A Day at the Golf Course, or, the Future Rory McIlroy?!

This past Saturday was soooo nice, we decided to take Jones up to the golf course and introduce him to that.  We had a good friend, who is also very good at golf, tell us that if we want to cultivate a love of the game in Jones, and a desire in him to play and to play well, we needed to start just taking him up there and letting him play and do whatever he wants to (within reason, obviously) so that he starts, from a very young age, associating the golf course and the game of golf, with fun and having a good time, so he'll always want to play golf.  Jones loved it!  He already loves being outside, but he really enjoyed his first outing to the RCC.

Jones loved gathering up the golf balls - much like hunting Easter eggs!

 

Alan teaching the proper grip and swing:

Helping tee Daddy up!

He was really mimicking Alan at this point - if the clubs weren't just way too big for him,
I think he would have been "golfing" - like, swinging the club and trying to hit the ball
and all of that, but with the club being so big, it was just too unwieldy for him.  Still cute, though.

His favorite part was riding in the golf cart :o)

Putting!

 

He was all about getting the balls out of the cup and bringing them back to Alan!

 

Fore!

Jones is 2 years old, or, The Last Monthly Update Post for the Jones Man!

This is it people:  the last monthly update post for Jones.  From here on out, we can all only hope that I stick to my goal of more frequent, shorter posts about what Alan and I, and Jones are up to.  But, for now ...

Jones is 2 years old!

I said, "Jones, stand still and let me take your picture!"  And this is what he did.
I think most of our pictures from here on out are going to be action shots :o)

He's holding a broom.  Kid loves to sweep :o)

"Jones, come stand by the crepe myrtle and let me take your picture!"

 At 2 years old, Jones:

• Wears size 24 months and 2T clothes, a size 6 1/2 shoe, a size 5 diaper, probably weighs around 30 pounds, and is probably around 3 feet tall, maybe just a little under, but we haven't measured, so ... who knows? 
• Has all of his teeth except his 2-year molars, I think ... it is incredibly difficult for me to verify that, because it's hard to get him to open his mouth wide enough and for a long enough time for me to actually confirm this, but I'm pretty sure they're all there.  We're doing really well with brushing our teeth - the biting is at a minimum nowadays, since he can understand and follow the simple instruction of, "Open wide!  Don't bite!"
• Is not a good eater.  I have to really work him to get him to eat anything, unless he's just famished.  He still does the best with breakfast.  He's not picky, he's just not all that interested in food.  He oftentimes gets his plate, eats like 4 bites, and then waves his arms and says, "Done!  Down!"  Favorite foods include:  hamburger/deer burger, green beans (he loves to say, "Bean!" and then eat them, one by one), pinto beans, any kind of fish (I know, right?!  Kind of weird, but a good thing - he chows down on any kind of fish, and I don't just mean fish sticks, like he loves salmon and grouper and tuna steaks, that kind of stuff), chicken (if you ask him what he wants to eat, he always says, "Chicken!"), oatmeal, cream of wheat, scrambled eggs, yogurt (he has started calling yogurt "eggo" ... I don't know about that ...), cereal bars, PB & J, mashed potatoes ("tatoes!") and ice cream (who doesn't love ice cream?).  I am continually shocked and amazed that he doesn't like macaroni and cheese, like, at all.  He doesn't seem to like any kind of cheesy pasta, as a matter of fact.  And he'll only eat pizza if you give it to him by the slice - if you cut it up into bite-size pieces, he won't eat it.

He does like cheese tortellini!

• Loves Mickey Mouse, The Little Einsteins, The Dinosaur Train, The Cat in the Hat, Curious George, and Sesame Street. 

Watching Mouse

"Hey Jones, let me take your picture sitting in Daddy's chair!"

• Loves to play with all of his musical instruments, especially his drum and his guitar, and he loves to bang on the piano.  Hopefully he'll have Bunky A's musical sensibilities.

