cars, cars and cars

Published on by kristenperreault1 Comment

Much of our time these days is spent in the family room racing cars, lining up cars, making cars fly, telling the gentlemen to start their engines, fussing at Charlie because he has the car that Jay would like and so much more with cars. To say that Jay enjoys playing with cars would be an understatement of the century. Our child is OBSESSED with them. Which honestly is perfectly fine with me- they are super easy to throw in the bag and travel well, they entertain him for hours and he spends countless hours dreaming up all kinds of things for them to do. Seriously, this kiddo’s imagination is on overdrive these days!

Here’s a little snippet of the view I get to have day after day…

gentlemen start your engines!!

fishing

Published on by kristenperreault2 Comments

Over the years we have had many, many visitors to Florida and while we love to do the traditional things with them while they are in town it’s always fun to do something a little out of the ordinary and I am pretty sure Terra Ceia qualifies as out of the ordinary. So while my cousins were in town we packed up and headed down to treat them to a little tractor riding, castnetting, dock sitting and fresh caught fried fish. We enjoyed it and we hope they did too!

This was also Charlie’s first trip down to Terra Ceia; it’s sad to think that we don’t get down there as often as we would like to. There are only showers at Terra Ceia so we had to imporvise with a few sink baths.

Nighttime fishing and a few first catches- it was catfish but at least it was something ;)

a little tractor fun

dock fun

castnetting

throwing like a pro

checking out a crab that was caught

saying hello to the crab (affectionately named Herman the Hermit crab- Jay is really curious about people and things’ names these days so most days I just make it up)

watching Daddy throw the net

future photographer- it must run in the family ;)

Jay loved seeing anything Jamie brought up in the net. He also wanted to touch everything! Don’t worry we washed his hands after this.

Like I said, it was Charlie’s first trip down to Terra Ceia and he loved venturing around the property and checking things out but I think he enjoyed playing under the bar chairs the most.

outside bath tub

Published on by kristenperreault3 Comments

This summer has been hot! I mean stand outside for 2 minutes, don’t move an inch and come in drenched in sweat- hot! So in an effort to stay cool we have pulled out the kiddie pool on many occasions. Some of our “swims” have been midday affairs in that time between lunch and afternoon naps while more frequently it gets pulled out after supper but before baths. Both boys love splashing around out there and since we don’t really care enough to change them into swim diapers before letting them splash we usually end up stripping off the super-huge water logged diapers and are left with two tiny skinny dippers. It’s a good thing we basically have a privacy fence out front otherwise I am not sure what our neighbors would think. I love so many of these photos that I took the other night when the boys were splashing around that I had a hard time narrowing it down much- be prepared for some ultra adorable summer night fun! Really Charlie’s faces are priceless in some of these :)

pick your battles

Published on by kristenperreaultLeave a comment

“Mommy I am cold, I need my jacket!” Umm, in Florida, in the summer- impossible! However, these days I choose my battles very wisely and this my friends is not one of them that I am willing to fight, so jacket it is. He will get warm soon enough and want to take it off and at that point I will gladly help him take it off, just as I gladly helped him zip it up and put the hood on ;)

Please excuse the phone photos but Jay and his cold self weren’t that interested in sitting still for Mommy’s big camera.

As a side note, we don’t usually let him play many games on my phone or watch many movies although I have lately let him play the app Trucks, which is what he is doing in these next two photos, and he is slightly obsessed with it. Honestly, if you have a small boy around you should look into it- you can tow the cars to the shop to fix their tires, you can get the cars dirty and then take them through a carwash, they can dig and dump dirt at a construction site. Definetly worth the $1.99 we paid for it. And in case you were wondering, which I am sure you were, I do in fact LOVE his little crossed toes in these photos ;)

a puzzle kind of morning

Published on by kristenperreault2 Comments

Most mornings Jay and I get a fairly good chunk of time all to ourselves while Charlie naps. Sometimes I use this time to accomplish chores/ things around the house that are difficult to do while Charlie is awake, like folding laundry- Charlie is the best laundry un-folder there is right now; however, on mornings like today, I just sit and give my undivided attention to Jay Bird. Not surprisingly, these are usually our best days and the days that I find myself in awe of him; this morning was no exception.

