Mom's Date

Since I am usually the one behind the camera I thought I would post this picture of Jumpin' J and I which Grandma Laurie took right before we left for the wedding on Saturday. Don't I have the handsomest date?

Congrats to Chris and Crystal

Congratulations to Christopher and Crystal Marston!


Yesterday Jumpin' J was my date to my "baby" cousin, Chris's, wedding. Hard to believe that the little munchkin Hannah and I used to dress up in girls clothes is now like 7 feet tall and a married man!

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson with all of their great-grandkids

J driving the golf cart after playing in the rain

Cousin Harvey entertaining himself (and me) with the drips from the tent door

My favorite pic, the groom and his mom!

Walking in His Shoes

My Grandpa K. was always a very positive influence when I was growing up. And for a very long time he has preached the benefits of New Balance sneakers. He always bought them for my grandma and you could be sure that he always had a pair or three. So today when I realized that Jumpin' J needed new shoes I bought him some really cute ones that fit well. And when I got him out of the store I realized that they were, you guessed it, New Balance sneakers. I guess Grandpa's influence is still strong!

Visiting the Johnsons

With my dad's family spread all around the country it takes a wedding to get us all in one place. Since tomorrow is my youngest cousin, Chris's, wedding my dad, his wife, and my grandparents are all in town for a few days. So this morning we met up with Dad, Donna, Aunt Sandi, Jim, and Grandma and Grandpa Johnson for breakfast. Jumpin' J was his usual charming self. And then after most of the gang had to leave to help with wedding stuff J and Grandpa Gary went swimming at the hotel.

They played with the giant ball that was in the pool.

And then they read a book before we had to leave so J could take a nap.

Grandpa Gary and Donna also let him play with the buttons on their phone, tv, and remote so J had an awesome time!

Another Generation

When I was about Jumpin' J's age my grandpa (Pops to J) made me a rocking horse. There are many pictures of both me and Uncle Andrew riding that thing into the ground. Last night Grandma Laurie was in her basement and came back up with THE HORSE!



It was still in great condition so we cleaned it up. And this morning J's face was awesome when he discovered it in her living room. Yet another generation learning the pleasures of the rocking horse!

Wachusett KidsFest

This past weekend was KidsFest at Wachusett Mountain. Now that J's dad and I are officially parents of a toddler we have realized that kid friendly activities are the way to go so we decided to check it out! And boy were we glad we did, J had a GREAT time! There were so many fun things and tons and tons of free food give-aways. It's definitely on the list for next year.

On the Choo-Choo Train!


In the Jumpy Pit!


Sliding with Mommy!


Running Around!


Driving the Firetruck!


Showing Daddy the Ladder!


Using the Fire Hose!

It's Great to be a Mom

Every day is a special day now that I am a mom. These days the feeling just keeps getting stronger. It amazes me that I am lucky enough to be Jumpin' J's mom. I look at him and he is such a little person now with his own thoughts and ideas. Here are some of the things that warm my heart!

* His smile first thing in the morning
* Climbing in my lap with a book for me to read
* Feeling his little arms on my leg to give me a hug
* Hugging my arm with his thumb in his mouth
* Snuggling in my lap
* Seeing him sitting in my grandma's rocking chair reading a book that's bigger than he is
* Watching him drive trucks all over both of us, especially when he drives it on his own head
* His laugh
* Saying something silly, like Snuffleupagus, and watching him giggle
* Climbing onto my tummy to jump up and down on it
* His proud and amazed face when he does something new
* His little giggle when he's "hiding" from me
* How he likes to climb under my legs
* His little voice
* His loud voice
* How he loves bugs
* His look of concentration when examining things
* Always saying "cracker" if you ask him what he wants to eat
* When he gets tired and puts his thumb in his mouth
* Opening his mouth wide to plant a big slobbery kiss
* Watching his face light up when his Daddy gets home from work
* Turning into limp spaghetti when I try to pick him up when he doesn't want me to
* His face turns so red when he gets mad
* Having him come "get" me and pick him up and watch him laugh
* Watching him run on his sturdy little legs
* How he recognizes the Red Sox and Patriots symbols and puts his hands up to wait for you to say "Yeah Red Sox" or "Touchdown Patriots"
* When you ask him what a kitty says he just squinches up his whole face
* How he sees things he recognizes and reacts and then I have to figure out where he saw them
* How every day is a new and exciting adventure

All this and more is why I love being Jumpin' J's mom. I am one lucky lady!!

Cool Sale for a Worthy Cause

At One More Moore's Esty site they are having a benefit sale for Stephanie (Nie) and Christian, the couple I blogged about earlier. People from all over, including me, have donated items to be sold to help pay for their medical care. There are some really really cool things but they go fast. The sale starts with new stuff again today at 1pm here in Boston. There are about 50 items per day being listed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If you're thinking of doing some Xmas shopping this is a great place to start!!!

Cool Idea - Wordle

This is really cool. You type a bunch of words into Wordle and it creates a "wordle" for you.

Mini Merry Go Round

While at the mall this evening with our lovely neighbors the kids conned me into paying for a ride on the mini merry-go-round. The smiles on Jumpin' J and the girls' faces made it worth the two dollars I spent!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Gary

Today is my dad's birthday. He's far away in Colorado but we will get to see him in person next week!!!



Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!

Playgrounds in the Morning

I joined the Worcester Mamas and Munchkins group on Meetup.com in order to try to meet some new moms and entertain Jumpin' J at the same time. We've been trying to get to one meet-up a week. So far so good, I like the moms and J is having a great time playing with all the kids!

