Merry Christmas Everybody

Christmas day has come and gone and we are all still recovering. I think Superwife has a big post planned so I'll keep this one short. Thank you so much to the Aunts (Unts), Uncles, Grammies, Papas, Nannies, Grandpas, Neighbors, Friends and everyone else who sent a gift to our little girls. There were so many presents that we were still opening them on the 26th. Linda and Elizabeth are lucky to have all of you in their lives. Thank you again for making our Christmas morning a special one.

I loaded some new photos shot between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day onto the Flickr page. Click on over and have a look.

Linda Decorates The Tree

Back To Work

Yesterday was Terry's first day back to work in nearly three months. The morning was a little rocky, we both got in later than we wanted to, but all in all everything went fairly well. It's going to take all of us a few days to get learn the schedule. Here's an excerpt from an email Terry sent me today about this morning's commute:

Linda was great- I woke her up, she hugged and kissed Elizabeth, walked in to the bathroom on her own, went pee (totally dry diaper by the way and she let me know), and then washed up and got dressed with no fuss. She ate some shredded wheat in the car and they were offering cheerios at school. And Elizabeth, after seriously fighting waking up at 6:55, was all smiles while I got her ready and Linda. I was really sad to leave them both. I love a relatively stress free morning.

Jingle Bells

HEY!

A little something to get everyone in the holiday spirit.

Happy Mitchell Report Day

It's here! It's finally here! I've been waiting for this day for months and it's finally here! Who'll be on it? I'm so excited I can't contain myself.

New Pics

Some more new pictures on the Flickr page. These were just shot last week.

Doctor's Visits

It's been brought to my attention that I'm delinquent in keeping everyone updated as to the health of our children. So here's a recap.
Linda had her 24-mo well baby visit on August 7th. She weighed 27 lb., 12 oz. (50-75th %), measured 35.5 inches long (90th %), and had a head circumference of 18.75 inches (50-75th %). She is not anemic. As soon as Linda is day-time potty trained, we can stop giving her the nightly antibiotics for her bladder/kidney reflux. No need to re-test her with any of those invasive tests. Woo hoo! Linda saw the dentist for the first time in July for her acrobatic mouth injury. Her teeth and gums have healed very well and she does not have any cavities. Linda will see the doctor again this Friday for a flu shot and hopefully it will go OK since it's been many months since she's gotten any shots.
Elizabeth on the other hand had many shots (and more to come in the next year). Most recently at her 2-mo well baby visit on November 28th, she received four shots in the legs and an new oral vaccine for Rota Virus. The latter didn't go so well (not really sure who thought an oral dose was a good idea for 6-12 week olds who don't drink anything but milk or formula). After screaming for a good minute from the shock/pain of the shots, Elizabeth proceeded to projectile vomit up the vaccine. She vomited all over herself, the table, and the nurse first and then again all over me when I picked her up to comfort and clean her. She had to get a second dose, which she took with smiles. No fevers, just general discomfort the rest of the day. I knew she was back to normal as soon as she woke up the next morning. She weighed 12 lb., 15 oz. (95th %), measured 24.25 inches long (97th %), and had a head circumference of 15.25 inches (50th %). She's got good head control, she's cooing and smiling, and she recognizes and responds to faces and voices.
We have two bright and healthy girls.

Happy Birthday Nanny J

Happy birthday to Nanny. The Jack Girls wish you the happiest of days and congratulations on your 5 beautiful grandchildren.

Keep On Growin

Superwife has compiled a chart so that we can compare Linda's chub to Elizabeth's. So far, Elizabeth is beating her big sister in both recorded categories. Click the graphs for a larger image.

New Photos

Terry and I just got two old rolls of film developed. There are some random images on the Flickr account.

Why I love being a mother

Right now, probably for just a few more moments, my two amazing girls are sleeping angels- one in her race car bed with her hands folded sweetly under her cheek and the other bundled blissfully in her pink snow suit strapped into her carrier. This morning both girls achieved some fantastic milestones. Elizabeth pushed up on her arms giving me a big smile during tummy time. She's on her way to a whole new world of playing and crawling! Linda learned that she could figure out how to match the Disney princess numbers and counting flashcard with the number on it and the one with the word of the same number by counting the gems on the back of each card. "It's a match, Mommy!", she said to me as she paired the '4' and the 'four' card, "One, two, three, four." Absolutely brilliant for a two year-old. Now if I could just get Elizabeth to sleep laying down and Linda to poop on the toilet, I might be able to nominate myself for mother of the year. All potential awards aside, I'm so proud of my girls and I'm glad that amidst the myriad of trials and frustrations, I have a moment to revel in the wonder of my growing children.

