More Memories of my Jackie Jou

Anyone who has met Mootz has probably gotten their personality head check done. Jack was NO exception. She looked at his head and said, that he'd love music. And I don't know if she told everyone that (I think she did though) but she was right. Jack absolutely loved music. Any kind of music. He loved to sit up to the piano and just pound away and would laugh that grunty, squinty eyed little laugh. He loved it. Jack loved to dance. He would get this great big cheesy grin showing as many teeth as possible with his eyes so squinted I wonder if he could even see. Then he'd bop up and down to the beat of the music. He loved it! And we loved it more! He even dance in his car seat when we'd be driving. I remember driving to either my mom's or Honey's house and the song "Life is a Highway" sung by Rascal Flatts came on. I turned the radio up loud and turned my head to see Jack and Corbin and Jack had that great big smile and was trying to dance while strapped in. It was so cute and fun. I never want to forget. When he was in his high chair thingy attached to the table he would rock backwards and forwards really fast and just giggle. I would copy him and then we'd go back and forth dancing in our chairs. Corbin would do it too and Jack really got a kick out of that.

I have always come up with just ridiculous nicknames for the boys including Coby. Jackie had tons. I called him everything from, my little pumpkin, then it went to pumpkin doodle, then it was Doodle for a long time. Doodle??? I know so weird. Then I started calling him my little Muffin. Then muffin turned into Moofin, then Moofalata. I'd call him Lamb or Lammy and then it Lammy Lou then that turned into just Lou. Then it was Bubba then Bubba-ca-doodle then it was Bubba-ca-deedle-doodle...who knows? I've always made up stupid little songs for both of our boys. They never made sense, but after singing it over and over even Coby would start singing them. One song I'd sing for Jackie went, "Jackie Jackie Jou, Jackie Jou, Jackie Jou, Little tiny Jackie Jou, Jackie Jackie Jou." Another song like this, "Meefalata Moofin, Moofalata Meefin, Moofa, Meefa....Meefalata Moo". How weird is that??? But he LOVED it I know it! Whenever I was looking for him and I could still see him (but knew he couldn't see me) I'd do this: I'd close my mouth, clench my teeth and say, "Chigga Chigga Chigga" really fast over and over. No matter where he was he just start scanning the room looking for me and would get this cute sort of devious little smile. I melt just thinking about it.

He loved closing the armoire doors. He'd open then, then close them over and over. What he really loved was finding a DVD or CD of some kind and would slide it across LCD screen. I think he may have scratched it. I'll treasure that scratch now. He LOVED unplugging everything he could find. He'd unplug the TV, vacuum, and fan. But the most irratating plug was the one that contained the TV and reciever because we'd have to wait like five minutes for it to reset. Oh how I wished he'd just unplug it right now. I'd give anything and wouldn't get mad, but would be so happy to see the look on his face as he did it "on purpose". He loved to play with the fly swatter. He'd just walk around holding it. Often he'd lose it when I would see a stupid fly land and couldn't find where he left it.

I think I mentioned before that he loved the toilet. He just loved the bathroom. No matter how many times I'd hide the nasty, germ infested toilet brush or plunger...he'd always find them again. You'd think I'd learn to put them up into a higher location that he couldn't get. But I'd always catch him walking around with one or the other. Once I thought I'd put the plunger in the garage. I thought that would be a good place since the cars were there and probably couldn't find. WRONG again! I was watering the red petunias in our front garden and lo and behold Jack found the plunger and I couldn't get it away from him. Corbin wanted to ride his bike so there I was trying to get Corbin to come a little closer to our house, Jack had his trusty plunger and of course...here comes one of our neighbors. I often wondered what kind of mother I must have appeared to be....One who obviously didn't care about germs! :)

Once when the weather was getting nice I think around May of this year Coby was home from work and found the little red wagon. Corbin got in for a ride and we put Jackie in front and told him to hold tight to his little brother. We went on a little walk around our little culdasac. It was so cute, Corbin holding onto Jackie. I thought anyone watching had to be thinking the same thing..."what a cute family". I turned my head for one second and noticed that Jackie was no longer in the wagon but had fallen out and was silently screaming on the pavement. Of course, THEN the neighbors were all out and had just witnessed my "mother of the year" moment. Jackie got a little scratch on his head that I was afraid would scar permanently. I did eventually go away...but it seemed like it took about a month.

Jack has always gotten a kick out of seeing himself in any mirror. He must have known just how perfectly beautiful he really was. He would always slap the mirror and laugh with his head thrown back and his eyes shut. It was so fun to see. I miss that alot. I remember getting ready for the day in our bathroom upstairs and would hear him slapping our standing mirror and merrily laughing that cute grunty laugh. I would think, I should really wash the mirror when he takes a nap today. I never got a chance to do it. And unfortunately, someone cleaned the mirror before we came back and so I don't have those beautiful little prints to remind me. I still have one on our big mirror going up the stairs and I don't think I'll be able to wash it. I know that must sound crazy, but they are little reminders that he was here. That he was real. That he was my baby and I miss him more than anything.

Another thing he just loved to do was to be tossed into the air. Coby would throw him so high and I must admit it would make me a tichy nervous, but Jack just LOVED it! We play a game where Coby would be holding Jack facing out and then I'd be standing across from them and we'd both say, "one...two...three" and then throw Jack back and forth. He would get so excited as we started counting. I loved it. We got tired, but I'm sure he never did.

