Jack doesn't like Santa!

As you can see from the picture Jack was not happy to see Santa this year. From the second we walked in and he took a look at that man his grasp became tighter and tighter. He wouldn't even make eye contact. We knew it was going to be quick and painful. Sure enough it was, as soon as Jack sat him in his lap, it was red face, tears, and screams.

18 month check up

Today we had Jacks 18 month check up and good thing we did. Yesterday he started coughing and getting a runny nose. The child I dropped off this morning did not sound anything like the child I met at the doctors office. I didn't even recognize his cry when I was looking for them. It ends up he has croupe cough. It's basically a raspy cough that gets bad at night and makes it hard to breath. Sounds pleasant doesn't it? Other then that he is doing great. He is back up to the 25th percentile in weight and 20th for height. He gained 3 lbs since his last appointment which made me happy.

We find out on Monday if we are for sure having a little girl or a little boy. Well hopefully we will. She or he has been moving around a lot. It's amazing how much sooner I was able to feel this one move compared to Jack. If it's a good kick Jack can feel it which makes him happy. As we speak I'm getting some good nudges.

We had a busy weekend of tamale making with my family last weekend and this weekend is cookie making with jack's family. Little Jack is starting to take part in all the family traditions. He didn't help much, but did a good job eating all the chips and guacamole and cooked tamales. He couldn't even stay awake to finish his dinner. I'm sure he'll do a good job testing all the cookies on Saturday. His cousins will show him how it's done.

We went and saw Santa on Friday. I was correct when I said i didn't think it was going to go as well as last year. The second we walked Jack into Santas little hut Jack freaked out and wouldn't let go. He screamed through the entire thing. We got a good screaming picture. I'll scan it tomorrow and post it. It's cute.

Well I'll keep you updated after our ultrasound appointment on Monday. Think pink!

The Raders

It's been awhile

So sorry I haven't put up any recent updates. Things have been busy with the holidays starting as I am sure they have been for you. We had a very nice, relaxing Thanksgiving at home with friends and a great long weekend. Jack was home all four days which never happens. Thank you to the very rough ocean, which made him cancel all of his trips. Its not good for business, but it is good for us to have some family time.

Jack is a very busy kid, keeping us on our toes and making us laugh all the time. He is quite independent and trying to be such a big boy. He thinks naps are overrated and does his best to skip them. The car always seems to get him, it's moving him to the house that always wakes him up. I love his naps b/c it gives me a chance to take a nap too. My growing belly and a toddler make me extra sleepy.

Jack has started to say many new words. He calls Kona Wowa and says it with such authority, he likes to point too when he says it, it's pretty cute. Maybe because we are always telling her to shhh and sit. When she barks he tells her to shhh. He is becoming such a mimic. His new favorite thing to do is to turn the cable box off and on, especially while Jack is watching football. We are doing our best to not say NO so he doesn't say it back to us. Instead of saying no he shakes his head and finger back and forth at us. It's pretty funny and I guess better then NO! Which I am sure is soon to follow. I like to do things to him just so he'll do it over and over. The kid has an arm. I think we need to get him a coach so he can play baseball or football. He's pretty accurate too, you don't know how many times he has hit me in the face.

We went to see Santa last night, but Santa had just started his break and we couldn't wait since there was a good football game on tv. We are going to try again today. I know this year isn't going to go as smooth as last year but I'm ok with it. I kind of want a picture with Santa and him screaming. I think it would be cute and very memorable. He could surprise me though, he might not have any problem with him.

We already have our tree up and decorated. Surprisingly Jack hasn't tried to pull any of the ornaments off. He likes to follow dad behind the tree to plug it in and then stay hiding behind the tree. The Jacks had so much fun unwrapping all of the trees as I told them maybe, no way, that ones ugly, maybe, that one looks good until we found the perfect one. I have always been very picky about my trees. Jacks family likes to grab one still wrapped and take it home and then see what they got. There is no way I could do that. I've had my Charlie Brown tree before and I need my perfect little tree.

You can see some of our latest adventures. It seems like we are always on one.

The Raders

Jack's going to be....

A big brother! That is right. We are having another baby. Baby number 2 is due the beginning of May. We're thinking it's going to be a girl after our last ultrasound appointment, but we have to wait 6 more weeks till we know for sure. I've bought a little pink, it's hard to resist! I'll post pictures of her when I scan them.

Jack has no idea what is coming his way. He is already obsessed with the baby bump which is kind of cute. He's going to be a great big brother. We're so excited to be adding to the fam. I'll keep you updated with everything.

