Since you asked...

For posterity's sake...

Baby Brother at 5 1/2 months-ish, or approximately 23 weeks. I have never been that great at keeping up with the weeks during pregnancy. I still feel great, get around just fine, and can't believe how lucky I am to be carrying this little guy. I even sunbathed in my maternity swimsuit this weekend. Yikes.

He moves around quite a bit now... a welcome distraction day and night.

We showed a Jack Everett a picture of me when I was huge pregnant with him. Jeff asked him, "Do you know who that is in Mommy's tummy?"

He pointed to the photo and replied matter-of-factly, "Yes. That's Baby Jesus."

Spring School Pictures

Lucky for us, Marilyn bought him this cute little dressy outfit just a few days before Spring pictures - it was perfect! When we got to school, I asked him to pose for a few pictures in the hallway, but he refused. He said that his little piggy keychain (free from my office) did not want its picture taken. So, I told him he could hide piggy and I would just take a picture of Jack Everett. So, here he is... hands behind his back...

He thought it was so funny hiding piggy from the camera.

He kept saying, "You still can't see him!!!"

Happy Spring!

The final products - Taken February 28th, 2008
Age: 3 1/2 years old.

One of my 29th Birthday events

It's great to get away with the girls every once in a while! My 29th birthday was a wonderful excuse. As you may know, it's a tradition for me to have several birthday parties and this year was no exception. In fact, I still have a valid raincheck from Jeff's mom for a birthday dinner at her house. Darlene, I have not forgotten and since the menu is my choice... TACOS it is - again!

Anyway... here are some pics from the evening at Chuy's with the Girls.

Here I am with Julie...

... Lisa...

... Marilyn...

... and lucky for me, my sister-in-law Tiffany was in town! I loved introducing her to my girlfriends.

Back row: Jodi, Tracy, Lisa, Tiffany, and Lori
Front row: Marilyn, Maria, me, and Julie

We always laugh because when we do get a chance to get together, we always take a million pictures at our Girls' Night Out events. It makes it so obvious that we don't get out much. This group represents 12 kiddos, all home with Daddy for a few hours! When we finished dinner, just before 9:30pm on a Friday night, we went home. Some went to Ross, but the rest of us were too tired.

Wow, it seems I AM getting old.

Arteest.

Jack colors and draws pictures pretty much every night, usually with crayons and blank paper. Lately, I have been allowing him to use markers as it's easier for him to form letters with the marker tips. He is mostly supervised, but we know it's in his OCD personality to return the caps on the markers and that he naturally keeps things pretty neat.

So, I walked away from our little art session with him neatly practicing his name, "Jack G." Awww, what a nice, clean workspace.

When I came back to check on the curiously quiet Picasso, he had progressed to tracing his hand with the blue marker.

and then coloring in the entire hand... dragging his hands and forearm over the wet ink. Hey, where's the green cap?

So, I grabbed the camera - partly because he was so proud and was having such a blast, and partly to prove that I do let him get messy every once in a while. Okay, so maybe I didn't exactly "let" him initially... but at least I didn't freak. The blue dot on the forehead completes the look.

Yes, there was blue marker on his neck, too.
"Okay, STRAIGHT to the bathroom... Jack Everett, Don't... touch... ANYTHING!"

He loved the "blue suds."

The Griffin Look-alike Meter

I saw this on Cristina's blog and got a kick out of it. Check us out! Click on the link to make your own - but be sure to share the results!

"Please, please, just go to sleep."

I hate this. Jack Everett is crying from his bed, "I'm not TIiiiiRED!" We sort of take turns confronting him every time he gets out of his bed. He never runs out of reasons to get up. It's funny when it's someone else's kid; it's terribly frustrating when it is yours. We put him to bed tonight at 8:30pm. It is 10:10pm and we are still at it. At first I felt sorry for him tonight and blamed it on the time change, but almost two hours later, that excuse no longer flies with me.

We know: "You have to be consistent. Make it clear what will happen if he gets up again, and follow through." We have already had to spank him three times tonight. Even on the walk back to his room, knowing a spanking is coming, he is calmly negotiating: "Okay, but don't pull down my Pull-up first, okay Momma, okay?" Reminds me of me growing up. He wailed and wailed, and then got up for a tissue (another one) just three minutes later... totally smiling!

