Yesterday Jack had lunch with his Uncle Travis, his good friend Jake, and Jake’s mom Elissa. We recently found out that Travis may be moving away and we are all pretty sad about it. He and Jack get along famously and have a lot of fun watching Notre Dame football together. Here they are hanging out at the restaurant:



Elissa and Jake are doing great. The first few months of babyhood are tough on everyone and she looks fantastic. Here they are right before Jake had to leave to get something to eat:



After lunch Jack and I headed over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for dinner. Jack is a big help with the cooking:



For some reason he wasn’t having a happy dinner.



He recovered well and donned his new Halloween pjs:





He was in bed by six and I didn’t hear from him again until 5:30 this morning. Such an improvement over the first 9 months.

This morning he had some breakfast al fresco:



And now we’re going to head back home. It was fun hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa for a bit. They sure seem to like Jack a lot!

After our whirlwind of vacations, Jack and I are settling back in to normal life. Whatever that means for a ten month old. Yes, you heard right, TEN MONTHS. Jack had a month-a-versary yesterday and is now a full fledged ten-month-old baby. Hard to believe, isn’t it?

Joe skipped town again this afternoon for a conference in Chicago, so we were on our own for the nightly ritual. The feeding/bathing/dressing/bottling/settling/sleeping deal is much easier with two people. And even though I do this on my own many weekday nights (the boy goes to sleep at six, so often Joe can’t make it home to say goodnight to him), it just seems harder knowing I am on my own for the entire night.

The reason it seems to be getting harder and not easier is that Jack does not like to get dressed. He kicks, he screams, he wails and gnashes his teeth (all eight of them), and generally makes himself as unpleasant as possible. So tonight, lacking the normal energy of a super-mom, I had to set him down for a bit. Then I realized. Hmmm. We don’t have any recent NAKED pictures of my sweet boy.

So without further ado, here is Jack in all his glory:




The blurry object in this one is the cup I use to rinse his hair. Somehow he carried it into the crib and was waving it at the dog.


He was still watching the dog, I think he wanted to drop the cup on her.


After a while he’d had enough and wanted to be done with the photo shoot.

Just to appease him, here is an earlier picture of him dressed and playing with kitchen implements:


Thank goodness for that little chair. Sometimes it’s the only way to keep him still while I prepare his food.

Tomorrow we’re having lunch with Elissa, Baby Jake (who just turned 2 months old!), and Travis Cooley (a faithful reader of the blog). I will be sure to get some good pictures.

Everyone survived the weekend and now we're back to a somewhat normal schedule. Of course I'm leaving again on Thursday but no matter, Jack may not even notice because he's so well taken care of.

I left on Friday so he spent the night with Grandma Gloria and Grandpa Tom on Friday and Saturday. Apparently he was a little loud at dinner on Friday night, which doesn't surprise me one bit. I've noticed that he matches his tone to the noise level of the establishment, and Nello's is not a quiet place.

On Saturday he visited the car wash. He loves to go to the car wash here, so I'm sure he had a wonderful time. Here he is admiring the fish:





And then a woman came over and talked to him, which wasn’t to his liking:



He also spent some time reading the paper:



and swinging in the park:





Today we ran a few errands and relaxed a little. It was fun to hang out with the little guy – it's amazing how much he changed in just four days!

I couldn’t help myself today, I had to take some pictures.

First off, Jack tried Tofu for the first time today. He ate it and had various reactions. With any new food, he is immediately concerned:



Curiosity always gets the best of him and he typically will try anything:



He actually ate a bunch of it on his own:



and then suddenly, he didn’t like it so much:



It was a very funny lunchtime – Jack can be quite expressive when he wants to be.

Also today Jack started standing on his own. I tried very hard to catch a picture, but every time I got out the camera he would sit down and crawl over to me. I’ve alerted Gloria so hopefully this weekend she will get a good shot of him. I did get a few cute shots of him in the process:







Soon he’ll be tearing around the house like nobody’s business.

Have a great weekend everyone! I know I will!

Some of you may be wondering, “What has happened to Brooke? She used to be such a consistent poster, with new fun pictures and lots of witty banter about raising a baby.”

I’ll tell you what’s happened to me. Jack can move faster than lightning, he is constantly in need of attention, and I am exhausted by the end of the day. I can hardly get the camera out any more.

Here is the only picture I’ve taken all week, and it’s not even a very good one:



That was at lunch at Z Tejas with my parents this week.

Luckily Jeff pulled through and took this shot at the yarn store:



The blurry object in his hand is a sippy cup. The picture was taken with Jeff’s new phone, and I’ve decided I need one like his. It’s way cool.

Tomorrow is a big day for me and Jack. I am going away on a trip to Seattle and leaving him behind. The longest I’ve left him is over night. I will be gone until Monday. This is significantly longer and I am a little nervous. I know he will be fine, I know he is well taken care of (who wouldn’t be, spending the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa?), and I know in my head it is a good idea for both of us. But it is going to be very hard to hop on that plane tomorrow.

I will return to blogging next Tuesday, hopefully with some good pictures of Jack’s adventures.

Jack went for a visit with the grandparents on Saturday while Joe and I spent some time with friends. It was lovely to have a day to hang out, and Jack had tons of fun.

Here he is spending some time with Blondi the German Shepherd.



They get along well, although like the dogs at home, she is most interested in his O cereal.

Here is a better view of that little standing toy – he really loves to hang out in it and play.



He also went to visit his great grandparents, and here he's playing a game with his feet and Great Grandpa Joe:



It should be a quiet week around here except for the fact that Jack is acting like he's getting a molar (such fun!) and he's really working on his balance. I think he'll be walking soon.

Before we get to the hat, I must point out that Jack is turning into quite a personality. Today we were meeting Julie and Mac and Claudia for lunch, and Jack and I were waiting at the table. I decided to get out the camera since pictures have been scarce these days, and Jack looked over at me, without prompting and smiled:



So now you can see all those teeth that he uses to gnaw the sides of the crib. (yes, he is ingesting paint, and yes, this does concern me.)

After his moment of posing, he went back to eating peaches.



Then his friend Mac showed up and tried to explain that the water came out of the other end of the sippy cup:



It has been so fun to see these two interact and realize there is another one like them out in the world. For Julie and me it has just been nice to commiserate about the challenges of raising a baby.

And now on to the hat. Joe mentioned the other day (after quite a bit of prodding), that he might like it if I knit him a hat. There is nothing in the world that makes a knitter happier than to knit something for the man she loves. But of course I couldn't just KNIT the hat, I had to do some research, ask a lot of probing questions (which I recognized may have decreased the enjoyment of the potential hat-wearer just a tad), and then knit a prototype. Luckily Jack is a willing model, mostly because he has no say in what he wears.

So here is the first attempt at a Peruvian Chullo Hat with Llama motif:





Tomorrow Jack goes off for a visit at the grandparents, while Joe and I head out to watch the Notre Dame game. I'm sure there will be some fun pictures.

And a big thank you to those who were worried about us during our short blog hiatus. It's nice to know there are family members out there concerned about our well being. I will promise to be better with updating!

No, we have not been kidnapped by the new nanny. Jack and I are still here, although he is testing my ability to remain sane and calm every single second of the day. For some reason, starting last Saturday, he entered a new phase we will call “I AM NOT GOING TO SLEEP EASILY NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, DARN IT.”

He is still sleeping through the night, but getting him down has become a struggle of epic proportions. And it’s not just at night, both naps are now at risk due to his complete inability to settle down.

Supposedly this is a phase, and we had all better hope so.

The only pictures I have to share are from last Saturday. To begin with, Jack went over to Great Grandpa Joe’s house to learn how to make the family salsa. Here are the boys working on the chilis.



After that, he came home to watch the season opener of Notre Dame football with his good friend Travis Cooley. In this picture Jack is hoping Travis will be nice enough to hand him that Guiness sitting on the table:



and when he is refused, well, you can see how he feels about that:



The new nanny is actually working out wonderfully. I’m going to start calling her the baby whisperer because she is so incredible with Jack. He’s not fussy with her, he goes to sleep when he’s supposed to, and he eats all of his squash. She’s definitely a keeper.

I promise more pictures – tomorrow we’re going yarn shopping (yay!) and Saturday he’s visiting with his Grandma Gloria and Grandpa Tom. They are always good with the camera so I’m sure we’ll have something to show for the weekend.

Today we had lunch with Elissa and Baby Jake, who will be six weeks old on Sunday. Time flies, doesn’t it? Jake is as cute as ever, and of course slept through our entire meal:



Now, I certainly don’t look back on the newborn stage very fondly. Elissa only slept for 2 hours last night, and that is not something I miss. But it was nice to take a baby out in public and have him just sit there.

To contrast, here is what our little Jack was doing during lunch. Feeding himself banana and peach:



Flirting with Elissa (even with green bean on his nose, he’s still a charmer):



Waiting patiently for me to take a bite of my sandwich so he could have more peaches:



And, once again, posing for Elissa:



I should have taken a picture of her, because of course she looks fantastic. She’s already like an old pro with the little guy – taking him all over town, changing diapers in public restrooms, balancing his little car carrier on high chairs. Such fun!

Tomorrow we have our first official babysitter coming over. Jack has never stayed with someone other than a family member so I’m curious to see how it goes.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, he is still sleeping through the night. From six p.m. to six a.m. without fail. I am still waking up every night at three of course, but I still got 7 1/2 hours of sleep last night. It's like Christmas.