Jack & Spencer's World

Jack turned five on Tuesday. It feels like the first true age milestone. Yes, 1 is huge because, well, your baby is a full year old and you both survived. Two is neat because the toddler years really do fly by (even when it feels so slow). Three because they start to understand birthdays and having friends to celebrate. Four because they understand birthdays, if not the excitement leading up to it. But five. FIVE. Five brought anticipation. Five brought excitement. Five brought pride. Five was a big deal. Jack has been talking about his birthday for several weeks. On several occasions, he said "I can't wait to turn five". He knew when the date was a week away and when it was only a day away. He was so excited for the day to come and to share it with his friends. As most five years old do, he slept in a bit on his birthday. When he was finally awake, we greeted him by singing happy birthday and giving him great big hugs - he may be five, he still loves being loved...

This morning, while Jack and I walked to the bus stop to get to the Y, Jack was telling me that he and Spencer were going to be together when they were grown up. The way he presented this info was priceless. We were talking about driving and how when Mommy drives, Daddy helps the boys and when Daddy drives, Mommy helps. Then Jack takes the idea of being together and says "since Spencer and I are going to be together when we are grown up..."(then I lost a few words). I prompt him to continue on why he and Spence will be together. Jack says, "well, Spencer wants to be a baseball player when he grows up. And I want to be a baseball player when I grow up. So I figure we'll be together." Then he goes on to tell me that he's going to be #2 after Derek Jeter who is his favorite player. Spencer is going to be #34, after Brian McCann. This week, the boys both want to be baseball players and even better they want to be on the same team. Indoor baseball ...

Tonight, we did something as a family that we had never done before. We watched a movie...with REAL ACTORS. Not a cartoon. Real actors. And a really good movie. Jack has become a baseball fanatic over the last few weeks. Usually one of the first things he asks us in the morning (if not the first thing), is to tell him the Yankee's score from the evening before. Justin  has even taught him how to look up scores online. Jack loves it. He's understanding more and more of the game - like what innings are and strikes and home runs. So this evening when we got home from a day trip, he was a bit heartbroken that there was no live game on. We started searching the movie libraries of Netflix and Amazon to see what baseball themed, children appropriate movies were available. The Sandlot - no, just a weird looking sequel that we didn't know existed. Angels in the Outfields - no. Rookie of the year - no. Then we hit gold: Field of Dreams. Both Justin and I love the movie and it ...

The morning of July 4th, we were all watching Good Morning America. When the show flipped to the local weather, our local guy said that all rain would clear up by late afternoon. I honestly thought he was crazy based on the prior two days. I expected a washout and lots of time inside. To avoid spending all day inside, we headed out for a bike ride. We headed north, riding all the way up to the George Washington Bridge. Spencer and Jack kept us entertained with calling out all that they saw (boats, barbecues, Fairway, lost Citibikes, and the Amtrak trains) and, with Spencey, singing his favorite songs. Once we reached the GWB, we checked out the Little Red Lighthouse (picture below - there is even a children's book about the lighthouse) and did boy things like throw rocks into the river. We also realized how fast the river flows because we were so close! #51683476 / gettyimages.com Next, we headed back south, stopping at a great new (or likely recently renovated) p...

Jack is learning jokes. This is favorite right now: Jack: Momma, can you spell "I cup"? Me: (playing along) I-C-U-P Jack: silly giggles Spencer: I-C-U-P, I-C-U-P, I-C-U-P, giggle giggle giggle Me: ( oh my, what to expect in a few years!)