Recently, I have been wanting a few more challenges for our little bird (he has gotten counting to 16 down, colors are no problem, most shapes are a breeze, his coloring is getting really good and deliberate, we’re working on letters…) so I borrowed a few more difficult puzzles from my Mom’s classroom. He took to (and enjoyed) those puzzles pretty well so this morning I decided to pull out a much larger one that has been hiding in the depths of his closet waiting for just the right time to come out and play. It was a hit and I had so much fun working it with him. I love the pure focus that he is able to devote to tasks and the concentration face that he uses when he is focusing. It’s times like these, among many others, that I see so much of Jamie in him.

happy I am finished dance :)

the finished puzzle- it’s cool isn’t?

one super proud little puzzle maker

2.5 year photos

Published on by kristenperreault4 Comments

While I frequently find myself wanting this two year old phase to be over and done with there really are SO many things that I cherish about it. I took a ton of photos of our little hambone last Friday on his half-birthday and want to jot down a few things so I don’t forget anything about my precious boy at this difficult yet wonderful age.

-If possible his obsession with cars has grown. He wakes up and plays with them and goes to bed with one in hand. Everything, everything, everything is an accessory for cars- random string on the ground- tow rope for cars, infant brush- carwash for cars, cup- holder for cars… you get the picture, right? Obsessed!
-Roll play. Jay has started role playing and using his imagination SO much these days. Frequently I overhear him having conversations with his cars or setting up pretend lunches, car washes, races for them. We also have frequent dinosaur sightings around here. His imagination seems to be developing at warp speed and I love it! I can’t wait to see what he dreams up next.
-Fruit is our main method of supper time bribery. The kid has become less than a stellar eater over the last few months, most of which has to do with being two rather than actually not liking the food put in front of him. However, he will do and eat pretty much anything in order to have fruit- score!
-He has been saying the funniest things lately. This is honestly a post within itself but seriously I don’t know where he comes up with most of it.
-He loves to snuggle with Mommy before bed. He always gets a story or two before heading off into dreamland but lately he has been requesting snuggles too. This is really nothing more than a stall tactic but I am currently choosing to ignore that and enjoying every minute of my sweet little boy snuggles.
-He loves on his brother constantly. Just the other day Jamie had to tell him to stop kissing on Charlie as we were walking home from seeing the diggers (big construction vehicles down the street). In the morning he lights up when he sees Charlie and always greets him with a huge “morning Charlie”, he talks about him when he is napping, checks on him as soon as he starts to fuss and is frequently doing things to make Charlie belly laugh. I love watching their relationship grow with each passing day
-We are currently working on sharing. Frequently he wants whatever Charlie is playing with and must have it N-O-W! To decrease the amount of toy snatching going on day-to-day we told Jay that if he wants something that Charlie has that he has to give him another toy before “asking” for the toy Charlie has. Lately, when he wants something that Charlie has he will frantically look around for something to give to Charlie and after he finds something he usually tosses it in Charlie’s direction and then grabs whatever it is that he wanted. It’s not exactly sharing but it’s progress :)
-He does not understand the concept of a quiet voice… well okay, he does but the quiet voice lasts for about 2.5 seconds before the louder-than-anything two year old voice returns.
-He will stop everything, even playing with cars, to listen to a story that is being read. Frequently while we are playing I will pull Charlie in my lap and read stories to him. Sometimes Jay will ask to join us, other times he will say that he doesn’t want to after being invited. However, regardless of what he says, the moment I start reading he drops everything and comes over to where we are to listen.
-He calls Hot Dog Heaven, “Hot Dolphin” and announces our arrival at Hot Dolphin as soon as we turn into the parking lot
-He loves to swim! He has a ton of tricks that he does in the pool most of which are announced to his audience by proclamations of “look at me!”

