Jack and Ozzie

Jack still loves dogs!  While we are busy getting ready for our trip to the beach with Jon's family, we took some time to have lunch with Jack's friends, Matthew and Claire.  A good time was had by all, along with a little eating, but Jack loved throwing to ball to Matthew's dog, Ozzie.  Here is a video that Claire's mommy took:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF5ZHr8aGkQ&feature=email

I know we will return from Florida with lots of fun videos and pics, especially of Jack and his favorite cousins!

Sea World San Antonio

We went to Sea World about a month ago, just the three of us and it was a blast!  It is a short drive to San Antonio from Austin, so we packed the car and headed out after nap time and pulled into a great restaurant (Acenar) downtown that Jon and I had eaten at several years ago just in time for dinner.  We spent two full days (minus nap time- we CANNOT miss our nap) at Sea World and enjoyed the new Sesame Street Bay of Play.  Jack loved the little song and dance show all the characters performed and meeting Big Bird and Elmo!  There were four rides he could ride as long as an adult was with him and after each ride he would hold up his little pointer finger and say "one more", as in he wanted to keep riding.  We had to explain to him that we have to get off the ride and wait in line before we can ride again.  He understood and patiently (most of time) waited in the very short lines.

Jack also loved getting to see the animals and the shows, though we couldn't really sit through all of the shows we went to see (you spend a large portion of a toddler's sitting quota waiting for the show to start, so it was understandable).  Jack, of course, picked a stuffed Shamu as his souvenir and now it has been added to the menagerie of animals he sleeps with (I think Shamu makes nine).  While it was hot, Jack, thankfully, naps during the hottest portion of the day and there was lots of shade in the kid's area of the park.  We ate at The Rainforest Cafe, thinking Jack would love the atmosphere, which he did!  He spent a large portion of his mealtime waving at the gorillas across the way and staring at the fish tank next to him!  The whole trip was full of good food, lots of fun, and great memories!  I forgot my camera on the trip, so here are some pics from the trusty iPhone!

At the Rainforest Cafe

Worn out- we had to wake him up from this nap, he had been asleep for 4 hours at this point!

On his first ride ever! Jon and Jack are in the green car at the bottom.  By the way, this is the world's slowest ferris wheel (understandably, since it is for toddlers) and not recommended in 105 degree heat.

A brief overview of the last 3 months!

Well, it has been three months since our last update, and I would say that it is a little overdue!  I could provide all sorts of excuses, but we have been busy and I have not felt like blogging.  That is the long and the short of it.  In the time since the last update, we had a fabulous trip to Tulsa to celebrate our niece's 1st birthday (this was in April), a great Mother's Day, a trip to Sea World in San Antonio (in June), a fun Father's Day, another trip to Tulsa (over Father's Day weekend), and a laid back Fourth of July!  So, it has been busy!

Here is what Jack has been up to lately:

• He LOVES cars and trucks!  Cars and trucks are the first toys pulled out in the morning. 
• He is still huge :)  He weighs about 33 lbs.  and thank goodness, he wants to go up and down the stairs by himself the majority of the time!  I don't think I could carry him all the time.
• He LOVES Mickey Mouse and we watch "Ickey" as he calls the mouse, at least once a day, which allows me to get A LOT of chores done in that 23 minutes.
• Jack is a man of few words, but seems to be attempting more words now than before.
• He is a great eater, as evidenced by his weight.  I think his favorite time of day is sitting with his smoothie and watching Mickey after his nap.
• He is his Daddy's shadow.  Jack loves to follow Jon around and help him with whatever task Jon is working on.
• His most recent game is running from one spot in the house to another, over and over and over again, with a HUGE smile on his face.  It cracks us up!  I think he is practicing starting and stopping, Jon thinks he is just being a boy.  He's probably right :)
• Jack is absolutely the best picker-upper.  The majority of the time he cleans up one toy before getting another out.  He notices when we have recycling to take out, he picks up pieces of fuzz/ cheerios/ paper bits off the rug and throws them away.  Seriously, this kid is awesome at cleaning!
• He loves to help me cook, which I know will only get more fun as he gets older, so I hope he keeps this trait!

Here are some recent pictures (all taken between April and yesterday):

Enjoying his muffin tin breakfast!

The face he makes when you ask him to smile or say "cheese"!

Coloring

Going on runs with Daddy is exhausting!

He loves to play in sand or water or anything outside, really!

Playing in the pantry, one of his favorite pastimes, he has almost two full shelves to himself.

A family pic at cousin Kendall's 1st birthday party!

18 month update- a little overdue!

