Jack is 19 Months Old

 

 

 

Jack is 19 months old today.  I am smiling as I type that because I remember that this time last year, the little man couldn't even sit up on his own yet.  Now, he's running around, dancing, climbing, jumping ... doing all this things that toddlers do.  And every once in a while, I manage to get him to sit still long enough to smile for a quick picture.

There is no doubt about it that Jack is the happiest when he is outside ... and when he is with his daddy.  He rarely fusses with Steve; and then when I come home, Jack seems so needy and so clingy.  It's almost become an inside joke between Steve and me -- "There is no need to hurry back home, Monique ... Jack is just fine."  (Reading between the lines: "Once you walk into the back door, Monique, Jack will turn into a completely different child!"


My boys were happy this day, as I took the girls to go see a high school play and left them home to do whatever.  Two peas in a pod.

The cold doesn't seem to phase Jack one bit.

 

 

Snow-covered with red cheeks, and not even a single whimper because he is with his most favorite person in the whole world, "da-da."

Lately, Jack seems fascinated with anything that moves and/or talks.  He giggles every single time. 

This picture was taken when Steve first brought Elmo down from Jack's room and put batteries in it.  Jack wasn't sure what to think at first, and then he realized that he loves it!  (Sam received this talking Elmo for her 2nd Christmas.  It has been up in Jack's room for a while and Jack always makes a point to 'talk' to Elmo.  He had no idea that Elmo would talk back to him once we put batteries in it!).

Ahhhh, the dancing penguin and snowman!  Jack loves this thing too.  He pushes the button over and over again every day, and I even have a video of him dancing as soon as he turns it on.  It is one of the Christmas decorations that he is 'allowed' to touch!

Jack's attention span when it comes to settling in and watching a show or a movie is still minimal.  He would rather be moving around.  Don't get me wrong, he enjoys having the show on in the background, he just doesn't usually want to sit still to watch it.


This is how he not-so-subtly hints to me that he would like to watch a show ...  He climbs up in his daddy's chair and attempts to use the remote.

Sometimes it helps to have your sister's beanbag chair to get comfortable in if you plan to actually watch the show:

And sometimes it helps to have momma's extra soft, fleecy blanket to relax with:

Jack loves to be doing whatever his sisters are doing.  He's like a little shadow.  And luckily, they don't seem to mind one bit.

"Oh, you want to play cowgirls and horses with us?  You can ride the horse, Jack ..."

"Ok, Jack.  You want to see what it is in the bowl?  Momma and I are making banana bread.  Do you want to smell?"

One of the biggest accomplishments this month is that we moved Jack out of his high chair and into a toddler seat. 

Sitting in his old high chair:

He had been complaining (motioning and grunting) that he was feeling cramped in his old seat.  So, we brought up the toddler seat (a portable high chair that attaches to a chair) out of the basement and set it up for him, declaring that it was his "big boy chair."  He is still getting used to it because we took the belt out of it and it is a little more 'firm' than his old chair, but it is less bulky and certainly easier to get him into and out of. 

{By the way, this little wooden seat was probably one (of many) great garage sale finds during the summer that I was pregnant with Samantha.  We have used it with all three of the kids once they 'graduated' from their baby high chair and it has traveled with us to restaurants and various houses over the years}.

Jack loves bath time.  The more toys, the more bubbles ... well, the more fun it is.  Jack and Sophia usually take a bath together each night and Sam takes a shower.  This cuts down on the time required for baths every night and is an overall smooth task.  I just love it when my babies are fresh out of the tub and in their pajamas!

 

The climbing.  Yes, the climbing.  Jack knows no fear when it comes to climbing on things.  I remember that Steve's mom told me the exact same thing about Steve when he was little.  This boy just simply scoots a chair/stool/plastic storage case/really just anything over and climbs up if he needs to reach something out of his grasp.

We are currently working on getting Jack his big boy bed.  Sam climbed out of the crib at 19 months and we immediately put her in her big girl bed (we already had the twin bed set up in her room from when we moved).  Jack hasn't attempted to climb out yet (that totally surprises me!), but I want to be ready when he does ...

Just a few short months and my growing little boy with be two years old.  Two!

The Christmas Trees

Every year, we set up three Christmas trees.  To some, it may seem like we're overdoing it a bit ... but I love it! 

One of the trees is left-over from my apartment (over 11 years ago) and it has moved with me about four times now.  It's a nice size for our family room, so I continue to set it up every year.  I decorate it with mostly red and gold ornaments to coordinate with my kitchen that is nearby.

