Random videos we haven't posted yet...

These are from the beginning of September. We had a warm day so Jack and I set up camp with some pots and pans and water out on our deck. Good times!

Maine!

We had an amazing trip to Acadia National Park in Maine at the end of August. Jack tried biking and hiking and did lots of swimming and playing with his cousins Annie and Charlie. It was so nice to spend the entire week outdoors and feel so refreshed when we got home. Jack loved his perch in the backpack on daddy's back. He also became quite adept at pulling himself up and transfering from one piece of furniture to the next in our beautiful rental home in Northeast Harbor.

Riding my colt...

Uncle Drew, Ashlee and Auntie Lo got me this ride-on colt for my christening. I have been practicing and am getting really good. I take this very seriously so don't laugh at me. Here I am in action:

My last swimming lesson

Yesterday was my last swimming lesson at DePaul. Mommy and I had SO much fun in our lessons with Dana and Owen, Debbie and Jack and Heidi and Graham. Here is a pic of Graham and I getting ready for our last day in the water.

I also had to say goodbye to my nice teacher Julie. Here she is holding me right before I went in. She taught me to jump in from the side, go under, kick my legs and pull pull pull my arms.

Laughing my butt off...

Here is a silly video of mom and I goofing around...

crawling video

I can crawl!

Over the past week I have been stringing together "mini-crawls" and going a few moves at a time. This weekend, I figured things out for good. I am on the MOVE! Check me out in my room...

Saugatuck Weekend

We had a great beach weekend to celebrate Jay's birthday and our 4th wedding anniversary. We went to Saugatuck/Douglas which is about 2.5 hrs from Chicago and rented a neat house in the woods. We went to the beach on Sat. and Sun. Jack and mom played in the waves on Sunday. It was a beautiful day!! Jack was crawling all over the place and took a couple of face fulls of sand but was a good sport. He also managed to get his first fat lip which was more traumatic for mom than for Jack. Clark also got to romp on the beach so he was a happy pup. He then thanked the family by insisting that he ride shotgun all the way home to Chicago while mom rode in the back with Jack. Nice dog. Really.

Almost 9 months and almost walking!

I am standing up in my crib now which scares mommy and daddy. Especially when I wear my batman suit. Mom sings: "JackMan! Dunadunadunadun, JackMan!" so I know that I am a superhero trapped in a baby's body. I went to my 2nd Cubs game this past weekend with mom & dad and my awesome babysitters Michele and Jamie. The Cubs won (again) and I practiced my Blue Steel look.

I am almost 9 months old (tomorrow is the big day) and I am close to walking now! I can do it with this special toy on loan from Ben Pinter (see video below). Check me out!

more daddy (& animal) sounds

The animals are starting to play...

This is a favorite toy of Jack's - on one setting you can "Spin Spin A Letter", on another "The Animals Are Starting To Play". When he spins an animal, it makes the animal sound. Jay likes to assist in the delivery of the animal sounds. Jack cracks up at this! It is so cute for now but we know these songs will haunt us forever. The animals are starting to play...

It has been so long...

From Jay and Vanessa: We haven't updated the blog in too long! Jack is 8.5 months now and almost on the move. He's army crawling backward and would rather not be bothered with actually learning to crawl the real way because prefers walking (with our help). He is so strong on his legs but he has absolutely no balance - it is hilarious to watch. He's eating lots of different things now. Usually cereal and applesauce in the mornings, veggies for lunch and yogurt and fruit for dinner plus all of his milk (I think around 20 oz). He is a little piglet! I just weighed him yesterday using our scale and he was about 19.2 lbs. He has his 9 month appointment with Dr. Gosch on 7/30 so he may hit 20 lbs by then.

From Jack: Since the start of summer we've been doing lots of new activities. We have swimming lessons on Mondays at DePaul with Jack Merovitz and Owen McLaughlin and Graham. We have Gymboree with Lauren on Thursdays and then we have a superfun playgroup on Fridays with Graham, Vander, Bryce, Cormac and sometimes Jack and Harper. Dad says I'm overbooked but Mom likes to keep us busy so we don't get bored. We also spend lots of time on the playgrounds throughout the city and we go to the zoo and to the beach. Mom likes to take picnics as a break from her runs so we do that alot too.

We've got lots of videos and pics because we haven't posted in a while so I'll upload some now.

Another bouncing video...

Bouncin'

Jack is also getting quite adept at the Jumperoo (on loan from the Pinters'...) He just started really jumping this past week. He can really get moving in there but takes lots of breaks to blow spit bubbles...

Swinging!

Jack loves to hit the playground with mom. His fav is the infant swing. Here is Jack getting his swing on.

Four Generations, Part Deux!

In April, Jack made his first trip to Canada (the motherland...literally). Jack got to meet Vanessa's whole family and was especially excited to celebrate the 88th birthday of his great-grandma Garner! He was also excited to take a picture with his mom, his mom's mom, and his mom's mom's mom :)

Four Generations!

In March Jack's Maimi and Mimi (great-grandmother) made a trip out to Chicago. We had lots of fun touring around and Jack was so excited to take a picture with his dad, his dad's mom, and his dad's mom's mom :)

More Peas!