There are a lot of morning meet-up which is the perfect time for us since Jumpin' J gets a little antsy in the AM when we're just hanging at home. And it's perfect playground weather right now so we've been jumping all over the playground meet-ups that are in our area. This morning we went to one right here in town so that was easy and fun! Here's J on the swings...

Yeah Red Sox

Yesterday the whole Jumpin' Family went to see the Red Sox play the Toronto Blue Jays. It was a great day for a game and we all had a marvelous time.

We got tickets to the 3rd Base Pavilion Standing Room so there was room for Jumpin' J to run around for a while. He ate his first Fenway frank and charmed everyone around us.

Jumpin' J helped to sing God Bless America and Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Plus he danced to all the other songs they played. It was a great day!

Happy Birthday Grandma P

While the whole family celebrate Grandma P's birthday on Saturday at Auntie Donna's house I didn't get to go because I was working. So Jumpin' J and I decided to take Grandma P out to lunch today to celebrate with her on the actual day. Here are a couple of pictures of them playing after lunch! Hope your day was marvelous Grandma P!!

Giving Kisses

Jumpin' J has jumped from giving Daddy and I kisses to giving everyone and everything kisses. This morning he kept putting an old hat on my old baby doll and then giving her kisses. Yes, the love for Bethy has passed to the next generation ;)



Here he is giving kisses to the singing duck at Grandma Laurie's house, man he loves that duck! Last weekend he even laid a big wet one on my clients' dog, Noodle, and got a doggie slurp in return ;)

When he lays one on you watch out because it's a big open mouth right on your face! Feel the love!!! And if you're really lucky he'll give you Eskimo kisses too which are too cute!

Like Mother Like Son

One of Grandma Laurie's favorite stories about me is about my ability to seek out sprinklers in the neighborhood when I was not much older than Jumpin' J is now. As the story goes she found me in a neighbor's yard in my soaking wet clothes jumping through the sprinkler. I promptly got in trouble for running through the neighbor's sprinkler with my clothes on. Apparently the only part of that statement that soaked into my brain was the "clothes on" part because not much later she found me in another neighbor's yard running through their sprinkler butt-naked with my clothes in a small pile on the neighbor's porch. Alas for most of my life this story has been brought out at embarrassing times so that as an adult I had forgotten the fun in the story, sprinklers!!!

Yesterday we went to visit Grandma Laurie and like the sprinkler seeking missile that his mom was J found the set of sprinklers that were on right next to the car. At first it was just running through the puddles. Then it was crouching down to touch the fountain from the broken sprinkler.



And then it was all out play, running from one sprinkler to another to catch the water.



He showed Grandma Laurie how to blow bubbles.



And finally he showed us how to swim in the puddle.



I will never forget the look of pure joy on his face when he looked up at me from his spot squatting next to the sprinkler with the water sparkling on his face and in his hair. How great it is to be a kid. I was laughing so hard my belly hurt; it was awesome!

Reflecting on the story about my own sprinkler adventures I can only imagine what joy I must have found in the neighbor's sprinkler and can only wonder how my mom kept from laughing out loud when she tried to discipline me...

Driving Naked

Really, I ask you, what could possibly be better than driving naked? :)

Happy Birthday Princess LP!

Jumpin' J wants to wish a very special Happy 3rd Birthday to his big cousin Lillian! He is sad he has to miss your party this weekend but hopes to see you very soon!!


Lil',

From the moment the nurse brought in that little stick and said "Well even a faint line is a positive" you have brought joy and wonder into my life and the lives of the others around you. I am very pleased to be called your aunt and to get to watch you grow and learn! May every year of your life be as fun as this one was!!! I love you!

Love,
Auntie Jenn

Happy Birthday Ben

Jumpin' J wants to wish a very Happy 16th Birthday to his big cousin Ben! We hope you have a great dinner with your hot babe of a girlfriend! J aspires to be as cool as you one day!

Cape Weekend

The Three P's went down to the Cape this weekend so I could work at a Dot Your i's Event. J's dad took Friday off so we could go down in the morning and get some beach time in before I had to work that night. And then after work we went to Spanky's Clam Shack where I had the Lobster Salad that was AMAZING!!!

Saturday Jumpin' J and his dad got to hang out all day while I played. They had a blast and I am trying to convince J's dad to write about it! Post a comment here if you want to hear about it so we can all work on him!!!

On Sunday I had a little more work to do then we went to the Harwich Cranberry Festival's parade. This was perfect for Jumpin' J because it wasn't too long and there were lots and lots of firetrucks to see. After the parade we popped over to the beach for just a little bit but didn't stay long because the storm on Saturday had washed so much seaweed up that you couldn't swim. It was a great weekend!!!

What a Great Summer

This summer has just flown by for all of us. Between gym class, swim class, visiting grandparents, going to the beach, and berry picking we've been very busy. This past weekend we made a last minute decision to go to Hampton to Mike's Beach House. He is a very nice person to let us come and stay! Thanks Mike!!!

High tides were perfect since they basically coincided with Jumpin' J's nap time so we were able to spend some time swimming swimming swimming. And we discovered the really cool playground near Main Beach in Hampton. J and his dad went on Sunday afternoon while Grandma Laurie and I went to get steamers. And then J, his dad, and I went back early Monday morning when there was plenty of room to play.

He loved the merry-go-round...


The slides - the bigger and faster the better...


The ship with Daddy...


The firetruck with Mommy....


And really anything else he could climb into or on. It was so much fun for all three of use to get to play for a little while!