I do not want him to go to sleep and dream about how mean his parents are, having nightmares about wooden spoons. I also don't want him thinking he can play this game each and every night and that bedtime is a negotiable two-hour process.

I have noticed in my close circle of Moms, that we each seem to have different coping mechanisms when our kids are on our last nerves. Some of us cry, some eat, and some yell. One of my coworkers has this urge to exercise. (Why can't that be mine?) Well, I write. It helps me get the frustration out. Sometimes I write about a fun, special time to get my mind off of the current stress, but other times, like tonight, I write about the frustrating event itself. Sometimes I post my Motherhood musings, and many times I don't.

Update: As I write, my imaginative mischievous son is on his bed calling out, no tears, mind you, over and over, "Momma Lion! Baby Lion is not tired!" I have given up. I threw in the towel and sweet Jeff has agreed to step in to give me some time to breathe and to write. It wasn't a spoken transition where I asked him to take over. After three-and-a-half years of tag-teaming this whole parenting thing, we just seem to know when the other needs a break. Plus, I imagine he noticed that I have simply refused to answer the Lion cub's call this time.

Oh gosh - I just heard Baby Lion's door open and he needs to peepee. Thank God for Daddy Lion.

- On a side note, this morning, while getting ready for church, I tore my very last contact while taking off last night's makeup. A few minutes later, I squeezed my earlobe with my hot flat iron doing my hair. After drying my tears, finding my glasses, and squeezing into my maternity jeans straight from the dirty clothes hamper (Don't worry - Jeff fluffed them a few times, making them clean again), we were off to serve in the church nursery, as we do once a month. Thanks to the time change, one of my drowsy two-yr-old kiddos fell asleep on my lap only to pee all over me. So, I had to walk out of the church to the car with a huge wet pee stain down the front of my jeans, looking like the pregnant lady who has already lost control of her bladder. So, this evening was the fitting end to a frazzled day.

So, just as I spell-check this "poor me" pity-party of a blog post, ready to hit "Publish" I feel my little boy kick me. Not Jack Everett - he knows what's good for him. I feel a little kick from our newest miracle, a little boy who will soon join this crazy, unpredictable family.

Just when I needed it most, his gentle nudge reminds me, "This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!" It's true - it really has been a wonderful day.

Sleepover at Jack's House!

Jack hosted his friend Alli Jean this weekend to a little sleepover while her parents attended an out-of-town wedding. This was Alli Jean's first night away from Mom and Dad and she did great! (Julie did okay too. I mean, she did leave me specific detailed instructions and a signed Power of Attorney, but other than that, she was pretty relaxed about leaving her baby for the first time.) Jack loved having Alli Jean over, although he occasionally had a hard time sharing his most special toys.

Here are some pics from the weekend:

At Alli Jean's house before she came over. I just love her blue eyes.

It became very clear by Saturday afternoon that we needed to get these two monkeys out of the house for a while, so we took them to the park.

Time for a drink break - they were getting tired. Our plan was working.

Scrub-a-dub dub, two 3-yr-olds in a tub!

She loved using all of his "BOY" things, like Lightning McQueen bubble bath.

Alli Jean shared her pink kitty cat blankie and pillow (to Jeff's dismay) while she snuggled in Jack's Diego blankie. He made her watch "The Incredibles."

Time to brush those pearly whites.

We were actually able to get up and make it to church in the morning with two kids! It was good practice for us.

It's good to have friends!

It was fun having a little girl in the house. It is uncanny how different little boys and girls already behave by age three. When they are at Alli's house, Jack spends much of his time lining up the baby dolls and making them coffee in the pink coffeepot in her play kitchen. Over here, Alli was leaving the living room and I asked her what they were playing in the back of the house. She replied, matter-of-factly, "There are robots and tigers in here so we have to get them." I enjoyed putting her in her pink jammies, and fixing her hair for church on Sunday with her little pink bow, even though she kept telling me I wasn't doing it right.