• Is big on dinosaurs - he loves to roar like a dinosaur, and he loves to chase you and be chased with his stuffed dinosaurs.  He talks to himself all the time about dinosaurs and puts together his little dinosaur puzzle.

• In true boy fashion, is really into trucks and construction equipment.  On the ride to school we pass a construction zone and he points out all of the equipment to me every day.  His favorite piece is the crane.  He also points out all of the trucks he sees everywhere we go.

• Loves to play outside, in his cardboard pirate ship, and with chalk. 

 

He likes for the dogs to come outside and play with him too!

 

• Talks a lot - very chatty little fella!  I can only understand certain words, but I know that'll get better.  He is always telling me about the kids at school, but I can't understand a thing he says about them besides their names :o).  He is bossy with the Spoiled Labradors - "Eat, Augie!"  "No, Augie!"  "Quit, Augie!" (Can you tell that Augie is the one that spends the most time with him?  Layla loves him, but she prefers to love him from afar, unless he wants to throw the ball for her or play tug of war with her and her dragons).  He's always trying to get Layla to come to him, for some reason - he'll say, "Leee-yla!" in this imperious tone like he wants her to come over there, and she sometimes will, sometimes won't, depending on what's going on at the time.  He can and will voluntarily say please, thank you, sorry, uh-oh, oops, gross (aside:  I picked him up from the gym daycare the other day, and I was super sweaty, and as I bent down to tie his shoe, he put his hand on my back and said, "Gross Mommy!" Ha!), yuck and yucky, welcome, hi, bye, night-night, and excuse me.  He will also say "lub you" for "I love you", and then he has a whole host of other words, like train and dinosaur and truck, car, all kinds of animals (he's really good at animals and their sounds), shapes and numbers (he can count to 10), all of the usual kind of stuff you would expect from a 2 year old.  Not so good with colors, but that's okay :o).
• Favorite books include Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Baby, a new Thomas the Train book he got for his birthday, and a book about the elephants at the Little Rock Zoo that he got from Tee for his birthday.
• Is obsessed with buttons - his biggest thrill each day is to get to push the button to raise and lower the garage door, and to turn the TV on and off.  If it's got a button on it, Jones is all about it.

Chillin' with dad!

• Is still a champion sleeper, and we've started putting him in his crib after his bedtime stories and a little milk, and  a little rocking, and he goes to sleep on his own.  He's probably always been able to do this, but I've just always enjoyed rocking him, so that's always been part of our routine.  It's so peaceful in his room at night, when it's just the two of us in there, rocking quietly (I have been known to go to sleep in there in the comfy chair myself) but it's nice to know he could do it on his own if he had to.
• Is every bit of two years old, all boy, and is, as always and forever, precious to our entire family!

Happy Birthday Jones, or, The Ward Family Throws a 2nd Birthday Bash!

Jones turned 2 on April 4.  Two.  How unreal is that?  When I got up on Thursday morning, I thought back to what I was doing on April 4, 2011, two whole years ago.  While I can barely remember what I did the night before nowadays, I can clearly remember that day.  We had thought we were going to induce on April 6, so I was thinking I had a little more time to prepare.  I had developed a pain in my side over the weekend, and I mentioned this to my doctor when he came to check on my that morning.  Well, turns out that the pain meant my liver was enlarging and my preeclampsia was morphing into HELLP Syndrome.  The only cure for this is:  delivery!  So, the doctor got everything ready for me to be induced as soon as possible, and I called Alan and all of the important people to let them know we were proceeding ahead of schedule, and we got down to the business of having a baby.  I was 36 weeks and one day pregnant.  Jones made his debut at 8:11 p.m. with a loud wail that impressed all of the nurses and doctors in the room, and brought relief to all of us since bringing Jones into the world had been fraught with more complications than we had planned on.  I remember feeling totally overwhelmed by feelings, with a large helping of disbelief that we had us a baby.

