Top 50 things to love about Jack Jack

My sister Laura posted this and I think she is so wonderful. She's in Mexico right now helping set up self-sustainable activities for Mexican children.

This is an ode to my nephew, the cute little boy with an impish grin, big blue eyes, and a heart of gold. I was thinking about the day that I found out about Jackson's birth. I was on my mission when he was born, so I didn't find out about him until he was a day old, and I didn't meet him until he was 8 months old. My mom sent me a small package and included one of Jack's fist baby pictures. I stood there, in my missionary apartment and with my companion by my side, completely paralyzed by the feeling of love that swelled in my heart. I thought I knew what it was like to love, but I was completely amazed at how overwhelming the love I felt for Jackson was, even before I met him. Even when he was only a picture to me. In the two and a half-years since then, Jack has continued to grow on me, to the point where I cannot imagine my life without the little boy. Jack is about to become a big brother, and once again, I will not be present for the baby's birth. But baby brother will only be a few weeks old when I meet him for the first time. I find it amazing that love continues to grow with each additional being we allow ourselves to love. It is one of the only limitless resources we have at our disposal. I am so grateful for people who have taught me how to love. And now, without further adieu, I present to you the top 50 things I love about Jack.

50: The way he says "I'm sorry"

49: The way he knows how to get what he wants out of people who love him

48: The way he hugs me

47: The way he kisses me

46: His enormous blue eyes

45: His rosy cheeks (especially after he's been running)

44: The way he tries to play with the big kids (and usually keeps up with them just fine)

43: The way he eats

42: The way he tries so hard to make other people happy

41: His love affair with cranberry sauce

40: His superstar swimming abilities

39: His love of Lightening McQueen

38: The things he teaches people

37: The concern he has for others

36: The way his hair curls on the top

35: Did I mention his enormous blue eyes?

34: How fun he is to hold in my arms

33: How infrequently he lets me hold him in my arms anymore

32: How much he loves to play cars

31: Watching him swing on the swing set

30: Listening to him sing songs

29: The stories he tells (about penguins, Lightening McQueen, chicken little, and many other things)

28: The way his cute little mind works

27: The way that he eats anything and everything that is given him

26: The way he loves to try new things, even when they are scary

25: The way he pees on the potty

24: The way he loves his mommy

23: The feeling of those little arms wrapped around my neck

22: The kisses he gives his baby brother

21: The way he says my name ("Ra-ra! I wuv you")

20: Watching him eat Popsicles

19: The way he jumped into my arms and ripped off my name tag at the airport on the first day I met him

18: His cute little giggle he has whenever I tickle him

17: I even love how cute it sounds when he tells me "Go away Ra-ra!"

16: Those precious few moments that he likes to cuddle when he is very tired

15: Watching those little legs run up the stairs when he gets to Grandma's house

14: The way he is friendly with everyone, even when people are unkind to him

13: The way he loves his daddy

12: The way he drags whoever will come with him around the house to show off his toys

11: Helping him put gasoline in his toy cars

10: The way he learns new things every day

09: The way he becomes more and more sensitive to other people's needs every day

08: His little smile

07: His big smile

06: The way he treats other kids so nicely

05: His immense cuteness

04: His massive heart

03: His love of princesses

02: His incredible energy

01: His Christlike sense of compassion that is developed well beyond his two years

The picture I fell in love with as a missionary

The baby I fell in love with 8 months later

As I read back through this list, I see a lot of qualities in Jack that I would like to have for myself. I would like to have an incredible sense of energy, and I would also like to be courageous enough to try new things, even when they are scary. If only we would learn from these children among us. Jack teaches me lessons ever day. I just love that little boy!

P.S. In response to her worried blog regarding being her friends complaint board, Laura, I want to tell you- I think that we are more similar than we like to admit. I too have felt like a complainer/ bouncer board/ defender. I've decided that it is one of my best qualities though to be able to look for and find the best qualities in people and assume that people have good intentions for all their actions. Although this has gotten me in the middle of a few friend issues I might rather have avoided and it makes it very difficult to explain the evening news at times. (Adam will tease me and ask what noble intentions so and so might have had before "accidently" commiting a murder or street crime. (mental illness sometimes is the only cop-out I can find)) Anyway, I can't help thinking that Christ is a defender and I sure hope that when my life gets reviewed I have someone there who will say, I think Becky always meant well despite those numerous mess ups."

