Happy Birthday Jack: The Late Edition

For Jack's birthday dinner, we went to a local favorite place that specializes in birthdays-- the same place where we had Harry's 2nd B-day party. Only instead of going to the restaurant in the burbs like we did for Harry, we went to the one by campus tonight. I had colloquium and then Ben brought the boys downtown and we met at the restaurant, which is 2 blocks from my office. Would have been as perfect as it sounds, but there was some sort of sporting event, and the places was P A C K E D. We waited for an hour, but the kids were so good. Unbelievably. Ben bribed them with pieces of cheese he had in pockets, which was weird but effective.
Jack really didn't mind the wait-- he made googly eyes at a lot of people in the bar.

Harry was pretty affable when we finally sat down

When Harry's teeny ice cream sundae arrived, he carefully removed the whipped cream then attacked it with a spoon.

Jack sampled his sundae with one tentative finger

Then he dove right in, much to the delight of everyone seated within 3 tables of us-- Jack was a big hit with his fellow diners tonight, which made Harry a little hot under the collar.


Harry declining our request to smile

Jack tried to put his head in a to go box

This is his only bottle of the day now-- I think he'd happily trade it for a sippy, but a sippy just isn't as cute.

And now a prolonged clip of Jack eating his ice cream

Untitled from sarah on Vimeo.
Yes, Ben totally picked it up and gave it back to him. Yum.

Happy Birthday Jack: The morning edition (published in the afternoon. shut up)

When we heard Jack moving around in his bed, we all three ran upstairs and sang happy birthday-- he looked at us as if to say, "I like this! Let's wake me up like this everyday, okay?"

Tentative crawl through the balls


Going for a slightly bemused ride in his car

Jack likes the ball pit so far-- no dirty diapers or syringes, so that's a plus

Tickle Me Cookie Monster tickled Harry's funnybone

Jack ate a breakfast cupcake which he stared down, investigated, and then devoured:









Refined sugar and dangerous chemical additives and preservatives-- where have you been all my life?

Cakey little hands

Nom nom nom. Mmmmmmm...cake...

Back in the balls-- sans jammies this time

Probably should have worn his new helmet because this was a bumpy little ride

Phew-- he looks tired. He went down for a nap about 3 seconds after I took this picture. And Harry was so excited to have free access to all the new toys!

Birthday Ride

Untitled from sarah on Vimeo.

Birthday Eve

My little Jack Jack is one tomorrow, which is pretty unbelievable to me. I'm still fat from my pregnancy-- it's kind of embarrassing that he's a year old already. Now I'll have to blame the muffin top on the fourthmeal I eat around 9 every night.

I kind of feel like I don't know him as well as I knew Harry, like I don't appreciate him enough, like I don't have time to just revel in his adorableness and photograph his every raised eyebrow, crinkled forehead, and curved lip, you know? Also, Jack is a huge daddy's boy. When the garage door opens at 5:30-ish, he screams with delight and shrieks "Dada!!" Then he crawls toward the gate at the top of the stairs as fast as his chubby little knees and fat hands will take him. After dinner, he is Ben's laundry folding and putting away buddy while Harry and I clean the kitchen, and he loves playing with Daddy in the tub. The only thing he wants me to do for him is put on his jammies and read him his bedtime stories. Unfortunately, I can't always do that because someone else would also like my post bath attention. And that someone else?
He's a loud one.

Also emphatic

But also oddly mannerly. Top of the morning to you.

Um. Eew. Kind of a gross toy.

Hanging out. Could be anytime, any day (no, the fact that Jack and I are in our jammies does not help determine the time of the picture. We wear our jammies a lot.)

Ben and Harry dying eggs on Easter Eve (note Harry's Santa cup)

Harry looks like a cartoon in this picture. A very loud cartoon.

So sweet. Ben reading one of the books the Easter Bunny left in their baskets.

Who thought the bubble whistle was a good idea? Oh. Right. I did. Oops.

Harry telling my mom about the Easter Bunny's visit-- at one point he put her on hold accidentally and was all, "Grandma? Grandma? Why you not talk at me anymore?"


Heeeeeeelp!! My bangs have taken over my faaaaaaace!!

He's still only the size of a couch cushion.

