LBJ: Life Before Jack Part II

This installment of LBJ is brought to you by Huggies (wipes and diapers, or generic, depending on which ones we have a coupon for from Costco), Sippy cups, and mandatory naps.

Before we had Jack, we used to have time for silly things, like sitting and enjoying each others company whenever we wanted, without the least bit of regard for naps, walks, toys underfoot, or that subtle, gently elusive smell of poopy/sopping wet diaper. Don't get me wrong, I love our Bubba more than I ever though possible-Jack redefined the word and emotion 'love' for me, but sometimes its just nice to remimisce, and this is one of those times (Jack is out for the night).

I forgot I had this picture, buried as it was deep in my computer. This is a part of that whole 'staring into each others eyes' thing we used to do.

Hey good-looking. Aw, shucks, you talkin' to me?

Its kinda weird to see my face without hair, as its been almost two years since I've been sporting the bearded look. Hmmm....not a bad look.

Beauty & The Beast

Jason, what are you doing?

So, anyways, I'm the one that posts the most on this blog because I am in classes right now, and the more boring ones allow for some quality time. Heather works and does more laundry than I do, so she has less time. Still, what could I possibly do to motivate her to post more? Hmmm....

Maybe I could post lots of pictures of her and brag about her in general. We'll give it a try.

This was a way long time ago. The couch you see in the background was donated, until we had dough for a new couch and realized we were allergic to whatever had lived in the couch before we had it. Ah, the joys of young love. Not to mention the smells and cat hair.

Family Pics '08-ish

For our Family Pictures last year, we decided to take advantage of our beautiful clubhouse as our locale. This shot is upstairs at the poker table. I think the picture, while blurry, is kinda cute. There's a lot that you could read into our expressions and what we're holding, and it just came out kinda cool. Wish I had a better camera...

I always feel so cheesy when I take these kind of photos. Especially since I was using our tripod and the timer on the camera, so I had to hurry and press the button and then run over and try to center myself. Not to mention that I never really know what to to with my hands.

Jack, of course, was the picture of patience. This is that picture. He was good for about 2 poses, and after that forgetta'bout it! He was done. So this picture and the next illustrate what our evening was like trying to get him to be in our family photo.

Action Jack, all over again. This is with me holding up a teddy bear and trying to get him to focus for 2 seconds, too.

This is probably the best shot of the night. Awwww, cute.

Baby Blue Eyes

On Saturday, I had the priviledge of watching Baby Sis, the daughter of one of our friends, while they were off at the temple. I dug out Jack's old walker and took a clorox wipe to it to get it ready for Baby Blue Eyes.
I had forgotten how magical it is to look into someone's eyes. Heather and I don't really have the kind of time we used to have to just stare at each other, and Jack kinda doesn't sit still for very long, much less let you look at him. So....... I'll admit it, right here, right now. Babies are nice. There, I said it. Heather would always complain about Jack growing up too fast, and I would gripe about him not growing up fast enough, but she's right. Looking in Baby Sis's eyes was amazing. All that good stuff, meaning of life, depths of eternity-it all comes into focus. I only had a few minutes with her before Jack woke up and the stress went to Defcon 5, but while he was still asleep, it was nice to just look into her peaceful eyes and think about stuff. How often does that happen? Plus, is she dang cute or what?

She thought it was ok, and wasn't as jazzed up as I thought she would have been, but then, neither was Jack back in the day. At least she wasn't on her back the whole time, and it gave me a break from holding her. That means that I'm not as good a mother as Ashley, cuz if that kid is awake, she's in Ashley's arms. She must have biceps of steel.

She almost fit in it too. I only had to use two pillows to prop her up.

The funny thing about Jack and having Baby Blue Eyes around was the level of alertness. When you have a baby, you're constantly on the highest level of keyed-up you can be. I hadn't realized that had gone away by degrees with Jack, but I guess it has. Jack can be in his room playing quietly and I may not worry about him for five minutes or so. But having a baby back in my care, wow, what a change. I could feel my body stressing more. Is she ok? Is she still breathing? Watch out for her neck, be careful when you pick her up, support her spine- All kinds of craziness running through my mind I had forgotten about now that Jack was a little older. I mean, I still worry about Jack and the fact that he might still have some freak accident, but the level of concern compared to a 5ish-month old is totally different. Throw in the fact that I also have to train Jack to keep his mitts off of the bubba, and a whole new level of mama grizzly bear comes out. First of all, I didn't let Jack within arms reach of her. When he gets upset, he tends to swipe at whatever is handy with his hand. He still hits Heather and me, and it's a huge trial of my life not to backhand him back across the room when he head-butts one of us or pinches Heather. Anyways.....

