May 2014 / The Wallace House

Notes about Jack

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Man, how long has it been since I've done a Jack update?

Too long, that's for sure.

Let me tell you a few facts about this little boy at 22 months.

*aka brag session post*

Fact: he is obsessed with sports.

any sport. every sport. golf, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, football. his current favorite is easily basketball. you should see this kid when a game is on. he goes NUTS. and you better be prepared to get a lot of attention (read: stares) when you take him to chili's because all those sports on several TVs? He goes cah-razy!

A few of his favorite sports words: shoot!, score!, close! (when they miss..he's so kind haha), goal!

Fact: he loves to sing.

his favorites include wheels on the bus (he will request this song right in the middle of dinner. "bus?"), itsy bitsy spider, popcorn popping on the apricot tree, jesus wants me for a sunbeam, and old mcdonald had a farm (or better known as EIEIO around here).

Fact: He talks a lot!

I counted his words and got to 100 before I stopped. That just includes words that he says on a regular basis. He'll repeat pretty much anything you say. And also throws in a lot of words we don't understand.

He also uses a few phrases now like "let's go!" and "holdou" (hold you) which quickly turns to "hold me" since I always correct him. So he says "holdou. hold me." haha

Fact: He knows almost all his shapes.

Rectangle. Circle. Square. Heart. Oval. Spiral. Crescent. Pentagon. Octagon. Like draw those shapes for him and he will tell you what each one is.

Fact: He can count to 3 and to 5 with help.

Fact: He has watched Cars Toons (on Netflix) so many times that he knows almost every word.

Fact: He loves any mode of transportation.

Helicopters, motorcycles, bicycles, trucks, trains, airplanes.

He's a lucky little boy because he sees all of these on a regular basis. We live pretty close to a small airport so we always see and hear planes and helicopters. We also live near railroad tracks so we see a lot of trains. His absolute current favorite though are motorcycles. Hands down.

Sorry, baby, but this mama isn't letting you get any motorcycles any time in the next 16 years.

Fact: He loves the ABCs.

He loves to point out letters and repeat them to you. He can recognize O, M, E, R, and W all by himself.

Fact: He loves to play.

His current favorite toys are cars, trucks, blocks, balls, and puzzles.

Fact: He is definitely entering the "terrible twos."

and it started like 4 months early. about two months ago he started throwing several fits a day. he cries when he doesn't get what he wants. he throws things when he's mad. it's exhausting. I'm pretty sure it has just about everything to do with the fact that communication at this age is hard. He knows what he wants but sometimes he can't tell us. that really would be frustrating!

we're working on helping him control his emotions but wow - lots and lots of patience is required.

Fact: He loves to read.

His favorites include Dear Zoo, Go Mater, Trucks, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way, and Where's Spot?

Fact: He loves bath time.

As long as you don't wash his hair. Don't worry - we still do.

Fact: He's a night owl.

Don't mess with this kid in the morning. He will beat you up. So much as look at him wrong and he'll break down in tears. I'm dreading early-morning seminary in 12 years. Yikes.

At night though? Happy as a clam. Like SO happy. And so not tired. If we let him, he'd stay up til midnight every night.

Note: sometimes we let him because it just isn't worth the fight.

Fact: He is always hungry!

He is always asking for "a bowl?" to put food in. Somebody please tell me this is normal. I try to fill him up with healthy (or health-ish) options but I feel like I'm feeding a teenage boy and he's not even two!

Fact: He's our favorite little 22 month old ever.

We love you, Jack Jack!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Popping in to tell you a quick story about bath time tonight.

It's about how my kids took a bath in half water and half olive juice.

Oh, you can't tell?

Good.

It all started when Jack asked for a snack of olives in a bowl.

I dumped half a can of olives into his bowl then stuck Phillip in the bath.

Jack joined us in the bathroom and when he decided he was finished eating those olives, he went right ahead and dumped the leftover olive tidbits + all the olive juice right into Phillip's brand new bath water.