Jack has been up to a lot the past few months!  So, without further adieu, here is an update on Jack's life:

• He weighs 30 lbs. and is almost 34 inches tall!  He is in the 90th percentile for both- he is a big boy!
• Jack has moved onto running instead of walking and often runs PAST where he wants to be because he has so much momentum.  It's pretty hilarious!
• We took our first trip to the zoo, well, the Austin Zoo, which is more like an animal sanctuary.  His favorite animal was the tiger.  Unfortunately, they don't have elephants at this zoo, which I thought he would love because he points to them in all his books, on his curtain, his lamp, etc...
• He still sleeps with his menagerie.  Currently he has Mickey Mouse, his leopard (the favorite), big Tigger, little Tigger, seal (his second favorite), Spot (from the children's books), a blanket, and sometimes a cow.  
• He is not talking too much, well, that we can understand.  I am sure it will come with time.
• Jack is still an AMAZING picker-upper.  He picks up his clothes and puts them in the laundry.  He picks up his books and his toys at the end of the day and anytime we ask him to pick something up, he is on it!
• His favorite things to play with right now are his sand table and anything outside, any toy where you put something in something else, his cups (which he fills with various items), blocks, and his Melissa and Doug stacking toy (like stacking rings, but more advanced for toddlers).
• He can sort by color, but doesn't say any names of colors yet.
• He can point to lots of body parts and just started tickling us back when we tickle him- it is adorable!
• Jack has a great sense of humor and loves to hide things and then shrug as if he doesn't know where it is, until he reveals it to us with a huge smile!
• He has just started getting into the "no" phase and shaking his head at everything, even if he actually wants the item we asked about.
• He is still a great eater by quantity, but variety is off and on.  He is now a vegetarian apparently and we are having to sneak in meat or make sure he is getting protein from beans and dairy.  His favorite food right now is probably blackberries.  He also loves yogurt, cream cheese, hummus, scrambled eggs, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and any other fruits.
• Sleeping is still going great!  He takes one nap a day around noon for 2.5 to 3 hours and still goes to bed early at 6:30pm and sleeps until about 6:30am in the morning.  He plays in his crib really well by himself, so we usually don't get him out of bed until 7:15 or so. 

Overall, Jack is doing awesome and is a great little boy!  We are going to Tulsa in a couple of weeks, so we will see how the car trip goes now that he is foward facing!  And this summer, Jack will be taking his first plane ride in August to go to Florida with Jon's family.  We are so excited to see how he likes riding on a plane and the beach!

Jon's plant business is really going well and he stays very busy with deliveries and trips to various nurseries.  I started working on making a quiet book for Jack a couple of weeks ago and am hoping to have a few pages fully done by plane trip time.

I will post some pics from the zoo and of Jack at the sand table when I get them off my phone in the next few days!

More pics from the camera!

Here are some more very recent pics of Jack and Claire playing together! We love to play with Claire! She says far more words than Jack, so she probably wonders why Jack doesn't talk to her :)




Here's Jack making his "camera face", just moments prior to this picture he was throwing a frustration tantrum because he couldn't take the lid off this carton. He saw me pull out the camera and this is what happened! Love this kid!

Valentine's Day

I know Valentine's Day was a month ago, but I just cleaned off my camera memory card and HAD to post these! Jack's friend Claire had a Valentine's party (with lunch) and we had a great time!

Here's some pics of all the kids having lunch together. Everybody was up and down, except for Jack, who was firmly planted by his lunch, holding his balloon (which he did not let go of until naptime). This party was where Jack discovered his love for blackberries, his new favorite food. He ate all of Claire's when she got up from the table :) Sorry, Claire!





Here is a picture of Jack on Mommy's birthday (Valentine's Day) wearing his new Valentine's jammies that Grammy got him. They fit for about a week and then he outgrew them... :( Thanks Grammy!


My Mommy is 27! Ha Ha Ha!

Jack vs. Parmesan Cheese

I have some catching up to do with blogging, but for now here is a short video of Jack and the parmesan cheese.  In case you cannot tell, yes, that is parmesan cheese in his hair.  We had allowed him to shake it once before taking the video and then gave it back to him for videoing purposes.  It was a mess to clean, but created a fun video and fun memories and that is the important thing!  Notice the excitement on his face when I opened the lid for him- he is like that EVERY TIME we open a lid for him to close (about 50 times a day)!

I have some very cute pictures from my birthday/Valentine's Day to post and Jack attended a Valentine's party this year, so I need to post those pics as well.

16 months and counting!

I cannot believe how time flies!  I have not been completely on board with the idea of Jack being a toddler at age 1, although most books, etc... consider kids a toddler at that age.  I always thought, "at 18 months, I will consider him a toddler," well I am two short months away from my own "toddler deadline".  Jack has become quite the proficient walker causing lots of fun and messes along the way to wherever he may be going at the time.  He never sits still, except to eat in his highchair and read at bedtime (although, even this went by the wayside for a few weeks last month).  Here are a few other things about Jack at 16 months:

