missing my guys

mommy is in minneapolis/st. paul and missing her two favorite guys.

luckily she has nice pictures from the beach to keep them close ...

Birdhouse in your soul

This morning, as Jack and I were blearily waking up to our morning beverages (black coffee for me, whole milk straight up for Jack) we were watching "Blues Clues" on the couch. Blue and the dorky guy (no, not him - the other dorky guy) were trying to teach a lesson about patience, which as regular readers know is not one of Jack's go-to traits.

As Blue and The Dork were waiting for a bird to hatch, they built a birdhouse. I didn't think much of it until after the episode was over. Because at that point, Jack marched into the living room, put his shoes on (left shoe on right foot, natch), and collected his "Bob the Builder" toolkit, which includes hardhat, hammer, screwdriver, wrench and pliers. He stood at the front door and said "OUTSIDE, DADDY!!" When I asked him why, he said "Birdhouse in the tree!"

So I opened the door and out he marched to one of his favorite places in the world - under the holly tree in our front yard. There he proceeded to "hammer" the trunk and use all of his other tools to build the perfect imaginary birdhouse. When he was finished, Roxana had arrived, and he was ready after a strong session of carpentry to come inside and have a hearty breakfast.

I built a birdhouse once, in 9th grade shop class. I got an A-, which I was very proud of. Jack just topped the old man. Again.

back from the beach

jack and his parents enjoyed a lovely week on the outer banks of north carolina last week. we returned home to two lonely cats, a power outage, and a dozen loads of laundry ...

mommy has headed off already to the republican convention, but over the next few days will endeavor to give you a look at the beach-week that was.

the candyman can

jack awakened tuesday morning around his usual time. but instead of calling "daddy," as he usually does ... or even, "mommy," he called out: "i want candy!" "iiiii waaaannnttt caannndyyyyyy!!!!"

daddy and mommy rolled over in bed and looked at one another. oh, it's going to be one of those mornings, huh??

daddy went to jack and informed him it was only 6:30 in the a-of-m and that candy was hardly appropriate. he instead suggested a sunrise repast of chee-chees and milk. jack's rejoinder?? "candyyy!!!!"

since when did we spawn a member of bow wow wow???

he didn't end up getting any candy that day ... but he did get some ice cream.

it was free ice cream day at mommy's work, so after his nap, roxana brought him up to the old peacock (which jack calls "washington, dc") and we shared an ice cream sandwich.

jack had also done this last thursday, when roxana dropped him off at the end of the day and the ice cream truck was there from 6:15 to 7:15p.

a co-worker of mine caught some shots of jack (in his pj's) in action around old washington, dc. those tv types ... always quick with a camera ....

c'mon mama ... ice cream - this way!

i'll take a cone!

that's the news and we ... are ... outta here!

instrumental to learning

a few weeks ago, jack very much impressed his nana by shaking a maraca and declaring "instrument." she couldn't believe a 2-year old would know such a word.

this morning, as daddy and mommy were talking to each other, daddy mentioned something about an orchestra. jack piped up into the conversation: "people play instruments." not only did he catch the word "orchestra" ... he *defined* it!!

we could chalk it up to our excellent parenting and careful nuturing ... but the truth is ... he probably learned it from tv.

yeah, that's how we roll.

saturday, as promised

so we told you yesterday that we'd work backward through our weekend and share with you today what we did on saturday (and also gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today).

saturday started with a nice family breakfast and then a trip to the doctor. no ... the "daddy eggies" didn't poison anyone ... we can't believe you even thought that, dear reader! rather, jack and mommy headed to the doctor to pick up some forms that he needs to start preschool in september. jack was actually relieved to go there and get a sticker without having to be examined by the doctor. but, we did see dr. dana as we were waiting for the receptionist to find our envelope and she and jack blew each other kisses and waved.

with health forms and a new dora sticker in hand, we headed to the toy store to pick up birthday presents for some friends. at the toy store, jack was given a complimentary balloon and got to play with their thomas train table while mommy shopped around. he had a great time.

