This morning, Jack spotted some very yummy, rich, sweet treats that were sitting on our island. My friend was working on them for her son's birthday party and had sent them home with us. He asked for "cookieeth", and I told him no (being that it was eight o'clock in the morning) and that we'd eat them later. About an hour later, I was in the living room with James, and got a little nervous when I realized that Jack had gotten a little too quiet in the kitchen. I hopped up to check on things, and saw that he had gotten the laundry basket, turned it over, gotten a fork out of the party fork drawer in the pantry, and was standing on the basket and digging in to the chocolate covered red velvet balls with sprinkles on top! I just couldn't stop laughing, and had to run and get the camera for this one. I had never seen such resourcefulness from him!! Gotta give him credit for that! He was beaming for the next thirty minutes!

I took this video of Jack at 20 months and hoped to get a blog out about him, but I never did. He has changed SO much these past two months that I had to document some of it! I can't believe he's 3/4 of the way to 2 years!


I tried to get Jack to sing and do some of his tricks for the camera, but he wasn't in the mood. I loved what I got, though, and wanted to share.

A few things about my little man:
*He and his brother's relationship has really blossomed this past month. When we got back from vacation, it was like they had really bonded and kind of knew that they went together. They definitely have their moments, but nothing makes me happier than watching them enjoy each other. They really miss each other when the other is not around, light up for each other, and love to rough house together.

*Jack has become much more outgoing lately. He LOVES attention, and when he realizes he has an audience, he'll look around with a big grin and keep doing what he was doing to get a laugh. He's not shy, but he studies people he doesn't know. After a few minutes, he'll be going up and talking to everyone. He'll also go to anyone and sit in their laps.

*Jack's language has really changed. He uses new words and puts together a new sentence every single day. He's using lots of 3 and 4 word sentences now, and has the most adorable little lisp! Much more so than James! I love how he says "Jethuth (Jesus)"

*He's obsessed with books right now. I truly didn't think he'd love books, but he constantly comes up and brings us books for us to read to him.
His favorites:
-The Big Red Fire Engine (the first page says "I like fire engines", and he'll say "I lie gin-gin!" in the cutest way)
-No David-He says a word or phrase from almost every page and makes a fake cry noise for the "Come here, David" page, when David is sad)
-Books with balls and construction and cars
-Thomas the Train, although he won't listen to the story on those.
-The Little Engine that could, just the pictures
-Baby Talk-his fave part is "Lala...I like singing!"
-Brown Bear, Brown Bear

*He's starting the terrible two's! I was beginning to think he wouldn't really go there, because he's so easy going and James started early early, but I was wrong! It's not very often, but he has thrown some big ol' tantrums and meltdowns, and screams when his brother irritates him.....LOUDLY and very high pitched!!!

*He's just so sweet and loving! He showers me with kisses and hugs my neck in the sweetest way. I think he'll be a charming little lover boy some day (I pray just to his wife!)! He only does this with Josh, James, and me, but he was charmed by his Aunt Amy this past weekend and did this for her!

*He's a tab bit more of a Daddy's boy right now. ;) He screams "Daddyyyy!!!" when he comes home and sweetly says, "Daddy!" with a squeal in the middle when he sees him after being in another room.

*He has the most adorable disposition that I enjoy so much! It's hard to put into words, but a few words to describe him are funny, mischievous, sweet, smiley, happy, intentional, calm but very active (if that makes sense), go-with-the-flow, etc. I look forward to seeing it develop over the years!

He is just an absolute joy in our lives, and we feel so blessed to have him in our family.

Cover up the hair just below the hairline and cover up the mouth, and who does this look like???

Aunt Ally showed me this picture of Josh's great-grandpa, Vernon Wheeler, in Georgia this past weekend, and I gasped!! This looks more like Josh than any other relative's picture than I've ever seen! Josh strongly resembles his mom's side of the family, and this is his mom's mom's father. I couldn't stop looking at this picture! Aunt Ally had originally told me that she thought Jack looked like Daddy Vernon as a baby, so I'll be so curious to see who Jack resembles as he gets older! Daddy Vernon was known for being a wonderful, kind man who everyone loved.



This picture is of Daddy Vernon's two children, Gloria (Josh's only living grandparent) and Vernon, Jr.

Below is Vernon, Jr, before he was killed in WWII. He very much resembles many of Josh's cousins and his mom. He was tragically shot down after a bomb raid in Tokyo. I read an article about their crew, which was so interesting! They were the lead plane and were returning after successfully bombing the target when they were shot down. All members of the plane were killed.


This is a picture of Daddy Carl, Mama Gloria's husband, when he was younger. Everyone says he looked so much like Matthew Mcconaughey...I can definitely see it. I do see so much more resemblance on Mama Gloria's side of the family, though.


Below are pictures of Jack and Josh with Mama Gloria from this past weekend.