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!