Epiphanies

I don't know where Jack gets this stuff. But he has had a few epiphanies recently.

1) Daddy knows all the names of every single person who has ever sung a song. (He's probably right about that one.)

2) There's no hugging in baseball (said while watching the Vikings hug after their win - in football).

3) He doesn't like the poster of Olive Trees I brought home from the museum. He prefers his own art, which is "bery pwetty." And he won't draw humans except Dora, and no animals except octopuses.

4) We can play music very loudly in the car, but only if Ryker isn't in there.

5) If you do one thing wrong, you can't ever play with him ever again. Zero tolerance.

6) He's allowed to pick up Ryker by any means necessary - including by his ears.

Then I had one:

For the last few weeks Jack has been telling me about this thing/person/animal/noun-of-some-sort that he has some kind of interaction with at school. I couldn't really understand what he was saying, but more importantly, I couldn't understand the noun's name. I thought he was calling it Piper. He puts random w's in words all the time, so when he kept repeating "pwiper" I assumed it was Piper. This made him FURIOUS. I eventually got him to provide me with an important nugget of information - this noun is a character on Dora the Explorer. So I looked it up on Wikipedia. The noun's name is Swiper, and he's a fox that wears a mask and steals things. Go figure.

Choosing

Yesterday, in the car...

Jack: "I run really fast. I can beated other kids when I run."
Momma: "Yes, you run pretty quickly. And faster than some kids. And probably some other kids might run even faster."
J: "I run faster than Daddy."
M: "Oh yeah?"
J: "Yes, but he can run fast. He just CHOOSES not to run fast."

4 Years

I have already shared Jack's Birth Story, and as much as I think I'm entitled to tell it OVER and OVER again, I'll spare you.

I was thinking last night that not only was Jack born 4 years ago, but Chuck and my new roles as parents were born as well. How different our lives have become. It's hard to remember how we spent all of that free time, what it was like to eat a meal without getting up five times to retrieve some portion of a kid's meal, how free our arms must have felt to not be carrying a bowling ball, oops, child with us all the time. But moreover, it's hard to remember back to a time when we didn't have these awesome little people in our lives.

Four years ago today we were born into parenting. And right away we were pretty darn good at it (in my humble opinion). In the hospital I dubbed Jack "quizzical" and I think anyone who knows him now would say he's still that way. Chuck figured out within a day how to best soothe the fussy baby, and although my memory is a bit foggy, I believe the bounce-the-child-until-they-somehow-fall-asleep method was born there too. Within an hour I was feeding and nourishing another human being.

Some parenting skills have needed more fine-tuning. It took us two full years (and a lock on our door) to get Jack to sleep in his own bed. We went through several versions of time-outs before we figured out what worked for Jack. We learned the hard way not to share details of things until they are set in stone, that you should never turn your back on a toddler with blue chalk, and that it's okay to just leave the room when we're frustrated. We learned how to make everything seem like it was Jack's choice from the beginning. We learned, or rather reinforced an existing belief, that laughter can solve almost anything, and that we need to take every chance to tell him how proud we are of him, and how much we love him.

So today I say Happy Birthday to my sweet boy, and Happy Birthday to Chuck and me as well. I hope we continue to learn from and love one another for a VERY long time.

Birthday Parties

A few observations from Jack's birthday weekend:

1) The same group of children produced twice as much noise this year as they did last year. With age comes volume?

2) Four year olds pick strange cakes. Jack insisted on blue flowers.
3) A balloon popping is terrifying to people under the age of 3 and over the age of 7. Anywhere in the middle and it's hysterical. I don't have pictures of this, so you'll have to trust me - or try it for yourself. We have half a pack of birthday balloons that seem especially well suited to this challenge, if you want to borrow them.

4) Family members from out of town (Grandmommy, Grandpa, Uncle Ry Ry, etc.) are infinitely more fun than your own boring parents.
5) Blowing things up is fun for all ages. And brothers have to dress alike.
6) Hats are funny. Walking with hats is even funnier.
More pictures on Flickr.

