Ana lives vicariously

More rewind posts. Rewind to early January/February...

So it finally happened. And I guess I should feel proud that it has taken three years for me to start making my child live out my dreams, but it's not like I could have forced him to play the piano at 1 year old, so maybe I shouldn't feel so proud of myself.

But I digress...

I can't ice skate. I mean, sure I can awkwardly navigate around the side of an ice skating rink, but given how prone I was/am to breakage, I'm afraid ice skating and I were never meant to be. I guess that's why I really wanted Jack to learn how to ice skate. The ice skating class was full, so mean mom that I am, I put my little manly man in the hockey class. :)

Meet my little hockey player in his "patootie pants"



Jack was by far the youngest guy out there, but bribed by a mini cupcake of his choice at the cupcake bar afterwards, he cheerfully attended 3 lessons, and tearfully attended 1. He was making progress but then we missed a week to attend a friend's birthday party, and the next time we went back he sat himself right down on the ice and refused to stand up again. I forced myself to concede that maybe not all my dreams for him can be fulfilled by his third birthday and that was the end of my little hockey player. Maybe we'll try again next year?



I loved that Zack knows how to skate and I can trust that even if I'm insane and I put my just barely turned 3 year old on the ice, he can take care of him.

To quote Jack, "Our papa's a rock star!"

What should Zack read?

So a very popular question during the Harvard MBA interview is what are you currently reading. I am going to spare poor Zack and not admit what he was actually reading when he learned of this question. He has since started reading Clayton Christensen's book, who is a Harvard Business professor. He was genuinely interested in this book, and wants to read some of it to prepare regardless, but I think it might seem a bit of a kiss up answer. What do you guys think?

What do you think he should be reading??????

Jack turns the big 03!

**rewind the clock to January 17th....

For Jack's third birthday we promised to take him to Disneyland for the first time. He has been telling practically everyone he met for the last 6 months that he gets to go to Disneyland on his birthday and even though he had no real idea what Disneyland was he knew enough to be super excited. We decided to make it a two day long Disneyland celebration since he was free until he was 3 and then free on his birthday and we thought it might make it a more manageable experience if we weren't trying to cram everything into one day.

Friday we drove down to Disneyland in the early afternoon. The lines weren't bad at all, in fact Jack was so excited to actually be at this elusive Disneyland that he even enjoyed the lines. We started off on the Rockets, Storybook boats, Dumbo, and then the main event itself, Autopia. Zack must have taken Jack on Autopia at least 10 times over the course of the two days. Finally, we stopped to see the Fantasmic fireworks show. Jack was really excited to see fireworks, but we forgot that the beginning of the show was a bit scary, so at Jack's request, we went into the New Orleans' square and "hid" for a while. We taught Jack to listen to the music, and when the music no longer sounded scary, it was time for us to go see the fireworks.











Disneyland - 1 Jack - 0



Saturday morning Jack woke up to our hotel room being covered in streamers, Happy Birthday signs, presents and the requested lemon cupcakes.







After breakfast cupcakes and presents, we headed over to Disneyland to meet our fantastic friends, Bruce, Maryanne, Zoe and baby Audrey at the Breakfast with Minnie where we tanked up on food and Jack got his first glimpse of the lifesized Disney characters. He was a bit reserved at first, but warmed up towards the end. Jack's biggest birthday wish was to meet Mickey Mouse. When Jack finally saw Mickey, he ran right up to him and gave him the biggest hug like he had just found his long lost best friend. I was too busy enjoying the tender moment to remember I had my camera in my hand. Right before we had to leave, I managed to snap this picture to at least remember the meeting.



Our second day introduced Jack to roller coasters (which he loved)



The Teacups (which he loved)



Autopia, Autopia, Autopia, and did I mention Autopia?

The dreaded Jungle Book Cruise (which brought Jack to tears). We shortly thereafter realized that he was old enough to understand what the tour guide was saying (ie. "Oh no when hippos ears shake that means they are going to eat us") and not old enough to know that it wasn't real, especially given how much time we had spent at the Wild Animal park and the Zoo lately.

One of the best parts was getting to see these two friends together again. Thank you Maryanne and Bruce for making Jack's birthday fabulous!







Disneyland - 2 Jack - 0

Portraits

The other day we were out in back drawing with chalk and Jack made one of his first attempts at drawing a person. He loves to draw, but up until now cars have been his obsession so he rarely ever strayed from them to other forms.

Jack's drawing of me...





Now, I will be the first to admit I have put on a few pounds due to inactivity and "woe is me" cake and Ben & Jerry's ice cream consumption, but really, a pig's nose?

Needless to say as soon as Zack got back from work that evening I went running.

It should be mentioned that Jack's next drawing was of Zack. He started off by saying, "okay, Papa needs a big head" and then proceeded to draw a ginormous circle for Zack's head. Given his mom's pig nose, mohawk hair and his father's melon head, it's amazing that Jack turned out as cute as he did!