The Panthers: Sweet Times

Some moms just can't get enough of those early baby days when babies sleep most of the day, gurgle and coo, and have that oh-so-delicious new baby smell. I, on the other hand, can't get enough of the 1 1/2 year old phase. Oh my. It is SO MUCH FUN! Jack is such an awesome partner for each day. With each new activity of the day, I get to see the world through his excited toddler eyes and learn with him (truly) how we can honor God by learning self-control. It's amazing to watch him develop into a thinking and verbalizing being. He asks specifically for what he wants throughout the day and always finds time later on to talk through what happened during his day. He has such a strong will but may have met his match in having me as a Mama. :) It is so rewarding to see our discipline of him pay off in watching his humbled spirit and contrite heart when he is reprimanded.

The day to day of life is so very much fun. I look forward to every single day of the week and cherish this time when it is just the two of us at home during the day. We are free as birds to jump on any activity that comes our way and I relish in the fact that his napping/eating/play/nighttime sleep schedules are so predictable!

It's actually amazing how much paint this little man managed to get on his body

So innocent

Easter was wonderful this year. Last year, Dave and I had the worst food poisoning one can imagine and missed our annual Easter Brunch. This year, we kept things really small and got smart. Instead of meeting our posse at the local park, we had everyone come to our house for our sunrise worship service. Jack stayed asleep in his room and we still got to enjoy this sweet tradition. The other fun addition this year was an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Although the littles didn't quite understand my complex color coded system, they did very much enjoy hunting for those eggs. Instead of candy, they were filled with dried corn, dried peas, stickers, and playdo.

Right down from our house, they have completely closed the road and are doing a major pedestrian overpass construction project. Read: lots and lots of construction equipment for Jack's viewing pleasure. We make our way over to the "diggers" at least once everyday to check out the action and without fail, Jack will ask multiple times a day if he can drive one. Sadly, the answer is still, no. :) We have been so incredibly lucky to have Dave home most of the day everyday these last few months as he enjoys easy elective time to finish up his intern year. Dave has earned the name "Super Daddy" and Jack has loved every minute together with him.

Speaking of "Super Daddy", Dave made this super simple "kid carwash" out of PVC pipe. It was so much fun, he made a duplicate copy for each of Jack's little pals. The first time Jack tried it out was hilarious. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, just watch his face. I am happy to report, however, that now he is a pro and will run underneath it with no problem.

Whoh....bed head!

We spend many, MANY afternoons in our backyard enjoying water play. Jack loves to carefully pour water from a measuring cup to a bowl or pouring water out of the pool. He is definitely our water baby and always has been.

And then....one day....the Buick died. It may have felt sudden, but really it was a slow and painful death. Dave did some crazy loco fix-it jobs on this old beast including somehow hot wiring the air conditioning to a wire attached to a pair of pliers hanging out of the driver side door. In order to get the AC to work, all you had to do was squeeze the pair of pliers....and keep squeezing. Oh, don't let go, you'll loose all your cold air. The driver side door handle broke completely off multiple times and he wired it back on using floral arranging wire. Needless to say, the Buick had seen better days. Just recently the battery died... and I mean DIED. Since the car was literally worth less than the cost of a new battery and because we were poor enough to get a gigantic tax rebate, this seemed like the right time to let it go.

Before the Buick, Dave owned a few sports cars and desperately wanted to get back to his roots. He managed to find a relatively low miles Mustang for less than we would pay for a Civic or something so we jumped on it. And let me tell you, Dave is totally like a 16 year old boy with this thing. He absolutely LOVES driving it, looks forward to his commute, and is thrilled to run an errand for me just so he can drive his car. It's a win, win situation!