I was all kinds of "what are you doing?! olive juice doesn't go in the bath! did you seriously just do that?"

while jack looked on completely unfazed and asking if he could get in the bath.

the end of the story?

both boys took a bath in half water and half olive juice.

they smell real nice.

xoxo

My Life in Lists

Hey guys! Sorry I'm so late in posting this week's My Life in Lists link-up! It's a good one, too!

I've just been so busy with, ya know, life.

Plus my computer that was half broken is now all broken so I have zero access to a computer most of the time until T gets home from work. By the time we're done with dinner, bath time, and bedtime routine I'm too exhausted to worry about blogging. So...MLIL brought to you 2.5 days late!

Hosted by myself and my little sister, Kelli, over at K.Gilby, My Life in Lists is a weekly blog link-up where we give you a new prompt each Monday (always a list of some kind!) and you can write your own blog post based on that prompt any day that week! Then link up here or at K.Gilby to join the party! Participating in a blog linky party is a great way to connect with other bloggers and build new friendships, which is what we are exactly hoping to do ourselves by hosting this weekly link-up!

This week's prompt?

List your guilty pleasures!

1. The Bachelorette.

Don't even lie - SO many of you are right there with me!

I honestly don't even LIKE it that much but I'm hooked! - I may or may not be watching Monday's episode in a separate window as I write this.

2. Eating In N Out at midnight.

We used to go at midnight all the time before kids. Now it's pretty much out of the picture but sometimes (like during our Utah vacation) we still enjoy the midnight burger ha!

3. Cereal for dinner.

Tom is a meat & potatoes kinda guy through and through so if I want anything breakfast for dinner I gotta do it when he's not home. But man, do I love a big bowl of Mini Wheats for dinner. It's easy and it's yum!

4. Watching Grey's Anatomy during nap time.

Read: relax for two minutes and watch Grey's Anatomy after all the chores are done and the babies are still asleep.

No, seriously, why does it always happen like that? The minute I'm done with the to-do list and I settle in for half an episode of Grey's Anatomy before my own nap...one of them wakes up. GAH. The life of a mom.

5. Shopping.

Duh.

What are your guilty pleasures?!

Link up below and tell us about it!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

So I've seen a few husband interviews floating around the blogging world lately and they crack me up.

So I'm hopping on board.
T was out of town for a few weeks and I made a phone date with him to do this interview. It was the best 5 minute phone date I've ever had. haha!
Ready for it?

Me: What's the name of my blog?

T: thomasandmarciwallace.blogspot.com

Me: okay, that's the URL ... do you know what the name is?

T: If These Walls Could Speak

Me: What do I typically write about?

T: Your family. Specifically, your kids.

Me: I write about you, too.

T: Yeah ... but they're more interesting.

Me: What is our favorite thing to do together?

T: Play with the boys.

Me: Am I good about staying on a budget?

T: You're getting better.

Me: That's nice of you to say!

Me: What's the best place to shop for women?
T: The store.
Me: More specifically?
T: I don't know...a clothing store. Is that specific enough?
Me: Do you have a specific store?
T: I don't know - Nordstrom?

Me: What do you know about Pinterest?
T: It's kinda girly.

Me: What's a popular fashion item for women right now?
T: Shirts halfway tucked in.
HAHA. Background: I always wear my button down shirts like this

Tom can't get over how weird he thinks it is. But I tell him that I'm not the only person who does it and every time I see someone else wearing their shirt like that I point it out to him haha. And THEN I saw that all over Gap.com the models are wearing their shirts like this! ^^

SO THERE.

and that's the story behind that answer. i about died.

Me: What's a Hunter wellie?

T: A what? ... a Hunter wellie? I've never heard of it.

*wanna know a secret? i actually didn't know what this was either HAHA. but i totally pretended to when tom was confused. i figured it was something to do with Hunter boots but I've never heard them called Hunter wellies! haha!

Me: What's the Pantone color of the year for 2014?

T: Pantone?

Me: Uh-huh.

T: Green.

Me: It's radiant orchid.

T: Okay.

Me: What does OOTD stand for?

