When I was a small girl, my father used to sing Clementine to me before bed. This song made me cry (I'm not sure how this assisted in putting me to sleep, but I have fond memories of rocking in a chair and singing this very sad song.) So yesterday, when Jack was having trouble going to sleep and was screaming in my ear, I decided to try and sing. He was suddenly transfixed when I started the chorus, but I realized I am still struck by this song. Every time I got to the part "you are lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry, Clementine", I would start to get a little choked up.

So I'm not much of a vocalist. But the singing seems to be working. I went through every Girl Scout song I know, a few Carpenters hits, some Eagles and a little Mamas and Papas. (it was a rough afternoon.) Hopefully this will not scar the little guy too badly.

Tonight we headed off to dinner with Grandma Gloria and Great Aunt Cissy. Here is Jack contemplating dinner:



Maybe if I fill him full of salmon he'll sleep through the night?

Actually, last night was a tad bit better. He ate at 11, woke up at 3 but went right back to sleep, ate at 4 and slept until 6. THEN, he took a 2 and a half hour nap this morning. Instead of showering, doing laundry, cleaning up, I just got back into bed and slept. It was wonderful – I got to just keep sleeping. We'll see how tonight goes. I'm just about to feed him and get back into bed!

Jack and Lucca relaxed on the couch this evening. As Joe knows, these dogs are about 2 centimeters away from getting kicked out of the house, so I thought I’d better put some pictures up for Joe to remember them by.

I want to thank “anonymous” for the tips regarding feeding and sleeping. I have pretty much realized he is going to sleep when he is ready, but last night was interesting. After doing some reading about infant sleep, I started to wonder about why he is waking up. Is he REALLY hungry? Or am I just picking him up, feeding him, putting him back down, because that is the easiest thing to do with a woken up baby?

So I put him down at 8:45 and he went right to sleep. At 11, right before I went to bed, I nursed him and he didn’t wake up. At 1 he woke up because he was wet (so much for baby dry diapers). We changed him and put him back down. At 4 he woke again, and this time I took a good look at him before scooping him up. His eyes were closed, he was making noise but he didn’t really appear to be awake. I gave him back the pacifier and watched. He fell back asleep.

So at 6 of course he was ready to eat (and I was ready to feed him, let me tell you). He ate his normal amount and seemed fine. It’s important to note here that he has steadily gained weight and has more than doubled his birth weight, so I am not concerned about his intake at all.

So something is waking him up, but I don’t think it’s hunger. Of course being wet will do it, but what woke him at 4? I’m not sure, but tonight will continue the experiment.

As for alcohol and breastfeeding, I understand this is a controversial topic. I choose to drink wine and breastfeed my baby. I made this decision after pretty extensive research on the topic. Here is an excerpt from La Leche League's BREASTFEEDING ANSWER BOOK (pp. 509-510)

“Occasional or light drinking of alcoholic beverages has not been found to be harmful to the breastfeeding baby. Moderate-to-heavy alcohol consumption by the breastfeeding mother may interfere with the let-down, or milk-ejection reflex, inhibit milk intake, affect infant motor development, slow weight gain, and cause other side effects in the baby.”

The lactation consultant I went to after Jack was born said up to two glasses of wine will not impact the baby. If I am having wine, I will drink it right after I feed the baby, which gives me over 3 hours to have it work through my system. I have also asked the nurses at my pediatricians office, and they assure me that the amount I consume is safe.

So I guess I’m saying I did not make this decision rashly. I enjoy wine. I believe it will not harm my baby, and therefore I drink it. I know people disagree with me, but both Joe and I are comfortable with the way we are raising the baby so far.

Tomorrow we don’t have any plans, other than sharing a birthday dinner with Jack’s Great Aunt Cissy. I’ll make sure to get some good pictures of him tomorrow!

Jack will be 3 months old tomorrow, so I spent the morning doing a bit of reading about sleep habits of babies at his age. I know this is supposedly a milestone, where some mothers say their babies become significantly easier. I'm not too hopeful, but you never know. (I mean, how is he supposed to know he's 3 months old?)

So apparently, he is supposed to be taking 3 naps a day for a total of 5 hours – this is pretty consistent with what Anne told me to do a month ago and so we've been working on that for a while. Then at night he should sleep 10-11 hours and maybe get up once to eat during that time. I realized I didn't have a good idea of how long he was sleeping, so just as I did with the whole feeding fiasco when we first brought him home, I created an excel spreadsheet to track his naps today.

