More pictures!

Seeing Santa this weekend was a bust (Santa took 1.5 hour lunch break!), so no Santa pics :(  Instead of a Santa pic, here are some from this past week!

We had blueberry compote with pancakes and this was the result...  He LOVED eating it so much that I didn't even bother trying to keep him clean.

We taught him to "cheers" with glasses, so we spend many meals cheers"ing" in between bites!

Adjusting some ornaments

He does this pretty much every morning, and every afternoon if I put the books back on the shelf during one of his naps.

He loves to carry this trashcan around, or push it around, and put various items in it...you never know what you will find in this thing!

What we have been up to...

This update is long overdue! Now that Jack is walking all the time, I have been spending most of my time chasing him!  It is so much fun!  We had a great Thanksgiving in Tulsa and spent lots of time with family.  Jack loved chasing Grammy and Grandpa's dogs (Jon's parents' dogs) and playing with his 3 cousins- Gabby, Addie, and baby Kendall!  They loved Jack as well!

Jack had his first ear infection diagnosed shortly before Thanksgiving.  He was a trooper because we just thought he had a cold.  Well, he recovered from that only to be diagnosed with whooping cough.  He had them at the same time, but the ear infection masked the whooping cough (it starts out like a cold and then after recovering from the cold, there is a persistent cough).  His cough never got that bad, never had a whooping sound and he ate and slept just fine.  There were just a couple of nights where the coughing woke him up, but he put himself back to sleep.  He really was acting like nothing was wrong, so we were completely surprised by the diagnosis.  So, whooping cough really is going around.  Fortunately, only 1 friend (Claire) of Jack's was diagnosed with whooping cough and she barely had it (there is a whole science as to how the test is considered positive and her test was barely positive).  While I feel awful that Jack gave her whooping cough, I am relieved that he only passed it to one other person.  He is all better now and we are hoping to have no more illnesses for a long while :)

So, here are recent pics!  We are going to see Santa this weekend, so we will see if likes Santa, or is the crying kid who is afraid of Santa.  I was the latter :)

Gotta love the socks and shorts combo going on here!  He doesn't have sandals, because silly me didn't think to get those for November weather :)

Jack playing with his cousin Gabby- she was singing to him!  

Jack and Mommy on Thanksgiving

Jack got to open some belated birthday presents and of course, started stacking the boxes :)

LOVE this one!

Jon, Jack and Cousin Addie (3)- who says the most hilarious things!

In the midst of illness and traveling, I did not Christmas cards put together.  Hopefully next year I can be more on top it!  By the way, Jack was an AWESOME car traveler.  We only stopped twice on the 8.5 hour trip there (8.5 hours is with the stops) and 3 times on the way back.  He didn't sleep that much either, but was perfectly content just looking out the window.  So, we are hoping that Christmas driving goes just as well!  We were even okay with the idea of turning him around (he is still rear-facing since they are recommending it until age 2.  Don't know if we will wait that long though...), but it wasn't necessary!  Happy belated Thanksgiving!  I will post more pics after our trip to visit Santa!

10 fun facts about Jack!

There are some fun things about Jack that I have been forgetting to include in previous blog posts, so I have decided to dedicate a post to these fun facts!

1.  He LOVES peanut butter!  He would probably eat anything if it had peanut butter on top!

2.  He thinks Eskimo kisses (rubbing noses) are hysterical and laughs every time I give him one!

3.  We use a magnet system to keep the necessary cabinets child proofed.  Well, Jack has figured out how the outer magnet (the unlocking magnet) works and tries to unlock the cabinets when given the opportunity to hold aforementioned magnet.

4.  He can stack five blocks high, which I think is awesome!

5.  He prefers fall colors, like yellow, orange and red.  He always picks out items (like wiffle balls) in those colors.

6.  He calls all animals "cows", which sounds like "caw".

7.  He knows that ducks "quack" and often holds up a duck and "quacks", which sounds like "kak".

8.  He LOVES milk and water.  We don't even give him any juice because he is such a great water drinker.  He especially loves to drink out of "adult" cups and does pretty well holding them by himself.  Most of the water goes in his mouth!  As for milk, let's just say we are not worried about a calcium deficiency.  We feel very lucky that he is such a great milk and water drinker!

9.  He is very into closing doors right now- any door.  As soon as I open the car door to put him into his car seat, he tries to close it.  If I go near the refrigerator door he is right behind me waiting to close it, but only after he has found his sippy cup of milk sitting on the shelf, taken a drink, and put it back in its proper place on the shelf :)

10.  He is a GREAT helper already!  He helps us pick up his toys most nights and if I need to move clothes from the washer to the dryer he loves to help (come on- both activities involve "putting something into something else- his favorite)!  Obviously most of these tasks take a little longer than they would if we just did them by ourselves, but it is so fun and adorable having him help- we love it!

Now I will end this post with a few pics of Jack "playing" video games with Jon!

Halloween Pics!

