Our Jackie Boy is 5!!! We love him so much. Jared pushed for and planned a Chuck E Cheese birthday party, and I am soooo happy he did. At first I was skeptical because the nearest Chuck E Cheese is about 45 minutes away from our town, and it's obviously pricier than throwing a little party at home. Jared and Jack attended a Chuck E Cheese bday party for one of Jack's preschool friends the month after Alice was born and they both had a blast, so that planted the seed. When Jared said the phrases "food and drinks included," "activities all taken care of," and "won't have to prep or plan a thing," I was sold. Especially during this the year of the baby/sleep deprivation. Every child needs to have a Chuck E Cheese birthday party once, right?? Most magical place on earth when I was 5. 

My favorite parts of the party were as follows: Jared and Jack picking out the invitations. Jared and Jack delivering all the invitations (I did write them, which was maybe my only contribution). Jared doing all RSVP text communication. Jared coordinating everything with Chuck E Cheese. Waking up and cleaning NOTHING before going to the party. Showing up at the party and doing nothing but talk to and get to know other preschool parents. Preparing zero snacks. Baking zero cakes. Cleaning up nothing when it was all over. Jack looking at us with stars in his eyes all day long. Will we do this every year? Nope. Probably a one-time thing. Was it amazing? Yes, yes it was. I highly recommend marrying a birthday party dad. Especially if you have an inkling you might not be a birthday party mom. Jared was in his absolute element coordinating this party. Love that. Also love not being in the medical training years anymore and him having time for this. Amazing. 

Anyway, Jack had a blast all day, even though he made this face in almost every picture at his birthday party hahaha:

It was absolutely wild to watch Jack around his preschool friends. Whenever we drop him off or pick him up from preschool, he goes into what Jared and I call "the preschool zone." Our always sunny, exuberant Jack all of a sudden gets very serious and puts on his game face. He loves preschool so much so it's not that he's not excited. It's almost like he has to focus in and do some processing to turn into preschool Jack? We're used to that, but I didn't expect Jack to drop into "the zone" for his birthday party, too. He had 3 church friends and 5 preschool friends show up with their parent(s), plus his Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Will. 

When Chuck E Cheese came out and the employees asked the birthday kids (there were 5 kids having parties) to go up front to dance with Chuck E, Jack put his head down and REFUSED and avoided eye contact with everyone. Hey Jack, want to take a picture with your friends standing next to Chuck E? Absolutely not. I asked him if it was a "scared of giant mouse man" thing later, but he told me he just felt scared being put on the spot to do things in front of lots of friends and strangers. I totally get that. Just weird to watch your kid grow up, since he would've loved to dance in front of a crowd of strangers a year or two ago haha. 

On the note of it being bitter-sweet to watch your kid grow up, there always comes a moment on or before or after Jack's birthday when I get all sentimental and teary. This year it was in the evening after he was in bed for the night. He recently grabbed our spare baby monitor and put it in his room, so I watched him fall asleep hugging his stuffed Bunny (and picking his nose lol). Then Jared came downstairs and I started sobbing about how I was blindsided by Jack changing his favorite color this year, and felt robbed of painting Jack's bedroom Jackie-Boy red, since a few months ago his favorite color changed from red to blue overnight with no notice. He had been asking for a red room since we moved in a year and a half ago, but I was preoccupied with other rooms and being pregnant so I planned to do it later this year. Everyone else was telling me not to because red is so bold, but Jack has always loved red and I found some really cool, classy ways to do it that I was so excited about. But now that his favorite color is blue I may never get to do my little Jackie-Boy red room. 