More Zoo pictures

Some more fun pictures at the zoo.

A day at the Zoo

Jack is old enough to notice the animals and doesn't sleep the whole time like he used to. It's fun to go for a couple of hours when there's nothing else to do. Who can resist the world famous San Diego Zoo, we're lucky to have such a great zoo.
I needed to go for a school project and had one of my friends come along. We had a lot of fun and were exhausted by the end of the day. Too bad Jack was more interested in the big tour buses than the animals. He LOVES buses!
Enjoy the pics, there's a lot!!!

More pumpkin Pictures

Pumpkin Patch

I decided that I need to take a day off from work and be with my boys. I really wanted to take Jack to a real pumpkin patch. Living in the city means you need to drive a long way to find one. I had heard about one near the Wild Animal Park that was great and figured that that wasn't too far. Lets just say it is past the Wild Animal Park. After an hour in the car we finally pulled up to this AMAZING pumpkin patch. I knew right away that this was going to be great. There were animals that you could pet and feed, a straw maze,pumpkins of all sizes, food and a tractor hayride. Jack loved every minute of it. I don't know who was more tired when we left. There were a lot of kids there with their schools and Jack would run after the kids as they ran to find the perfect pumpkin. It was so cute they had wheelbarrows for you to take your pumpkins to the car with. Jack let us get some pictures, but it was hard since he was on the go the whole time. You can see him trying to lift the really big pumpkin, another girl was trying so he had to try too.

mini up date

I wanted to share this picture with you. It's a little blurry but you can see him in his new jammies. He did not want me to take his picture and was shaking his head a running away. This was the best I could get that night! I will be taking pictures of him in his costume one of these nights. We just need to get him in the right mood which can be hard to come by these days.

Mama!

Yes it is true Jack is finally saying mama and he says it all the time. It is the cutest! He started saying it last weekend and hasn't stopped. I think it has replaced the favorite "uh-oh" that we hear so much.
Sorry we haven't had any updates recently but school started up and it has consumed me.
He has really started to chatter. He bosses Kona around all the time. He doesn't say "no" but when she barks hes got his own way of telling her to stop. He says shoes or something close to it. Cartoons have caught his eye and they are the best thing to entertain him when I'm trying to get ready. He loves to wrestle. When u lay on the ground he'll sit on you, lay on you, and sit on you with the biggest smile on his face.
He is the biggest love these days. Not to mention a little attached to his mama. Jack has been out fishing a lot so the two of us have had a lot of time together. We were lucky to have him home over the weekend and an actual day off for the fam. We haven't had one of those in a long time.
Here is a picture of Jack playing in the neighbors sprinklers at my parents house. We had walked down to the park to play and on the way back he couldn't resist. He had so much fun walking back and forth to a couple of different sprinklers and squirting himself. As you see he was pretty wet and not happy to leave after 5 minutes.

15 month check-up

Jack turned 15 months on Friday and was lucky enough to have a Dr. appt on that very special day. I don't know if I have told you before how much Jack does not like the nurse or his dr. They are both very nice people, but now that he can recognize faces he knows that they are not always nice to him.
So the dr appt. went well. A little crying when the nurse looked at him and got out the measuring tape to measure his head. I'm not even kidding, she pulled out the tape and looked at him and he started to cry. And it wasn't a little pretend whimper, it was a full on cry, red face and all. A couple of shots later and we were done. I don't know if you can tell by the pictures, but Jack is not very big for his age. It's not like Jack and I are tiny people. Everybody tries to be nice about it and says, "he'll catch up later, just wait till he has a huge growth spurt." He is in the 10% for weight at 20 lb. 2 1/2 oz. and in the 30th% for his height at 30 3/4 in. The only benefit to this is he isn't outgrowing his clothes as quickly and d=staying in the same diaper size. He's healthy and looks good and that's all that matters.
His back molar came through. This morning we were having breakfast and I thought I would check. I stuck my finger in his mouth and sure enough there were little poky teeth in the back. I moved my finger a little to the front and Jack chomped down on my finger. He left some teeth marks in my finger. I guess thats what I get.
We are planning to go to LegoLand on Tuesday. It will be Jack's first time. I am so excited to take him. We are going with this cousins that he loves so much. I wonder how much longer they are going to let him follow them around. I'll post pictures of us at Lego land later this week.

Bye!

August Pics

How cute is this face?