This little boy is funny, sweet and on the go, his heart is huge, his imagination is running wild and I love him with every ounce of my being. I am so proud to be his Mommy and so incredibly blessed to be able to watch him grow each and every day.

Sorry in advance for the ridiculous amount of photos…

It’s no secret that books are important to us and as another way to encourage reading and excitement about reading we started a family tradition two years ago of getting the boys (or any of our children rather) a book on their half birthday. So far we have been choosing the books for them and giving them to the boys on their half birthdays but we are hoping that when the boys get older that this will turn more into a special trip that they get to take with us to pick out their own book. This year we got Jay “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, he was super excited to open his book in the morning.

This year Jay was so excited about his half birthday that I figured it was ok to go ahead and really celebrate in style- so we had a half cake! We were headed to publix for grocery shopping anyway so while we were there I picked up all of the fixings for a cake and while the boys napped in the afternoon I made him a pineapple coconut (per his request) half cake.

It was hard but I stopped him both times before he actually touched or licked the cake :)

watch your step

Published on by kristenperreaultLeave a comment


Warning- there is a new roaming speed bump in the Perreault household, proceed with caution!!

So frequently these days, I find myself in the kitchen with a kiddo under foot. I am not exactly sure what he finds so interesting with the floor in there but this little one loves to camp out on it. Often, I look over or down to find him lying down on it or studding it with great focus… Maybe it’s that sweaty-hands-and-feet finds it is cool (temperature wise) or maybe I need to do a better job cleaning it, I can’t be too sure. All I know is that the view from above is pretty sweet :)

2.5

Published on by kristenperreault4 Comments


Jay Bird,
To say that the last month has been rough would be quite the understatement dear boy. I am not sure what is the appropriate adjective to describe our days lately however you continue to exhaust me day in and day out. To be fair you have had a rough month and a half with a terrible case of hand, foot and mouth disease which caused almost all of your nails and toenails to fall off a full month after you got it (gross I know), a week and a half stretch (half of which we were out of town for) of fevers, cold and coughs and then to top it off two gigantic jellyfish stings during our last beach trip. I was told that the half (1.5, 2.5, 3.5…) ages are usually the hardest and BOY do I believe that! Within the last week you have:
-jumped off of the ottoman onto my head, your jumping skills are improving and YAY for that but my head really?
-pushed Charlie (for no reason) over on the kitchen tile causing him to really hit his head
-refused to eat just about anything that I have put in front of you
-screamed your fool head off before and during swim lessons- did I mention we have to drag you out of any other pool we take you to
-ate chalk
-drew on the floor with chalk
-(accidentally) locked me out of the house (thank goodness the inside kitchen door was open and the garage door was up)
-let yourself out of the house and into the backyard while I was getting Charlie out of his highchair after lunch (he was screaming because he was being cleaned off so I didn’t hear you and spent a good few minutes frantically searching the house for you)
-said “no” to just about everything I have asked you to do…

AND that was just in three days… However, on the flip side you announce every morning when I get you out of bed “Good Morning Mommy, I waked up!”, you immediately want to play with your cars however, lately you have asked if “Mommy and Charlie will play wiff you”, you make your brother laugh like no one else can and check on him when he is hurt (even if the hurt is your doing), you colored some pictures to send to Grandpa in the hospital and when you were finished proclaimed “he’s gonna luv them Mommy, yes he is!”, you randomly give me kisses on the check and put your arm around my neck and you said “I love you Mommy” this morning for the first time on your own and without reason.

You exhaust me, wear heavily on my patience but continue to amazing and melt me all in the same breath. This ride is definitely a roller coaster and some days I feel like I am screaming all the way… but it is definitely a ride worth taking.

I love you Jay Bird and while I am anxious to leave this phase in the past I am not at all anxious for you to get older. So while even though we have our bad days, know that I will always love you no matter what. I love you Sweet Boy…

Love You,
Mommy