It appears he is not getting enough sleep during the day. I still don't think that is why he is getting up so much at night, but it's good to know. I just put him down at 6 for a final nap that would need to be almost 2 hours long for him to get the prescribed nappage. Maybe tomorrow we will be more successful.

As for night sleeping, since he doesn't need to be getting up so much, I am going to try and not feed him as often tonight and see how it goes. For example, last night he ate at midnight, 3 and 6, but he was also up at 5 and I didn't feed him. So maybe tonight if he gets up at 3 I'll just try to get him to go back to sleep. He can be very persuasive when he wants to eat, however.

I gave him the ball to play with again. And again it made him very angry that he couldn't get it in his mouth. Here you can see how much fun it is before he gets mad:



Joe has been concerned about the dogs. He thinks they don't get enough attention, so he often comes home and babies them a little too much. This, of course, makes me crazy. So here, just for Joe, is a picture of what me the dogs and I do while the baby is napping:



See Joe? They are happy and fine. (Please notice I finally painted my toenails. The last time they were painted was in the hospital, so they were due.)

In unrelated news, my nephew fell down and hurt his head. I have never seen a more expressive child than this adorable little guy. (Sorry to Vincent, but he just looked too cute and sad to pass up.)



Joe's trial starts Monday, which means the boy and I are on our own for the weekend. We are very excited for him though – it's his first trial and he's getting some fantastic experience. I just wish he would let me go and watch.

There is still no sleeping through the night. But there is going to visit wine bars with my friends. Amazing how a day out can lift a girl's spirits. Here is Jack hanging out in his stroller:



He had quite a day and even got to regard Angus across the couch. I couldn't get a picture because I was holding him up, but some day I'll get a good picture of the two of them as well as Mac.

It is early, but I'm going to lie down and hope the guy is planning to sleep for a bit. He finally fell asleep about 30 minutes ago, so I feel a little rushed to get to bed while I have the chance.

We met our friend Elissa for lunch today at Cowboy Ciao's in Scottsdale. I highly recommend this restaurant, but their wines by the glass list is a total joke. Seriously people, should we spend $18 on a GLASS of wine? I think not. I settled for the $8 Cabernet from South Africa (indeed), and it was fine. The chopped salad is wonderful, and the service was excellent.

I haven't seen Elissa in a while, probably since I was about 6 months pregnant. We have been in touch via email off and on, but in December she was out of commission with the "flu". Turns out it was no flu at all. She's pregnant! Now, this news is very exciting to me, but she told Travis Cooley and didn't tell me? I mean, I introduced them, they are only friends because of me. Shouldn't I have known first? Sheesh. (And Elissa, if you're reading this, I'm totally kidding. I'm only mad at JOE for not telling me. Am I the last one on earth to know????)

Anyhow, here she is getting some practice with little Jack, right before he started to cry:



Doesn't she look great? All glowy and stuff. She's 18 weeks along and just gone done with the sick part, but hasn't gotten to the really overwhelmingly fat part.

From lunch we headed up to Grandma's house. Since Joe is working late these days it is best to get out of the house when we can during the day. Otherwise by the time he gets home we're both going a little stir crazy.

Jack is this close to sitting up. Here you can see him practicing on the chair. He was having a great time – laughing and smiling. (He certainly knows how to work his Grandma.)



Later they played on the floor. (That quilt is hand made by my mom. I tried to warn her he may spit up or possibly leak body fluids. She didn't seem to care. Jack can do no wrong…)



And one more shot of him showing off the super-cute sweater vest and plaid linen pants:



Now he is passed out cold – sleeping right through his normal feeding time at 8 p.m. Poor guy – so much activity in one day wears him out. We are both happy to be home and in our pjs for a relaxing evening with the dogs.

So the formula experiment was a complete failure. Well, not complete – it was funny to watch Joe give Jack a bottle. Jack kept turning his head to nurse, which doesn't work so well with a bottle and a man. And of course he kept falling asleep instead of eating. But he took 4 ounces of formula and fell right asleep. Four and a half hours later he was awake and ready to eat again.

Call me crazy, but an extra hour and a half is not really worth the stress of formula feeding, so we will be returning to our regularly scheduled nursing program. He's going to sleep through the night when he's darn good and ready, and not a minute before. I've got to realize I cannot compare him to other babies – it's not fair and it certainly doesn't help me any.