T: *long silence* Mmmm...

*more silence*

Out of the dark.

Me: What about YOLO?

T: You only live once.

Me: What do I do when I'm home alone?

T: Go to your parents' house.

BAHAHAHA. True. I told him he had to give a different answer.

T: Blog. What you're doing right now.

Me: And what do you do when you're home alone?

T: Watch TV.

Me: What's an acceptable amount to spend on a makeup item?

T: $10.

note: that's higher than I thought he'd say! Now I can spend $10 on lipstick instead of the usual $5 I stick to?! haha!

Me: What's an acceptable amount of money to spend on a dress?

T: What kind of dress?

Me: Like what do you mean?

T: Like just a dress that you wear, just like a dress to wear to church?

Me: Sure.

T: What do you mean acceptable? Like normal?

Me: What you think I should spend.

T: $50...but I'm not telling you to go spend $50 on a dress. And I'm not saying all of your dresses should cost that much.

*note: normally, I try to stick around $20 and under on dresses. I'm giddy right now.

Me: What is my favorite activity?

T: blogging.

*although I do love blogging I'll have to say this is not true haha

Me: What is your favorite trait about me, not physical?

T: You care about other people.

Me: Why do women go to the bathroom together?

T: To gossip.

Me: What's my favorite TV show?

T: Right now or ever?

Me: Both.

T: Right now it's Grey's Anatomy. Ever is Friends.

Thanks for playing along, babe!

xoxo

Friday, May 23, 2014

Step 1: Hit your snooze button minimum three times, leaving yourself very little time to get ready.

Step 2: Shampoo & condition your hair as normal.

Step 3: Throw your sopping wet hair into a messy bun on the top of your head.

Step 4: Keep it like that for 14 hours.

Step 5: Pull your hair tie out and let your luscious locks fall over your shoulders and voila!

Totally gorgeous model hair.

Just kidding.

PS ... Step 6 [optional]: Take selfies with your front-facing camera in the bathroom to show off your cute new hair to all your friends.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

It's technically spring but since we've had 99* days, I've officially accepted the fact that it's actually summer here in California. We don't really get spring. Actually, we did get spring ... it was just in winter. The real truth is that we don't get winter.

So since summer has come a little early, we've been doing summery things. And though I'm sure I'll be cursing the sun by mid-June, we're truthfully currently loving the heat.

Splash pads? Check.

Jack hates to have water in his face so I thought he wouldn't really like the splash pad ... He was a little hesitant about the water at first but to my surprise, he ended up loving it! That is, after a huge fit over not getting to play basketball at the basketball court (really, I should learn to bring a basketball with me everywhere we go).

Note: I'm clearly not an experienced splash pad mom because every other kid had a plastic cup to play with in the water. Jack thought that was pretty cool so to keep him from stealing other kids' cups I dumped the water out of his sippy cup and let him have at it. That backfired when he got thirsty. Cups from the dollar store is now on my shopping list.

Even Phillip loved the water! He loved splashing his little itty bitty toes in the puddles and even got sprayed a few times. And had to endure a photo sesh with mama. He was clearly thrilled.

PS It took me forever to get Jack to come to the car when it was time to go. Because, you know ... he had to hang out on the basketball court and pretend to shoot baskets. Seriously, he stood there pretending to shoot hoops all the while saying "shoot! shoot!" This kid.

Summer weather = summer outfits.

And also. Can someone tell me when he got big enough to be held on my hip?

Excuse that I had just come home from a run and am still in my workout gear.

Note: The wet parts are not sweat FYI ... it's from soaking my head in the sprinklers after my run. At 8am. I told you ... it's summer. and HOT.

Warm summery nights = cruising in Grandpa Wallace's 1930 Ford Model A with cousins.

Cory was a great driver but we sure wish it was Grandpa driving us around.

We miss you, Grandpa!

If I start my run too late in the morning I end up walking most of the way because it's too dang hot. We also take breaks for photo shoots. Obviously.

We try really hard to ignore the weird stares from drivers that pass by.