Crazy/cute/busy/funny Jackers

Ohhh Jack. Poor neglected third child didn't have his twelve-month check up until he was thirteen months... and it's not being immortalized on the blog until now, when he's just over fourteen months :). Honestly, it's probably a good thing I've waited this long to update about our [not so] baby boy - January and February were not really his months to shine, poor kid. He was still so so so cute but three ear infections in three months (plus four molars coming in!) added up to lots of tears and snot and antibiotics and shot nerves on my part! We are knocking on all things wood that he will remain ear infection-free from here on out, otherwise we might have to look into tubes. Yech.

So, because I have ISSUES, I had to pull out the same light blue striped polo shirt that his older brothers wore to their one-year check ups for Jack to wear to his. Here are all three boys boys in their respective car seats heading to their check-ups. Clyde and Will both got to switch to front-facing right on their first birthdays, but we're following the updated recommendation and keeping Jackers rear-facing for now. It works out really well in the minivan since he's totally happy being able to see the older boys in the back row! In fact, I had him front-facing in the Saturn a couple weekends ago while Chuck had the van on a Scout overnighter and he screamed every time I buckled him in, poor confused lad!

 

And here's another shot of the three boys. They honestly resemble each other more in these pictures than I thought they would. Also, Chuck and I would like to publicly apologize to Clyde for not starting regular haircuts sooner his little ragamuffin life...

Jack's check-up went well though (he was in between ear infections, hooray). He's 21 pounds and some change, so right in between where Clyde (20 pounds) and Will (22 pounds) were at this age. He's very vocal but prefers a hissing/'disssss' sound to actual, you know, words. We're obviously shocked that one of our children might be a 'late' talker... oh, wait, no we're not - that makes three for three, haha!

My plans to wean him around his birthday did not come to fruition; he just still loooooves to nurse and I'm not burned out yet, so on we go (although we're trying, happily somewhat successfully, to cut out middle of the night rendezvoux*). I have to laugh, pretty much anytime I tell a fellow mom that he has no apparent intention to stop nursing, she nods and says, "Ahh, I had one like that." He is eating more and more real food (including exotic items like strawberries! carrots! ham!) soo maybe he'll be our one and only good eater.

The other suuuper fun thing about Jackers is that you can't turn your back on him. Kid's crazy. I've spent the first five and a half years of motherhood being delightfully spoiled; I've never had to rush through a shower or be afraid to leave the room for fear of what my children would get into... well, the honeymoon is officially over:

My other boys were definitely climbers and have the scars and x-rays to prove it, but Jack is reaching new heights (you see what I did there?). He stands on that little chair and then starts rocking his body back and forth, apparently in an effort to GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK. I came out from getting dressed one day to find that he had procured a little container of chocolate sprinkles from the pantry (on like the third shelf up!) and then dumped them all over the floor and was happily chowing down. I'm not going to lie, I quickly called in the other boys to help him - why pull out a vacuum if it's not completely necessary?

Sooo I got the pictures for this post ready last night with the intention of finishing it today. This very afternoon, I walked in to the living room to find this scene:

Jack helpfully adding his signature to Clyde's homework page. He LOVES pens and paper; he's happiest when he's wandering around clutching a notebook in his left hand and a pen in his right (another heart attack-inducing vision - what if he falls on the pen??).

Luckily for all of us, Jack's cute smiling face makes all of his mischief seem worth it! We love you baby big boy!!

*Thanks to a plea on facebook, I discovered that the plural of 'rendezvous' is the same as the singular... but that's no fun, so I'm hoping rendezvoux catches on. How often do you get to use z, v, and x in ONE word??