"But I want to..."

If I had a nickel for every time Jack said this, I would be rich now. Yeah, I know what you're saying, he's only 3, hasn't been talking that long. You're right, but I hear it hundreds of times a day!!! Most of our conversations go something like this:

Jack: "Mommy, where are we going today?"
Me: "We need to go to the store, Jack."
Jack: "I want to drive the car at the store." (The grocery store has carts that have cars in the front.)
Me: "Well we're not going to that kind of store today."
Jack: "But I want to drive the car."
Me: "Well when we need to go to the grocery store, you can."
Jack: "But I want to."

Today, we had this conversation:

Jack: "It's raining outside."
Me: "Yes, it is."
Jack: "I want to play outside."
Me: "But Jack, it's raining. You'll get wet."
Jack: "But I want to."
Me: "You want to play in the rain and get wet?"
Jack: "No."
Me: "Well then you can't play outside."
Jack: "But I want to."

Sometimes it takes on a different variation:

Me: "Jack, it's time to get ready for bed."
Jack: "But I want to play."
Me: "Jack it's bed time, we can play tomorrow."
Jack: "But I want to play just a little bit longer."
Me: "Jack, I said it's time to go to bed."
Jack: "But I don't want to sleep!"

I think you get the idea about how a lot of our conversations go. It's a little frustrating but I know he's just testing everything.

These next pictures are of Jack & Jarred building an airplane with their Tinkertoys. Notice I said, "their". Jarred was not satisfied with the set that Jack got for his birthday. There were just not enough Tinkertoys to build really big things. So, I got Jarred another set for our anniversary and they combined the set and decided that both sets were equally theirs. Tonight, they built a plane. Jack does pretty good paying attention to what Jarred does and helps when he can.

Happy Birthday Jack... AGAIN!

Kelly & Abbott came to help Jack celebrate being 3 and we couldn't have had a better weekend. The highs all weekend were in the high 70s and it was wonderful! Here is the weekend in pictures.

We got Abbott a little something, too.

Aunt Kelly got Jack some "binoculators" from Animal Kingdom. He really loves them!

He loves his Aunt Kelly!

More sprinkle cupcakes!

Abbott playing with his new truck from Edom.

Tricycle King.

It was only 78 degrees but they wanted to play in the pool. Abbott had to catch his breath every time he poured water on himself but he would do it again and again.

They still had fun!

Jack & Abbott are learning all about John Deere tractors.

Helping Jarred build a catapult.

Abbott taking his turn on the trike.

We kept calling Jack the next Tiger Woods. When Kelly asked him if he was the next Tiger he said, "No, I'm Jack. I just hit the ball."

I just can't stop taking pictures of this boy!

Wheeeeeee!

Gotta get replenished!

Maybe he's the next Tiger... getting golf lessons from Uncle Jarred.

Abbott wanted to do everything Jack did... until Jack annoyed him!

Just chillin' on the patio with Popo.

How you doin'?

Worn out by noon... and watching the John Deere video again.

We had such a great weekend!

Last Part of the Texas Trip

Once we got home, we came right over to Popo & Moma Jo's to celebrate Jack's birthday, again! Aunt Kelly & Abbott came over and we partied all over again. Needless to say, I'm just now getting the last few pictures up from our trip to Athens. I'll post pictures from the weekend later.

Dad took this artsy photo of the windmill at Shirley's.

Jack's running back to Wannie's from Shirley's.

Wednesday afternoon we went to Edom, TX for lunch at the Edom Bakery. Dad met the chef at an Athens chamber meeting so we decided to check it out. This town is so tiny but it has 2 restaurants featured in Texas Monthly or Texas Highways, a blueberry farm and some very cool little shops. I bought a handmade rain gauge and could have bought several of the handmade bird houses. I also bought a candle that was made there and a truck for Jack & Abbott that was made by a local man who supplements his social security income. Those trucks have been a hit!

Here's Jack & Wannie waiting for lunch at the bakery.

I just love this picture of Wannie & Poppa. They are about to celebrate their 61st wedding anniversary!

Popo & Moma Jo.

Me & Jack.

Here's "The Shed". It was featured in one of the Texas magazines. I'm really sad we had to come home, they have "pickin' and grinnin'" every Tuesday.

2 little shops in town.

The bakery where we ate.

The museum in town.

Just a cool old building, I thought.

We had a great trip, and we're looking forward to the next time we get to visit. It's always good to come home, but sad to leave!

Weedin'

Today the temperature (at 7:30 pm) in Athens was:
And we spent the evening doing this:

And this:

And this:

Dad and Poppa placed the new crepe myrtle bushes like this:

Jack helped supervise the weed pulling like this:

Dad, Mom and Poppa helped supervise the weed pullin' like this (they did help, too):

When I was pulling weeds I thought I heard a hummingbird and turned my head to see I was an inch away from this:

Dad, Wannie & I cooled down like this:

Then, Jack helped water the plants like this:

Jack Performs

Oh, the things you can do with Tinkertoys. The container has all kinds of pictures on it and Jack wants every one of them built. Dad and Popo were outside grilling chicken so that left the girls to help build with the Tinkertoys. Mom and I are not great builders, but we could manage to build a microphone, which of course, leads to this:

Tinkertoys

I remember when I was a kid, playing for hours with Tinkertoys at my grandmother's house. Kelly and I would dump them all in a huge pile and build all kinds of things. It's not a toy I thought about getting for Jack until I was at Toys R Us trying to get ideas for his birthday. When I saw them, I thought about how much fun I had with them and then I thought about how much fun Jack and his engineer dad would have with them. Wannie bought him some and he has had so much fun with them, and so has Popo. It really is the simplest toys that make them happiest!



Here they are, building a roller coaster.

Jack's helping put some of the pieces together.

Jack & Popo with their roller coaster.

Jack said he wanted Popo to build a car, so here's the car. Popo said it was a hybrid type car.

They also built a swing set and a rocket ship, but I didn't get pictures of those. Another set might be necessary to build more things