Ready for Baby Brother

Three weeks to Go!!! Jack is so excited for his little brother. When he sees a baby or we talk about babies, he says, "My little brother... Coming soon " (I always hear..."to a theatre near you" but I have a feeling it won't be like a trip to the movies :)) Every time we ask him what we should name the baby he says, " Hmmm, let me think... he taps his head like Winnie the Pooh and says...mmmm.....mmm (always with a nice long pause) and then as though he is so proud of himself he says, "Baby ... Baby Brother!!" It's still very cute but now I feel like we should be narrowing in on a name. We still like Thomas but we aren't excited about that name anymore and I still hate Tom. I like the names Charlie, Luke and Noah... People say just wait and see what he looks like when he's born but I just don't know. Babies never look like names to me. Except for my miniature Adam, babies never look like their parents to me either.It's hard to tell what he's doing but he's trying to give my baby a kiss, or maybe suck so hard he'll come out, it depends on the day. When I tell him the baby can't come out because he's growing bigger and that I can't take him out Jack says, "I'll do it Mommy." He's started becoming more nurturing and very interested in babies. He occasionally puts his stuffed penguin in his shirt and tells me that Mambo is growing bigger bigger like baby brother.

We are happy and excited for this new change in our lives. Now that it's finally hot I am tempted to be like Jack and just take him out already. Jack was two weeks early so anything's possible I suppose.

Camping nightmare

Leave it to me to think that it would be fun to take Jack camping on my own when I'm nine months pregnant. I guess I just want to get in as much "fun" as I can before the world ends when I have this baby and all fun ceases and I retreat to the dreaded new baby cave. We went to the City of Rocks up in Idaho which would be cool because it had lots of neat rock formations for kids to climb on but my cousins picked a campsite that was about 20 minutes away from the cool rocks in a place with no trees (well there were a few which had been burned in a fire a while ago.) When we got there, the whole camp was sick and had been throwing up- fun for us- I think they had bad water... Jack had fun though and really liked playing with rocks and sticks and walking too close to the campfire which everyone repeatedly told him not to do and Laura's legacy lives on.
We made peach cobbler and Dutch oven lasagna YUMMY!

What a cute camper- I bought him surprises and one was a bubble gun that he got to shoot all over he really loved that power!We spent our first night and I let Jack stay up a little late and do the campfire thing. Then about 5 minutes after I fell asleep after tossing and turning to find a comfy spot on the air mattress, he woke up screaming. He was crying so hard and so loud and wouldn't calm down or open his eyes. I finally got him out of the port-a-crib and laid him with me. Then as soon as I drifted again, he did the same thing and would not be comforted. I got so frustrated with him that I kind of yelled at him and told him to open his eyes and shone a flashlight on him (which probably scared him even more than what he was waking up afraid of) Then he fell asleep next to me and almost woke up several times, but I was able to prevent more night terrors. I on the other hand was afraid to move a muscle and wake him up and since I usually toss and turn propping pillows between my legs all night, I didn't sleep. Then about 4:00 It started raining and the wind blew and knocked half of our tent down. I put it up a couple times and then resigned myself to holding it up with my arms so it didn't squish my sleeping Jack. I heard some noises and I could have sworn it was like 10:00 so I pulled us out of the tent and we climbed in the van with my mom about quarter to six. Jack quickly got comfy with my mom and she offered me a spot on the couch/bed but even in my glory days (aka especially not pregnant) I couldn't sleep on 2" of mattress. I told my mom I couldn't handle another night like that. It rained all morning and since our tent had now collapsed, rain pooled inside and soaked all of our gear. So we loaded all our soaking wet stuff in the van and headed home early.

I want to post a funny video relating to Adam's new air traffic control career.