I've never known anyone else close to me whose favorite color was red, but of course Jack's favorite color was red--he's always had big red energy. But now he's shifting to a more blue personality in some ways. It's sweet, and of course we're supposed to change as we grow up, but I just felt so unexpectedly sad about the sudden change in favorite color. I'm really starting to understand the part of my dad that's always asking my favorite color. I keep asking Jack the same thing every few weeks, kind of hoping he'll change his answer back to "red" someday. Love you dad! And mom! Being a parent is so sweet but the dumbest things will get you right in the feels. Since I'll never end up doing this in my own house, here are some of my red room inspiration pictures:
^^Still love this and wouldn't mind doing something similar for a kids bathroom someday. Jared is not on board though sooooo probs not. 
Jack lovin on baby sis, always. She truly is becoming his best, best friend. May change when she's old enough to get into his toys, but then again, maybe not. Jack loves nothing more than to have other people butt into his playtime. 
^^After Jack's party I snuck out to the car early to feed Alice and she fell asleep in my arms and it was kyoot. 
^^The birthday boy gets to go in the ticket blaster. He would only go in if Jared would join him. (Did not want to be seen jumping around in a glass case by himself in front of a bunch of people, no duh.) They collected enough tickets for Jack to win a toy lizard and a toy iguana! Very cool. 
^^Grandpa L and Baby A
^^Grandma L and Babay A. 
^^Uncle Will and Baby A.
^^A smile!
^^We're going backwards here, but this was Jack's birthday morning Bubble Wand situation.
^^Alice's room is almost officially finished! I would love to put her name above her bed and make a brass butterfly mobile to hang from the ceiling, but pretty soon I'll do a blog post of pictures of her finished nursery. 
^^Built-ins are coming RIGHT along and I can't believe this room ever existed without them. We just need to finish adding trim, paint the whole wall, and then add hardware to the cabinets. 
^^Me and Jack had a date together before he turned 5. He had so much fun that he asked if me and him can always have a date before he has a new birthday. Yes buddy, yes. We were going to have a McDonald's picnic in the park and then play "Wild Jack" tag. But then it was raining and cold so we pivoted to a Palisade Picnic and board games in the back of the car. It was a HIT. This boy loves a good board game more than almost anything else. 
^^Jack with two of his best preschool buddies, Theo and Seth. Would not stand for this picture unless I was next to him and held him in place there. Yay. 

This was our very first friend birthday party. We learned a few things. First of all, don't forget to take a picture with all the friends in it. Also, 5-6 friends is probably a good number. At least for a party like this. 8 was just barely too many. He didn't have time to play with every single friend, and I didn't have time to have a conversation with every single parent. Not that there will always be parents there, but for this type of party at this age, there was. Also, think real hard about the food situation and don't overdo it. Chuck E Cheese recommended 2 pizzas and 2 pitchers of soda. We were like, we'll raise you 3 more pizzas and 3 more pitchers of soda to 5 total of each. Didn't know how many parents would show up and didn't want to be short on food during lunch time. Guess how many were left when we were done? 3 expensive pizzas and 3 pitchers of soda. Next time we'll listen to Mr. Cheese and staff. 

It's been the best birthday weekend! I'm so happy Jack had a great time through every minute of it, even though you can't tell from the pics. He got a HAUL of new toys. Grandma and Grandpa Haines got him an e-reader that he used to "read" me a bedtime story and then was glued to the rest of the evening. Grandma and Grandpa Lambert got him a big wheel type of situation that will get lots of use when the weather warms up. The day after Jack's birthday felt like the day after Christmas. Jared and Jack spent the morning playing with Jack's new remote control cars and building legos together. I prepped some bolognese to simmer all day long and had music going in the background. It was lightly snowing outside and cozy cozy inside, with Jack's birthday decorations still hanging from the ceiling. Alice just smiling and jumping away in her activity bouncer. Jack's main gift from us was 2 remote control boats (and the party), so we even had a little outing to our neighborhood lake for some boat racing before it started hailing and we retreated back to our cozy, warm house. Big post-Christmas vibes. So fun.

