All about JACK

a picture taken by Mrs. Renee at Arlin’s school…looks pretty mischievous if you ask me! But cute nonetheless!

I had to. Saw these “camp fire” oversized marshmellows at the grocery store and I did a very bad thing…I bought the bag. I thought to myself “how cool would this size marshmellow be for a yummy reward for going potty on the toilet at school??!”

Yes, they are HUGE, like the size of a closed fist huge…when I realized it was gonna take two air tight storage containers to house these bad boys…I thought, “W-O-W that’s a lot of sugar I’m gonna just gonna hand over to my kid”…

but I did it anyways…
At first…he scowled at it…I honestly don’t even think he knew what it was, then quickly he said “Marshmellow Mum?!”

Nom! Nom!

happy, happy, joy, joy……..

until Mama stops off at the store to run an errand on the way home from school and finds this happy face covered in slimy what’s left of an attacked marshmellow…and a boy who’s NOT so “mellow”? Omg….it was a train wreck. He was beside himself, covered in white goo…it was E-v-e-r-y-where, all over his face, his hands, his tee shirt, his shorts, the car seat, and ALL over the window! Yes, he finger painted the back seat window with marshmellow goo…just lovely!
I suppose I deserve it, right? I mean what was I thinking?! I didn’t even once think to turn around in the car while he was eating it…we were singing and having a gay old time all the way  to the store… or so I thought…Poor kid was a wreck, after wet wipe mayhem I decided to take Arlin Jack into the store with me…

yet another bad idea.

We left, after getting what we needed. Not even out of the parking lot the Captain was fast asleep.

I totally felt bad…I totally just knocked my kid out with a sugar high!?

Thanks to Renee (Arlin’s new teacher) we’re able to peep in on the Captain in action.

Arlin spends three mornings a week at school with his new buddies; Max, Peter, Trevor and Ruby. He loves to stack wooden blocks and build his legos into robots or airplanes. He’ll stack them as high as he can reach ‘em, and when they tumble he’ll start all over…lots of determination in this little guy!

Arlin playing with gears.

School is going well for Arlin he really likes the play time and interaction with the other students. It seems like his vocabulary is blossoming daily…when you least expect it he bursts out with something new, it’s pretty cool!

Arlin started his 1st day of Montessori yesterday. Summer session ended last week and he had a few days at home with Mama. Although we really enjoyed ourselves the first day or two, I think we started driving each other nuts. Arlin loves to go to school!

He takes pride in carrying his own bag in…Mama calls him her “Big Boy” when he stays on track and we actually get our bag into the right cubby without disturbing anyone else.

That’s Ms. Cecily on the left, she’ll be taking over for Ms. Lindsay when she leaves to have her baby girl. And next, holding the basket…that’s Camille or Millie! Arlin has a new pal to play with, Faith and Tom’s (Abby’s good friends) little girl. Watching Millie yesterday morning reminded me of Arlin the first day, she was on overload…wanted to check it all out!

Mr. Trouble.

Mama made the Captain a personalized tote, the school asked for no backpacks…

I picked him up today from the school yard. I could see everyone but Arlin. I asked Cecily is Arlin out here…Yes he’s over on the playground slide, and as she went to point, he wasn’t there….but just to the right of the playground you could see his little tushie sticking up in the air…his head was buried in the tomato garden. Captain found the grape tomato bush, thorns don’t scare him! I plucked him out of the garden. He had a couple tomatoes squirreled away in his mouth and he had seeds smeared all over his tee-shirt. Who knows how many he ate. Boy was he mad at Mama for picking him up to go home.

We’ve had a real picnic potty training. But we’re committed.

But see, I’ve been feeding him tomatoes here at the house. Yah. I didn’t know there was a free-for-all buffet tomato bush in the school yard.

Let’s just say we got lots of potty practice in today.

“What moves you?”…….this handsome kiddo!

the look, when Papa goes up to his office in the morning…still handsome though.

outfits only look this good in the morning before school. Gotta snap em’ when you can.

Summer school is going well. No more biting, they ended up removing the child that was biting to another toddler environment. I feel bad for the parents, but can now relax a little knowing I won’t be getting as many incident reports from the Academy. Arlin Jack is…”Captain Chatterbox”…his vocabulary is incredible! His like a parrot…repeating even the not so nice words Mama and Papa some times say!

Yep, that there is a banana in the hands of Captain……….in the CAR!!!

Captain had a rough go at school last week. And I was willing to bend the rules a bit to help.

They have a “biter” in the toddler environment that Arlin Jack is in. And it seems as if the Captain is sweet enough to nibble on. We had the incident reports pile up and by the time Thursday rolled around I had tears while giving him a bath. With marks on his arms, back and cheek he’d say to me “Ma-Ma….B-i-t-e” and put his hand to his mouth then point to where he’d been bitten… And while he is absolutely the cutest thing ever when he says B-i-t-E, and wicked smart to be able to communicate what happened to me, it breaks my heart to think about it.