As I've said before, he's lucky he's so darned cute:



My Aunt Cathy sent him a toy, and while I was getting ready for lunch today I thought I'd see how he liked it:



This was before he got frustrated that it wouldn't fit in his mouth and started to scream. Shortly thereafter he collapse in a heap and gave my dad and I time to enjoy our lunch:



Joe is going to be late tonight. His trial starts Monday and he's feeling a little pressure to be ready. Luckily he left beef stew cooking in the crock pot, so I will eat some and go to bed. Tomorrow is another day – we're going to have lunch with Elissa and maybe go up and visit my mom for a bit.

Jack finally likes the swing, he's found the toys on the tray and seemed to have a good time hanging out there. This is a relief because sometimes I just need a place for him to sit still for a moment. Here he is (of course while sucking his fist)



He was there this morning while I rushed around getting ready. We were running out to meet Mac and Julie in Mesa and it seems to take six and a half years to get ready these days.

I'm getting so bad about taking pictures – I really should have one of Jack and Mac talking to one another. It was the first time they realized the other one existed and they would talk back and forth to one another at the yarn store. (I think they were saying "Hey Mac, isn't yarn shopping fun?" and "Yeah, Jack, you should have your mom come to the yarn store more often.")

I did get one of Jack sleeping in his stroller.



It was nice to get out and spend some time with Julie. It's hard with two new babies and I feel like every time we get together it's hard to talk. Today the boys cooperated somewhat and we got to chat a little and compare war stories. It's funny how much we worried about childbirth and that was the easiest part of this entire process.

So Jack is almost 3 months old and he just doesn't sleep at all. I've had many recommendations for how to get him to sleep longer, some of which I have tried, some of which I have not. Apparently the one I am most reluctant to try – feeding him formula at night instead of nursing – is the one that has the most success.

But why am I so opposed to formula? Some people are huge supporters of this remedy, and others think I'm crazy for considering it. I can't believe how much opinion and emotion is wrapped up in the feeding of an infant. Isn't the idea to get the child fed and keep the mother from completely losing her mind?

So despite this controversy, I will be handing Jack a bottle tonight and keeping my fingers crossed.

On the teething front, there still is not a sign of a tooth other than excessive drooling, biting of fists, grabbing of cheeks, and general unhappiness. I finally got the homeopathic teething remedies I ordered (my mom's cousin Jan sent her an email about these, they are made by Hylands. I actually had already ordered them, but I'm glad to hear they work for someone else.) I am going to try them with no Tylenol tomorrow and see how they work.

Joe is on his way home. Tonight I am actually cooking (I know, shock of the century), so I have to get in the kitchen and get the chicken defrosting. We're having a recipe that is normally called "Chicken and Rice", but since I am on this new diet I will be making it with barley instead. We'll see how it works.

Jack is suddenly sleeping better – he ate last night at 10:30, again at 2:15, and again at 5:30. That meant I got about 6 ½ hours of sleep, which of course also meant I had to go to the gym this morning, which of course means now I am drooping with a different kind of tiredness.

This morning we got ready to go to Grandma’s house and Jack looked so cute I had to set him up for a picture. He really can ALMOST sit up on his own:



And a few shots of him out at the mall with Gloria:





Doesn’t the last one look like he’s tired of having his picture taken? He must think he is famous and we are the paparazzi sometimes.

A note about this outfit. The pants are made of 100% linen. I don’t buy linen for myself because it’s such a pain to take care of, and I was reminded of this fact when I was ironing these adorable pants this morning. I ironed for a 3 month old baby. I certainly never thought that was possible.

There are other things I find myself doing that, had you asked me six months ago, I would have told you there was no way I would EVER do that to my baby.
1. Leave him on the changing table without holding on to him. (The sides are sloped inward. He hasn’t come close to falling off yet.)
2. Put him in a crib with a blanket (this was the only way I could transition him to the crib, by putting his fluffy blanket under him.)
3. Dress him in ridiculous outfits that will horrify him when he’s older. (I can’t help this. The plaid was just too compelling.)
4. Move him out of my room before he was 3 months old.
5. Sleep in bed with him.
6. Leave him with a stranger. (I haven’t done this yet, but the YMCA has infant care where I can drop him off and go work out. I’m seriously considering it.)

I think that’s it for now, although as time passes I assure you there will be plenty more. I surprise myself daily as a mom. I never imagined I would be very good at it, but here he is thriving away so I must be doing okay. My friend Michelle told me today she thought I was doing a great job managing the motherhood thing, and that was a great compliment to get.

