After Grace's dance class this morning we never imagined that we would be eating lunch back at the duck park. Eating lunch outside in Maine in the month of November is unheard of! We were beyond delighted today to have spring-like weather so we headed straight to one of our favorite summer spots today ~ the duck park! Since this day was so unexpected I did not pack any extra food to feed the ducks as I typically did this past summer when we would go. The only extra food we had left after our lunch were our organic peas! We decided to share these with our duck friends. Grace was so excited to be able to feed the ducks again that she excitedly poured all of the peas into the water. Immediately, all of the duck and all of the seagulls came over. A single duck took one bite of the peas, it's little bill was chomping and chewing that little pea for quite a long time. After that NONE of the ducks and seagulls went anywhere near our peas! Here I thought that ducks and seagulls would eat anything. Poor Gracie girl kept pointing to the peas in the water and saying, "Here they are ducks. See? Here are the peas. Come eat them!" She went on to tell the ducks how delicious the peas were and how much they would enjoy them if they just tried them. Hmmm...I wonder how long those little green peas will be floating in the duck pond?! 
I can't believe Jack is eleven months old and that he is going to be one next month. Where did baby Jack go?!! He is getting to be such a big boy. Here is an update all about our super sweet Jack-a-roo: - Jack produces ten signs (sign language) including: more, all done, eat, car, truck, fly, shake, dog, jump, up, and hot. Jack's signed productions have increased tremendously over the past month.
- Jack produces several gestures such as waving hello/bye-bye, so big, blowing kisses, clapping, etc. Jack also produces and imitates many song gestures.
- Jack says dada, ah-duh for all done, and duck. He has become much more verbal over the past month as well and he carries on very long conversations. Whenever Jack gets really excited he says, "dut dut dut dut dut" with great enthusiasm!
- Jack continues to be very musical. He loves all music, musical instruments, and he always dances whenever he hears music.
- Jack is standing all by himself for up to 30 seconds at a time. Hooray, Jack! I'll be sure to post a picture of this soon.
- Jack is tentatively trying to take a few steps on his own. He loves to walk pushing a push toy.
- Jack's attention span continues to amaze me - especially how well and how long he attends to books. Some of Jack's favorite books are the following: It's Spring, Richard Scarry's Biggest Word Book Ever, Barnyard Banter, Fruit, I'm as Quick as a Cricket, Beep-Beep Peekaboo, First 100 Words (Bright Baby), Goodnight Moon, and Time for Bed.
- Jack identifies many more body parts, pictures in books, objects around our home, landmarks, and animals.
- Some of Jack's favorite things: smiling, laughing, books, transportation vehicles, climbing the stairs, music, musical instruments, dancing, Grace (anything and everything she does is SO FUNNY!), sliding on our small slide, being outside, our play kitchen, water play, phones, standing with Grace on the learning tower, his Monkey, calendar time, American flags, bead toy, balls, playdough, painting, play silks, sound play, O cereal and puffs.
Grace and Jack worked together to make an American flag on Wednesday, Veterans Day, to honor all of the hard working men and women of our nation's armed forces. Grace painted the stripes on the flag and Jack painted the blue. Grace later added the stars. It is so important for us to remember, recognize and celebrate all of our veterans, which are our true heroes. The heroes we honored on Wednesday were Poppy, Pop-Pop, Pepere, and Uncle Steve. Thank you all for your tremendous service and sacrifice. Grace and Jack will be sending each of you a handmade flag as a special thank you for service.
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
~John Fitzgerald Kennedy
We had a great time visiting Freeport, the home of L.L. Bean, on Monday with Maddy and Poppy. Grace and Jack love L.L. Bean and they had such fun showing Maddy and Poppy all around the store. Monday was such a beautiful day and we enjoyed every moment of our time together. Notice that we were not wearing any coats that day! What an extra special treat to be with Maddy and Poppy enjoying a warm November day that felt like spring. Look for more pictures of our time with Maddy and Poppy tomorrow.