In other news, Jared's office staff overheard some elderly ladies in our small local grocery store talking about how the new young doctor in town is a "tall glass of water." I always knew he'd be a hit with the little old ladies! Lots of glass of water jokes this week, but seriously, how fun. I feel like gaining popularity with the little old ladies demographic was always Jared's small-town-doc destiny. He loves them, and they love him. It's been a fun week with my babies and my tall glass of water. 
Jack Turns 5

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We had a beautiful Valentine's week! Here are some pictures:

^^My daily walk through the forest. Took this on Valentine's day, after mine and Jared's "date" (in quotation marks because Jack was sick so he and Alice both joined us and it was an absolute circus).
Jack and Jared doing a little Saturday afternoon dinosaur computer gaming. This game was supposed to be our family New Year's Eve present but we forgot about it. Jack was SO excited to play and made sure his best friends Bunny and Foxy were there to join in on the fun. 
Alice got really into her activity jumper for the first time this week! So fun for everyone. 
That hair, lol. We swapped out Alice's binky for this soft little cow lovey (basically a 1' x 1' blanket) from my mom and it was 100% a great move. She wasn't super attached to the binky other than for falling asleep, and it was getting annoying to play the binky retrieval game. Alice was showing signs of maybe being interested in her fingers instead? So we took away the binky and gave her the lovey. She actually isn't showing any signs of finger sucking anymore, but she LOVES to rub her lovey all over her face when she's falling asleep, and she's almost always using it as3 a pillow when she wakes up. She has no trouble finding the lovey herself anywhere in the crib (especially now that she can roll over in both directions), so a big upgrade from the binky that I'm stoked we won't have to wean her off of.
My brother and sis-in-law gifted us this amazing "edges only" brownie pan for Christmas. I found a brownie mix that is dairy and soy free (Duncan Hines), and thus my Valentine's Day sweet tooth was so satisfied. 
^^Valentine bb with some rogue tp squares for her constantly runny nose. Very excited to leave sick season in the dust. 
Ok, so this is going to sound very lame for a Valentine's date (and honestly it kind of was lame), but the premise was great! One of mine and Jared's favorite dates when we're visiting Utah is to put Jack to bed at my parents' house and then take off to watch the sun set from Squaw Peak. We always stop at Harmons first and pick out a fancy cheese and a loaf of crusty bread. Then we each choose a fancy bottled drink. Then we have a little picnic up on Squaw Peak and talk and watch the sunset. It checks all the boxes for both of us. 

So anyway, Jared doesn't work Tuesdays. We were so excited to be able to do a day date while Jack was at preschool! We both had this Valentine's date idea separately and it seemed great. We were going to stop by our IGA and load up on some specialty snacks, then drive up to the only lookout point anywhere near us (off a little side road 20 minutes into the Mountain Loop highway in our town). Then have a cute car picnic Valentine's lookout date. Easy. Cheap. No crowds. Not stressful/public if the baby started crying. No worries about hidden dairy/soy in a restaurant. Great. Then Jack got sick. Yet another cold. It was borderline, and we thought we might be able to get away with sending him to preschool. But 5 minutes before preschool the coughing was getting worse so we made the split decision to keep him home and bring him on our date with us. Homeboy was NOT happy. There are a bunch of different versions of sick Jack. On Valentine's Day we were graced with extra-whiney-mc-whine-whines sick Jack. It was BRUTAL. Such a battle to even get him in the car, so we decided to skip IGA and the specialty snacks. Then the next hour was basically just crying and whining and more crying, and sniffling and coughing and whining some more. In the end it probably would've been a better Valentine's date to just stay home and try and make him take a nap, but you know. Memories. At least we had 10 minutes at the top where Jack and Alice were both happy sun roof bbs, and it was nice to be up in the mountains. Also peep Jack's cute heart sweater I thrifted in Wyoming

^^Another picture from my post-Valentines-date walk. Much needed time to decompress haha. Look how bright this moss is! It's inspiring me for finishing our entryway. We're doing subdued blues and greens, but I think a pop of this neon green in a painting or something could be fun. 
^^Sick Jack coming in with the camera skills. Look how close we're getting on the built-ins!
^^Love these Valentine's Date crashers. In the end, this is such a short season of having young kids tagging along with us everywhere. We were happy to share our day with our sick little baby loves. And now, we only have a few more days before our little 4-year-old boy turns FIVE! The time really does fly.