We also have a big, full-size tree in the living room that we set up in front of the window for everyone to see as they drive by.  We bought that the first year that we moved into this house because we decided that we needed something a little more substantial for the bigger house.  This year, while Steve was traveling, the kids helped me set it up.

Attempting to organize some of the branches:

And finally, the kids have their "own" tree at the top of the stairs near their bedrooms.  This was a tree that Steve's parents were planning to throw away because it was old and falling apart.  Steve, never one to pass up something for free, brought it home one night -- three years ago -- and used some "liquid nails" to revamp it.  For two years, it stood, full and proud with lots of lights and ornaments on it. 

This year, as I was pulling it out of the garbage bag that I had stored it in for the last year, I had my doubts about whether it would survive this holiday season. 

Helping to hang the ornaments:

Admiring their handiwork:

Just a few more ornaments:

The plastic stand was broken and, despite my quick thinking and engineering, it fell over by the end of the first night.  Ornaments went tumbling down the stairs and Sam got choked up over the thought of not having a Christmas tree at the top of the stairs this year.

That night, I ran into the Family Dollar store in town while Samantha was at dance class, and purchased a tree to surprise the kids.  While it is about the same height as the previous one, it is not nearly as full.  But the kids love it and it is perfect in that space.

Over the next couple of days, we got all of the trees decorated with lights, ornaments and garland.  In fact, the whole house was almost completely decorated (and that is no small feat!) by the time Steve made it back into the state.  The second that he set foot into the house, Samantha was ready for him -- asking if he could help her with her "special job" ... putting the tree topper in place.

This will probably be Sam's last year putting the angel in place, as she is getting to heavy to lift up there.  Sophia will take over that job next year ... and then eventually Jack.  Sophia wanted to know what her special task would be and I told her that she could help hook up all of the "clickers" on the trees so that we don't have to continuously plug/unplug them in.  She was pleased with that role.

As for that tree that didn't survive the holiday season, well, we still have it ... in pieces.  I chose to use my wire cutters to cut up all of the branches so that I could use them to decorate my shelves/mantle/tops of cabinets, etc.  It worked out perfectly.

Christmas Catherine is Back!

Our elf, Christmas Catherine, came back to our house on the night of December 1st.  The girls had no idea when she would make her debut, but they hoped (out loud) that she would bring them breakfast like she did last year.  And, of course, she did not disappoint. 

Christmas Catherine just adds to the magic in our house this time of year.  With the lights twinkling all around us -- I decorated with quite a few lights and our usual three Christmas trees -- I can't help but smile as I watch the girls scramble in the morning to find her.  They squeal with amazement every single time and talk to each other about what she is doing, often begging to call Steve at work to tell him right away.

Christmas Catherine has managed to stay "mostly" out of the reach of Jack this year.  After all, it is understood that if someone touches the elf, the magic will be gone.  It limits some of her antics (she isn't able to hang out on the coffee table or under the Christmas tree), but an elf has to do what an elf has to do. 

{Side note: Jack grabbed Christmas Catherine off the keyboard at the desk one day and threw her on the kitchen floor ... right at Sophia's feet.  Sophia gasped so loudly and burst into tears, struggling to get the words out -- "Mom!!!!  ... It's going ... to be ... gone ... the magic ... Jack touched ... her!"  I quickly informed her that it only happened when someone who knew better touched the elf.  Jack doesn't know any better; and perhaps during naptime (15 minutes later), Christmas Catherine would go back to her daily location.  Whew!  She did.}

Breakfast for the kids on her debut morning:

 

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Snacking on gingersnap cookies from the cookie jar:



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Typing a letter to Santa about how good those Lapinski kids have been this year ... The best part about this one was that Christmas Catherine would periodically "type" a little bit more on her letter throughout the day!

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Hanging from the a stocking holder; Sam was SO worried about her falling!

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One morning, the girls found Christmas Catherine opening an early present to herself from Santa -- a new skirt and boots!

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Playing a rousing game of Go Fish with some random friends:

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Christmas Catherine was trying to set a good example about brushing your teeth, but she managed to make a big mess by squeezing some toothpaste out onto the counter.  It was fun to listen to the girls speculate just how she could have squeezed that out all by herself.  The final consensus: she must have sat on the tube to push out that big dollop of stickiness.

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A snowball fight with one of the potato heads ...  This one was almost a crisis.  Jack managed to climb up ONTO the table (yeah, we just entered that stage) and snag the potato head!  I caught him before he actually got his little claws on the elf.  Disaster averted.

