I might be proud, but I don't have to like it

So every morning when I drop Jack off at Kim's it is the same old thing...he acts shy and wants me to hold him until Kim gradually coaxes him into the toy closet to find some special toy to distract him from mommy leaving. Every now and then, he will get wise to us. He will hear the screen door creak and run and cry and we might go through this exercise a FEW times before I actually head to work.
This morning, we walked in and he told Kim, "I wuv you". He looked at me and said, "mommy goin' to work", I said, " give me a hug and a kiss". He did. Then he turned around, walked to the toy closet and did not look back. Yeah, it happened. But I don't have to like it.

Hey...Where's the Party?

Since Jack's wildly successful birthday party, we have been BUSY! Busy waiting at Scottish Rite for stitches that is. Poor baby! He got his right pointer finger stuck in the shifter of the boat early in the day yesterday. We had not even gotten out to go "swimm- ing" yet. I am almost as sad that he did not get to go swimming as I am about the great big boo boo that got three stitches. He was SOOOOOO excited to go swimming!



Well, since we cannot go on any swimming adventures for 7-10 days, it is a good thing that we have so many fun memories to reminisce about from the birthday party!



Lots of fun friends!

A cool new Jeep!

And even some quiet birthday moments with mommy and daddy!

Jack's 2nd Birthday (141 photos), by Melanie Marsh

I'd like to share my Walmart Digital Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Pinata!

Pinanta Jack's 2nd birthday from Melanie Marsh on Vimeo.

More to come I PROMISE!

I am having a hard time recovering from all the partying!

(And by the way...sorry that I am yelling into the camera...I am not a very good videographer!)

Two

Where do I start?

Jack,

Having you in my life has made the last two years the best yet! I thank God for entrusting me to be your caretaker in this life of ours. You are such a sweet, smart, funny little thing. The wonders never cease. I look at you, and I see proof that miracles do happen. It amazes your father and I how much you have grown into your own little self. It delights and terrifies us how much of ourselves we see in you. Just this morning as I put the dogs in their crates, you poked your little fingers in to try to pet them and said, "WuWu, I wub you"(translation- LuLu, I love you). Whoah...the same thing I do everyday. Scary to think how each thing I do touches your little world and molds and shapes you. When you get upset and furrow your little brow, you look like a miniature version of your father.
You love to drink milk and eat french fries. The sight of you with a cupcake thrills me (and gives your dad a nervous breakdown) as you hold it from the bottom and go into the icing face first! You always ask for George when it is time to sleep. You are a good sleeper- thank you for that! You are a lover of all things boating and water and we could not be happier about that! Jumping into the water has to be your favorite pastime!
Jack, you make our life fun every single day. In the interest of keeping it real, I will say that you also test our patience to the very end of the rope every single day. Still, you are all things magnificent to us...beautiful star stuff that cannot be described!
Have a Happy Birthday Son! I love you to the moon and back!

Mommy

Crackers!

I was a little lenient on breakfast because I was a bit busy and exhausted from spending our first night on the boat!

Family pic

Captain Jack is giving his first mate some orders!

Untitled from Melanie Marsh on Vimeo.

I think Jack likes the fireworks... or as he would call them..."crackers, crackers!"

You might want to hit pause on the playlist player down below so that you can hear the sheer excitement in his voice!

I LOVE IT! We had a lot of fun on the lake with "Rangy".

Zoo

The day before picture day, was a day for a traditional summer field trip..we went to the zoo!

KK and Grace arrived at our house on Wednesday afternoon and bright and early on Thursday morning, we headed downtown to visit Zoo Atlanta.

First stop was the children's playground! The playground is at the "end of the zoo". In other words, most people start at the Flamingos and work their way around, but my friend Leigh Anne advised that stopping at the playground first is a good idea and keeps you out of the main traffic! Good call Leigh Anne! After the long ride down, the playground was in order to help run off a little pent up energy. What was even more perfect was that there was a school bus on the playground. Do not ask me why, but Jack has a thing for school buses, so naturally he played on the bus FIRST! I think he was a little startled that I actually squeezed in with him:)







ALL ABOARD! Oh sorry, that is train talk...that will come in a couple of weeks at his birthday party!

Grace enjoyed the hors-ie!

The cousins had fun playing on the teeter totter together!

It didn't take long for us to move on to the rides. I figured, why not do the fun stuff while Jack was not tired and ready for a nap...

Grace was a big girl and sat ALL BY HERSELF on the train! I kept trying to reach back and hold her hand...especially when we went under the tunnel. She kept pulling her hand away and looking at me like I had two heads. I mean...come on....she is 5! Duh, Meme, she is practically grown!

Jack decided he was more comfortable sitting on my lap! Works for me!

This picture was shot before the final seating arrangement was determined. See Grace with that map? She was directing us around all day!

We did look at all of the animals, too...Here is Grace with the albino peacock- cool!

Jack was digging the albino peacock, too! It really was pretty neat.

Here we have the little boogers near the Meerkat exhibit. I did not think Jack would cooperate but he loved it! He was sticking his head all the way through!

We took a little break and KK bought us a round of Dippin Dots and Tummy Yummies (bottled koolaid is the best I can figure). KK took the opportunity to work really hard on getting a picture!

Well, look likes all the straining paid off- she got the Jack scrunchy face that I have come to love SOOO much!
On a quick side note- while the pizza that we had for lunch and the snacks and drinks available were yummy, I thought it was worth sharing for those of you that do not know, you can bring in your own stuff. I saw lots of people with coolers, etc... It would be awesome to take a little picnic lunch. They had plenty of places around to sit and eat that were not necessarily associated with one of their restaurants. We are first time zoo members and so we are all paid up on admission. A trip to the zoo really can be an inexpensive way for us to have a family day and learn a lot in the process!

We rode the carousel. Jack rode the manatee!

Grace chose the much faster leopard!

Don't you love KK's sunglasses? Man, that girl always has the best shades!

We took a picture break at the gorillas.

This is exhibit never ceases to amaze me! I am always taken back by how very human like the gorillas are.

Grace liked the giraffes. There were zebras and elephants in the area too.

At this point in the day, it was WAAAAY past Jack's nap time and starting to show. We were hot, tired, smelly, and sticky! We were at the end(or what some would consider the beginning)and all we had left were the Flamingos. We checked them out for a minute, then it was off to the car to begin the trek home.

I was just starting to look forward to the auto ignition on my car (a luxury that I highly recommend to people who have young children) when Grace ruffled her little map and chimed in "hey, we did not see the zebras". Kelly and I shot a look and then I launched into a little story about how the zebras were not feeling good, so they were not out for us to see right now. Man, I know I win "terrible aunt of the year award", but it was just one of those moments.

This tactic worked for a moment, until Grace studied the map for just a moment more and realized that we had neglected to stop at the elephants, too! DANG YOU MAP!

OK- the gig was up! I mean, even "terrible aunt of the year" knows that you cannot go to the zoo and NOT see the elephants.
SOOOO, back into the zoo we went. We saw the elephants and man they were big and stinky!

I have no documentation of this because well, I was just out of steam!
Much like I have run out of material for this post...so until next time...later gators (yep, we saw those, too)!!