He loved brushing his 12 little teeth. He'd anxiously wait for me to get Corbin's electric Shrek toothbrush wet, put a dab of toothpaste on it and then he'd push the button to turn it on and just let the vibrating brush clean his little teeth. He was so smart. He knew just how to do it. I would tell him to do little things and he knew what I said and would do the action. For example, he always helped me get his bottle ready. He knew to pull the microwave door open, would slam it shut and then I'd press most of the buttons and then he'd finally push the Start button. Afterward, he'd look at me with such amazement. As if to say, "Did you see what I did, mom...did ya see??" I'd tell him to turn on and off the lights and he loved playing that game. That could go on and on until I had to distract him with something else. Rarely could we get things by without Jack noticing. He always noticed when we had a drink with a straw and could drink and drink until the cows came home. Fruit snacks were his favorite. If he noticed a fruit snack wrapper, he'd get it and bring it to me and grunt. I always had a stash on hand because he loved them so much.

He loved to drink anything out of a cup. He would begin to drink it, only he'd tip his head so far back that the whole cup of whatever was in the cup was all over him. He'd usually gasp and then look around to see if anyone else saw what happened and then laugh, dripping wet. He loved being wet. He loved water. He really loved taking baths with Corbin. He had so much fun letting Corbin dump water over his head over and over again. He loved splashing. It would seem that the more water he'd splash on whoever was holding him, the better. He sure got a kick out of that. I couldn't tell you how many times I would catch Corbin spraying some sort of water on him via the hose, a squirt gun, one time it was "urine out". And Jack just loved it. He loved Corbin so much. Any attention he got from Corbin was just fine with Jack. I feel bad that Corbin will miss out on that. On being Jack's big brother. We always used to say that Corbin had better watch out because Jack would soon be bigger than him and then he'd really be in trouble.

Coby's brother Ben, commented after the accident that he thought Jack loved to eat everything because he must have known his time was limited and he wanted to taste as many things as possible. I think Ben was right. Jack LOVED eating...obviously. There wasn't much he wouldn't eat. Sometimes that wasn't always a good thing. When I finally stopped nursing and switched Jack to formula, his little bowels had a hard time adjusting. My sweet little baby would get so "plugged" up that it would make me sad to see him trying to hard to trying and his little poopies out. I would pump his legs and talk to him. Once though, he pushed so hard that he literally ROCKET launched that little poopy all the way onto my pajama bottoms. It was gross, but I was so happy that it was out that it didn't bother me!

Just a couple months ago, he learned to blow. He would blow on each bite of his food, copying me or Coby as we were trying to feed him. It was so cute. He would do this little tiny puffs of air with those red lips of his. I loved seeing him do it.

I loved how it felt when he would hold my hand as we walked different places. He little head came up to exactly where my hands fell to my sides and I used to love to pull his soft little toe head into my legs and hug him. During church he was so cute. His favorite place to be was in the church gym with Corbin. I think he liked the echo he made while running through the empty, semi dark room, looking to see that I was chasing him. The joy I would see on his face made it impossible to be irritated that I was missing some important lesson during sacrament. I used to chase him and tell him,"Oh, you BETTER RUN...." and he'd laugh such a sweet and fun laugh and try to get as far away from me as possible. He'd run so fast without bending his knees and would usually fall because he was trying to turn around to see that I was still chasing him.

He loved to share. He was always sharing and was eager to do so willingly. I never met a child so willing. His last Sunday in church he and our cute neighbor, Taylor just played during sacrament with the plethera of food I brought to keep the kids busy. He would pick the fruity cheerios up and hold them and then just kindly hand them to Taylor who happily accepted. It was sweet to watch him.

He was so tenderhearted and sensitive. We never had to yell at him, just tell him "No" and he'd start crying. It would break our hearts, but it was so cute at the same time. If I yelled at Corbin, he'd cry because of the tension. Such an angel. He loved to give kisses. They were usually open mouthed kisses, but kisses still the same. I sure could use one of those right about now. How much longer until the millenium??????

When Jack was about 6 months old we went to Disneyland. It was at the beginning of December. We were standing in line for the new "Finding Nemo" ride. Corbin was taking a nap. Jack was in the Moby. Coby was bored and wanted to get an ice cream bar. I'm not a fan, but Jack sure was! He couldn't get enough of that Mickey Mouse ice cream bar we spent about $5 on! His eyes got HUGE with excitement and he mouth opened to probably it's FULL capacity. He wanted MORE and quicker the better. Coby and Jack shared that ice cream bar and entertained everyone around us in line.

Jack loved animals. He loved our dog Jasmine. He loved to sit on her and poke her eyes. The day after the funeral Coby and I were missing Jackie pretty bad. We were at the gravesite reading all the fun memories other people had of him and were crying pretty hard. All of the sudden a blond lab, with the color of Jack's hair came up out of no where. He was so excited to see us. He just wanted to play. He jumped on us and licked us (it's a good thing we like dogs) and then sat there looking at us as if to say, "C'mon...let's play...!" Coby and I were so taken back that we both started laughing at this crazy dog. Then as we started laughing, the dog just ran away. We don't know where that dog came from or who he belonged to, as there was no one else there. We just looked at each other and said, "That's Jackie". I don't mean that we thought Jack was a dog, just that Jack sent that dog with blond fur to cheer us up and lift our spirits. I did work for a few minutes anyway.