Such a ham

It's been a crazy summer

So sorry we haven't posted anything new in a long time. We have been busy! Between both Jacks I am a busy lady. If you don't know already Jack (big Jack) has been struck with many Staph infections in the past 10 months. TO be exact he is on number 5. Why you ask, we dont know either and constantly wonder the same thing.
Once that fiasco was taken care of, our little man came down with a really high fever. It was the worst. All he had was a fever. After 3 days of that and freaking me out in the middle of the night with it up to 104 we finally went to the dr ( I was ready to go to the ER at 1am). It wasn't an ear infection or a sore throat. Wasn't a stomach bug, no vomitosis in our house. It could only be a couple of things... a virus, uti (yes kids get them too), or the Rosiola Virus. Good thing a fellow mom and teacher at school had told me about this. The Rosiola virus consists of a high fever for 3-4 days, no other symptoms, and once the fever has ended a day or two later they break out into a rash all over their tummies and back. Sure enough on Friday morning as I was changing him, there were some light, red, bumps all over his tummy. In a day they were gone and our man is back to normal.
Oh wait, just kidding can we throw some teething in there too. It hasn't popped through yet, but you can see it right under the gum, a big molar is about to join his eight other teeth. To be honest it could be there and I don't know it. I'm afraid to stick my fingers in that mouth. He bites hard and doesn't let go when you yell. To him it's hilarious and he laughs while he's still biting you. Gotta love teeth.
Besides all of this crazy stuff we have been having fun. The weather has cooled off so we haven't been to the beach as much. We are now members of Sea World and love going. There is a fun kids area for him to run around at with other little munchkins his size. He would run up to all of them and give them hugs if they would let him. He's improving in using a fork. It's a lot of fun to watch him eat b/c ever other bite is followed by "uh oh!" If it falls off the fork he's looking for it in his high chair and saying, "uh oh" the whole time. He is also starting to shake his head no when he doesn't want something. I'm going to have to figure out who taught him that one. In the past couple of days he has been saying "mama" and hopefully it's not just a coincidence. I was trying to get a picture of him the other day helping me walk Kona, everytime I would take the picture he would let go of the leash. He leans over the edge of his stroller, as far as he can, and grabs onto the leash. It looks like he is taking Kona for a walk, it's the cutest.
There are so many things to share, but I would be here all night. We have his 15 month appt tomorrow. Yes he is turning 15 months tomorrow. Still can't believe how big he is. I was looking back at pictures from his 1st birthday and he has already changed soooo much in the 3 months. Time flies when you are loving every day of it.

Summer time pictures part 2

I know its Jack's blog, but we had a night out for a cousins wedding. Jack and I don't have any recent pics together b/c all we do is take them of the little one. I know he's a lot cuter so I'll only post one.

We'll keep posting as we take more!

Love you.

We love summer time!

We have been pretty busy every day. Since we have no AC and it's been in the 90's I decided that we weren't going to melt away at home and we were going to stay where it was a little cooler. I decided that even though I am working this summer I'm still going to have a lot of fun and enjoy all the nighttime, summer things San Diego has to offer.
So far we have been to the beach a couple times, the ZOO and Sea World. Jack has been loving it. He is exhausted at night and so are we. Jack really liked Sea World. We watched the Sea Lion and Otter show and he watched the whole time. I was impressed! I think it was the music that kept him entertained. He watched the penguins and the sharks. There is a lot more exploring to be done there.
Here are a couple of the beach pictures, he loves getting all sandy and mom too.

Beach Fun

We are having so much fun this summer. Now that the June gloom has passed and the sweltering heat is here we are living at the beach and the bay. We are having fun playing in the sun, sand and waves. Jack has really taken to the beach except for when the waves make him fall over.
Tomorrow he turns 14 months. I can't even believe the changes he makes each week. Not only is he saying dada before mama, but he says uh oh for everything. He purposely drops things so he can say "uh oh!" His latest is when I open the garage door he mimics the sound. It's really cute and such a boy thing to do.
Here is a picture from our day at the beach on Saturday.

More water fun

Swimming Lessons

So in my last update I was having a proud mom moment and told you how good Jack is doing in his swimming lessons. At our lesson on Wednesday I decided not to go in and took some good pictures. Both Jacks are doing so well. You wouldn't think it's complicated, but it can be, and trust me the teacher points out what you (not the kid)is doing wrong. There are a couple of him floating on his back, which he will do only if you are singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, flirting with the only girl in his class, pulling himself up and out of the pool and a couple other fun ones.

I left work early today and headed to my parents house. Jack was playing in Konas bowl of water which he loves to do any chance he can get. I got some really good pics of him having fun. This is what summer is all about!