21 months & a lot to be thankful for

Jared is now 21 months old and officially in his "terrible twos". He throws temper tantrums daily when he doesn't get his way. Mommy has been going a little crazy trying to deal with him some days. Good thing he is SO cute!

Despite the temper tantrums, Jared is also our little lover boy. He is a very affectionate little boy and will give us kisses whenever we ask for one (well most of the time we ask for one) which is so great and makes up for all the hard times.

Jared is talking more and more every day too (some words more clear than others). I think any day now he will start putting more than two words together. We also recently put away his high chair and put him in a booster which he loves!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year, we went with my Dad's side to Thanksgiving. Jared is so lucky to have not only amazing grandparents, but many great grandparents as well. Below is my dad's parents on Thanksgiving.

We missed all our other family members this Thanksgiving (we have a lot of family, so we are on a rotation) but had a great time this year in LA with my dad and the whole gang! We ate amazing food and I got to hold the newest member of the family Nina (my step sister's baby girl). Jared wasn't a huge fan of me holding her, but was obsessed with the baby and acted very worried when she cried. It was very cute.

My Dada and I on Thanksgiving.

My Auntie Allison and I on Thanksgiving

This is another one of Jared's great Grandma's (we call her GG)! He is so lucky to have not one great grandma, but 4 of them!!

What can I say about my mom--I am so thankful for her in so many ways. She is our saving grace for many free nights of babysitting, she has given me some great mom advice, she is one of my best friends and most of all, she loves Jared so much (what a lucky boy...he is so blessed to have so much family who loves him).

We are also so thankful for our great friends. One of our best friends are the McCoy's. We switch off doing date nights every other Friday which is great for so many reasons. One--this gives us both FREE babysitting. Two--we get a night to relax with our husbands child free. And three-- the boys get to play together. We just discovered Noah loves cars just like Jared!

I am also so thankful for my wonderful husband. He is such a great dad, husband, brother and friend! He works so hard to provide us with what we need and want out of life. We have been together for over 12 years and I love him more each day! Jared looks up to him so much and they are two peas in a pod!

20 Months and October Fun!

October has been quite a busy month for the Marchbank Family. Between work, family and friends, it is never a dull moment! The month started with a huge event I help put on at work (over 600 gymnasts and their families) followed by a trip to Arizona for web site training for a few days. While I was away in AZ, Jared's school called me saying he was not acting like himself (crying a lot and acting very sad) and wanted to know if something was different in his routine. I informed them I was away for work (and he saw me leave luggage and all) and was probably just missing his mommy. We are so lucky he goes to such a wonderful place that notices these things about our child and called right away. I was able to catch an earlier flight home to see my boys and all was well with him again (he just missed his mommy).

The weekend I came back from AZ, we spent a lot of family time (something we had been lacking for the past few weeks). We took Jared to the Irvine Railroad park and pumpkin patch (which is an awesome place to take your kids by the way). He had such a great time--he went on his first pony ride, picked out his pumpkin, jumped in the bounce house and spent quality time with his mommy and daddy. After the park, we stopped at Grandpa Greg's and Grandma Denise's house to say hi too.

For Halloween, Jared dressed up like a Dalmatian doggie (thank you Grandma Carla for the box of costumes!). We tried on the costume a few days before Halloween to make sure it fit and he cried when it was time to take it off! We explained that in a few days, he would get to wear it again and he seemed OK with that.

Our friends Lindsay, Eric and Noah invited us to tag along with them on Halloween. We went to her sister's sister-in-law's house who also has a little boy Nick (the one in the skeleton costume). It was so much fun to see all the kids in their costumes and Jared had a great time.

Now that Jared is 20 months old, he is really starting to talk a lot! He is like our parrot--whatever we say, he repeats. Every day his words become more clear and vocabulary a bit larger--I love hearing him trying to communicate. With this new found vocabulary also comes some temper tantrums. Many times (OK all the time) he knows what he wants but doesn't know how to communicate it yet, which frustrates him (and me) and those terrible twos start to emerge. Overall, he is such a little love--we call him our little love bug--he is always giving everyone hugs and kisses and is just the sweetest little boy. We love him so much!

Jared the Dalmatian doggie--Halloween 2009

Jared's First Disneyland Adventure!

On May 2, our whole family went to Disneyland to celebrate my mom's birthday. My sister Allison, her boyfriend Kyle, Jerry, myself and Jared all went to the happiest place on earth! And boy was it ever! It was Jared's first time there and he just loved it--and we all loved seeing how happy he was there too.

He was such a trooper the whole day and went on lots of rides--his favorite was Small World for sure. He danced around the whole time, and studied everything.

He also went on Pirates, Haunted Mansion, the new Pooh ride and the merry-go-round. With only a 30-minute cat nap the entire day, you would never know by how happy he was. We thought he would fall asleep so fast that night, but it took him over 30 minutes to actually fall asleep! I guess he couldn't stop thinking about all the excitement and new things he saw! I do know that Jerry and I were exhausted after spending over 7 hours there with a toddler, but it was worth it for sure. I will be getting a pass soon so we can go often with all our friends who has passes but for shorter time frames. :)