Jack was nice to the Bubba Blue Eyes, and was SO excited by that walker thing, he enjoyed it more than she did, I'm sure. Jack knows you have to be 'soft' with the Bubba. Repeating that to him coupled with the look in my eye kept him well behaved, until a certian point. I know when that point came, because Jack started saying 'Bye, beh-bee, bye beh-bee." Hilarious! It was like, ok, Dad's paying way more attention to you than me, plus you're in my seat, so.....now it's time for you to go.

As soon as I pulled Baby Sis out of the walker Jack was all over it. I wish I had gotten some pics of that because it was funny. Jack would climb in, and of course get "guck!" his word for stuck, and as soon as I pulled him out (with one arm, cuz the other arm had Baby Sis) he would crawl back in again, only of course he's too tall for that thing now.

Jack is starting to understand sharing, and by understand, I mean that he doesn't get it at all. I would hand Baby a toy, which of course belongs to Jack, and he would want to grab it back from her. Of course Mama Grizzly Bear me wouldn't let him, so he'd grab his other toys to his chest and say "MINE." As if I was moments away from confiscating all his stuff and handing it over to the interloper. A nice preview of What May Be to Come, if and when we have another bubba of our own. Time and sharing and taking turns are still foreign concepts to his little brain. He's still all impulse and no control. Somedays I can't wait for that to change. Wait a sec, sometimes I still make stupid impulse decisions, so that means...............oh shoot dang, I'm gonna be waiting a long time, huh?

Good thing hair grows back.....

So, I think I mentioned that Jack had long hair in El Paso, but we cut most of it off when we got back. Well, I didn't do a very good job, so I tried to correct it. This is what it looked like wet, pre-second correction. I'm sorry Doctor, but we just can't find that other pair of forceps. Alright nurse, time to scrub up; we're going back it. And this time, keep track of your damn tools!! Incidentally, this look from Jack is what you would get if you were on the receiving end of one of his smooches.

Here's another look. First I tried to cut his bangs, then Heather and I decided to just use a three all over. Heather really liked the way he looked with long hair. Having shorter hair somehow makes him look older. And, no, he's not grabbing what you think he's grabbing-he's just a modest little boy. Ok, just kidding, he's not really modest. But he still doesn't know what that thing is for yet.

Here's an action shot of the first failed attempt. I know what you're probably thinking-the baby doesn't look like the one who needs the haircut. And yeah, yeah, I know; the seventies called, they want their hairstyle back. Trust me, I've heard them all. It's just kind of this thing I do now. Since I left BYU, I grew a beard, and in the fall, I don't cut my hair. Then in the summer, I just buzz it. I recommend it to all, you really save money on haircuts and razors. Oh yeah, you really need to not care what you look like and it helps to have a sympathetic wife. It also helps if you have gorgeous hair, which I apparently have. Whenever I visit Heather at the hospital, there are always a few co-workers of hers that run their fingers through my hair. Sheesh.

The evidence. Jacks hair isn't really like mine except for it's volume, maybe. It is really more the color of Heather's hair, just a tad darker. Jack's hair is also not as thick as mine- if I grew it out long enough and made a shirt out of my hair it would be bullet proof-my hair is so coarse. Of course, cutting an unwilling twoish-year olds' hair is difficult; it is after all, a moving target.

This is what he looks like now. Luckily for him, he looks good bald-like his old man (although his external occipital protuberance is not as pronounced as mine-what can I say, the kid can't have it all). Good thing it grows back........

Mos! Cousins

Ooooh! Action sequence....

Top of the slide.....and ACTION!

Photo finish!

Kia's famous grrrrrrrr face.

Kia's famous fro. Her hair would probably be down to her shoulder if it were stretched out.

Too cute.

'Mos' is Jacks word for 'more.' I think it's a combination of 'more' and 'o's', which is what we called Cheerios. More O's? became 'mos.' Nee-way, these pics are still from our El Paso trip. The weather there makes me sick. There is this little park about 2 minutes away from my sisters place, and on the last day that we were there, there was a kids soccer team playing, a track team running around in short shorts, and a baseball team balling it up. We drove back to Pleasant Grove to wind, cold, darkness and snow.

This is what Jacks hair looked like during our El Paso trip, but as soon as we got back, we decided to chop it. I messed that up, so then I tried to fix that a few days later, and just ended up shaving his head with a 1. It's ok, though, he looks cute bald. Plus, he's more aerodynamic.

Cousins!

