Quirks

Will is a face sucker.  

When he turned about 4 months old, one day he just looked over at me and full on latched on to my cheek, and then promptly started cracking up laughing.   After that first time, it became his go to, "I'm looking for laughs" move.  Whenever people ask me to describe Will, my ready answer is he's a goofball.  Where Jack was always straight laced, Will likes to ham it up.  He will put ridiculous things on his head and wait for someone to notice him and laugh.  He's loud to Jack's quiet, a daredevil to Jack's prudence, chaos to Jack's order.  

He is a wildcard and is pure noisy, chaotic perfection.

Tackling

The boys at our house are obsessed with football. 

Jack loves it when Zack throws the ball to him, or when they play football games at the park.  But he's even happy just throwing the ball to himself at home while tackling the couch and calling out the play by play. 

All bite marks and holes in Jack's football are courtesy of crazy pants #2

Turns out this obsession must be genetic because Will is hooked too.  He will booty skootch himself all over the house chasing his little football.  And the shrieks of happiness when someone throws the ball to him are amazing.  

Ever since Will was a few weeks old, Jack has loved running into the room and yelling "tackle the baby!!" He used to carefully smother Will on the bed, but as he started to get older the game progressed and he now chases him around the house and gently tackles him to the floor, still yelling "tackle the baby!!"  Will adores this game and sometimes during the day will start running and looking behind him as if expecting Jack to show up out of nowhere. 

The other day, Will took it upon himself to initiate the tackling and all but threw himself out of my arms to tackle Jack to the floor.  The two of them were laughing hysterically.  I picked him up and he threw himself on Jack again.  It took me 10 tries before I managed to finagle us downstairs without him tackling Jack to the floor.   Now he tries to tackle him when we are at school, the grocery store, the mall...

The world is apparently just one big football field to my big guys!

Smash Cake

Someone special turned 1 and earned himself a smash cake!

Jack Zackrison - First Grader

This year Jack is in first grade.   He was a bit sad to be starting school again.  I guess after a summer filled with friends, fun and seemingly unlimited tv and video games, who could blame him.  The night before school started he broke down in the car home from dinner with my sister's family.   He and I snuggled on the couch for a little while and I told him it was okay to admit how he was feeling, and even helpful to.  I told him that sometimes just by sharing how we are feeling, and allowing ourselves to feel it, we start to feel better.  He asked me who my best friends were, grade by grade from Kindergarten through college.  Each time, he'd add, "and Adda" to my list.  Sweet boy to know that my list will always include "and Adda."  He also got a kick out of how many years Zack made the list too.  He woke up the next morning excited for school and happy for the day.  

I am so grateful I get to be a part of this little boy's life. 

He is every bit of extraordinary.