There was one point in the night that Jack Everett crawled up into Daddy's lap and said, "Sometimes I don't like Alli Jean very much." We asked if he was ready for her to go home and he jumped down and said "No!" Sunday afternoon, Duane and Julie picked her up while Jack was napping. When he woke up, he started crying, "I wanted Alli Jean to play longer!"

Julie, Alli Jean is welcome any time!

Bit of a Parenting Low.

I think there are times in every mother's life when she feels like she is really doing well - we stop and look at our little ones and feel really good about the job we are doing.

And THEN... there are times when we are not so proud. This was one of those times:

I picked Jack Everett up from school one day (over a month ago) and he had red Jello on his forehead. It was a small spot of Jello and I must confess thinking, "I wish his teacher would clean his face a little better after he eats." We were on our way to visit a friend and I wanted him to look nice. So, when we got in the car, I scrubbed his forehead with a wet wipey as he complained and pulled away. "Jack, I am not hurting you. Stop moving!"

I gave it a rest until we pulled into our friend's driveway when I saw that the Jello stain was still there. After all, that red dye sat on his forehead for hours and we all know how it stains fingers and chins. So, I combed his hair and went at it again with the wipey. He finally cried out, "Mama, you are hurting me!" I apologized, kinda rolled my eyes and figured, "Oh well, it's not that big a deal if he has a stained face."

When we got inside and I could look at it in the light, I realized that it was not Jello after all. My heart sank as it became clear that I had been vigorously scrubbing a scrape on his forehead this whole time. The scrape had totally gotten worse and the area around it was all rubbed raw, thanks to me. He was not being dramatic... it was really hurting him when I was wiping his open wound. The next day, and for almost a week, it was a dark scab.

Needless to say, I felt totally awful. Well, what's worse is that it is now (almost six weeks later) a permanent scar. It's right between his eyes and is discolored to this day. I still feel awful.

My main motive for sharing this story is that I want to remember these not-so-shining moments too. I think we share all the wonderful things and display the things we are doing "right." It's easy to blog accomplishments, cute times, and sunny stories. As young Moms, it's easy to look from the outside into other Mommies' lives and feel as though we don't measure up.

The truth is, motherhood is terribly hard, but we don't write about those things. There are times when we make mistakes and we don't feel like we can share without facing judgment. We are afraid of what others will think if we divulge that we let our kids stay up too late (guilty), let them take a sippy cup into their crib (guilty again), or if our little angels haul off and hit us or say "Dammit!" (guilty, guilty.)

We are all doing the best we can at the hardest and most important endeavor we will ever attempt. As mothers, we need to be there for one another in support, not judgment. We make decisions that we feel are for the best, and just hope that our children hold on to the happiest memories and forget the others.

In the meantime, I simply try not to beat myself up. I just take comfort in how happy he was to get a "Nemo" Band-aid that night.

Valentine's Day 2008

As usual, Jeff and I had not made definite plans for Valentine's Day until the day was suddenly upon us. I figured I would make dinner at home and that we might sit at the table and eat by candlelight. I knew Jack would think that was neat.

Then, when I found out Aunt Mel wasn't doing anything, I asked her to pick Jack Everett up from preschool and decided to surprise Jeff and take him out for dinner. (Thank you Aunt Mel!) So, I showed up at his store, and we called from inside to make a last-minute dinner reservation.

When we got outside to the parking lot, I had locked my keys (and purse and wallet) in my car. Oh, and did I mention that I also locked the SPARE key in the car too? I know, I already got the lecture. So, as we do every time I do this, we called my parents and Mom and Jeffry came out to break into my car. After one hour, some help from a fellow locksmith, and $40 bucks, we were back on track for our "date." So much for spontaneity, but we were not going to let this spoil the mood.

We ended up eating at Luciano's, in the middle of North Star Mall. Not surprisingly, they were able to seat us right away. So it was a little unconventional, but it was time away nonetheless. We ignored all the kids and strollers and had a great time. After dinner, we did TWO of Jeff's very favorite things... shopped for maternity clothes, and took pictures in a photo booth.

Happy Valentine's Day, Honey. You are such a good sport!