Jack is an eating machine these days. He loves his veggies (sweet peas, sweet potatoes, carrots) but is not really taking to fruit yet. We make a TOTAL mess when eating but we are working on it and getting neater and neater every day :) He is constantly grabbing for the spoon because he wants to feed himself. AND, he is grabbing with his left hand - just like daddy.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone! We had a beautiful day in Chicago today - 70 degrees and totally sunny! We walked everywhere and even went to the zoo to check out the sea lions, some monkeys and a tiger. Here are some pictures of Jack celebrating his wee bit of Irish heritage...

BIG weekend...rolling over and real food!

This was a big weekend for Jack. On Saturday, he rolled over - all the way from front to back - for the first time with no assistance. There was some loud cheering coming from mom and dad but that was it. Very exciting!

Later that day, he tried Rice Cereal for the first time after getting the go ahead from Dr. Gosch last Thursday. We think he liked it although we are not entirely sure how much was ingested vs. spit out. He did know what to do with the spoon though so we were pretty impressed! Pears - look out - you are next!

At Thursday's 4 month appointment we learned that Jack is 14 lbs, 3 oz and 25.5 inches long. He had to get another oral vaccine and 3 pricks...he must have remembered what came after the oral vaccine from last time because the minute he finished it, he looked at the nurse and let out the highest pitched scream I've ever heard from the little guy...

More tickles

Here is another one of Jack getting tickled just before bathtime.

Giggles :)

Here is a video of Jack and mommy playing in the crib. He is getting so ticklish! If we tickle his feet or his tummy he cracks up.

Airing out

Here are some cute pics of Jack "airing out" ;)

Rolling over...

Jack first rolled over on 2/3/09. However, this roll *may* have been heavily assisted by his mother (me)... There has been no more rolling since then. This morning, we were playing and I put him on his side. He rolled over from side to back about 12 times! Yeah! He can also go back to side. Not all the way yet but he's getting there. Here he is in action.

Manatees. Jack=uninterested.

On Friday, Opa and I took Jack to see some manatees. There weren't any. So we took this picture with a fake one.

Beach time

We were able to catch up with Kate, Jay and Balin Mayhook at Lover's Key Beach on Tuesday. Balin was so cute with Jack and kept asking if he could touch him. He also liked the nickname we gave him of "Jack in the Box" ;)

Back in Florida!

Jack and I are back in Florida for another warm up. So far we've done lots of activities that Jack is too young to appreciate...On Thursday we went to Corkscrew Santuary to look for birds. Jack was pretty good but there weren't many birds. When we finally did see one, all these crazy bird people were in a whispered frenzy...of course, that was when Jack woke up and started crying...The bird flew away and Opa and I made a run for it with the stroller. Here's a pic of Jack and Opa enjoying the 2 mile boardwalk.

When we got back from the Santuary, we took Jack to the community pool (>80 degrees) and we put his toes in. He liked it but wasn't ready to take the plunge. His new trunks were a big hit.

Bathtime is the best time!

Jack takes a long bath every night before bed - it is his favorite time of day (or so we think). We love to watch him lounge... ;)

Jack's Favorite Sports...The Game!

Here is a new game that Jack likes to play - its called "Favorite Sports". It is a combination of skiing, swimming and lax....

3 months old!

I'm 3 months old today. I weigh about 13 pounds and have started to giggle and can smile for the camera now.

Jack Playing

Here is a video of Jack playing with his cool new toy from Olivia Goldsmith - he loves it! It plays 8 songs and each side of the cube is a different musical instrument. He giggled for the first time playing with it. Jay likes to "act out" the various instruments for Jack. Next time you see Jay, ask him for his rendition of the harp. It is quite beautiful...

Learning to sit...

So mom got me this chair this week. It's called the BeBe Pod. I am supposed to sit in it to strengthen my neck and shoulders and back. I am pretty good at it so far although I only like to do it for a few minutes at a time. I have to say - THIS SURE BEATS TUMMY TIME! Mom says I still have to do tummy time (which sucks by the way - have I mentioned that?) but this will help me too. I really want to learn how to sit because this is there super cute girl named Ryan in my music class and she sits. I like to stare at her all through class and I just think that if I could sit we would totally have more in common, you know? So the key takeaway is that my new red bebepod chair totally rocks and is going to help me find true love.

Growing!

I am really growing now - check me out! I am officially 12 weeks old today. Some would say that makes me 3 months old but I am holding out until the 30th before I declare myself that old. I mean 3 months old is like kind of a big deal.

Late Christmas Pics...

Here are some pics from Christmas time that my mom forgot to post. She looks a bit dead behind the eyes in some of these shots so please excuse her. Really it is my fault because I keep her up all night. Anyway, Christmas was great - I got everything I didn't know I wanted. Mom wrapped all of my gifts so that she could open them all on our fake Christmas (12/20). It was all a bit ridiculous so I cried thru most of it. December 25th marked my first official "Happy Birthday Jesus" celebration in Florida. I got more presents than anyone else which was cool.

Florida!

On December 22, 2008 Jack had his first flight (on Southwest of course!) to Ft. Myers to visit Grams, Opa, Uncle Drew and Auntie Lo down in Naples for Christmas. Jay left on Jan 1st but Vanessa and Jack stayed for 2 full weeks. We all had an amazing trip. Jack had plenty of babysitters and so Jay and V were able to go to the movies (twice!) and to the beach almost every day. Jack got really good at taking his bottle from Grams and can easily suck back 4 oz now. Jack went for lots of walks outside in the wonderful weather and started to establish some sleep patterns while we were down there (note: this does NOT mean "sleeping thru the night...) Here are some pics from the trip.