We have been very busy over the past several days. On Sunday we drove to Massachusetts to attend Cousin Rose and Cousin Kimberlee's big birthday party. It was so nice to see Memere, Pepere, Uncle Steve, Auntie Allison, Rose & Kimberlee. We drove back to Maine Sunday evening where Maddy and Poppy were here waiting for us. What a special day for Grace and Jack to be able to see both sets of grandparents in the very same day!!! Grace, Jack, and I had such a great time spending a few days with Maddy and Poppy while Daddy was away on a business trip. Maddy and Poppy left yesterday and Daddy returned home. We enjoyed a nice family day together today. I'll be posting pictures from the past few days of fun tomorrow to share with everyone.Today was Memere's birthday! Memere, we hope you had a special day and we wish you the very best of everything over the next year. Happy, happy, happy birthday, Memere!
Jack got his first formal haircut today! We have trimmed Jack's hair before but today was his first time at a salon. Jack looks so handsome and very grown up with his shorter new cut. I always tell Jack he is so very sweet and cute that I could just squeeze him up!!!
Every day during Jack's morning nap time Grace and I share what we call our "special girl book time." This consists of snuggling together, usually with two cups of peach tea, and reading lots of books. At the end of our book time Grace looks forward to using her dry erase board for the "word of the day" and to learn more about numbers, specifically how to add two numbers together. First, I write a new word on Grace's dry erase board. Grace sounds out the new word and then she proudly reads it to me with great enthusiasm. Next, Grace writes the word by connecting dots together to form the letters. Finally, we turn the dry erase board over and Grace solves a simple addition equation. Grace is now able to read addition math equations (e.g., "two plus one equals three") written both vertically and horizontally. Grace has always had a strong love of learning and her favorite things to learn now are how to read, write, and all about number concepts. 
Sweet Jack-a-roo loves being outside. Jack has recently discovered the small slide that we have outside on the side of our yard. Jack has become quite the little climber and he really loves climbing the three small stairs that lead up to the top of the slide. We spent most of our day outside today enjoying a crisp yet very sunny autumn day. Jack had the best time climbing and sliding outside and watching him brought me such joy and happiness as well as lots of smiles.
Grace turned 2 years, 11 months old yesterday. We have really noticed a big change in Grace over the past month. Grace has grown taller and she is loosing her "baby look." Grace is looking so much more like a big girl now. I can't believe that this is the last month that Grace will be two years old. Time has gone by so very quickly (much, much too quickly for me!). I have always said that Grace amazes me and she continues to amaze me each and every day. Grace continues to read new words every day, she write many letters, and she is now solving and reading math equations! It is hard for me to keep up with her!! Grace keeps everyone she knows smiling and laughing ~ especially little Jack-a-roo! One of the Moms at Grace's dance class said that Grace is the sweetest girl she has every met and she wishes that she could see Grace every day because Grace always makes her smile. That makes me the luckiest Mommy to be able to spend my days with Grace and my sweet Jack! Grace is the best big sister too. She is teaching Jack so much and he absolutely adores her. Some of Grace's favorite things right now are the following: dance class, practicing ballet and tap dancing at home, Jack, playgrounds, going for walks outside, books, reading, writing, drawing, painting, numbers, singing, making up songs, stuffed animals, play silks, musical instruments, music group, and her play kitchen.
Jack really enjoys going to Grace's dance class on Mondays. Jack loves to play in the playroom adjacent to the dance floor, however, whenever Jack hears music starting to play he crawls out of the playroom and onto the dance floor as quickly as he can to join in!
We ended our fun-filled Halloween day outside on our deck to light Grace's handmade pumpkin candle holders and our jack-o'-lantern. It was a big Halloween treat for Grace and Jack to stay up just a little past their bedtime to see their pumpkins all aglow. We carved a very big smile on our jack-o'-lantern pumpkin and added four teeth on the top and three teeth on the bottom --- just like our Jack!!!!!
We spent as much time as we possibly could outside today enjoying warm sunny weather (in November!!!). We spent a large part of our day back at the duck pond. It was such a treat to be there again and to explore the park to see how it has changed since the summer.
We had the best time watching our duck friends swimming around the pond as we ate our lunch together in "our spot."
We also enjoyed dancing and splashing in all of the puddles in the park's gazebo.
Jack couldn't keep his eyes off of all of the sites in the park - the ducks, seagulls, water, trees, gazebo, and the little footbridge.
After our time at the duck pond we went to another one of our favorite parks to spend the remainder of our day at the playground. What a special day for us.
