What Jack's up to lately :)

It's hard to believe Jack is 19 months old, soon to be 20. I'm 21 weeks pregnant, and it seems like the pregnancy is flying by as well. I'm looking forward to Jack spending time with his little sister and the two of them growing up together, but we're also treasuring and savoring every single moment we have as a family of three.

I know I've said it before, but Jack continues to simply amaze me. I'm not familiar with tons of 19-month-olds, but to me he seems so smart and his language really seems to be advanced for his age. Right now, he's standing at the door yelling, "Dada, come!" because Seth went outside. He puts simple sentences together appropriately - things like "Jack read book", "No, my chair" or "More grapes please". Mostly though he's speaking in two-word phrases - "Shoes broke" when his shoe falls off, "Eat dog food" when the dogs are eating. The thing that probably impresses me most is his use of adjectives. He tells you when something is big, heavy, etc. He can also name about 1/2 of his letters (and gets so excited about it) and can count objects up to 4. He knows yellow, blue, white, red, green and pink.

Yesterday he baked chocolate chip cookies with Aunt Jackie, and this morning he helped me make blueberry muffins. He loves to draw ("Jack draw?"), 'read' his books aloud, sit in his armchair and watch Diego, run over for a kiss when he has a boo-boo, give big hugs and kisses (mostly to mom ;), he's still very into his trains and is kind of obsessed with school buses. Whenever we're riding in the car, he shrieks when he sees a bus and says "Oooooh, big yellow bus!"

So life is definitely not dull these days. On that note, I've gotta run and get the little munchkin dressed...

Halloween!

Baby Girl Bigelow!

Jack's trip to Green Meadow Farm

We went to the farm on Sunday and Jack absolutely loved it, as you can tell from the pics below. He adores animals, and had absolutely no fear no matter how big or small those he encountered happened to be. He especially loved the turkeys - when he got into the pen he just chased them around like crazy with a huge smile on his face. Next time we go, I need to take a video camera with me. It was priceless.

Jack @ 17 Months A.N.D........

announcing our newest family member, set to debut sometime in March! My due date is 3/19 but I will likely have to have a repeat c-section so that would put delivery sometime during the week following Jack's birthday (3/12). Yikes! We are very, very excited but also very overwhelmed by the idea of welcoming another little one. I'm sure we'll get used to it though :) I did get to see the baby on ultrasound yesterday, measuring right on time (8w4d) with a strong heartbeat. What a great sight to see!

Jack is as brilliant, hilarious and wonderful as ever. He adores his trains and train table, and loves pumping his little fist and saying "Choo choo!". His favorite foods right now are grapes, spaghetti and mandarin oranges. He'll pretty much eat most any fruit; veggies are the tough ones.

At the moment, his favorite dog is Max. He's always calling him ("Maaaah") and looking around for him. He loves giving the dogs hugs and doing "nice" by petting them gently. They are really so great with him, I just love seeing them together.

Jack has also started talking in real phrases. Whenever he can't find anything, it's "Doggie go?" or "Choo choo go?". He uses the word 'please' often and appropriately and I'm so proud. For example, his train track might fall apart so he'll bring me a piece of track and say "Mama, Mama. Help please". I'm so proud!

He also loves books and reading. He has a box of little Mickey Mouse books that he likes to carry around and he'll just sit down and flip through them making up words and sounds like he's reading!

I'm trying to think of more of his antics, but my thoughts are escaping me right now. I just spent 4 long days at a school conference focusing on differentiation, and while it was valuable and fairly entertaining, it was work and I. AM. TIRED.

Jack lately

All of a sudden it seems Jack is really growing up. He has taken to repeating much of what he hears (be careful mom and dad!) and uses his pretty large vocabulary appropriately. He loves to point out facial features and body parts on both people and the dogs. He's running after Cammie right now saying "nose, nose" and trying to touch her nose; he's just cracking himself up doing it ;)

We had lunch with a friend recently who told us she is expecting. It's probably not the most opportune timing for them, and totally not a planned pregnancy, so I didn't say anything for a moment after she told me. Leave it to Jack though...after a moment of silence he chimed in with his take on the whole thing - "Ohhhhh noooooo". We laughed so hard; I know he didn't understand what was going on but his timing and choice of words was impeccable!

July photos of Jack

I've wanted to share pictures of Jack for a while now, I just despise the old-fashioned, timely way Blogger makes you do it. I would think they'd update so you could choose multiple photos at a time and not have to format every one, but hey, that's just me.

Anyway...here are a bunch to give you an idea of what he's been up to lately and how big he's getting! Most recent pics are at the bottom.