For the past few nights, Jack has woken up soaking wet. You would think this normal for a small baby, but I am flabbergasted by the positioning of the wetness. Often, his diaper will be completely dry and there will be a circular wet spot in the center of his back. It’s as if I’ve accidentally placed him on a small puddle of water, or as if he had sprung a leak directly from his spine. There is really no good explanation for this.

To remedy the situation, we switched diapers. We went from Pampers “Swadlers” to Pampers “Baby Dry”. As my mom pointed out, isn’t the goal of all diapers to keep the baby dry? Perhaps, but what have we got to lose? So tonight will be the test run of the baby drys.

It rained most of the weekend so we didn’t do a whole heck of a lot. Grocery shopping and lunch out were about all we could handle on Saturday. Today my parent stopped by to visit. I dressed Jack up in his Hawaiian shirt we got as a gift from my Aunt Cathy:



I think the beagle is a little jealous:



During a break in the weather (seriously, it’s been raining all winter here), we all went out for a walk. I think Jack really likes his new stroller attachment, and he made a friend named Sophie who lives a few streets away. (Ok, so I made friends with the parents. The babies don’t really notice one another yet.) They are starting a play group in the neighborhood and invited me.

Later on, Jack and Joe read the New York Times together and had a glass of wine.



I couldn’t decide which picture I liked better, so here is the other one:



Tomorrow morning I am taking Jack to visit Grandma Gloria. Kim and I are going to have a real live adult lunch without any children. No food court for us!

I started a diet today. Jack will be 12 weeks old tomorrow and I still have 15 pounds to lose of my baby weight. Add to that I was trying to lose 15 pounds before I got pregnant, and you see I'm 30 pounds away from my goal weight. I once hired a personal trainer and she told me that 80% of weight loss comes from what you put in your mouth. I'm afraid that is probably true since I eat horribly and – no surprise – am not losing weight.

The good news is Weight Watchers has a new plan that I think will suit me just fine. There is a list of approved foods and you can eat as many of them as you want. Then you only have to count the foods that don't appear on the list. We'll see how well it works. The bad news is wine has 2 points. Wine will always be my downfall when it comes to weight loss.

I went to give Jack a bath last night and realized he no longer needed the little newborn hammock in his tub. He fits just in the normal tub on his own. He was a little confused by the floating sensation, but I think he grew to like it okay.



When I went to get him dressed I realized ALL of his footed sleepers were dirty. He only has about 57 of them, and I was surprised they were all dirty. No worries, I found this cute little long underwear outfit for him to sleep in. He had to wear socks, but he looked pretty darned cute.



This weekend we're going to a rugby game provided it doesn't rain. If it does rain, who knows what we will do? Joe is pretty tired from work, and I imagine there will be lots of lazing around the house.

The mom car suffered some severe damage two days ago. Yes, I ran into a wall. Yes the door is ruined. Yes, I have to be without my car for a week. No, you shouldn't laugh at me.

Last night we went knitting and everyone was asking me how I'm doing. As always with my knitting friends I was honest. I'm tired. I long for 8 hours of sleep like my dog longs for a walk. This Saturday marks 12 weeks and I feel like I'm slowly turning into a different person. And she's not very nice.

Jack of course is doing just dandy. Here he is last night with Kathy from knitting:



She made a hat and jacket for a baby and needed a baby model. Jack was happy to oblige.



Now, I know he looks a little drugged. I'm not sure why – both pictures came out like that. I swear I didn't feed him wine.

We had to scoot out of knitting early. Our day was action packed, and I think Jack had enough of it by about 8. He was pretty darned fussy and tired, but didn't want to go to sleep. I spent about 45 minutes trying to get him down while Joe cooked dinner. Finally there was a small lull from the crib. I ran out to try and eat my soup (Miso Chicken Soup from the Williams Sonoma Soup cookbook. Excellent recipe.)

Joe said "Why did he go down so quickly?"

Um. Quickly?

Of course, immediately following that comment there was a screech from the other room. I finally resorted to the couch for the babe and a tv tray for my soup. It worked, and I got to eat.

Today we have to run a few errands. Specifically I have to buy a new keyboard for the computer, as I spilled hot tea in it yesterday and it hasn't quite been the same since. (I also spilled a small amount of hot tea on Jack's foot, but we don't need to discuss that. He's fine, really.)