A year later, I couldn't believe a whole year had gone by and we had a one year old!  Jones was just learning to walk and babble and eat finger foods and drink from a sippy cup.

And now it's two years later, and Jones is definitely a two-year-old, and definitely all boy. When people ask me how Jones is doing, I like to reply, "He's two."  If the person I'm talking to is a parent, they totally understand and get a little giggle out of that description.  He's so busy, all of the time:  running, jumping, climbing, talking and babbling, playing with toys, giving hugs, giving kisses ... I can hardly keep up!

We started off April 4, 2013, with a birthday cupcake:

Cupcakes for breakfast are awesome!

Augie is all about birthday breakfast cupcakes.  See the cupcakes on the counter behind him?  Yeah, I went to get Jones ready for school, and when I returned, three of those cupcakes had been eaten by Spoiled Labrador # 1.  Yes, 3 cupcakes.  Spoiled Labrador # 1 ate the baby's cupcakes.  Augie has no shame.

He had a big day at school, and brought cupcakes and Capri Suns for all of his classmates and they all sang Happy Birthday to him in music class that day. 

My big boy!

Birthday hugs!

Birthday kisses!

This was followed by dinner with Grammy and Papa, and Nana:

And then we had the big birthday bash on Saturday! 

Alas, I did not get a picture of everyone singing Happy Birthday to Jones,
or him blowing out his candles, but his cake was super cute :o)

We had a cardboard box party, and thankfully the weather was great, so all of the kids got to hang out outside and play in the cardboard boxes, and the bouncy castle, and just generally enjoy the fresh air.

A maze of cardboard boxes, hand-graffitied by Mama, Daddy, and Nana!

 

Mattie May going though the maze of boxes!

Jones, playing/working on sharing with Molly Mc and Reynolds

Mama, Daddy, and the Birthday Boy!

The Spoiled Labradors were sequestered from the party, but they got to watch, and they were a big hit - I think a lot of the kiddos don't have big dogs at home, so they were fascinated by Aug and Layla, and wanted to pet and play with them, and of course they obliged by sitting very close to the fence all day to allow for little hands to reach through the chain link and pet them.  One of our guests brought their brand new lab puppy (at our insistence, naturally - what more could you ask for at a two-year-old birthday party than a lab puppy?!).  It was so cute, the kids loved it!  I think Aug and Layla were jealous ... and Alan and I could barely remember when they were puppies!

She handled all of the attention really well :o)

A true dog lover!  Shout out to Julie for capturing this precious picture!  Amy, the puppy's mommy, said that when she walked through the house with the puppy, Jones saw her, pointed at the puppy and said, "I want that!"  Ha!

We had a cookout, and the birthday boy barely had time to eat!  He preferred sneaking bites off of Nana's plate and Tee's plate:

 

Jones is an expert present opener, and people were so generous, it really was just kind of mind-boggling.  We opened presents for quite a while ... it took a longer time this year, because everything we opened, he had to stop and play with it before we moved on to the next gift.

 

 

 

 

And now, a general smattering of pictures I managed to take (you will note that Jones is wearing three different shirts and sometimes no shirt at all in these pictures - he played hard, and spilled a lot, so we went through several wardrobe changes, which I guess is a sure sign of a successful party).

 

The birthday boy and PePaw!

Charlie and Molly Mc and their respective parents

The Whitt Family!

Me and my bestie, Jessica, and our kiddos, future roommates and besties at the U of A :o)

Nana, PePaw, and Tee with the birthday boy!

Uncle Patrick, Aunt Sarah, and Mattie May with the birthday boy (in between wardrobe changes)

Granddad Richard, Grandma Betty, and Daddy with the birthday boy

It was a great party, and a lot of fun, and a great way to celebrate a special little boy.

 

Jones, we love you so much!  Happy Birthday!  It's been the best two years of our lives, with you having made our family complete!  We love you, buddy!