Sneak Peek II

Here's the sneak peek at the other Christmas card photo that we took a few weeks back. We're undecided as to which one we'll use because they are both so darned cute.

New Cousin

This morning at 7:30 Linda, Elizabeth, and Carson will have a new cousin! Uncle Greg, Aunt Alisha, and Cousin Izabel will be welcoming the newest addition to the family, Emily, into the world. Good luck to Alisha and Greg. We can't wait to see our new Neice.

Poor Carson is now sandwiched between two older and two younger girls.

*Postscript.
Emily was born at 7:57 am, was 18.75" long, and weighed in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces.

Christmas Wish List

A few people have asked about a wish list for the girls for Christmas. Terry is putting one together that will be mailed out shortly. In the mean time, I would like to suggest this as a joint gift for Linda and Elizabeth.

Unicat

It would certainly make family trips to Arizona or Massachusetts easier.

Nuggets of Fatherly Wisdom

There have been many times in the last two years that I have been completely shocked by the ridiculous things that come out of my mouth when talking to Linda. Last night was one of those times.

"Humpty Dumpty does not drink bath water and neither can you."

After I let that gem slip out during bath time I decided to check the vault for some other nuggets of wisdom I've offered up. After talking it over with Terry, these are the few recent ones I could remember.

We do not lick tongues in this house.
Daddy's wants his chest hair to stay on his body.

There are more to come and I'll try to write them down as they happen.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Paul and Joanne made the trip down to spend the holiday weekend with us. It would have been a little to difficult for us to travel anywhere with the babies so it was great news for us when they let us know they'd be coming down. Terry baked the pies, Paul and Joanne took care of Thanksgiving dinner, Elizabeth and I watched the Jets lose, and Linda shoved Oreos in her mouth. There are a few new pictures taken over the holiday weekend on the Flickr page. Go on over and have a look.

Sneak Peak

Terry, Linda, Elizabeth and I spent a few hours at the mall this past weekend taking pictures for this years Christmas cards. Getting both of them to look at the camera at the same time while looking like they were enjoying themselves was a bit difficult. To our surprise we got two really good pictures out of the trip. They are kind of top secret till we send out the Christmas Cards, but I will give you a sneak peek at the photos one at a time.

Chubbs

Terry recently put Elizabeth on the scale at a booby group meeting and she's a weighing in at a very mushy 13 pounds. Terry is taking her to the doctor next week so we'll be sure to post the official weight when we get it.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! What a great night. The neighborhood was absolutely filled with kids, parents, and neighbors. It was just one big outdoor party. Terry and Elizabeth took care of handing out the treats at our place while Linda and I hit the streets. It didn’t take her long to figure out the routine. She was getting so excited that she was saying “trick or treat” before we were within earshot of the neighbors handing out candy. We didn’t need to ring even one doorbell as most of the neighbors were sitting outside on their front step waiting for the trick or treaters. After about a ½ hour of collecting candy Linda and I went back home and sat on the porch with Terry, Elizabeth, and our neighbors Angelo and Elenor. They handed out ten bags of treats and we handed out six before we finally called it quits.

Linda was a little too into the candy last night. Terry and I let her have a few pieces of chocolate while we were sitting outside handing out the goodies. When we finally came inside to start the wind down before bedtime routine I let her open one more piece of candy, a mini-bag of M&M’s. When I asked if I could have one she clutched them with both hands, backed away from me and whispered “no.” I think Terry is going to have a very difficult time keeping Linda the junkie away from her stash today.

New Photos

Go on over and have a look at my Flickr page. There are a bunch of new photos that Terry and I added.

New Look

I'm playing around a bit with the look of the site. Things may look a little funky for the next few days. Stick with me, I'll figure it out eventually.

Where are the posts?

That's a darned fine question. Let me put it this way, having two is a lot more time consuming that having one. The day starts at 5:00am, at work by 7:20, at Linda's daycare to pick her up at 5:45, her dinner is ready by 6:00, bathtime at 7:00, starting bedtime at 7:30, reading her bedtime books by 8:15, and hopefully she's asleep by 9:00. Then it's time to figure out what to do for dinner, cook dinner, clean up the kitchen, and in bed by midnight. Where's Terry in all of this? She's even busier than I am trying to keep Elizabeth fed, clean, and well rested. There are some nights when Linda is demanding to be put to bed by Mommy just as Elizabeth is waking up and letting us know that she is hungry. It has been a bit challenging. All that being said, the girls are fantastic. I love to see the way that Linda interacts with her sister. Very early on I noticed that Linda was repeating a lot of the things that we say to Elizabeth. She is very affectionate with her and even tries to soothe her when she's crying. "It's OK Elizabeth" or "there's no crying sweetie pie." Elizabeth has even started to respond to her big sister with smiles and grunts when her big sister plants a clumsy kiss on her cheek. I can't wait till she's a little older and they can start playing together.

