18 Months Old

Happy Birthday to Grammy Jarvis tomorrow!!!

Miss Charlotte turned 18 months old on the 24th!

I think the above picture pretty much sums up her personality--she's our little diva! At times her love for the dramatic is irresistably cute; other times not so much. It's especially awesome to try and make dinner when she's screaming her head off, ripping at my clothes, and pounding on the cabinets because I'm not preparing her food fast enough.

Who, me?

Charlotte is a very busy one and a half-year old. She's moving around incredibly well--she was walking by 13 months and running by about 15. We've all been really impressed at her dexterity; especially with kicking. Charlotte can run and kick a ball at the same time--we're wondering if her early dribbling skills indicate a future soccer star :) She's also an excellent climber and is amazingly strong. Tonight she pushed over our small lockbox that weighs about 50 pounds.

Charlotte has no fear and will try anything! Some of her very first words were: "uh-oh", "boom", and "whoa"--if that tells you anything about her personality. She's a tough cookie. It takes a lot to make her really cry; I'm often shocked at seeing her fall or run into something and then bounce right back up with barely a whimper.

Charlotte still LOVES to eat. I think Jack could almost skip a meal or two a day and not really notice, but that would never happen with Charlotte (what can I say, she's like her mother). One sure-fire way to get her to stop playing is to show Charlotte the food tray from her booster seat. She'll throw down everything and scurry over to her chair.

Here's an adorable picture of Sarah and Charlotte, when they checked out the forest preserve one day while Jack was in school.

The past couple months have been a lot fun with Charlotte as her vocabulary has really increased. I'll have to post a video of her talking soon. These are some of her words: mama, dada, daddy, Lou ("oo"), hi, hello, bye, ball, down, book. She seems to understand most everything we say (though getting her to obey is another issue). Charlotte is an impressively intelligent little girl!

She is a such little ham too. When we Skype, Charlotte will keep turning the laptop to focus on herself. She giggles and flirts and loves to interact with people. She's also a cuddler and still likes to snuggle and be held. She steals everyone's hearts! And she is absolutely the cutest little girl there ever was.

And so Jack isn't left out of this post entirely--here's him and the Easter Bunny from an event last weekend. This year was a total reversal of last Easter when Jack was freaked out by the Easter Bunny, while Charlotte was okay with it. Not so this year; Charlotte was having no part of it. I felt bad for the Easter Bunny because Charlotte would whimper and cry every time we were anywhere close to him (her?).

Charlotte adores her big brother, and while she gets on his nerves quite a bit (and tries to beat up on him), at least lately they've seemed to do a better job at playing together. Hopefully that will continue :)

Thought I'd share some random pictures we've taken around the house lately (as you can see from the shorts/t-shirts, the kids having been loving the summer-like temperatures!) I couldn't resist capturing this cute shot of Jack and Charlotte together on the couch (looking at an iphone). I think Jack started fussing about Charlotte's presence 10 seconds after I took the picture :)

Jack's interesting sleeping position the other night

One of their favorite pasttimes--holding pinwheels over the vent to make them spin. Jack loves to lay down and get as close to the spinning action as possible.

Another cute shot.

Jack's Birthday Party

Jack had an awesome time at his birthday party this weekend! It was at My Gym, a local kids' gym. Jack and all his friends had the place to themselves as they climbed, jumped, and ran around like crazy!



The gym staff did a really great job at making Jack feel special. Here he is getting a birthday ride on the parachute.

Love the tongue!



Everyone had fun in the balls.

Even the "big kids!"

So cute!

Charlotte was in 7th heaven, being able to climb all over stuff to her heart's content.


Can't believe we were actually able to get Charlotte and Whitney both to smile for the camera!

Jack had fun on the trampolene with some of his newer friends, Eleanor and Thaddeus.


Cute picture of Chloe!

Jack and Will.

And since Will was there, you knew there was also going to be a hockey stick!


When it was cake time, Jack got wheeled out on the big birthday car. Here he is waving to all his adoring fans.

Curious George cake.

This was actually the first year he's been able to blow out the candle by himself, and without getting spit all over the cake!

