And a Happy Halloween from Mommy

I'd forgotten that I was once a dragon too...

Happy Halloween

Ghosts say Boo! Jumpin' J the Dinosaur roars!
Happy Halloween to all! We hope the candy pours!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee

All afternoon yesterday and then again this morning Jumpin' J has been playing with his Little People garage. He brings the car (or wheelchair) up the elevator...

Gets it all lined up on the top of the ramp and.....

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

And what is more fun than that???

Halloween Puzzle Part 4

Did you put it all together?

Happy Birthday Uncle Jeff

Happy Birthday to Sean's oldest sibling, Uncle Jeff!!! We hope every day is like your birthday!!!

Here's one of Jumpin' J and Uncle Jeff from this past weekend! Uncle Jeff kindly allowed J to climb up and down on him and read him books.

Colored Leaves

Today was our weekly playdate with the WMM group! Today the theme was oranges. All of the food was orange; we brought cantaloupe. And all the kids wore orange. And we did a leaf project where we made wax paper placemats. Jumpin' J and I made a special one for Daddy!

Halloween Puzzle Part 3

Getting warmer?


SORRY SORRY SORRY!!! It was point out to me that puzzle 3 is the same as puzzle 1.... Here is the correct puzzle piece...

Snuggle Bug

Jumpin' J is a very very independent little boy on the whole. He likes to do things himself and doesn't really seem all that clingy even in new situations. Yet I started calling him a snuggle bug when he was first born and it's stuck.

So on the rare occasion that he is my little snuggle bug I really try to cherish that moment and drink him in. Usually its when he first wakes up from his nap. He's all warm and sleepy. And he just wants to cuddle with me. It really is the best time of my day.

And then the second is over and he pushes to get down and off he goes. Either independent or snuggly he's fantastic and I am one lucky mom!

Halloween Puzzle Part 2

Can you guess what he is?

Crazy Hats

I know that I am blessed with a child that likes to wear hats. His Red Sox hat is, of course, his favorite. But he has a bunch of different hats in his toy box and he often takes them out to put them on. We have a blue bucket hat with a car on it, a red baseball hat with flaps, a couple of knitted hats, and I'm not sure what else. Personally I like hats too as does J's dad so it's really no surprise that J does. For your viewing pleasure:

Here is one he wanted to wear in the car the other day. It was knitted by Pop's girlfriend when he was a newborn but still fits now.

And a crazy Patriots one he tried on in a local store. He's actually looking at another hat while I was taking the pic!

Halloween Puzzle Part 1

Here's a sneak preview of Jumpin' J's costume for Halloween!

Three Months Later It's Still Fun

Jumpin' J picked out a special card for me for my birthday and almost three months later he is still thoroughly enjoying it! This particular card plays "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". Musical cards are a big hit at our house, they get played until they are destroyed!!!

Darth J Vader

Daddy taught Jumpin' J how to talk like Darth Vader in the tub the other night. Here is the result:

Playing Schoolbus

We live across from the bus stop in our neighborhood and Jumpin' J is a very popular attraction to all the big kids. And he just adores all of them!!! Any time we hear kids outside at the bus stop it is a great excuse to throw on shoes and now coats to rush outside to play. I'm searching for a great pair of boots for this winter because I know that J's love for the kids and the bus will not be deterred by snow nor sleet nor hail!

This morning we played school bus with his little people. My job was to line up the kids and the parents at the bus stop and then J put the kids in to go to school.

He even made sure to put the girl in the wheelchair in her spot in the back of the bus! And when the girl fell out of her wheelchair I got to be a hero by putting her back in.

It's great to be a mom!!!!

Who Says Fashion Doesn't Recycle

Yesterday Jumpin' J and I took the opportunity to go get his Halloween pictures taken. I won't ruin the surprise of what he's going to be, you'll have to come back next week to see.... But to tide you over in the meantime we also took a few pictures of J in his Daddy's old wrestling outfit. It was a little big but considering that his dad wore it in MIDDLE SCHOOL you can imagine how it is supposed to fit, I'll leave that to your imagination ;) I think I'll have to take pics in it every year to do a comparison! :) :)

Here is the requisite full length shot....

And here he is "talking to Daddy" on the phone!!

A Table and Chair All For Me?!?!

On Monday night I went to an auction and came home with a nice sturdy little wooden table for Jumpin' J to use to play on. And as I was driving home I remembered that we had a little wooden chair in our basement that used to be mine. I just knew that he would be so excited. So I washed them off and set them up in the living room.

Tuesday morning he noticed them when we were coming down the stairs from his room and he got soooo excited! He ran right over and tried them out. It's so much fun to see him excited about things like this. It reminds me that it's the little things in life we need to appreciate!

Happy Birthday Katie

Happy 30th Birthday to our friend Katie!!! Welcome to the next decade of your life!!!


Check out Katie's blog at Katie the Writer

On to Football Season

September and October are incredibly filled with sports because this is the time when the Red Sox's and Patriots' seasons overlap! Unfortunately with the Red Sox's loss to the Devil Rays last night, booooo, the baseball season is over for this year! And so we move on quite willingly to football! Fortunately Jumpin' J likes to "Touchdown Patriots" as much as he did "Yeah Red Sox" so we are all set! Here he is getting geared up for the Pats game tonight!!!