The Easter Bunny gave Harry a $10 bill in one of his eggs. Harry didn't know what to make of it-- he actually handed it back to me and told me that the Easter Bunny "forgotted his ticket." We explained the "ticket" was money and he could use it to buy a toy. We went to Target this morning, and Harry bought these:

Barbie Thumbelina dolls (that are a little bit sexy looking and make me glad I don't have girls because I would be a little put off by these dolls if my girls wanted them. But I can let my son buy them and still be progressive. Rock on).

It's been a real bummer of a week in the mommy blogosphere. Two precious blog babies died suddenly this week. Their mothers were both popular bloggers, and news of these deaths has the momblog world a buzz. Some bloggers mobilized and set up memorial post pages and fundraisers and Paypal accounts for the families. Lots of people have written about these tragedies-- some beautifully and some in a creepy way that seems to appropriate someone else's tragedy.

The only reason I'm saying anything here is that these blogs haunt me constantly. When I was in 6th and 7th grade, I went through a weird phase where I read a lot of Reader's Digest condensed books, and I was a big fan of the true-life tales of childhood cancer victims. These stories were usually written by grieving parents, and they always featured a few really stark, mundane details that made cancer all too real and scared the hell out of me. I couldn't get them out of my mind and read and reread them. (Maybe I was depressed).

The two blogs I linked to (okay-- I linked to an article about a blog because the actual blog is down right now) haunt me the same way. If you scroll back a few posts before the tragedies, the bloggers are just writing about normal, funny, mundane mommy moments-- moments that are really macabre in retrospect, but could be entries on anyone's blog were they not followed by unimaginable sadness.

My prayers are with these parents, and I just can't click away.

I blame my iPhone and facebook for my recent capitalization issues and my blog slacking

Seriously. It is so easy to just snap a picture with my phone and slap it up on facebook-- who needs a blog?

I took a picture of my dissertation wearing its new cover page and looking all official-like, and I got a million well-wishes in like 5 minutes. And then I felt a bit fraudulent because I still need a bibliography; I haven't defended it yet, and my advisor may still "suggest" a few more revisions before it goes to committee this week. THIS COMING WEEK! And then it will no longer be my problem. Until Monday May 11th at 1:30 pm. Then it's my problem in a big, bad, scary way because that's my defense.

So, instead of thinking about my pesky old defense, I have been thinking about graduation! (A bit of the cart before the horse, and I would so be the cute little animal who gets totally screwed in the end, were my life an Aesop fable illustrated by Eric Carle, but it's not, so I will continue to scour Banana, J Crew, and Ann Taylor for something to wear under my regalia.) Because I am speaking, we get parking passes and my fam gets special seating. I get to sit on the stage and be introduced by the chancellor, which is totally exciting for me-- I have been geeking out about the whole thing for the last week. It's really fun to have a speech to practice in the shower again (washed-up much?).

Okay-- here are some phone pics:


Jack tried ravioli. Sans bib. Because I am an idiot. Speaking of me being an idiot, his pants were all wet when I picked him up from the gym playroom today, but his diaper was inexplicably dry. Because his penis was sticking out the leg of his Pamper. This is the second time this has happened. This week.

Last weekend, Harry and I breakfasted pre-Little Gym with an assortment of trucks.

As you can see, Harry enjoyed enough unsupervised Harry time to climb into the infant-sized changing table on the Pack n Play and play with some nail clippers. Mother. Of. The. Year.

I needed to buy a shirt to wear under my black pants suit (which I have not worn since before I had Harry-ha!) for the graduation speaker audition. I went to 3 potential shirt stores (and successfully shopped for shoes and hit up Sephora) with both kids by bribing them with a visit to the Easter Bunny. After we saw the big guy, Harry very seriously wore his souveneir bunny ears, and Jack immediately ate his.

Harry spends a good 65% of his day "playing guys."

A majority of Jack's time is spent trashing rooms and eating small parts.


Harry and I went to see Monsters Vs. Aliens yesterday and loved it. I spilled my Junior Mints all over the floor, but Harry masterfully handled his slushy and popcorn. I also fell asleep for a good 25 minutes in the middle of the movie, but Harry was entertained the whole time. And I hit the iPod icon on my phone by accident and played Love Shack really loud and had to run out of the theater to figure out how to turn it off. Harry was quiet and stayed in his seat. Can't take me anywhere, I guess.