I'm Right Here!

Jack and I get to spend some time alone together on school mornings. While sometimes I have no idea what to do with him during this time, sometimes it turns out so nice that I wish I could wait just a little longer to go pick Mitchell up at school.

We had a morning like this one day last week. The sun was shining so I brought a cup of coffee out to the front porch to watch Jack run around in the yard. He was having such a great time and being so good that I kinda forgot about him for a few minutes. When I looked up, he was nowhere to be seen!

Knowing he could not have gone far, I called for him and heard a faint, "I'm right here!" coming from the yard. I followed the sound and called for him again: "I'm right here!" Now the sound appeared to be coming from a large bush and group of trees. This is what I could see:

I see grass, trees, and bushes, but no Jack.

Now that he knew I was hunting him down, he just put his "I'm right here!" on constant repeat for me. I ducked down and lifted the branches of the low tree to see my little boy climbing the branches. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, "Riding cycle!" He found a low branch to swing one leg over and was having so much fun on his motorcycle that I had to actually crawl in there a while later and physically drag him off in order to make it to school in time to pick up Mitchell.

I do love that he has learned how to say "I'm right here!" and it comes in quite handy when I lose him. Perhaps I should be embarassed that I lose him enough for him to learn that phrase...

Where Did He Go?

I asked the question "Where did he go?" more than once today.  We'd all be sitting around, relaxing together when I would suddenly look around and wonder where Jack was.  I would be in the kitchen and hear something crashing upstairs and see everyone but Jack busy playing in the living room.  I came out from the bathroom and Matt was busy reading a story to the big boys but Jack was suspiciously missing.  Where did he go?  How does he move so fast and why can't I find him anywhere down here?

Jack is a maniac at my stairs!  He can not only crawl up them completely on his own, maneuvering the corner with ease, he can do it FAST!  So fast, he is up there and gone in the time it takes me to use the lady's room!  He can sneak up there in the middle of playtime with the other boys (granted, it doesn't take much to sneak past Matt and the big boys when they are doing their thing).  For some reason, he wants to be upstairs, whether we all want to come with him or not.  

I have decided not to put a baby gate up.  You may disagree with my choice here, but he needs to learn to get up and down and so far, he needs no lessons at all!  Why put a gate up now, only to take it down later to teach him?  I will try to keep a closer eye on you, Jack, but well done, my brave and determined baby boy!

Did Someone Call Me?

I was busy downstairs while the boys were playing upstairs.  As I was busily accomplishing something extremely important I'm sure, Ben called me from upstairs.  He wanted me to "look at them."  This usually is worth my while, as they have done something they think is hilarious and even if it isn't really, it is worth it to see them crack up about it.  I looked up the stairs, and at first, didn't know what it was they wanted to show me.  This is what I saw:

"No, mom, look up here!"

Oh, there you are!  Wow... 

And where do you think you are going, Jack?

I guess I need to just camp out on the stairs so that my kids can all three play in their most favorite spot to play without adding a trip to the emergency room to our daily list of activities. 

C'mon, Mom!

Day two of our "beach vacation" brought beautiful sunshine and perfectly warm beach weather.  While daddy stayed home with baby Jack during his morning nap, the boys and I rode our bikes down to the beach to get a jump start on the day.

I hardly had time to set my things down before the boys were pulling me off to check out the giant rocks they wanted to climb.  The beach had a jetty separating the beach from the bay and it looked tall and long even to me, so I can't imagine how it must have looked to two little boys - must have seemed pretty awesome.  I figured I'd help them climb up the the top near the sand and they'd look over the other side and that would be it, but they totally suprised me with their bravery and rock-climbing/jumping abilities!  We didn't just "check it out" a little, we climbed/jumped/ran all the way to the end. Ben was a crazy little dare-devil who never once needed a hand and never even stopped to find his footing - he just went for it.  As I occasionally had to slow down to help Mitchell make a bigger jump over a large crack between two boulders, Ben would shout back, "C'mon mom!  We've gotta make it to the end!"  And make it, we did!  By the time we got back to the beach, Matt had shown up with Jack and the guys were on to other adventures (more contests and feats of strength mostly), but I haven't had such a good time with my big boys in a long time.  Thank you for the adventure, my big boys, and well done!