I'll see if I can get some more movies and pictures on the site soon. Elizabeth is getting fatter by the minute.

Even More Photos

Nanny Nancy just sent me another batch of photos. Here are some of my favorites.

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures that Nanny Nancy took on their trip to Philadelphia.

Photos

Nanny Nancy and Grandpa Bob just sent me some photos from their trip to Philadelphia. Here are some of my favorites.

New Pics

Auntie Krissy has been staying with us for a few days and has been a HUGE help. She's been taking lots of pics of the Jack girls while she's been here. Have a look at the Flickr page to see some of Krissy's work.

Name That Sister

Can you tell who's who?

Week One

It's hard to believe that the first week has already come and gone. We were able to bring Elizabeth home on Monday afternoon, give her her first bath on Thursday, and take her for her first walk to the playground on Friday. Grammie Linda and Papa Nick are staying with us all week long and we're very grateful for it. They've helped around the house, cooked us dinner, helped with the baby, and made sure that Linda got lot's of attention. Nick is leaving this afternoon to drive home, but Grammie Linda will be here with us all next week also.

There are lot's of new photos on the my Flickr page, go on over and have a look.

Sisters

The first time Linda got to hold Elizabeth she was thrilled.

Elizabeth's First Movie

The first ever images of our little girl. This was filmed when she was just 5 minutes old.

Coming Home

Linda and Elizabeth will be coming home tomorrow. We'll all be happy to have Mommy and Baby home with us.

New Pics

New pictures of Elizabeth on the Flickr page including Linda and Elizabeth's first meeting.

New Arrival

At 12:32 last night Terry and I met our new Little one. Elizabeth Jack came into the world kicking and screaming but looking very cute in spite of it. Terry and Elizabeth will both be in the hospital a few days recovering but are both doing very well.

Elizabeth weighed in at 7lbs 15 oz. That's one ounce more than her big sister weighed when she was born.

Click the link on the right that says Flickr to see some more images.

Baby Names

Every now and then Terry or I bring up the baby names subject. We and I have a few boy names left over from the first time; Huge, LaStephen, DaBrickashaw, Laveneus. If this one is a boy I think we're covered. But if we have another girl, I don't know what we're going to do. Terry likes Muldred, or Glinnice or something like that, but I'm not sure I like either of those. What to do? Anyone have any suggestions for girl names?

I'd love to get Linda involved in the naming process, but I don't know if she quite gets it yet. I have a friend who tried to involve his 5 year old daughter in the naming of his new baby, and she picked "Lemonade" as her sister's name.

Happy Mothers Day

Teresa and I usually take turns getting up with Linda on weekend mornings so that one of us can sleep past 6:30am, Linda's usual wakeup time. Saturday is my day to sleep in, Sunday is Terry's. This past Sunday, Linda and I were sitting on the couch watching Curious George when Terry came bounding down the steps and kicked us off the couch. She immediately laid down in the same position that she was sleeping in because the Tete was kicking her and she wanted us to feel. I got my hand on her belly in time to feel one light thwump before the Tete retreated. Linda was more interested in slapping Mommy's belly that feeling her sibling kicking. What a cool way to start off the morning.

Here are the images from last week's sonogram. What a cute little Tete. Clicking the image will open a larger version.

Ultrasound Anatomy Scan

Yesterday, The Lovely Teresa and I went to Chestnut Hill Hospital for our second and final ultrasound. It went very well. The Tete is doing very well, all the parts are there and looking very cute. The Ultrasound tech had some very nice things to say about Teresa as well. I never thought I'd hear the words "adequate space" and "roomy storage" to describe my wife, but apparently the Tete has itself a great place to grow. Oh and a "beautiful placenta" to boot.

Yuck.

Midwife Appointment

Terry has another midwife appointment this afternoon. Linda and I are tagging along with the hope that we get to hear the baby's heartbeat. The Midwife had a difficult time finding the Tete last time and we did not get to hear anything.

There's also another ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow afternoon so hopefully we'll have some more photos to post.

First Look

Terry and I got our first look at the Tete a few weeks ago. Here's what the latest Jack baby looks like in profile. That's the head to the right. Click the image to open a larger version.

Tete

There was a question emailed to me about what a "Tete" is. When we found out that Terry was preggo, Tete was the way Linda said the word "baby." We started calling the baby Tete instead of it, or the Baby. Linda now pronounces "baby" correctly, or at least closer to the correct pronunciation than "tete."

Welcome

Once Linda's brother or sister arrives, this site will become the new online home of the Jack kids.