Outside

I am positive that if, given the option, Jack would live outside.  From the time he wakes up in the morning till the moment he goes to sleep, the word "outside" is spoken (or whined) at least once every ten minutes.  He loves to run, smell the flowers, climb, slide, splash in puddles, and even pick up the occasional piece of poop (we're working on not doing that).  By far, the hardest part of my day is getting him inside.  But don't get me wrong I'm MUCH rather have trouble getting him inside than getting him to like the outside :)

 

 

Yes, we are getting him a bigger slide soon :)

He loves to climb up and down the stairs on the deck

On the porch of the playhouse at GG's house

One proud momma

Ok, I have to take a second to brag about my ridiculously smart child.  

Jack turned 19 months old this past weekend and is shocking us on a daily basis with how much he knows.  He now knows all his colors (at least the basic ones - we haven't gotten to "periwinkle" or "burnt orange" yet), he can count to 14, recognizes and names numbers 0 - 9, can tell you his right from his left, and knows almost all his letters.  Yes, that's right his letters!  He has a set of alphabet flashcards (My kid has something educational?  Shocking, I know) with capital and lowercase letters.  He loves to sit and go through the box of cards and name all the pictures and letters.  Last night, out of curiosity, I pulled out the flashcards to see how many he really knew and out of 52 cards, he correctly named 42 letters!

Paul, Jack and I were out for a walk the other day and out of nowhere, Jack said, "two five".  Paul and I weren't sure where that came from until we looked up and saw a 25 mph speed limit sign.  I can't explain how much I absolutely LOVE watching Jack grow and learn every day I am so thankful that Paul has blessed me with the opportunity to stay home and raise our incredible child.

Egg hunting

We definitely gave Jack more than his share of Easter egg hunting experiences this year!  We started the weekend before Easter with a church egg hunt that he and his cousin Maddie did together.  He had a GREAT time finding all the eggs that were "hidden" in the field.

Look at all those eggs! He ended up with over 40 eggs and pick up every one of them himself!

Then the following Saturday we went to the Woodland Park Zoo's "Bunny Bounce".  They had an egg hunt for toddlers and I was super excited for this one.  It wasn't all it was cracked up (pardon the pun) to be.  The eggs were just sitting in piles under a group of trees, they were empty (Jack didn't care, but the older kids were pretty upset), AND you had to give the eggs back at the end!  It turned out that walking around the zoo was WAY more fun than the egg hunt.  Jack had a good time and that's all that matters, right?

Paul taught Jack to carry his basket like this

We thought a ride on the carousel might be fun - wrong! Jack did NOT want anything to do with the carousel horse.  He was ok in Paul's arms, but still wasn't sure about the whole thing...

Please Daddy, tell me when it's over...

Me and Jack, Laura and Cameron, Erin and Ryleigh and Dylan

Overall it was a great day at the zoo - the sun was shining, the animals were entertaining and there were some piles of empty eggs to "hunt".  Will we go back to the zoo?  Of course!  Will we go back next year for the egg hunt?  Probably not :)

The third and final Easter egg hunt was on Easter Sunday in our OWN BACKYARD!!  Yes, you read that right, we have a backyard big enough for an egg hunt now, wahoo!!

I got two!

Ya Ya helped Jack open his eggs to retrieve the goldfish and crackers (nope, I still haven't given him chocolate)

 After three egg hunts, you'd think he would be a little tired of the whole thing.  Nope, he woke up Monday morning, saw his basket was still out and wanted to hunt for some more!  Maybe he just wanted the goldfish crackers inside the eggs.   :)