we returned home for lunch and a nap. and it was after nap that the real fun began.

we ... (drumroll please) ... washed the car!

jack thought it was pretty great. all his faves in one activity -- the car, and the hose, and the vaccum ... oh my!

after a soggy car wash, we enjoyed a delayed celebratory birthday dinner for daddy with take-out pizza (a rare treat for jack) and a (by request) homemade cake. delish!

so, when taken individually ... two great days. when taken together ... priceless. and for everything else, there's mastercard.

weekend update

a fun productive weekend chez jennings mershon ...

working backward ... our sunday:

a morning trip to the zoo with mommy and nana was lots of fun and jack loved talking to the animals.






he walked (or ran) almost the entire three hours we were there and was a trooper. when we saw other kids crying or fussing, he would chide (as nana taught him to say), "no crying at the zoo!" by the end of our visit, he was offering this advice both unsolicited and unprompted.


but the funniest result of the zoo trip ... he's been talking about the maned wolf who marks its territory with very odoriferous urine ever since ... "maned wolf, stinky, p.u.!"


the rest of sunday wrapped up with playing puppets at home, a trip to the grocery store with mommy and spaghetti dinner. good stuff.


tune in tomorrow to find out what we did saturday!

piggyback

jack's favorite pal "sesi" arrived this morning with her mother, and jack was gleeful. as mommy got breakfast cleaned up and roxana got a mid-morning snack ready to take to the park, jack and "sesi" had some fun around the house ...

whoa!!!

roxana kept cautioning "¡cuidado! ¡cuidado!" (be careful, be careful!). what, what??? cuidado is action jackson's middle name!

wake up call - pt. 2

overheard this morning ...

jack: where's mama? mama sleeping. honk-shoo-ooo-ooo ...

daddy: that's right mama's sleeping

jack: quiet, shhh ... mama sleeping

daddy: yeah, mama sleeping. c'mon let's go downstairs

jack: no downstairs

daddy: yeah, let's go downstairs, get chi-chis and milk

jack: i wanna see mama

daddy: okay, well, it's almost 7 ... you can go see mama

jack: no, daddy. be quiet! mama sleeping ...

of course mama was not sleeping, because she was listening to this very funny exchange. but a nice way to wake up.

and of course the secondary wakeup came with a cup of coffee and snuggles in bed, so you can't really beat that ...

wake up call

nana came over to see jack this morning ...


and while it wasn't exactly a wake-up call (you have to arrive pretty early to actually wake jack up) ... it was an energizing event that left jack running around, yelling, "swiper no swiping!" like a madman.

although he was sad to see her go, the visit left jack in a good mood. we could use more wake up calls like that around here ...


eating breakfast

bye bye, nana!

if you can beat 'em, join 'em ...

jack has decided that he wants to be known as "kitty jack" and treated in a feline manner.

"pet me!" he implored and enjoyed belly pats and ear scratching.

taking it a step further, daddy said he was a doggie who was chasing jack. that sent "kitty jack" running to his mommy for protection.

guess he's understanding floyd's point of view a bit.

walk a mile in his paws ...

weekend update

this weekend started off as a bachelor's weekend. just jack and daddy hanging out and being dudes while mommy was away on a work trip.

but ... even bachelors need some company, so pretty soon they invited kay taylor (a/k/a "baby taylor") and her parents over for a mid-morning playdate.

they each played it cool and coy for a while ...

but pretty soon were playing together like old friends

after nap, nana came over for a visit ...

along with some birthday presents for daddy (which jack was more than happy to help him open) ...

jack enjoyed the visit and the chance to read books with someone else for a while

mommy made it home on sunday afternoon ... and she brought special treats ... lollipop for jack:

(and daddy!)

and lobster for daddy:

(and jack!)

jack loved his first taste of lobster ... proving his place in this family ... and we had a lovely family dinner feast, complete with fresh maryland corn and heirloom tomatoes. as daddy observed, the carbon footprint of our meal was not ideal (plane ride from maine!) but at least all the food was local ...

it was a nice weekend, made nicer by mommy's return.