What do you do? I am trying to understand the situation, I get that it happens at this age and all, that it might be a phase, but my poor guy! Chad and I are meeting with the school tomorrow morning.*sigh*

I built Arlin’s little table and chair set up this afternoon after he got home from school. Of course the Captain had to help Mama…and stomp all over the box and bubble wrap!

so…it’s gonna take some time for the newness to wear off on this real plant thing- he is pretty fascinated by it’s presence…he spent the majority of snack time this afternoon trying to feed the flower his cracker!

our first snack time at the table…after school today.

me snapping shots from across the wee little table…hopefully these chairs don’t bust with us big kids sitting on em’!

the set up…Chad and I are trying to bring a little bit of  Montessori “like” furniture into the home, by recommendation of the Academy. We have a new training potty in the downstairs bathroom that Arlin sits on everytime Chad or I go potty This last weekend we picked up this eating table, two chairs…and his all time favorite- an Arlin size cleaning utensil set (still on the hunt for a wood set like they have at the school) but these will do for now- they were half off…Ha. Maybe I do clean too much. I swear the Captain has been following me everywhere around the kitchen the past couple of days with his new broom in tow. It’s really too cute. Tonight we ate dinner at his table (well Arlin and I did) we used a plate, a spoon and a cup…I was beyond impressed with my little guys manners and we didn’t throw any food like I envisioned! Hoo ray!

he can eat all the crackers he wants with those baby blues.

So, I’m thinking I’ve kinda been obsessing with taking head shots of Arlin’s glue stitches…his first war wound. Is that weird? Oh, my poor guy…

I love this red sweater he’s wearing in these pictures (again from Aunt Patty) Boy, I tell ya- this little guy is stylin’ with one healthy sized wardrobe. Between Pamaw (grandma), great Aunt Patty and his surrogate fathers Uncle Joel and Kirk… it’s a rare occasion as parents we have to buy him clothes!

Arlin has become fascinated with shoes…I’m thinking it’s because of the routine we go through every morning- getting ready for school here at the house, we switch from his bear slippers to his Vans, then when we get to school we have to sit down and put on his indoor shoes (the pee pee crocs-as I call em’) that’s like Mr. Rogers, except it’s shoes and not sweaters. Or maybe he’s just following in the footsteps of his father…who we all know has a serious shoe addiction. (Well, Mama knows this!)

this picture is the…BEST!!!

Spoiled. Rotten…

Uncle Joel bought the Captain’s first Carhartt jacket and real cowboy hat.

at Uncle Joel & Kirk’s house…

I am so glad we finally made it to the Denver Rodeo/ Western Stock Show yesterday with Uncle Joel! (we missed you Kirk!)

Arlin got to check out lots of different animals up close and personal for the first time ever.

We saw some…Cows, Chickens, Ducks, Guinea Pigs, Horses, Ponies, Roosters, Alpacas…and so on! The Captain had the best view in the house the entire show…Uncle Joel carried him like precious cargo 6 feet high in the air. I think Arlin was on sensory overload- it was a lot to take in, but he loved every minute of it, even with the sniffles. (I think we have a slight cold again) Thank you uncle Joel, you were a champ with handling the Boogers, Snot rockets…whatever you call them yuckies…

Next, it’s time for Mama to get back to the Rodeo to see some REAL Rodeo action!!! Can’t wait.

handsome Jack…& those baby blues!

curious george…always reaching for the camera…you have to be quick!

I love this picture…it’s like “Mooommm!!!” stop taking pictures of me!”

So, we got our first “real” boo boo at school on Friday. Arlin Jack accidentally took out the corner of a table with his mouth/cheek.  The school called right away and left me a message about the accident. However, I was rocking out to music while running on the treadmill and I didn’t get the voice mail notification until after Chad has already gone and picked him from school at noon. At that point I was at the hair salon getting a cut and color.

My heart was literally in my throat when I heard the voice mail (I was such a bad Mama for not getting the voice mail!)  Of course,  I immediately dialed Chad (like 15 times) to get him on the phone for the run down of what happened. I was so ready to leave  my hair appointment. Chad called me right back and told me there was no need to worry- he’s a boy babe- I think those are the words he used.

Thank gosh my little guy is tough as nails! He took the spill, cried a little and then kept on truckin’.

Jessica the director of Bergamo Academy, called us early Saturday afternoon to check in and see how Arlin was doing. I was impressed.

Man, am I in for some serious heart palpitations over the next ten years of boyhood and growing up or what?!