Chick-Fil-A, Gerig's and other Glenbrook Blessings

Jack and I just spent a few hours at the mall.  I thought it was going to be a normal mall trip, and somehow in those few hours I was overwhelmed with blessings!  Let's count them....

1.  This one started a few days ago.  I've had my eye on a pair of maternity jeans (and I NEED maternity jeans) from a certain store in the mall.  But they were a little more expensive than what I would normally like to pay for maternity jeans.  Then on Friday Dustin found a gift card to Glenbrook that we had forgotten about.  Score!  That's why we went to the mall today.  I am now the proud owner of jeans that fit.  Hallelujah!

2.  We went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  Chick-Fil-A would normally be a blessing in itself, right?  Not only was I able to order grilled chicken nuggets and applesauce for Jack (yay for kinda-healthy fast food!), but when we finished our order, the manager came over and said, "You go find a table and I'll bring your food out to you."  Awesome for a momma with a toddler in a stroller plus a baby bump!  A few minutes later he came over with our food and said, "Here you go, Kendra!  Would you like a placemat for your son?"  And he stuck a disposable placemat on the table.  He later came over to trade Jack's toy for an "under 3" toy, and took our trash away.  Throughout our lunch I saw him bustling around the food court, refilling drinks and getting ketchup for all the customers who were enjoying delicious chicken.  Way to go, Chick-Fil-A.  Way. To. Go.

3.  Also in the food court....I noticed a couple tables over there were three older ladies who kept looking at us.  I figured it was because I was sitting next to a super cute kid.  He tends to attract the old ladies.  :)  But then one of them (the oldest one) came over and sat down at my table.  My first thought was that she was super confused, until she said, "Did you know that we are relation?"  "Um....no I didn't!"  And it turns out that her husband (now deceased) was cousins with my Grandma and Aunt Joy.  She's a Gerig!  AND she goes to Pathway.  AND she remembers visiting my Grandma and Grandpa in their assisted living facility and hearing me play piano for them.  She guessed I was about 18 back then.  TEN years ago.  Whoa.  She was not confused at all.  I asked her what her name was, and then I introduced myself as Kendra and she said, "Oh, I know your name."  Nothing like meeting distant relatives at the food court, huh?

4.  A couple weeks ago we were putting some of Jack's clothes away that he'd outgrown.  He had a couple Puma tracksuits that people gave him for his birthday last year that were SUPER cute and I LOVED putting on him last spring.  But sadly, they got put into the big plastic bins destined for the attic.  Today I walked into Macy's, totally minding my own business, and spotted toddler boy Puma tracksuits.  The price tag said $44.  Sorry, I'm not spending $44 on play clothes for a toddler.  And then I saw the sign above them said $19.99.  Yesssss!!!  But it gets better....I happened to look through my little pouch of gift cards in my purse and found a Macy's card for $20!  The two gold rings on it told me that we've had that card since October 11, 2008.  Whoever gave us that gift card for our wedding probably was not thinking I would use it on clothes for our two-year-old, but that's exactly what I did.  Ah-thank you.

5.  Last, but definitely not least.  I had gotten several texts while we were in the mall, so Jack and I took a break and sat on a bench so I could answer a few of them.  When I got done, I looked over at him and he was doing "Open them, shut them, open them, shut them," with his hands.  This is what they do in KidCity at Pathway before they pray.  So I did it with him.  When we got done with the little chant he put his hands in his lap and said, "Pray."  So we did.  We thanked God for days like today when we can go to the mall and have fun together.  We thanked God for Jack being SUCH a good boy while we were at the mall (which is a huge blessing in itself!).  And for everything that He's given us.

Normally I don't pray out loud on a bench in the middle of the mall.  But it just seemed fitting today.  Because Jack asked for it.  And because God really blessed the pants off us today.  Were any of these big, huge, life-changing blessings?  Nope.  But they definitely made our day more special.  And I'm so glad that Jack reminded me to thank Him for it.

Baby Dream Numero Dos

I had another dream about the baby.  It was much less eventful than the last one....

All I remember is that the baby was a girl.  And she had red hair.  And I kept calling her Kate, but that wasn't her name.  I guess I kept forgetting what we named her, so I just called her Kate instead.  And every time Dustin corrected me, but I don't remember what her actual name was!  

That's it.  Pretty uneventful.  

Except that we had a daughter.  Eeeek!  

Jack-isms

Okay, it's been awhile since I've blogged.  Not that life has been dull.  Just nothing that I've been moved to write about.  

Then last night Jack was going through some drawers and found his baby book.  That's supposed to record the first year of his life.  But really it was more like the first week of his life.  And then I fizzled out.  

I've never been good about scrap-booking, album-making, or baby-booking.  Just not my thing.  I'd like to think that Facebook keeps a pretty good record of life events, between the photo albums and my status updates.  And maybe this blog should do a little bit of that too.  

Jack is changing so fast, and learning new things so quickly that sometimes it's easy to forget what he was doing a few months ago, or even last week.  So here's what he's up to right now.

Top Ten Favorite Jack-isms of Right Now:

1.  "I see you!"  He loves looking through things: an empty paper towel tube, toy binoculars, or even the little holes in the middle of his cheese crackers.  He'll say it ten times in a row...."I see you, Mama!  I see you Daddy!"  

2.  "I do it!"  He loves trying to do things all by himself.  Oh, toddler independence.  

3.  "I did it 'self!"  When he succeeds at toddler independence.  So proud.

4.  "Help please, Mama."  Ahhhh I love this!  It's so sweet!  I usually hear this when he's playing a game on the iPad, or when he's trying to fill up his bathtub squirt toys with water. 

5.  "Fun!"  Everything is fun.  This morning the "fun!" things included eating a waffle, taking a bath, and sitting on a towel while I blow-dried his hair.  "Sit on towel fun!!!"  Okay kid, whatever you say.

6.  "I flush!"  He LOVES flushing the toilet, and any time Dustin or I mention we're going to the bathroom he comes running in, exclaiming, "I flush!  I flush!"  (Note:  he will also exclaim this very loudly in Target if you mention you have to go potty.)  

7. "Mama sit."  Soooo many times during the day he pats the space next to him and says, "Mama sit."  What a sweetie-pie, wanting to sit next to his Mama, and wanting her to take a break and relax for a few minutes.  (That's what he's thinking, right?)

8.  "Daddy hide upstairs!"  Every night at bedtime he wants Dustin to hide so he can go find him.  It's definitely one of our favorite parts of the day.  On the nights that Dustin's at work I hide instead, but I'm not as good at it as Daddy is.  

9.  Counting to ten.  Very, VERY loudly.

10.  "Manu!"  This is my absolute FAVORITE.  Manu is Jackanese for "love you."  Lots of his other Jackanese words are slipping away as he learns the actual words, but this one is still stuck.  And, not gonna lie, I hope it sticks for a long time!  I've starting telling him "manu" instead of "love you," hoping he won't learn the actual words yet.  And probably one of the sweetest things is when he pats my belly and says, "Manu, baby."  

There you have it.  The top ten Jack-isms of today.  They may change as soon as tomorrow, but today this is what he's like, this is what he's learning, and this is what I love about him.  And now I don't have to scrap-book about it.  :)