Yesterday Jack and I ran some errands and visited our friend Carla at work. She happens to work right next to the yarn distributor where I do test knitting, so we hung out in the parking lot and chatted.

I'm beginning to realize how few pictures there are of me and Jack – mostly because I'm always sitting around in my pajamas and don't feel like being photographed. Also I'm the one taking the pictures all the time and I have not mastered the self portrait.

So last night I had Joe take a picture of me and the baby. I actually got dressed (it was Valentine's Day after all) but Jack was in his usual stripey footed sleeper.



Notice the calm dog looking on from the kitchen. I remembered we used to give her Valerian when we lived in California, so I tried it again. She was very pleasant and sleepy the entire evening.

Today Grandma is coming over so I can get my eyes checked. I may try to sneak out for a pedicure as well, since my toes are not looking so hot and summer is just around the corner here.

Yesterday we took Jack on the Willo Home tour. Every year a bunch of people open up their homes and let strangers walk through. It’s very popular because ours is one of the few truly historic neighborhoods in Phoenix (which means the houses were built in the 20s and 30s. Everything else here is new)

First we had to test out the stroller and make sure Jack would fit. We decided he was too big for the basinet attachment, so we put on the regular seat. Here he is in his pjs checking it out:



Then we set out to tour, Joe pushing and me just meandering along:



And finally, a shot of the sign. The sun was bright on the little guy so I had to take the picture quickly.



We had a fun day, and Jack was in a relatively good mood because of Tylenol. Poor thing is in pain, and I don’t want to keep up Tylenol forever! If anyone has good suggestions out there, Julie and I would be most appreciative. The teething rings are too big, they are too small to eat anything, and they are too young for the Ora-Gel products. So we’re stuck with Tylenol for now.

Jack went to his first movie Friday. We saw Finding Neverland and he was mostly good through the whole thing. There was a small incident of crying, but I took him in the hall and he fell asleep for the rest of the movie. Parley (my regular movie companion) won’t see movies with the baby because he demands absolute silence throughout his movie-going experience. Fortunately my parents don’t have the same requirements so they went with us. I will say it was slightly stressful trying to keep him quiet, but I was glad I got to see a movie.

Jack has started lifting his head on his own, here’s a picture proving it:



He’s also standing up (as long as someone holds on to him) and trying to sit up. Oh, and he’s started teething. Thank goodness for Tylenol.

Our neighbors came by and gave him a new stylish Tommy Hilfiger outfit. Here he is sort of sitting up in it:



Then yesterday he went to visit Joe’s parents while Joe and I went on a date! They took him to the Greek Festival in Tempe. Here he is actually completely asleep, he just has his arms in the air for dramatic effect:



And with his Grandma:

When I lived in Palo Alto I used to go to the mall and get annoyed by all the women with their strollers, walking around completely oblivious to the rest of the world. They took up space at tables and ignored the fact that I, the important business person, was in a hurry and needed to get around them.

Ha!

If I could go back and talk to that former me, I would tell her to walk around and be quiet about it. My life was so easy – jump in the car, speed over to the mall, run in, grab a sandwich, run out. No longer is that the case. There is no jumping, speeding, running, grabbing in my life. It takes a mere 75 minutes to get out of the house now, and lugging, maneuvering, and ambling have become my action verbs of choice.

And I now think the food court is a good choice for lunch with friends. I mean, you can get anything you want to eat, there is plenty of seating, and it’s noisy enough to drown out the crying babies.

Yesterday we met Kim, Julie and the various offspring for a quick lunch:



That’s Gemma, Kim’s 3 year old daughter next to Jack and my mom.

And here’s Mac saying “oooooo” and trying to make a run for it out of the stroller:



Today we’re going to attempt a movie. My parents saw Sideways the other day and said the theater was practically empty. So we are going to drag little Jack to see Neverland. Only two weeks left until the Oscars and I have yet to see a single nominated movie. Tomorrow is Sideways with Joe – the only one he will see – while we have his parents babysit for us. Only three more after that!

At the drycleaners this morning they asked me if I was getting good sleep yet. It's all relative, I suppose, because last night I got 7 hours. Of course that was punctuated by 2 feedings, but still, 7 hours is 7 hours.

The guy has been in a great mood, smiling and laughing and have a heck of a time. Of course every time I get out the camera he puts on a serious face:



I've even tried to video the laughing, but he won't have it. One of these days I'll get it, I may have to sneak up on him or something.