• He weighs over 28 lbs. and is 33 inches tall.  Don't know what percentile that is, except it is in the higher percentiles.
• He constantly has something in his hands while walking.  He is not picky, anything will do, as long as he can hold it and still walk.
• Jack is constantly rearranging things.  The lower (and babyproofed) shelves in our pantry look different everyday.  Furthermore, he is very particular about the items are rearranged and has a set way in his mind as to how the shelf needs to look that day.
• He is talking a lot and most of the time we cannot understand what he is saying.  He is very proficient with some words though- dog, yes, mama, dada, cow, quack, duck, cup, bowl, hi, and bye bye.  There are several other words that he says, but not on a regular basis and maybe not even more than once!
• He LOVES putting lids on and off.  We have to hide all the cups/sugar bowl/ condiment bottles during dinner otherwise he will holler all through dinner until he gets the item with the lid.
• He is currently transitioning from two naps to one nap, making for some interesting times... often grumpy times... :)
• He still goes to bed by 6:30pm and is usually awake between 6 and 6:30am, but he plays in bed until we get him up around 7am. 
• Jack would play outside all day if we let him and I try to go outside with him at least a little bit everyday.  We are looking foward to spring when we can be outside A LOT!
• He is a great eater!  He will eat Indian, Mexican, Chinese, anything.  Green vegetables are probably our hardest sell, but stick them in a smoothie and he is good to go!  He is also still a great milk drinker, which is awesome!
• Another of his favorite toys are blocks- regular stacking blocks and Mega Bloks (very large Lego- like blocks).  He is quite good at stacking them and asks to play with them everyday.

Jack is a great toddler and we feel so lucky that we get to be his parents!  He is such a joy and we spend lots of time laughing and smiling (with a few tears in between when the little man doesn't get his way :) )!  I feel that  he grew up so much between 15 months and now that I can't wait to see what this next month brings!

Snow pictures!

We were lucky enough to get a little bit of snow all the way down here in Austin last Friday!  It came and went quickly, which is nice, but there was enough to get out and play for the day!  Jack liked playing in the snow, but did not understand what those things on his hands were- mittens!  Here are some pictures.  There was more snow in the morning, but we waited to get outside until the afternoon and quite a bit had melted by then.

All in all it was a fun, cold, and wet time in the snow!  Although, we are ready for the warm weather so we can play outside more- our favorite thing to do!

Long video

This is a longer video of Jack running around with his briefcase.  Notice how his daddy is paying more attention to "Sesame Street" than him :)  It is admittedly a little long for anyone but family to watch, however, I know they will love seeing Jack a little more!

More videos!

This first video I took the other day when Jack and I were playing outside in the gorgeous weather we have been having.  It shows that he is clearly "all boy" and at the end when you see him look up- he is looking at me shaking my head "no".

This next video is Jack participating in his favorite activity recently- walking around the house carrying the box my laptop came in like a briefcase.  He literally does this ALL the time (or at least he has for the past 2 days).  And just to let you know, after he hands me our decorative "K" and the camera quits rolling, he promptly went back to dragging the box around!

Video!

Well, we had a computer crash and phone crash last week, but we are back in the blogging business.  The good news is that I got an iPhone, so I can take even more videos and pictures.  I am still learning how to upload video, etc...   Here is one that I took last week of Jack cracking up at Jon saying "BOOM" and clapping his hands!  I apologize for the small screen size, as I said, I am still learning!

Happy New Year and GO FROGS!

As you can imagine, January 1st was quite the exciting day in the Kinder household!  While it was the beginning of a new year and that is always fun, it was the day the Frogs became Rose Bowl Champions!  We had a great time just lounging and watching the football games (OU played that day as well and won!) and we were all decked out in our frog gear!

Gettin' ready for game watching with Daddy!

Snack time/ game time/ wrestling time- doesn't this picture just scream "I am a little boy!" ?

It is a little early for Jack to do the frog sign, but we tried to teach him...

This video is Jack getting into the horned frog spirit!

All in all, it was a great New Year's Eve and New Year's Day- quiet, with the occasional fireworks outside and the occasional yelling/ cheering at the football game on the television.  I am still working on the longer post and hope to have it posted by 16 months (Jan. 17th)!

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas with quite a long stay in Tulsa and got to enjoy lots of family time!  Jack has adjusted to coming home and not having someone's attention at all times- poor kid!  I am hoping to write a long post about Jack's latest developments (he has been up to a lot!) soon, but Christmas pics will have to do for now!

Jack LOVES being outside and is constantly begging at the door to go outside, so here he is playing with two of his cousins!  He loved Grammy's sand and water table- good thing too since this is what Jon and I got him for Christmas!

This is Jack's cousin Kendall who is 7 months younger than him- she loved watching Jack run around!

Jack LOVES building with blocks and he got two sets of blocks for Christmas- we keep one upstairs and one downstairs.

Christmas Eve!  When leaving cookies and milk out for Santa, Jack thought the cookie looked good and decided he needed to try it and make sure Santa would like it :)

Pacifier = not as delicious as cookie

What did Santa bring me? By the way, shout out to my wonderful hubby who got me a Kitchenaid mixer which was wrapped in that giant blue bag!

Checking out my new toy before I go play outside!

We hope all of our friends and family had a wonderful Christmas!  I have some pics of New Year's and Jack in his TCU gear that I need to get off the camera and will share those soon as well!  GO FROGS!