Happy New Year!

Jack had a marvelous Christmas. He loved unwrapping his presents and spending lots of time with family and friends. After a nice but fairly quiet Christmas Day, we went with my family to my parents cabin in Heber for the weekend. 21 people, 1 bathroom, 800 sq feet. Hardy was terrified, but somehow it manages to work out and we all had a delightful time. Even Hardy.

Jack got to try out his new sled that he got for Christmas and had a pretty good time in the snow.

His lips turned rather blue the first few hours we were up there, but after that he acclimated to the elevation and seemed to do just fine. He was just one of the gang with all his crazy cousins running around and learned a few new tricks (like how to turn the knob to try to open a door). It was lots of fun.

Back at home, he and his cousins tried out his new car ball pit. He loves throwing the balls all over the place and pretending to drive the car...

...and thought Rachel's hair did some pretty funny tricks while she was playing.

On Monday we went with Hardy's family to Hollywood Connection, a place with rides, games, mini golf, roller skating, laser tag, etc. Jack was hypnotized by the blinking lights on the carosel so I decided to take him on a ride. Oh boy, did he have fun. Every time we passed daddy he would wave and call out to him with a big cheesy grin. I think we rode it 10 times. There was also a little bus ride that goes up and around and he thought he was pretty darn cool on that thing. It gave my stomach butterflies so I started to worry about what it might do to his little heart, but he LOVED it...so I took him again. We'll have to see what Dr. P says about that at our next cardiology visit.

Jack is just the sweetest, happiest, funniest little guy. I know I am biased, but I so adore him. He makes me laugh all day long.

- He talks all the time. It's usually just gibberish, but he is very serious about it and definitely knows exactly what he's saying. He thinks everything is a cell phone and holds it up to his ears and says "okay" a lot while chatting.

- He currently calls me by my first name. Yes, my 1 year old refers to me as Aimee. How he picked that up, I have no idea. It's kind of funny, but I would sure prefer a simple "mommy."

- He loves to do the actions to the song "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" and requests it by saying "Popcorn" and doing the popping action with his hands. He also loves to do the Choo Choo song with actions and gets so excited that sometimes he forgets to wait until the very end to blow the whistle and waves his arms and says "woo woo" through much of the 2nd verse.

- He is in a major book phase and loves the new book I made him for Christmas. It's a church quiet book(which he skips), but I made the 2nd half a family ABC book with lots of photos of Jack and all his relatives. He loves to point at all the familiar faces and gets very excited.

- He gives the biggest, cheesiest smiles all the time. Especially when he know he's done something a little naughty, like tonight when dad caught him pulling half a roll of toilet paper into the toilet and was dripping wet. He thought he was pretty clever and was clearly worried about the repurcusions from his strict father. (ha! - see below)

I just can't believe how much he grows and learns every day. I feel ever so grateful for the miracle that he is and we pray for a another happy, healthy, wonderful year.