Tough Stuff

I'm sorry my boy, but sometimes life can be a little rough.

But we still love you!

An Adventure

We invite you to join us on our journey to retrieve the mail.

Now we have to warn you that it may not be easy...and could be a little dangerous. We will be climbing hills, exploring rock beds, searching for cars, stomping through puddles, and dodging mountains of dog poop.

And we have to look cool while doing it.

And even if we reach our mailbox destination in safety...it might be full of junk (like today).

But never fear my friends, we will do it again tomorrow.
And it will be worth it.

Three and Twenty Months

Jack graduated to 23 months last Thursday. We will be celebrating his 2nd birthday in less then a month. I'm pretty sure someone took my life remote and pressed the fast forward button...and I beg whoever did so to please stop and press pause for at least a couple months.

One thing Jack enjoys nowadays:

Fruit.
And lots of it.

I love that he loves fruit. He lights up whenever he sees his yummy yellow banana for breakfast and grunts his approving "yes" when I ask if he'd like grapes for a snack. Now if I can only get him to love his veggies just as much. Yeah, it's a long shot.

One of his favorite movies is the Incredibles with Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, Violet, Dash, and the illusive baby Jack-Jack (from whom his nickname was inspired).

He loves bath time and will stay in said bath until the bubbles are gone and his fingers are pruny. And then he insists on pulling the plug afterward and watching every last drop of water go down the drain...while he waves buh bye.

I have to tear him out of the little tikes-ish car attached to a grocery cart whenever we're done grocery shopping. He loves those things and I thank the inventor every time I spot one in the parking lot.

He is finally saying a bunch of words like: Gramma, Papa, bath, dog, and even bum. I also heard a new one today: iPod. Not a good sign.

He loves to go outside and get the mail...and then spends hours throwing every fallen leaf he finds on the sidewalk into the street.

He's as accident proned as his mother, but every time my sweet boy falls down he bounces right back up without complaint.

He dances like a rock star, which I have witnessed from Hatch-family-dance-parties that are held in our kitchen before dinner.

Well, that's just the tip of the iceberg on the boy named Jack, but you get the picture. His personality is showing more every day, and we love him to pieces for it.

My Last Day of Twenty Eleven.

New Years Eve morning greeted me with a bawling baby boy, sitting in his high chair, who could not be consoled. Not even with food. And then I saw him grab his ear. The words "Ahhh, crap!! Not again." passed through my head as I dialed the number to his pediatricians office. They were closed for the holiday weekend. Awesome. Urgent care it is then. I've been lucky enough to avoid that place until now...so I knew it was going to be an experience.

I walk through the door to see quite a few people sitting in the waiting room. One guy was hacking up a lung in the corner. I walk up to the desk with Jack, trying really hard to avoid whatever the man in the corner has, when the nice receptionist greets me with a "Hi, how are you?" and a "Just to let you know the wait time to see the doctor is 1 1/2 to 2 hours." Well, at least she warned me right off the bat. So I filled-out the paperwork and paid the copay. Then after two hours worth of walks around the building and other desperate attempts to keep my child amused, the nurse came out and said the one thing I was so anxious to hear: Jack's name.

We were escorted to a room where his vitals were taken and we were told the doctor would be in shortly. YES! Finally what we were waiting for.

After another 10 minutes the doctor knocks and walks in.

"So what's the problem in here?" she says.

"Well, I'm pretty sure my son has an ear infection. He's had multiple this year, and he was showing symptoms of one this morning."

"OK, let's take a look."

I pick up Jack and hold him to me while she looks into his ears.

"Oh yeah" she says, "this one is pretty red. I'll go write up a prescription now."

And just like that, she was gone.
Not even five minutes with the doctor.

Needless to say, we got the antibiotics and I gave him his first of five doses that day. He had a very quiet New Years Eve night for resting. He's now fully recovered and as happy as ever.

But believe me when I tell you: I will never forget my first time in Urgent Care. And I'm praying I don't have to visit there again anytime soon.

Hatch Family Photos

Back in November Annie from Annie Marie Photography took some photos of us for our Christmas card. She did a fantastic job! And since I can never choose a few, here are a bunch of photos that I love:

Looking for airplanes: a favorite pastime.

My boy loves his raisins.
It was the only thing that kept him sane.

She definitely captured us at our finest. :)

We had an awesome holiday season. Well, it was a whirlwind is what it was: yet so much fun. I wish we could still be wrapped up in the season, but alas reality always sets back into place. Reality is one thing that makes those times so special so I won't complain too much.

OK, I won't pretend that a ton of time hasn't passed as well as a bunch of Hatch family events. I do realize that I'm only hurting myself by not recording events, thoughts, and feelings of my family's journey, but I can only do so much.

So I'll try my best...and keep typing.