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Perched up high (read: out of Jack's grasp) getting the most perfect view of everything that was done and said over the course of the day.  {She reports all of her observations to Santa each night!}

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I have a few more ideas up my sleeve before our elf leaves us for the season on Christmas Eve.  The girls enjoy her so much and I know that Jack will understand a little better next year ... carrying on this fun tradition as long as we can.

Samantha's Fancy Nancy Birthday Parties

Whew!  It was a weekend full of parties celebrating one very special little girl.  And all of the time and effort was definitely worth it ... just to see her eyes light up with happiness over all of the decorations and the people that could be with us to celebrate the day that she came into this world six years ago.  One of the decorations at the party said it best:

We settled on a theme -- Fancy Nancy -- about two months ago and it couldn't have been any more perfect for a six year old girl's birthday party.  "Fancy Nancy" is a storybook character in books designed for little girls where the lead character believes in making everything French and fancy -- extra decorations and big words (often explaining in parentheses that a certain word "is fancy for" another ordinary word). 

We made fancy invitations for Sam's friends at school by taking an already adorable invitation and enclosing it in a purse-shaped envelope that I cut out of cardstock and embellished with a fancy button and a fancy purse strap.  On the invitations, we made sure to ask the girls to wear their fanciest ensambles ("a fancy word for outfits").

The birthday girl at the Accessories Table:

I put together a collection of rings, bracelets, necklaces, dress-up glasses, tiaras and boas for each of the girls to choose as their party favors. 

I even set out bottles of my own nail polish to paint the guest's nails.

The mirror and frames for the party came from the Dollar Store (for a $1!!!) and I spray painted them with purple glitter paint to make them even more fancy, of course.

My fancy girls and me before the party:

I also set up a Posh Puppy Station for the girls.

Once all of the guests arrived, we sat down to read a Fancy Nancy story about how she received her posh ("posh is a fancy word for fancy!") puppy and how she named it. 

Then, each of the girls got to take a poodle (Fancy Nancy's posh puppy is a poodle named Frenchie) from the table, along with some fancy ribbon and a name tag (Dollar Store!).  They used the ribbon to make a collar and then I labeled their name tags with the name that each of them chose for their puppy.  The girls LOVED this!

At the table, I had favor bags (cheap, dollar store gift bags) for the girls to make fancy using jewels and stickers -- all of which were just randomly from my craft box, just waiting to be used on a project like this.

They also got to decorate some Fancy Nancy fans.  Also a big hit because girls this age enjoy crafts!

The Birthday Girl, hard at work:

For lunch, I made it easy on myself and ordered pizza.  To accompany it though, I served fancy fruit skewers (Sam and Sophia helped me use beads to make the ends of the wooden skewers fancy).

Waiting to be served their pink lemonade and pizza:

For dessert, I had a sundae bar where they could choose various toppings to make their ice cream fancy.  This was a great idea because I had the ice cream scooped up ahead of time in little cups.

Instead of a cake, I opted for cupcakes for the girls.  This was just to make things easier for me, again.

The 6 candle received some extra jewels to make it even more fancy:

The girls went crazy with excitement over the sundaes, and I was glad that Steve was there that day to help me with the party and to keep Jack occupied.

After lunch, the girls got to accessorize.  The squealing was contagious!

How adorable are these girls?

Opening presents before the parents arrived to pick up our fancy guests:

I would definitely say that our first "friend" party was a complete success, and as soon as the last guest was picked up, I put all of the kids down for naps while I set to work picking up the house and preparing for the family party that was scheduled for the next day!

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For the family party, I changed a few decorations around and made a pink and white checkerboard cake (definitely a fancier cake than just a standard three-layer cake).  I used pink pearl candies to form the border and stuck a few candles on the top.  Various cupcakes filled the table and the doll dresser. 

(As a side note:  That dresser (and another smaller now-pink one) belonged to my youngest sister 20 years ago.  My mom gave it to me for my girls a couple of years ago and they have used it continuously ... scuffing off the paint and often drawing on it by mistake -- Sophia!).  I decided to give both dressers, previously white, a face-lift before the party.  I simply used spray paint that I already had on hand and made those colors work with the theme of the party.  The girls loved it!)

We served chicken and beef tacos and all of the fixings, including rice and beans.  After dinner, we migrated to the living room to open gifts.

Holding up her blanket that Aunt Deb made for her:

As is our tradition, we then headed back to the dining room to sing happy birthday and to have cake and ice cream.

Jack loved the cupcakes!

Happy 6th birthday, Samantha!