Here are the pics from Jack's 2nd Halloween.  He was a dinosaur this year and we tried practicing roars for the two weeks leading up to Halloween, but they didn't catch on :)  There are also pics from Claire's 1st birthday!  She had a duck themed party since those are her favorite and the kids dressed up for about 5 minutes, or long enough for them to start hollering about how unhappy and hot they were in their costumes.  We tried to get some good pictures...  After the party, Jack came home and went to bed while Mommy and Daddy watched some movies.  Jack did have a cupcake at the party, but no Halloween candy yet.  Jon says we are going all out next year- pumpkin carving, trick or treating, the "works".  Honestly, I think he just wants to eat Jack's candy next year :)

I LOVE this picture!  You would never know Jack hated wearing his costume :)

Claire had fun games at her party, like bobbing for ducks!

"Look what I got Mommy!"

"What?  Doesn't everyone chew on ducks?"

ROAAARRRR!

These next three are the attempts at the group picture.  Claire is the duck, Matthew is the lion and Wesley is a bear!

Halloween can be very tiring and leave you thirsty!

Recovering...

We are starting recovery of a week of illness around here, so that is the cause for delay in posting Halloween pics.  Jack either had a little cold or serious teething the past 5 days causing fevers and a runny nose.  On top of that, I had a 24 hour stomach bug and Jon had to come home early from work last Thursday and take care of all of us! After I get things a little back to normal I will take the time to post the pics.  The good news is that I took some extra cute pics of him over the weekend, so I will be post those as well!

Pumpkin Patch

This past Saturday our Sunday School class had a trip to the pumpkin patch in Marble Falls.  The weather was great and Jack had fun having a picnic, riding on the hayride and feeding the goats.  Oh, and eating pumpkin ice cream!  During the hayride he was completely mesmerized by the giant wheels of the tractor and sat looking very serious the entire ride.  He LOVED feeding the goats and didn't mind them licking his hands or his face (this just happened once and I flipped out and was ready with a wipe IMMEDIATELY!).  We have recently taken to calling Jack "Dr. Doolittle" because he has started collecting up the various stuffed animals around his room and holding as many as possible in his arms.  Also, one surefire way to get him to walk is to hold up a stuffed animal and make the animal noise and he walk to you every time.  Back to the pumpkin patch, Jack did not, however, love the pumpkins and started hollering when we handed him or sat him down in a patch of them.  Maybe he thought we were going to leave him there...  He does love playing with our pumpkins at home though.  All in all it was a great family day and we will definitely be going back for their strawberry picking in May!  Here are some of the highlights!  Next post:  Halloween and a birthday party!

The cutest pumpkin!

The "seriousness" of the hayride

Dr. Doolittle

Jack and his friend Claire hanging out with the Dads!  I wonder what they are talking about...

 Jack and Mommy and the patch of pumpkins he wouldn't sit in.

"Daddy I do not like this weird, bumpy pumpkin!"

Parks, haircuts, and walking! Oh my!

We have been busy these past two weeks enjoying days outside, getting professional haircuts, and practicing walking!

We will start with outside- Jack (much like his daddy) LOVES to be outside.  Unfortunately, our backyard has zero shade and the front only a fraction more than that, so we often go the park.  Here are some pictures at the park when Jack was hanging out in the tunnel.  His favorite things to do at the park are swing and slide.  Though, in true boy fashion, he does love to pick the grass and play in the dirt.

Now when we can't go outside, aside from practicing his walking (more on that later), his favorite activity is, as Jon calls it, "putting something inside something else".  He LOVES to do this all day- it's the little things really :) Here are some shots of that game:

We recently took Jack to get his first "professional" haircut.  It was quite the awful experience for all involved since he screamed the entire time!  Although, he did get a nice haircut out of it and the stylist got a nice tip :)  That same day we had a doctor's appointment for a booster shot and this is what he looked like after all that:

And here he is modeling his new 'do:

WALKING!  Jack has been taking steps for about a week now, but is not quite into walking full time.  I can see it coming though- just these past two days he has started to stand and walk towards what he wants.  Although if he falls in transit he resorts to his much faster crawling usually. Here he is with his favorite walking accessory that he received for his birthday.  He is very fast with the train and steers quite well, which is why I know that when he runs into me it is on purpose.  I am sure I am in his way :)

While I know he can get into a lot more trouble when he is a full fledged walker, I am looking forward to not carrying him quite so much as I am sure he weighs 25 lbs. by now.  He is still just saying "mama", "dada", and "cracker" and he does know the signs for "all done" "milk" and usually he does the sign for "more".  He is too busy walking and putting something inside something else to bother with talking and such :)  He has been so much fun lately!  I have a lot more pictures to posts and updates to write including a trip to the pumpkin patch, Halloween and Claire's 1st birthday party!  So, be looking for those in the next two days.  Right now I must eat lunch or it may never happen!  Aaahhh the life of a mommy!