My Valentimes

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We had a full weekend of home projects. First we installed some big glass pendants in our entryway that are absolutely beautiful, but were a PAIN to install. Good thing they're very pretty and worth it. We also added trim to one side of the built-ins we're working on. That project will probably take at least another month (we have to build a whole other side and then paint everything), but I'll be sure to share all the pics and details when they're finished. Jared is now a self-proclaimed "construction guy." I do the designing/planning and measuring. Jared does the power tool stuff. Takes both of us to get each piece up. It's a fun team effort. Some home projects are NOT a fun team effort, but for whatever reason these shelves are kinda fun other than the fact that they're taking forever. 

Jared taught Jack how to play Risk last week, which is complicated news for me. I told him I'd be willing to play Risk on an occasional Sunday game night, but not on a daily basis. He was saddened, but alas, it will be ok. Jared's favorite game is Bang! He taught Jack how to play it and they've played so often that now Jack can genuinely beat him. Jack likes to drag these games out as long as possible, which serves Jared right since he likes to string everyone along with high-interest loans in Monopoly for hours on end until we're all begging to be put out of our misery. We've started turning on the Bob Ross channel in the background sometimes when we're downstairs and today Jack wanted to paint for quite a while, so maybe I'll up the Bob Ross screen time in hopes to transition from games to painting for a bit haha--I love that kid.

Alice had her 4-month appointment at Jared's clinic this week. The other family physician Jared works with saw her and said she's doing great (but had to get 4 shots, boo). Our old pediatrician moved to Mt. Vernon 45 minutes away, and it was too easy to just have Jared set her up an appointment at his clinic instead, 5 minutes from our house. So as long as she continues to have no issues, we'll probably stay with Jared's family practice clinic for her check-ins. This week she started waking up on her tummy every morning, so now she is rolling from back to stomach all the time. 

We are all settling into our 5,000th cold of the season. Jared says young kids on average contract 12 viruses each winter, and I'm certain we'll meet that quota. It makes me feel a little better (sorta) to know this 2-colds-a-month thing is normal and age appropriate. Luckily the weather is getting better and better! We've even had a few sunny days this week. I'm getting very excited for summer. Moreso than I ever have before, and it's probably because I was pregnant last summer, and the summer before that we were going through a stressful move into a house with no AC during a 3-month-long Washington heat wave. So it's been a few years since I've really been able to fully enjoy a summer. On the days when it's still cloudy and rainy, I've been watching "The Established Home" by Jean Stoffer while I get stuff done during Jack's preschool. It's another Magnolia Channel find. So far it's lovely! If you enjoy design shows I'd recommend giving it a watch. Ok, gonna try real hard to upload pictures and publish within the next 10 minutes to meet my every Monday post goal.

^^Jack's beanie baby apartment complex.
^^They love each other so much. They already play together somehow. We have Alice "talk" to Jack in a funny voice and I honestly think it's really helping to grow a little relationship haha
^^Jack's preschool Valentine offerings. 
"Happy Valentine's Day from: Jock" "Happy Valentine's Day from: Jerk"
^^Baby's first ponytails this week! 
^^Entryway coming together. We've also got a shoe cabinet to build under the window and a runner rug and coat rack on their way. 
Hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day! 
Risk

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Happy February! I was able to trial 3 new foods last week to see if any were bothering Alice, so there are only a handful left to test. She failed rice miserably (I tested twice to make sure it wasn't a fluke--she was inconsolable for 48 hours after each trial). But she passed coconut and cocoa! I'd rather cut out rice for the next few months than cocoa or coconut (coconut milk is a great substitute when you're avoiding dairy). So far the only definitive fails have been soy, dairy, and now rice. All three of which we'll probably be able to add back into her diet without issue around the time she turns a year old. Now that we're a full month out from cutting soy and dairy, and now that we're a few days past our rice trial, Alice is the sweetest, chillest, happiest baby! She has been a little joy all weekend. Jared and I spent alllll of Saturday building custom bookshelves in next to our fireplace. Jack played Minecraft and Alice just sat there and watched us with a smile on her face. It was shocking. We still have a ways to go on the built-ins, but I'll share pictures when they're done. For now, enjoy this little photo shoot of Alice growing right out of my favorite 0-3 month outfit of hers. She's definitely too big for it here, but I wanted to get a few pictures before packing it away with all the rest of her 0-3 month clothes. The time goes fast! 





 

No Rice, Rice Baby

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