Dear Jack: October 2017

October was a busy one for us with school, a visit from Great Grandpa, and Halloween. I think we're all ready for the holidays to spend some time with family and eat until we pop. You're still growing and learning every day, and we are constantly amazed by your memory. There was one day you were playing with some gooey slime you received at your school's Halloween party and you ran off to bring me back a book to show me that a picture of a tadpole looked just like your slime. I'm not sure I would have even put those together. You're still loving fire trucks, baseball, cowboys, and most recently riding your tricycle. We're so thankful for your school and all you've learned and the friends you've made there. There are some mornings you tell me you don't want to go, but I've learned that 90% of the time that means you just don't want to get dressed and put pants on that day (something I can relate to).

You're still a great help in the kitchen although some days the fun for you is to pull every dang thing out of my drawers to see what tools you can play with while I try and bake. You'll usually wander off in the middle of everything, but you always reappear just in time to eat whatever it is that we've made.

You have really loved writing notes to people or making "grocery lists" to help me when I go to the store.

As you can tell, you don't get ANY attention at all.

We took Great Grandpa to a play museum and you were showing him how to milk the cow there. This started your monologue in the car about how you have a farm ["It is very very far away, you have to take a plane there"] with horses, chickens, and cows. Surprisingly when we asked you the names of your animals each category had at least one named DeeDee.

Painting pumpkins for Halloween.

Firefighter for Halloween! That costume was a win for all of us because it has kept you busy for many hours as you put fires out around the house. It has also been used as an astronaut jacket and a cowboy jacket. Every time you play dress up with it you are VERY quick to remind us that you do not have shoes on, but rather boots. It is always said in a "GET THIS RIGHT, YOU GUYS, IT ISN'T HARD" kind of voice.

A boy with his Halloween loot.

Your preschool had a St. Jude Trike-a-thon and we were going to send you with your bike that doesn't have pedals until we read on the back of said bike "NOT FOR CHILDREN OVER 36 MONTHS". It didn't help that your knees basically scraped the ground when you tried to push yourself around. We went out 4 days before the trike-a-thon and picked up a tricycle and you figured it out in just a few days! You pumped those little legs for the entire 30 minutes and even outlasted some other kids. We were so proud of you!