Since last time...

We've had a (in my opinion) long week. First Jack got the joy of seeing the doctor for his checkup- he likes Dr. Grossman but did not like the three shots. He did better than I thought he would though. T.J. and I think he's as tall or taller than Tripp was at his age but he doesn't weigh as much. He was 29 3/4 inches and 21 lb 3 oz so he was off the charts for height but 95% for weight. I knew he was getting heavy...between lifting 40 lb Tripp and him I feel like I've been spending some serious time at the gym.
That same day Tripp did something that made me so proud. I'm constantly trying to teach him to clean up after himself and show him that what we mess up we will also clean up. There have been times when he's decided to stay in him room for awhile with all the hundreds of books he's pulled off his bookshelf rather than help me clean them up but eventually he'll come around and decide to clean up. Last week he did something that (in my opinion) was amazing for a two year old boy...I was cleaning up the kitchen and he decided to go down to the basement. A few minutes later I ventured down to the playroom to find that he was sitting on the ground and he said "look mama I fingerpainting." He was fingerpainting on construction paper. All I saw was fingerpaint on his fingers and on the paper and nowhere else and kept looking around thinking ok where oh where on the carpet did he squeeze all of it out. It turns out he actually went and found the fingerpaint, got out the little plastic yellow hand we put the fingerpaint in (which was in another location), put each color in a different finger without spilling or mixing, closed all the fingerpaints, put them back where he found them and took the time to find the paper (which was also in a different location) rather than paint all over his table, our carpet, and the walls. I dont know if I was more relieved or proud! Sorry if I made this story too long but I had to share it.
Now T.J. and I would both like your opinion. We are trying to decide who in the world Jack looks like. Some people tell me he looks like me. Other people tell T.J. both kids look like him (and at the same time I'm like...HOW can they both look like him when the two kids dont look a thing alike!?). A lot of people actually think he favors my dad. So what do you think? We both think Tripp looks like both of us in different ways but doesn't favor either one of us more than the other (you may disagree). We're wondering what people think about Jack...let us know what you think.

For Memorial Day weekend our family visited T.J.'s parents lake condo at Lake of the Ozarks (about a 2 1/2 hr drive from here). The trip was overall enjoyable but I was sick the first day or so, it rained everyday but yesterday and the water (both pool and lake) was really cold. T.J. and I both love relaxing at the lake but at the same time think it's difficult going with small kids especially because of the sleeping situation and the long drive. We got there Friday and I had been sick Thursday night. Friday I felt awful so Saturday I went to a random clinic thinking I had strep throat again. I was skeptical about it in the first place but when I walked out of there after having two shots in my rear and no strep test because I was told "the doctor can just tell if you have strep or not by looking" I was pretty nervous not to mention when I presented my insurance card they said "oh we don't do that". The never gave me an answer as to what was wrong with me after looking in my throat and only when the nurse came in did I know I was getting two shots because she was carrying them and told me I was getting the shots and allergy medicine (?!). I already told the dr I do not have allergies. Whatever...that did not start the trip out well though. Only shopping with T.J. and the kids made me feel better:)

Aside from the doctor, Jack did not sleep well there at all- he woke up during the night and earlier than usual- say around 5:15, 5:30. He took his first nap always came before 8am and basically just decided to sleep wherever he wanted other than the bed...

Poor T.J. slept in the room at night with Jack and I slept across the hall with Tripp because he asked me to every night (which I was actually happy about because he slept well and I actually got good uninterrupted sleep). I think the highlight of Jack's trip was playing with his Aunt Shelley- that's definitely when he laughed his hardest. I was never sure of what exactly she was doing to make him laugh but he was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe!

I think the highlight of the trip for Tripp was PawPaw's (T.J.'s dad) boat and the constant junkfood (the cookies and cake and ice cream were quite a treat for him after getting sugarfree popsicles from me). Anyway he LOVED riding on the boat. He went to sleep talking and dreaming about it and would wake up asking if he could ride on it. He went on several rides a day and luckily he still believed us when we told him the boat was sleeping or taking a nap because otherwise he would have whined the entire time until we took him on it (sorry Daddy I think you took most of the pics so you weren't in any).

I found a picture of Tripp from summer of 2005 when he went on the boat for the first time and took another picture of him and Jack in the same life vest. It's so funny to see how much he's grown...here Tripp is in July 2005 and then this weekend and then Jack this weekend before falling asleep:

I also took pictures of Tripp in the baby swing in July 2005 and then pictures of Jack in the swing this weekend. As you can tell Tripp hated swinging and still does and Jack loves it- can't get enough. For me it's fun to compare how much they DON'T look alike. I'm not sure you'd ever think they were brothers if you didn't already know it!
Other than a few trips on the boat and some shopping it was tough to do anything else because I wasn't feeling well and because of the weather. Hopefully we'll get lucky with the weather when we go back over July 4th! The trip home yesterday was relaxing- both kids slept almost the entire time! They were both happy to get home- Tripp was ecstatic when he saw his plasma car and Jack was thrilled to see his exersaucer and bed!