Mommy's Little- BIG helper

You see this little boy to the left? He is learning all sorts of new skills lately, (including brushing his teeth.)

In addition to this, Jack has become a great helper. He loves to help me clean- it's so cute! He LOVES the broom and dustpan and follows me around helping me sweep. He also picks up crumbs off the floor and throws them in the trash. Perhaps the cutest thing he does is when he takes a dish-rag, wipes the floor with it, and then shakes it over the trash can!! How adorable is that?! He's also learning laundry skills by handing me the laundry to throw in the washer (in addition to a few toys as well). He's great at throwing things in the dryer- mostly non-laundry items. And lastly, he loves closing doors. After seeing me and Jon constantly closing doors to keep Jack out of rooms, Jack thinks it's normal to close every single door. If he sees an open door he runs to slam it shut. I never realized how observant this little boy is. He studies you to learn how to do tasks, and then puts his new-found knowledge to work! I'm a little concerned that he's eagerly watching how I open the pull-out freezer drawer. I just know I'm going to find frozen peas scattered across the kitchen floor soon. In the meantime I'm enjoying my little-Big helper.

PAINT!

We are officially homeowners. Gulp. In an ambitious attempt to make our new house into our home, we have launched a full-scale painting project. We're able to do this because we're not moving for another week, so luckily we can make the house a mess and not worry about living in it. Anyways, Jon and I accomplished a lot over the weekend and the place is starting to look like ours! I'll post pictures when we're all done. But for a preview--we've changed one bedroom from a suffocating bubble-gum pink to a soothing silver, and we've mastered the art of the miter saw. We cut wood for a chair rail in the dining room, and I love saying that I used a compound miter saw! How cool is that? (Especially considering that when I rented it from Home Depot I asked the guy if it came with instructions.)

I just realized that sadly, I did not take "before" pictures of the rooms we've worked on. But I'll start doing that for the next rooms. One negative effect of painting? You are covered with paint, head-to-toe afterwards...even after showering, you find unexpected paint splotches on your skin. You can never get rid of it! I am just imagining the looks I'll get at church when people catch a glimpse of my brown and biege nails.

Did I forget to mention...?

In just a few days we will be closing on our first house! We are ecstatic and can't wait to get settled into our new home. There are so many little details involved in moving that it's starting to get stressful. I've spent the last few weeks calling to switch utilities, cable, water, insurance to the new house. Not to mention the organizing and packing. Oh, how I despise packing! And sadly I realized-- (much to Jon's pleasure) that I need to get rid of some of my books. *sigh* Since I majored in history in college/post-grad, I have TONS of history books. And I LOVE them! I don't even read them anymore, but they're mine and I'm freakishly possessive of them. Do ya'll have any psycho possessive tendencies like that?! So anyways, I just sorted through them and am going to try to get some cash from Half Price Books later. No doubt Jon will protest I kept too many books, but I've got to have my European history books, and those T-H-I-C-K Norton Anthologies of Shakespeare/English Literature (which weigh 5lbs each), and my WWII/Nazi Germany collection, and my Harry Potter collection, and all 4 Twilight books....those are deal-breakers.

Enough of that tirade. To sum-up, we're moving in 2 weeks and are thrilled. Anyone willing to join us in a paint/pizza party, give me a call!

Slurrrrrp, slurp!

The other night I made chicken stir-fry with noodles. It was Jack's first time to eat it, and honestly, I figured I'd be sweeping it off the floor and walls! Imagine my excitement (and relief) when he cheerfully slurped down the noodles. I guess noodle-slurping comes instinctually to kids, who knew? Check out his noodle slurp-fest below...(the last second of the video is the best slurp).

Tire Swing

Here's Jack on the tire swing. He held on like a champ, just chillin' out on a nice summer day. I love his smile...

The perfect chute

I love this park! This slide is perfect for young toddlers. It's a half-pipe, so you can let go of your kid at the very top, without having to worry about them going over the side. Jack really enjoyed the slide and kept going back to it over and over and OVER again. When we walked back to the car, he refused to get in and tried to escape back to the slide! Too cute.

The Tee-ball Tot

Here Jack is playing tee-ball with one of his birthday presents from my friend Jill. Lately Jack is very into balls- throwing and rolling them.

This is actually from a month or so ago, but I'm lazy in posting videos... To catch-up on my recent lack of photos and videos there will be a new video/photo posted each day for the next week! Aren't you lucky?!