So if all goes well with inspections and negotiations and everything, this could be my new digs!

Maybe :)

Be my echo

I know I'm biased and all, but I don't care who you are...this is toothache cute right here:

Pictures! We got pictures!

We encourage playing with your food :)

And playing in the snow for the first time was

awesome!

Mama's favorite part is warming up afterward.

How did it get to be February?

So record time since last post - do I get a prize or something?

Honestly, I have had a typical winter with a kid in daycare....SICK!

The holidays were grand, and for the most part everyone managed to stay reasonably healthy. We got lots and lots of family time with my folks coming down, Sara came in and ROCKED it on New Year's Eve, and we got to see Jon's family in Nashville, so it was great. Then came the bugs and they will not QUIT, y'all!

Jack started it all with a super high fever that freaked me out, and when that subsided, the virus turned into a continual two week cold. He then got the Pray For Death tummy bug that went around the schools here like wild fire. Then I got it, then Jon got it, then I got the cold, and thank the gods Jon didn't, and now I have a vicious sinus infection (the kind that makes you feel like all your upper teeth are going to fall out), and Jack has a double ear infection.

Because I've already bored myself with this pitiful account, I will shut up now and stop whining.

Besides, it's mid-February, Spring can't be far, and maybe we'll get a month or two before the allergies kick in :)

Delirious...

There's no other reason this could be so funny. He must have just been completely slap-happy.

BUT, I could listen to this every day of my life and never get tired of it.

It must be love :)

Birthday Pics!

Happy Birthday, Jack

My darling baby,

It's your first birthday, and you have no idea why we've been acting so crazy all day! You can't figure it out, but you seem to like it anyway :)

You won't remember today because you're only one, but I thought I would tell you about it here so you can read it yourself some day:

The start to your first birthday was exciting because we played with you before daycare, and there were all sorts of new toys in the living room that weren't there before.

Then, we gave you breakfast at home and it was something new and sweet called a cupcake.

When you got to school, everyone sang to you and smiled at you all day.

After nap time, you got ANOTHER sweet cupcake, and all the other babies did too! Everyone was very sticky and very happy.

Then I came to get you, and we came home and you played with Buddy and the new toys while I fixed your very favorite dinner: Mac and Cheese, Broccoli, and Chicken Nuggets.

When you got tired, we played in the tub for a long time, and I made you laugh by squirting you with the raccoon toy.

Once you were all snug and dry, and teeth brushed, and hair combed and all ready for bed, we played your favorite game, "try to get away and then get caught and tickled" until you were so tired you were ready to snuggle without a fight.

The last thing we did on this very special day was rock and sing in the rocking chair until you were sleeping. You were so sweet, and so very precious to me that I held you for much longer than you needed me to, and I smiled and smiled at my sweet baby that's somehow turned into a big boy when I wasn't looking.

Then I tucked you in, and tiptoed out of your room.

Happy birthday, sweetheart.

I love you.

Mama

Halloween

Jack-Jack was Peter Pan for his first Halloween. I made his costume out of white clothes dyed green, and then forgot I put them in the wash. That's ok - I always wanted mint green bras and socks!

Here are some pics from daycare (apparently he was visiting the older kids class for the party):

After school we went over to Uncle H's and gave out candy - there must have been 350 trick or treaters that came by before 8pm. He has the best neighborhood by far. Of course we joined in the fun:

Friday Vids

This one's from early September when he first figured out how to clap. Please ignore the giant head wound - he dove off the guest bed and brained himself on the nightstand a few minutes before this was taken.

Those of you that are familiar with our yard know that it's basically a hill. This can be tricky for the balance-challenged toddler, but as you see here, Jack invented a CRAZY arm movement that apparently helps. Either that, or he's working on his hep-cat walk.

If this were a dance move, I'd call it the "Jive Turkey".

ay ay ay

How can we have a child in his terrible twos in the body of an 11-month old?

All this walking early and feeding himself early has led to an obsession to do everything for himself, and to have a FIT including TEARS if he needs help to figure something out. Of course it's worse when he's tired, it's not 24/7 or anything, but Lord have mercy I hope he comes out the other side of this phase as early as he decided to get into it.

On top of that, he can lift heavy things and run really fast, but he doesn't have the brain development to understand that this means he can drop the something heavy on his foot, or run faster than he can control. Bruises, bumped noses, and bonked heads are pretty much the order of the day around here.

I've decided this all because of Jon's genes :)))))

upon review...

So I was just looking back over Laura's wedding pics and thinking about what a great time we all had when I came across a couple that look slightly suspicious.

We've all seen this look before:

"He's mine and you can't have him!"

But then to try to get your own sister as a co-conspirator?

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it still counts as kidnapping even if he is crazy about you."

I've got my eye on you, Oma...

Good morning!

June, this one's to help you start your day with a smile :)

We've got a toddler, folks.

Hello my darlings! Sorry it's been a while, but you know I have a good excuse :)

Behold! The toddler:

hehehehe

My favorite is when he holds his arms out in front of him for balance and kind of growls while he's walking - he looks just like the monster in Young Frankenstein.

In addition to being fully mobile and into everything, he has also decided that he is way too big for baby food and insists on only eating finger foods. His favorites right now are mac and cheese, grilled chicken, meatballs, ham, broccoli florets, carrots, and sugar snap peas.

I can't say I blame him for not finding baby food very appetizing, but honestly, isn't 9 months old a bit young for me to have to be packing a lunch for him!?!

Does this mean he's developmentally equivalent to a chimp?

I mean 'cause of being able to use tools...he certainly crawls like a chimp...

Tag! You're it!

Crawling or walking?

I turned around on Sunday to find the baby standing up in the middle of his play pen holding onto nothing but a length of plastic chain links tethered to the edge of the pen (I call it his "kennel"). He was just standing there balancing and grinning at me while looking extremely pleased with himself.

I'd call that definite progress on the walking front.

But there's also this crazy crab-scoot he's been doing lately that might be described as a form of crawling, and he definitely can get wherever he wants to go:

I dunno whether the scoot counts as crawling first or if he's going to just go directly from scoot to walking, but either way, we need to baby-proof the house STAT! He's already decided that he loves climbing on the Roomba and pulling DVDs off shelves. Doubtless bobby pins in wall sockets will be next.

Best dollar we ever spent...

And to think we would have missed out on this if we hadn't checked out the dollar bins at Target.

So close you can TASTE it!

This kid is either going to walk or crawl any minute, but today it's looking more like crawling (accompanied by the requisite flirtation).

Caution! This is so funny you will pee your pants.

Ok, so a bunch of 80's videos were weird, but I had forgotten how completely whack this one was... WTF? I thought everyone was doing coke in the 80's, but clearly some hallucinogens were involved in the creation of this little beauty.

Total Eclipse spoof
by chinesedaughter

Nashville!

Spent the weekend in Nashville and had a LOVELY time getting caught up and visiting. Jack-Jack decided to turn on the charm and not turn it off again. He flirted so shamelessly with all and sundry that I suspect we're going to have a hard time trying to leave...

This is how much he likes his cousins: