Jack went to visit Grandma Gloria and Grandpa Tom this weekend and had a wonderful time. He also got to visit with his great grandparents, and here he is with Great Grandpa Joe walking outside on the patio:


























Those were new shoes Gloria bought him, but they were too small so she went back. You can see the other new shoes in these pictures where he was playing on the back patio:















He gets very excited when it’s time to take a step:















and he has to concentrate a lot:















He is still cruising around like nobody’s business:















and he always takes time to stop and smell the flowers:















Doesn’t he look like a little boy here?















On Sunday we went up to have lunch with my parents at Desert Ridge. They have a little kids play area that Jack just loved.

There was a tunnel for him to crawl through:















An abacus, so he could practice his math:















and, most importantly, rocks and dirt:















Today we went back to baby time at the library and Jack had a lot of fun playing with the other kids. There is a girl there who is 4 days older than Jack and her name is Brooke. It’s funny to see someone so small with my same name!

Jack got a new wagon for Christmas and I finally got it put together today. I promise some pictures of that soon!

I just can’t believe how fast Jack is growing up. He is really turning into a little boy instead of a baby. At lunch the other day I put him in a booster seat, and he just sat there coloring away:















I know it looks a little bit like he’s about to topple over. But he didn’t. He was very happy with the entire set-up.















He only got two crayons, but I don’t think he minded. I had to take them away once he started eating them, so it was good there were only two!















We’ve also spent quite a bit of time at the playground. He is enjoying the sand and the slides. I think here he was trying to climb up the slide:















And of course he’s still crawling everywhere:















and pointing at everything:















On a different day he thought it would be fun to roll in the sand:















There was so much sand in the tub that night after his bath I had to clean the entire tub out. He was filthy.

He likes to pick the sand up and watch it fall through his hands:















and climb up on the steps:















Jack is with Grandma Gloria and Grandpa Tom today. I don’t think he’s figured out what I mean when I say “We’re going to see Grandma and Grandpa today.” But he really understands when I say “We’re going to see Blondi.” He gets very happy and claps his hands. Blondi is their German Shepard and Jack LOVES her. He thinks she is very fun and big and slobbery.

This coming week isn’t too busy, although we start our music class at the zoo on Friday. Mac will be there too and they are really starting to recognize one another. It’s funny to see them play together.

I’m off to enjoy my last few hours of quiet before Jack comes home. I can’t believe how silent our house is with him gone!

As promised, here are some shots of Jack, who has finally decided to take a bath in a regular tub:












I think he realized there was more splash capabilities were far superior in the big tub:















and there is the bubble factor as well:















Also as promised, a picture of Jack with favorite football-watching companion, Uncle Travis:















They had a fun trip to the grocery store together, and now Jack is trying to talk Joe into growing a beard.

This week we drove down to meet Julie and Mac for lunch. We are in a very transitional time when it comes to naps these days, and Jack fell asleep on the way. I successfully transferred him from the car to his stroller:















and then he slept for an entire hour! I actually got to eat some food. It was quite unprecedented.

Mac had a good time eating his lunch and pointing over to the stroller and saying "Jack". It's funny that they recognize one another now.

Here is Mac posing for the camera in his cute outfit:



















We have been pretty busy this week. Today we went to baby time at the library, then lunch with Jeff, then off to a new playgroup in Encanto where he met two kids his age. They had a little fort with a slide and Jack slid down all by himself! He was quite proud.

He's still not walking more than a few steps at a time. Although I was holding one hand and he was walking along kicking a soccer ball, so I know he has the balance to do it. He's just choosing not to. Go figure.

It’s been a while since we’ve posted a video of Jack, but I couldn’t resist this one. Jack was a little manic on Friday night when Joe got home from work (this is how we know he’s tired, oddly.) So Joe was playing with him on the floor and Jack was basically beating him up. Click Here to watch.

Yesterday we decided to head over to the zoo. Jack and I go quite a bit, but Joe doesn’t get to go that often and there is so much to see. First, the tiger was trying to get in the door of his night house. I think he was hungry.















(Can you see the tiger? He’s very hard to find.)

Then we looked at some Meerkats. Even though we couldn’t see any of the animals, Jack was impressed with their home.


























Please notice he’s being carried. He didn’t want to sit in the stroller. When we put him back in, this was his attitude:





















So Joe thought up a handy solution – shoulder rides! You can see how happy this made Jack:















Here, he his making his trademark “ohhhhh” sound:





















We headed off to the children’s zoo, the boys rushing ahead and me pushing an empty stroller.















We finally got some pictures of this goat combing that goes on in the petting zoo:















And although this looks a little like crying, he’s actually about to sneeze:















He also enjoyed combing the dirt:

















and crawling under the benches:















(please notice the new shoes. We finally found some shoes he can’t take off and don’t pinch his feet.)

It was a great day – the weather was perfect and Jack was having fun with his dad.















Today Uncle Travis is coming for a visit before the football games. Jack is looking forward to seeing him and is even dressed up in his Snoopy outfit Travis gave him for his birthday. I’ll be sure to get a few pictures!

The week started off just fine and dandy. Grandpa Tom was running in the Rock and Roll Half Marathon, so Grandma Gloria came to collect Jack Sunday morning to go and cheer him on. Joe and I had the day to relax and hang out, and since our nanny has been getting married and honeymooning for the past 3 weeks (congratulations Jenna!), it was a welcome break.

Monday dawned a new day, and I had the makings of a migraine. By Tuesday it was in full swing, sapping every ounce of energy I had. Jack is mostly down to one nap now, and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open until he went down at one o’clock each day.

Then with Wednesday, Jack started to cough. All night long I could hear him hacking away in the next room. I hardly slept a wink, and he didn’t look so rested in the morning either. I made a doctor’s appointment and we headed off for a marathon trip to germ central. I need to invest in a stethoscope and that little ear thing so I can just check him out myself. I swear I could see the flu virus floating in the air with all those kids snuffling around the office.

The doctor, with a raised eyebrow to me, pronounced “I think he has a chest cold.” He recommended a 12 hour cough syrup, gave Jack his second flu shot, and sent us on our merry way. In the lobby I met a woman with nine children, three of whom were sick, crying and in their pajamas. It made me weak just to think about her.

Today was a better day all around. My head is better, Jack’s cough has slowed slightly, and the weekend is here. Jenna is back on Tuesday so there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Now that I’m done whining, here are some pictures I’ve managed to squeeze in between all our time lying about and feeling sorry for ourselves.

Jack loves books. I keep a few in his crib so he has something to read in the morning before I drag myself out of bed to get him. We keep one in the car for him to read while I cart him around from place to place. Here he is, reciting the ever-so-popular “Good Night Gorilla”:
















It makes me laugh because he will sit back there, open the book up and start babbling away as if he is reading.

Another fun pastime is emptying the spice rack:






























and visiting non-kid-friendly restaurants. This one is called Camus, they don’t have highchairs, and the tables are made of glass.



















He got a new booster seat at Grandma Sandee’s house, and he absolutely loved it. (He absolutely loves anything new. He is a true American Consumer.)















And then, of course, his bath. These may be the last photos of our little blue tub though. Tonight Jack crawled out into the big tub and I filled it up with water. After he slipped around a bit he got the hang of it, and I think he’ll be bathing in the big boy tub from now on.














































And of course he loves the shark towel:















Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. As you can see it’s been a tough week out here, but I think we’re all back to normal now!

I had the perfect plan for our trip to the zoo today, and as with all perfect plans it somehow went a little awry. Jack has been taking a very short morning nap around 9 or so and it usually lasts 30 minutes. We were supposed to be at the zoo at 10. So I put him in the car at 9:10 with the idea that we would drive, he would fall asleep, and we would finish his nap sitting in the parking lot.

Well, he didn’t fall asleep right away, but since we were so early I kept driving around and waiting. I knew he was tired. He finally dozed off at 9:40. Darn it. That would make us late for the zoo. And to make matters worse, Julie and Mac were already there and Mac missed his morning nap all together.

So much for planning. He had a great nap though, as you can see:






















We finally made it inside and joined up with Julie, Mac and Jeff. Thank goodness for Jeff – it was so nice to have an extra adult around to help out. He’s a trooper to mosey around the zoo with two little boys. I hope he got some good pictures because my camera was dying. I did mange to capture how the boys felt right around snack/lunch/nap time:














































Jeez, you’d think we were throwing rocks at
them or something. (We weren’t. Just in case you were wondering.)

At lunch they really enjoyed hanging out together and comparing the taste of French Fries to peanut butter. There was a small amount of toddler roughhousing going on as well.






















All in all I think they had fun.






















One thing Julie and I have noticed over the past year is how often we have to just let them be boys, and try not to think too much. In this instance, I had given them some little snacks. They promptly scattered the snacks all over the stroller, and then proceeded to eat them off the dirty floor.






















Yuck. I guarantee you a year ago we would have freaked out at this behavior. Now we both shrug our shoulders and move on to the next thing.

It was so great to get out and to see Julie and Mac. Mac’s baby brother is going to be here soon, and then we will really have our hands full.

In sleeping news (isn’t there always sleeping news in this house?), Jack is transitioning from a Type B baby to a Type A baby. What does that mean? Well, ask Dr. Weissbluth, the smartest man on the face of the earth.

Basically it means that he goes to bed when it’s bedtime, whether he’s asleep or not. It was working fine at night – I would put him in the crib, he would cry for a total of 10 seconds, lie down, and be done with it. Naps were a different story. Maybe he realized they were shorter, maybe he knew I was supposed to get him after an hour so as long as he could stay awake that long he could go without a nap, who knows. But I was determined to turn him into a Type A baby, and this was the best week to do it.

Unfortunately that ended with a lot of one nap days. One nap is not enough for the little man, and by the late afternoon he was miserable. Finally today, however, the work paid off. I put him in the crib and explained he needed to go to sleep. I left the room and for one solid hour I listened to him talk, and play and read and throw things. Finally, when I was just about to go in and get him it sounded like he was settling down. I waited. I crept around on tiptoe. Then I went to peek:






















Will wonders never cease. He is sleeping. What a relief.