Checking out the "foo-ball"

"Touchdown Patriots!!!"

Game 7 Here We Come

Jumpin' J wore his Red Sox sweatsuit, socks, and hat all day today to cheer on his favorite team. But since he had to go to bed before the game started we made sure he was properly attired for the night. He wore Daddy's Red Sox hat while brushing his teeth...

Wore a Red Sox onsie under his pjs and a Red Sox t-shirt over them....

And read one of his Red Sox books before bed, again while wearing Daddy's hat!

Go Sox!!!!!!

Die-Hard Playgrounders

It's getting cold but Jumpin' J doesn't care. J loves playgrounds so much that I think we may be going even in the snow. Guess I'll have to get some furry boots. Friday we met up with a couple of WMM moms to go to the playground in Millbury. J and his fellow die-harder, Braden, were totally psyched to get to play. Here's an action shot on the tire swing! They were totally wobbly when they got off, too funny!!!

Happy Birthday Drew

A very big happy birthday to Cousin 'Drew!!!

Birthdays...Footprints...and Asparagus?

We started today with a bunch of the girls from the Worcester Mamas & Munchkins group that we met on meetup.com. This was the first Wednesday meet-up that they have every week from October to April at a local church. We did a craft, ate snacks, and got to play. The craft today involved handprints and footprints and J's foot is still blue which he keeps showing off to me, too funny! Jumpin' J took off from the moment we walked in the door and didn't look back. He is definitely an independent little man!

J's favorite book for today is "Happy Birthday Thomas" about Thomas the Train's birthday party. I think I've read it to him about a dozen times in the past two days. As we read it after his nap this afternoon he said quite distinctly "Birthday" and then repeated it all evening including to his Daddy on the phone while in the tub! It's amazing the words he picks up.

And asparagus comes into my day in the form of a can of asparagus spears that was in the pantry closet and came avalanching down onto the top of my foot just before we were going to go on a walk this evening with our neighbor Joy and her niece. I just wanted to mention it because MAN did that hurt!!!

Purgatory.... Chasm That Is!

It was such a gorgeous day here on Saturday. The kind of day in the fall in New England where you HAVE to be outside because the weather is just so perfect. We spent the morning at the playground and decided to try hiking Purgatory Chasm in the afternoon.

We put Jumpin' J in his backpack carrier, Sean put it on, and we were off. The Chasm is gorgeous with all the natural rocks and woods. There were tons of families there; out enjoying a fantastic fall weekend. It was a blast!

We had someone take a picture of us but I actually like our self portrait better. And since Sean and I have always done that I thought it would be better to share!

After the hike J got to enjoy the wonders of the new Purgatory playground which includes two high twisty slides!!!

Mud mud mud mud

Oh the joys of mud when you are a small child. Can you even fathom the vast possibilities that mud brings into your life? Jumpin' J found that mud is really good at keeping your bum slippery on slides when we were at the playground on Friday.

From the slides....
To the merry go round with the big kids...
To the mud puddle...
To the tire swing with the big kids...

To the merry go round alone....

To the mud puddle again...

And then back to the slides!!!

Not So Itsy Bitsy

Jumpin' J and I seem to have been having lots of big bug encounters this week. First there was the giant (seriously about 4 inches long) praying mantis that was on our garage door.

And then yesterday at the playground we saw a big spider which was the size of a silver dollar.

Grrr...

Who couldn't fall in love with a little boy in a bear sweatshirt with ears on the top? Especially one who leaves the hood up so his mom can take a picture!

Kindergarten Bus

The highlight of our day most days is going outside to wait for the afternoon kindergarten bus. Our neighbor, Trouble 1, is now in kindergarten so J gets to play with her and her sister along with the other kids. There are many stories about me as a little girl wanting to ride the bus and I can see that there will be similar stories about Jumpin' J in the next couple of years to come!

New England in the Fall

It's Leaf Peeper Season!!!!! I love the colors of New England in the fall! It's amazing how everything is so green in the summer and then it can just turn all the brilliant colors of the fall. Seeing all the colors makes me appreciate all that is New England in the fall.... back to school, pumpkins, apple picking, cider, hayrides, crisp walks, bonfires, putting on socks for the first time in months, snuggling in front of the fireplace, and, of course, the trees turning colors!

A special hello to Aunt Pam, we know how much you miss these colors!!!

Trouble 1 and Trouble 2

Like Thing 1 and Thing 2 in Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, our neighbors keep me in constant amusement (and their mom in constant exasperation) at their high jinks and trouble! But do they love Jumpin' J and he loves them right back. If we are at home and he hears them he goes running for the front door.



He would follow them anywhere, especially to their hot pink Barbie jeep. J has yet to figure out that pink and purple are a girly colors so he just knows that he can climb all over it, push all the buttons, open and close the doors, and turn the steering wheel!

Fun with the Mayos

Jumpin J's dad and Erik were supposed to go to the Red Sox playoff game on Sunday so the Mayo girls invited us over to have dinner and play. Jumpin' J had so much fun playing with all their toys. And Taylor was such a nice big friend to let J sit in her booster seat to have dinner. The three little munchkins were so cute in their pjs.



We could not get J to look at the camera. In honor of Taylor and Ashley's super cute smiles I made the picture PINK!!