Innocence

Two examples of Jack's innocence:

1. In the car today, singing together to Michael Jackson...

Jack: "Momma, my voice is bery different than yours is."
Momma: "That's right."
J: "Bery different."
M: "Yep, it's different. Everyone has different voices. And we all look a little different too. No two people look or sound exactly the same."
J: "Yes, but everyone has to have white teeth. If they don't keep them that way, they will fall out."

2. Yesterday, while sitting on the stool in the corner of my dressing room at J Crew...

Momma: "Jack, do you know what I'm doing?"
Jack: "No."
M: "I am trying on these dresses so I can order my dress for Beth's wedding. I have to find out what size I'll need to order so I'm trying on some similar ones."
J: "....And what size dress will I be wearing?" (he's the ring bearer)

Restaurant Worker Fail

Not-Knowing-When-To-Let-The-Parent-Strategically-Omit-Things-From-The-Menu Fail

Server: "What does he want to drink?" (looking at me and talking about Jack)
Me: "Jack, do you want milk or water?"
Server: "Or a Coke, or Sprite, or Root Beer?"
...later...
Me: "We'll take a kid's ice cream for him."
Server: "What kind?"
Me (with Jack's input): "Vanilla"
Server: "And whipped cream and a cherry and hot fudge and caramel?"

Time-Lapse Fail

Hostess: "How many?"
Me: "Three and a booster seat" (said while pointing at Ryker, who I'm carrying)
H: "Follow me"
(walks 20 feet to a table)
H: "Does he still need a booster?"
("No, lady, in the last 7 seconds he grew two feet and developed the impulse-control necessary to not jump off the chair to get something he sees on the ground.")

Icon Mix-up

Over vacation Jack took on a new chant.

"Hannah Montana, Hannah Banana, Dannah Habana...."

He avoided all attempts for us to figure out where he heard about Hannah Montana. This last week at home he kept bringing it up, and yesterday we were determined to get to the bottom of it.

Mom and Dad: "Jack, where did you hear about Hannah Montana?"

Jack: "I don't know."

M&D: "Well, do you know who that is?"

J: "Yes, it's that girl from vacation."

M&D: "...."

J: "You know, on our way to St. Louis at that playground and she was sitting on a bench."

St. Louis Vacation - Part 2

Okay - I left off at Friday evening...

We went out to eat at Stir Crazy, where Jack learned to use chopsticks and the thrill of watching chefs light food on fire. Ryker learned about edamame. He also tried to convince Chuck and me to share our wasabi salmon and curried chicken. The kid will eat anything.

Saturday was the big engagement party for Beth and Nik. It started with a bus tour through St. Louis (Ryker and I missed the festivities, as he napped through it). Jack and Chuck had their first trip to the top of the St. Louis Arch, and Jack experienced his first Ted Drewes' frozen custard (an StL tradition).

That night we had a fantastic dinner at ~Scape in the Central West End. Jack and Ryker donned button-up shirts, which Jack referred to as "work shirts" and had the best mac n' cheese of their lives. Seriously, it was amazing. Our food was great too, and the company was even better. Nik's family is so much fun and we had a good time getting to know each other.

The next morning brought brunch at BJ and Charlie's (aka Gaga and Papa's) house. The Karlsson clan watched in amazement as we ate our body weight in Gooey Butter Coffee Cake. Then the highlight of the weekend - Nik and Beth had put together a 15 minute slide show of pictures of both of them growing up and their time together in LA. It was amazing and brought most of us to tears. It paid tribute to those who aren't with us anymore and brought us closer to the future in-laws by sharing a glimpse of what it was like growing up a Karlsson (looked like fun!).

That night we brought Pasta House in to my mom's house and tired out Gaga, Papa and Beth with our crazy kids.

We decided to do the trip back in one day, not wanting to prolong the agony of road trips with really, really...ummm...vocal and expressive children. It was a huge success, and I'm not even being sarcastic. We stopped at a rest area that had a barn, which Jack was convinced would sell cows.

When we got home Jack ran in and exclaimed over and over "it is soooo gooood to be hoooome!" Ryker immediately grabbed the kitty's tail and exclaimed over and over "want DIIIISSSSS!"

It's good to be home and I'm so looking forward to seeing the whole crew together again next summer at the wedding.

P.S. Pics from the adventures are up on Flickr, link to the right.