Everyday Life as a Family of Three

My last entry was for Easter - mid-April 2012 - which meant we were only a few weeks away from the anxiously awaited arrival of our baby girl.  Exciting, right?!  Before I get to that, I wanted to take a few minutes to remember life as a family of three.  We use the nice camera for special occasions, when we know there will be photo opportunities, but looking through the photos Tommy and I took with our phones, you really start to get a sense of our everyday life.  Of course, all of the pictures are of Jack, but really, Tommy and I are not that exciting.  So what exactly does the everyday life of Jack Mhire, the 2 year old look like.  Well, other than hanging out with his friends at daycare on a regular basis during the week:

He watches TV.  He hadn't yet learned the wonders of Netflix on the iPad, but Jack was definitely developing a fondness for watching TV and movies.  Occasionally.  As much as Mom and Dad would allow.  Here he is intently watching Cars on the big screen in the media center:

Already mastered Dad's lounging pose:

Of course, he played.  Like every good 2 year-old should.  Here's the little guy in his Superman PJs playing with his fancy car from Momom and Popop:

Even things that aren't toys are fun - cup tower in the kitchen!!

What a big boy - pulling his wagon all by himself!

Of course, when we were home, we ate.  Some nights were cleaner than others.  On this night, he decided to make soup with his water and spaghetti.  He's always cute, but unfortunately not always well behaved :)

 

Whatever this was, I guess it was good...

Cavatappi and meat sauce - one of his favorites!

Yum - Pizza!!

Getting older - learning to eat with his silverware:

He also ate out at restaurants - usually manners were a little better in public.  At Chick-fil-a:

Coloring the kiddie menu at Fireside Pies:

Blue Goose - my first meal out after a VERY long busy season!

After school - Jack liked to pretend to drive Daddy's car.  We're so in trouble...

Jack also had fun after hours at daycare.  For a while, his favorite phrase was "That's not very nice."  Each day after school he would have a story about someone not sharing, biting, kicking or some other toddler no-no.  The story was always followed by "That's not very nice, right Mommy?"  Sweet boy.

One Friday night, we took advantage of Parent's Night Out at daycare and caught a movie.  We got back to daycare around 10pm or so to find Jack, Jacob and Tigger all hanging out under the table:

They also had a spring carnival at daycare in April.  Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures.  They had painting on a giant mural hung on the back fence, bounce houses, bubbles, craft projects and even a petting zoo!  We spent a fair amount of time in the petting zoo with the chicks, bunnies and goats, even though Jack was not too fond of the goats.  To this day, he still talks about the goat that ate Mommy's hair "just a little bit."  Here are Daddy and Jack feeding the animals:

More often than not, our little guy acted like the 2 year-old he was, saying and doing things that made us laugh hysterically, even when we shouldn't, being a goofball and generally making the Mhire house a better place.  First birthday hat and dino nose cover from the nebulizer...ok....

Hanging out in the dog bed.  Sorry Max and Albert.

Cool dude in Daddy's horribly tacky sunglasses.

And finally, a picture he will hate me for when he gets older.  Helping to clean up a dog accident, in only Mommy's high heels and a diaper.  Love you, Jack!

Easter Fun

April 2012

Jack really got into Easter egg hunting this year.  That might have had something to do with the fact that everytime he opened one, it seemed to be filled with something delicious called candy.  He doesn't usually get much candy at home, so this was huge, and very exciting! 

At school, each child brings 10 eggs, filled with goodies and each class takes turns having an easter egg hunt on the playground.  Tommy and I headed up to school for Jack's classes big hunt.  You would've thought I would have learned last year, but from now on I will remember NOT to put any of the lovely foil wrapped eggs in our plastic eggs.  April weather in Texas is already much too hot, and soupy chocolate eggs and 2 year olds don't mix! :)

Here is the playground before the hunting began:

As you can see, there were so many eggs right in the center of the playground, but Jack preferred to stay along the wall.  Not as many eggs, but no competition either, I guess.  Smart boy.

Just like last year, he tended to forget he had a basket and see how many eggs he could carry in his hands:

Here's the whole groovy group from Suite 300 - (bottom row) Logan, Mikayla, Reese, Jack, Zachariah, Connor and Ella (top row) Charlie, ??? and Daniel

The next day, our Easter egg hunting pro headed to cousin Lincoln's house in Fort Worth for a neighborhood egg hunt.  Before the hunt, there were a few Easter crafts to do, but the boys' favorite things were the fake tattoos, without a doubt! They both were mezmerized by each others cool new body art - I don't think Jack stopped holding up the leg of his shorts until the egg hunt began.

Coloring Easter eggs (Jack still checking out the tattoo on his hand!) :)

The Easter egg hunt began.  There were a lot of bigger kids at this hunt, so Jack was a little overwhelmed and didn't get too many eggs.  I found that both my competitive spirit and my protective Mama sides came out.  While Jack was happy with half plastic eggs and a couple of melted chocolates, I found myself wanting to run around and fill his basket with eggs, at the same time angry at that "mean" 5 year old who ran in front of Jack and grabbed the egg he was heading for.  Yes, I'm going to have to watch myself as he grows up, or I could be that mom.

Of course, we had another egg hunt at our house on Easter morning, but we didn't get any pictures.  For several weeks after Easter, Jack was obsessed with his candy stash.  The minute we'd get in the car to come home from daycare, he'd be asking for an egg.  I think we're in for it when Halloween rolls around this year!