"Kee-ya-y," or Kiara, is my sister Davina's first The second one is due in another month. Jack and Kia hit it off from the start.

This was taken in Old Mesilla, a small town outside of las Cruces that has a lot of charm and history and southwest flavor. I love that place. That's my Momma on the left, and Davi on the right.

When Jack wasn't infuriating me by hitting his cousin, he could occasionally be coerced into being nice to her.

Kia makes the cutest faces in the morning-this is her 'what sound does a lion make' face, which she wore everytime she woke up from anything.

Of course, her hair was awesome. Such a cute little fro! It is probably the length of her shoulders at least, but it is really hard to tell because its so curly.

More Old Mesilla pics.

Morning play time with the cousins.

More goofy faces and morning hair.....

........and the double cheese grin, which a side of kitty-morning breath.

Anthony

This is what the boy looks like in the morning. On a good day.

This is what he looks like fresh off of a good night's sleep.

There is this town right on the border of Texas and New Mexico called........you guesed it-Anthony! We took some pictures in honor of our friend Anthony. Next time I'll bring power tools and bring back more than just pictures, if you know what I mean.....wink, wink.

If we hadn't been in a carful of crying, crabby, hungry kids, we might have stopped and taken a tour of the place and really gotten a lot more pictures. Excuses excuses, I know. But seriously, there was an Anthony everything there, like the first picture.

The Boy

I know, I haven't written in a long time. Sorry. We went on a trip to the ole' hometown of El Paso, and stayed with family there. My sister Davina and her husband Jesse were gracious enough to open their home to us for the whole week, as they always do when we go home to visit. To begin with, lets talk about the boy.
The boy is becoming more human everyday. His vocabulary is amazing, it is quite possible that he says more words than I give him credit for simply because I really can’t believe that he could be saying what it sounds like he’s saying. For example, right now he’s saying something that sounds like ‘sah-wee’and might be sorry, but its really too soon to tell for sure. He knows ‘owie’ for when he gets bonked (this happens a ton-no surprise I’m sure to anyone else who dabbles in caretaker for this age group), ‘jeeeews’ is juice when he wants some, and ‘oh-jews’ when he thinks what he is drinking is orange juice. Here’s the list of as many as I can remember, that Jack is using currently:
‘Pan’ is for bread. We’re trying to teach him some words in Spanish. ‘Murk’ is for milk.
‘Babble’ is for bottle or bubbles, as in blowing bubbles. Heather really wants to move him completely to sippy cups, and we did try, but I vetoed the attempt when he went too long without drinking anything and had too many dry diapers for my comfort. At this point the only times he uses the bottle is for his morning and bedtime milk.
‘Binky’ means either blanket or pacifier. If he calls for ‘binky’ it probably means binky, unless he already has it, then it means blankie. He has three blankets, plus a monkey one that his Auntie Freddi gave him, and he loves them all. He loves to lie down on the ground with one and pretend to sleep. He’ll even call out ‘nah-night’ and fake whistle-snore. It kills me every time. ‘nah-night’self-explanatory. ‘Side?’ this is always a question, as in, can you get off of your lazy but and take me outside please? Usually he’ll start by asking for his shoes, and then work his way up to straight up asking to go outside.
Jack also knows the difference between his ‘bee-oots’ and his ‘shoes,’ and also knows most of his wardrobe. ‘Saughts’ are socks, and he knows pants and shirt pretty well, too. He says ‘coke’ for coat, which is interesting because I normally say jacket. Somehow he latched onto ‘coke’ on his own, and you have to admit, it is easier to say. He knows a ton of animal sounds, thanks to Heather, who drill him on them all the time. Still can’t get him to say cat. He can say ‘doddie’ for doggy, and he can bark like a dog when you ask him what a doggie says, but no matter what, cat is always a demure ‘meow.’ He sniffles for bunny, snorts for pig, moos for cow, flaps his lips for horse-’orsey’ and tries to blow a raspberry for elephant. He also knows names. He calls himself ‘Gack’ and his dad is ‘dada’ or ‘dah-dee’, and of course ‘mama’ and mah-mee’ for Heather, as well as ‘Minnie’ for Amanda, ‘Con-Con’ for Connor, ‘Rae-Rae’ for Raegan, and Gavin actually sounds just like its supposed to. Jack will also occasionally perfectly mimic something incredible, but the trick we have yet to learn is to get him to really learn it. ‘SeeSee’ is Sesame Street, and ’orseys’ is his favorite Elmo’s World DVD. I can’t spell the words he uses for truck and car, but he knows the sounds they make. And that is enough for today.