Happy Birthday Jack!

So, the last post was about his big sis, but this one is all about him.

Such a cutie!

When you are preparing to have your second child, your head tells you that you'll love this next baby just the same, but your heart has a hard time grasping that. Well...it just happens. It is so amazing to fall so in love all over again with another child. Your heart grows and suddenly, you have more love for your family than you thought possible.
This little boy has really done a number on his mama. He is the sweetest, cuddliest, most precious little boy ever. Ok, I know I'm biased, but he truly is the sweetest! We call him a 'kind soul' around our house. :) As you can imagine, it can't be easy to enter a family where Bella is your big sister. She is a great big sister, don't get me wrong, but Jack has had to learn to hold his own. He is extremely sensitive, doesn't like to see anyone upset or hurt, and is very compassionate. He has always been a mama's boy, which I definitely can't complain about. What mother doesn't want to hold onto her little boy all day?

Lately, however, he has been ALL about daddy. It took a little getting used to, but again, what mother doesn't love that her son is so in love with his daddy? He only wants Daddy to put him to bed, only wants Daddy if he wakes up crying, Daddy is the only one that can get him out of bed, if Daddy leaves the room, Jack has to immediately find him. Where Daddy goes, Jack goes. It's crazy. And really sweet. The word hero comes to mind.

This pretty much says it all!

We realized early on that Jack is musically inclined. Before he could really talk, he was humming the tune of songs from beginning to end. He has always loved going to bed with music, and now, we have to make sure we have music on hand if we go out of town, so he can go to sleep. Music makes him happy. Right now I hear him saying to Mark, "I play gu-tar?" He loves to sing along with the songs and dance to any music. When we are in the car, I always have kid cds on hand because they can pull him out of any funk. We hear him at night through the monitor singing along to each song as it plays. He knows them all! He learned his ABCs from the song box that plays on our refrigerator. Ask him to say them, he won't. Ask him to sing them, no problem. As a previous teacher, you can imagine how insightful this is to me. He obviously has a great memory when it comes to songs, so I will definitely be tapping into that resource when he is in school.

Jack's great love right now is horses. Actually, it is more like an obsession. He constantly talks about riding "Hot Rod", he flips through page after page of horse books, and he will spot any horse we pass in the car. This is his very favorite thing to do...

Jack on Hot Rod

For his birthday, I made him this cake...

He loved it! He kept saying, "I see horsey cake, I see horsey cake!" And boy did he score on the horsey loot! Remember those riding horses with the springs? He got the new and improved one where someone was smart enough to cover the springs with padding. How many times did we pinch our legs on those springs?! He also got cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, cowboy pop guns, little toy horses, paddocks, a stable... whew. If anyone ever needs horse anything, we have it. He has been in cowboy heaven every morning since his birthday.

We had family there to celebrate with us, which is always a great time!

Happy 2nd Birthday sweet Jack!

To end this post, I leave with this picture and thought...

I have two wonderfully different and unique children, that I wonder... what is baby van wart #3 going to be like? Hmmm... I can't wait to find out! I think we are all already stretching our hearts for the love we are going to feel as a family of 5. :)