I tried to replicate the naked pictures I took when he was really small. He wasn't convinced:



But I did get this cute one before he started throwing too big of a fit:



Today we're heading off to Chandler to visit Julie, Mac, Kim and Angus. I wanted to leave by 11 to make an eye appointment, but for once the guy is taking a really long morning nap. He's been asleep in his crib for an hour, when usually he only sleeps about 45 mintues or so. Oh well, I guess you can't plan these kids, huh?

So as a confirmed Stay-at-Home-Mom, I am faced with particular challenges. Like how to maintain sanity when my job involves interacting with a small alien all day long. But last night was another dose of the reality. Joe had to work late. Like eleven p.m. late. (Julie is going through something similar, her husband took his first overnight business trip since the baby was born.)

Nights like this are really hard. And it's not like I can complain to Joe – he doesn't want to be there any more than I want him there. (Plus it would open the door for him complaining to me about being a mega-bitch all the time. So far he's been smart enough to avoid that.) When he got home, the baby was already long asleep and he missed his nightly interaction with the guy. He wanted to wake him up (!), but of course I couldn't allow that.

I took some pictures of the view of Jack from my lap. Unfortunately he wasn't smiling, but I can tell you he smiles and laughs a lot these days.





Luckily the guy was in a really good mood this morning, so Joe got to spend a little time talking to him. He was WIDE AWAKE at 6 a.m. and then took a nap at 7, so I got to go back to bed. That was fortunate because my 5 hours of broken sleep just wasn't doing it.

Jack had quite an interesting outing yesterday. We went over to Kim's for Knitting with Babies and Toddlers day. There were somewhere around 12 kids total, 3 of them babies and the rest the type that run around. I had a glimpse of my future, and it was scary. We were both exhausted by the time we left and had to take a nap. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, so this one of Jack in his new hat and his dad will have to suffice:



It was interesting to be around so many other moms and listen to all the hot topics. Where is the best Mommy and Me program? Cloth or disposable diapers? Pacifier or no? It made me realize I should probably join a moms group (I know Kim, you keep telling me to) because it was nice to hear other perspectives and see what babies look like when they get older.

Grandma and Grandpa Streech got home last night, so Jack and I are heading up North to visit them. I'm sure they will think he's gotten bigger and he talks more. I know they are dying to see him – it's been over a week since they left!

We left for Flagstaff Friday afternoon and got there just about dinner time. We were actually in Munds Park, just south of Flagstaff, and it was quiet and cold and very peaceful. Here is the house where we stayed:



It was a great cabin loaned to us by Julie's neighbors Mary and Joel Terrill. Incidentally I went to High School with Joel Terrill about 300 years ago, but I'm sure he doesn't remember me.

We took a hat for Jack to wear since we knew it would be cold. Unfortunately his head seems to have grown a bit, and though you can't tell from this picture, the hat seemed to be crushing his tiny skull. So I took it off.



Jack slept very well in his Pack and Play – no real problems Friday night other than his diaper leaked and I had to change him at 4 a.m. It's time to move up to the size 2 diapers if you can believe it – the little guy has such fat legs they don't fit in the 1s anymore. Further proof of this was on Saturday where Joe had to clean the entire baby and change him into a new outfit, all on the floor of the men's room in the pub where we had lunch. Not the finest hour in the Adams family.

Unfortunately this outfit may be ruined from the whole adventure:



I'm soaking it as we speak, but it's been through the wash once already and I'm not sure it's going to make it. As you can see, Jack wasn't really a fan.

If you don't believe me about the legs on this guy, check him out sporting his new look:



We had to leave our paradise this afternoon, but not before I could snap a shot of the guy in the snow. Okay, so he's not really in the snow, he's being carried over the snow, but you get the idea.



We are all happy to be home, although we think Jack may be an Eagles fan. He tried to watch the game, but it just got to be too much for him.

Jack spent the day with Gloria yesterday and she couldn't get him to nap either. Of course he was very busy visiting family and going out to lunch (he has quite a social schedule for such a little guy.) Here he is at Great Grandma Connie's house playing with some new toys:



And here he is dressed up in an outfit Great Aunt Joyce gave him:



Later in the day, Great Grandma Elaine dropped by:



And so did Cheerio Boy:



He was very tired from his day, but I think he had a good time. He is laughing and making lots of noise these days, and if you make noises back at him he gets very excited. It's quite entertaining.

We are leaving for Flagstaff this afternoon, so there may not be a blog over the weekend. I will have lots of pictures when we get back of Jack's first visit to the snow.