Toward the end of the party, they got out the zipline--brought back memories of Costa Rica for Andy and me. This zipline was not quite as big as the ones Andy and I went down :) I think just about all the kids braved a turn on it, even Charlotte and Whitney! I have some cute videos of Jack and Charlotte that Aunt Lisa took, but I have to figure out how to convert their format to put on the blog. Here's Hannah:


The grand finale was tons of bubbles blown by a fan. Jack was pretty excited by the bubbles at first, but then he had to go check out the fan.

This is a little blurry, but you can still see Charlotte's expression of pure delight at all the bubbles.

And finally, Jack led the kids out of the playroom in a train.


Thanks to everyone for coming to Jack's party--we had such a great time! And more importantly, Jack had a blast and got to fully experience being the special birthday boy.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Also a shout-out to all our family March birthdays: cousins Alexis and Lori earlier this week, Grandpa Nold on the 9th, and Aunt Lisa on the 14th!

How can it have been 4 years already since that bitter and snowy March day in 2008 when Jackson Alexander was born?

Jack has grown and matured so much this past year; in many ways I feel like he's a completely different little boy than he was on his 3-year old birthday. Over the last year, he started preschool, became potty-trained, and has had some significant changes in his personal life--learning to deal with a mobile little sister, and adjusting to a new au pair. As you can see, the new au pair adjustment was not a problem at all :)

It's been amazing to see the effect that preschool has had on Jack and his social skills. While I could do without some of the things he picks up at school ("don't look at me!", etc.), I've been so happy to see how he enjoys playing with and talking to the other kids. Whenever we're out where there are other children; not just at school, Jack initiates contact with others, talks to them, and they play well together. It's hard to believe this is the same child who as a 2-year old was always in his own little world when there were other kids around, and who on his first day of playschool, wouldn't move the entire day from his chair at the table. Jack's teachers say he is always very polite, shares, and takes turns with his classmates (if only we could get him to do the same with his sister at home.)

And I know every parent thinks their child is the most clever and intelligent, but I'll still go ahead and say that I think he's one of the smartest 4-year old boys I've ever met. His math skills are impressive--he can almost count to 100, he can do some backwards counting, and he's even learning some basic addition/subtraction. Jack LOVES spelling. He's constantly asking how to spell words, and he can sound and spell many short words all by himself. (Downside to spelling and recognizing words--makes it harder for me to skip around when I'm reading to him.)

Jack still has a passion for all things ceiling-related. If there's a ceiling fan nearby, on a TV commercial, inside a store that we're driving by, he'll find it. He can also immediately walk into a room and point out where and how many light bulbs are burned out.

And while he may have his more exasperating moments, he's still the sweetest, cutest, and most loving little boy ever. I'm not looking forward to that day in the future when he decides he doesn't like to sit on my lap anymore or want to snuggle on the couch together.

Jack, we love you more than words can say. We've been so proud of you over this past year, and we can't wait to see the great things you'll do while you're 4. I'll never forget that night in 2008 when you made us parents for the first time. Happy birthday my beautiful boy!

Here are some random photos I've taken over the last month:

Yes, occasionally Jack and Charlotte get along. But the moments don't always happen very often, so I had to get out the camera for this one.

Here's Jack modeling a new hat Andy bought for him. (Is it just me or does he look way too grown up in this picture?)


And Miss Charlotte, sitting pretty in her bean bag.

Sprawled out on Lou's bed. She wasn't feeling well this day.

Hawks game

Last weekend, Andy's work hosted another hockey game. This time the whole family came--Jack, Charlotte, and even Sarah and a friend! This was Charlotte's first game, and as you can see by the huge smile on her face, she loved it.

Not sure which she liked the most--hockey, or climbing up the stairs and all over the seats.

We were very happy that Jack braved going out of the suite this time. He didn't hang out here for too long, but he seemed to enjoy it.

Another family pic.

The Johnstons were also at the game--Will is a huge hockey fan :) Here's a cute picture of him and Jack. This is also a before shot of Jack and his Blackhawks cookie.

And here's the after. Black icing, ugh.

We also got to hang out with the Cavanaughs, who we hadn't seen in a while.

Charlotte and Whitney demolished the fruit plate, while Jack stuck to a steady diet of chips and cookie.

I took Charlotte out of the suite a couple times to burn off some energy. This may have been her favorite part of the day--running up and down the hallway.