our little extrovert!

Jack is our extrovert.  I’m pretty sure he has never met a stranger and he ALWAYS has something to say.  Sometimes it is exhausting.  It is amazing how similar his personality is to mine…which always makes me laugh.  Every time I feel like I want to just tell him to BE QUIET, I think of my sister.  When I was little (very little, like from toddler to 5 years old) I shared a room with my sister.  Sis (and yes we still call my sister “Sis”, even all her nephews just call her “Sis”) is nearly 12 years older than I am.  I always slept with my sister, not out of necessity, but because I hated to sleep alone.  Anyway…I wasn’t any older than 3 probably when one night I would not shut up.  (Enter similarities between me and Jack!)  Sis was tired of listening to me and I’m sure wanted to tell me to just be quiet, but I was not going to stop talking.  So, she told me a story.  A great big elaborate tale of how I was adopted.  This story went on forever and I totally believed her.  In the end she told me the truth– I am not adopted.  The funny thing is, she wanted me to be quiet and I’m sure it was because I had exhausted her with all my talk, but in reality I just got more worked up and talked more.  The same thing happens with Jack.  The more you want him to be quiet, the more he has to say.  Sometimes it is exhausting!  So Sis, sorry I talk so much and I hope I don’t exhaust you too often!!!

At least Jack is in a stage of saying very cute things and telling us big stories.  He has quite the imagination.  For instance, he has taken to calling me Mama Bear.  He refers to himself and Garrett as Baby Bear.  The cutest part of this is that when he gets really tired and upset he will say something like “Mama Bear, Baby Bear needs lubbies”.  “Lubbies” of course are “lovies”, which means he wants to be held.  He also asks for things by saying something like “Baby bear needs milk.”  It is super sweet and helps me to remember that although he is growing quickly, he truly is still my baby.  Jack is really perceptive and often comes up with the cutest things when he notices us doing something.  The other day I was struggling to get a lid open in the kitchen while Jack was eating at the table.  When I finally got it open he told me “Yea, you opened it Mama.  Remember lefty loosey, righty tighty.”  I cracked up.  I don’t even know where he learned that.  Not to mention, he only occasionally gets his left and right hands correct.  Usually we refer to them as his easy hand (left) and the other one (right).  Another frequent topic of discussion is hockey.  Of course, we spend a lot of time watching the Caps so Jack knows a fair amount about hockey.  He knows several players names including Ovechkin, Semin, Green, Kozlov, Fleischmann, Steckel, Backstrom and Laich.  Laich is funny because he says his name is Brooks Mike instead of Brooks Laich.  Every game we ask who he thinks is going to score and every game his answer is different.  The other day he rattled off all the players that he thought would score and then he finished up with “And probably Fleischmann is going to score because he has been on fire with the puck!”  It cracked me up.  The other night he also told me he was hungry, even though he had just had a snack a little while earlier.  He looked at me oh so seriously and said, “But Mama, I’m a hockey player and hockey players eat a lot!”  Are you kidding me?!?!

Jack has a really sweet nature.  He loves his little friends and talks about them constantly.  He is always making up stories about his buddy Ian.  He likes to pretend that he and Ian drive the Little Tikes car to the airport and then fly somewhere on vacation.  Occassionally us parents are allowed to come along too.  He also talks constantly about taking his friend Jacob to sporting events.  We went to a hockey game last season and one this season with Jacob and his family, so every game Jack asks if they are coming too?  He also really wants to take Mr. Vince, Ms. Marcy and Jacob ice skating.  I keep trying to explain that we probably won’t be going ice skating with Jacob’s family any time soon since Ms. Marcy is expecting a little girl in the next few weeks.  Jack also talks a ton about Amelia and Charlotte…usually in connection with going to see Mr. Skip or with preschool.  Amelia is in his class and he loves her!!  Apparently the other day he grabbed the pink ring on the rope train they take out to the playground and then told Amelia “Look Amelia, I saved the pink ring for you.  Now you can walk with me!”  What a little gentleman.  The great thing about Amelia is that she is so happy to let Jack run the show, so when they play together they have no problems.  They play together successfully and pretend the whole time.  It is great!!!

Nick & Jack

Jack & his babysitter Julie

Travis’ college buddy, Nick, came to visit last weekend.  We had a great time.  Jack especially loved Nick.  He was very concerned what Mr. Nick was doing at any given moment.  They had a good time playing.  Jack conned Nick into making him “fly” and crash land on the couch.  I’m sure Nick was worn out, but Jack couldn’t have been happier.  He was sorry to see Mr. Nick go home!  We got a babysitter one night while Nick was here so we could grab dinner together.  Ms. Julie came over and I think Jack really had fun with her.  I found this picture on the camera when we got home.  Clearly they were having fun.  I love the picture and I’m so glad that she took it.  It is super sweet!!

Garrett’s First Swimming Video

MVI_2029, originally uploaded by mgianchetta.

This is the beginning of Garrett’s lessons on Friday of the first week. You can see the difference in his comfort level even by the end of that day’s lesson when he was starting to float on his own. It is amazing how quickly they learn!

Beginning to Float

MVI_2035, originally uploaded by mgianchetta.

This is a good video of Garrett starting to float. It really shows what he worked on and learned this week. He is doing well. I think we will be amazed how different his progression is from week to week!

Garrett’s 1st Week of Swimming

Garrett had his first really busy week last week.  He started his ISR swimming lessons.  We are so excited to see how the lessons turn out for him.  We are very happy with the results with Jack and are looking forward to the process with Garrett since he is so much younger.  I’m sure you all remember that in his lessons, Jack learned to swim 3 or 4 strokes at a time, roll over to his back to float, rest and roll back to a swim until he reaches safety.  For Garrett the goal for lessons is slightly modified.  Since he is younger and not capable of pulling himself to safety at a wall or step etc., the goal for him is to be able to go under water, roll over to his back and float until someone helps him.  The method to get him to this place is the same though. 

Garrett has displayed the same comfort level in the water that Jack did at his age.  He loves the bath and spends his whole bath time splashing and turning over to his belly in order to put his face in the water.  It looks like he is going to be just as confident (or over confident) as Jack is in the water.  Garrett’s love of the water just reinforced how important we felt it was to get him in lessons right away.  So far the lessons are going well and just as I anticipated.  Garrett loves the teacher and is happy to get into the water.  He does, however, get pretty upset once the lesson starts.  He basically cries the entire lesson, but he is doing well and improving.  By the end of the week he did float a little on his own.  The biggest issue he has right now is that because he cries the whole time, he keeps his mouth open.  This is a bit of an issue because it means he is constantly getting water in his mouth.  Thankfully he doesn’t drink it much and generally spits it out.  Hopefully he will get more conditioned to the lesson process and start to settle down this week. 

I think the reason he cries so much actually has less to do with the water and more to do with him being hungry.  The kids can’t eat at least 2 hours before the lesson.  This shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but for Garrett it really is.  Because he has acid reflux (and his medicine isn’t working…that’s another post altogether!) he eats very often.  He generally eats about every 2 hours night and day.  And since I breastfeed him, whenever he gets upset he wants to eat too.  I’m pretty sure he is hungry when he starts the lesson and then he gets mad, works really hard, and feels starved!  He eats well as soon as the lesson is over.