Happiest of Birthdays, Jack.

This little guy is a year old today! We were in Tennessee this past weekend, so we thought we'd celebrate with cake so Jeremy's family could be a part of the fun. So here's a video for all of you to enjoy.



It turns out that at 1 year, Jack already has 14 teeth. I had been pretty good at updating you guys on his development, but when I went to Texas for a month, that pretty much flew out the window. All of those teeth just snuck up on us. Oh yeah, and 4 of those teeth are "1st Molars". Who is this kid, and why is he in such a hurry to eat steak? I think maybe he has been wanting to eat steak since before he was born, because that was really the only thing I craved when I was pregnant with him.

Speaking of pregnancy, we were able to acquiesce to Jack's Birthday request for a little sibling. You can expect that one close to my birthday.

Cheerio!

I just found some pictures from last week that I had meant to post, but forgot about. My friend Amber has two little boys, and she has an Incredibles Halloween costume that her boys have outgrown, so she brought it over for Jack to try on. It was too big, but cute all the same.

I've so much to learn from the lady in gold

I love dancing to this...

Hehe... Nugget.

Poor guy had to give a presentation on his birthday. But Jack makes it all better.



Jack takes his hand at drawing. When I was in Texas, he picked up a pen and started mimicking writing... so I thought I'd let him draw something for Jeremy's birthday. So here's Jack's first piece of art:



Here are some pictures of ESPN Zone-- which is where we ate supper last night.





It's really weird being at a restaurant where pretty much every person is staring at a TV. It's really loud because of the game and then all people yelling at the game.



Very strange. This sculpture of Mace Windu as a Nugget, is pretty sharp...and random.



(If you think I knew the name Mace Windu, or how to spell it, you're sadly mistaken.)

I think I'll end this blog post with a couple of funny pictures of me trying to pull Jack's shirt off over his HUGE noggin. It's always a struggle...





(Quick little rant...

Few things anger me as much as shirts like this)

He's got those happy feet

"It's about time"... I know, but here's some video footage of Jack walking. Notice how Jack stands up without any support at the beginning of the first video. He just learned how to do that yesterday. Hmmmm... what else can I tell you about that little scamp? Oh yeah. His 10th and 11th teeth just broke through today. I can't think of anything else right now. Watch the videos, please.





Also, I thought some of you might be interested in seeing a better picture of Jeremy's beard. Here ya go.

Normality has been restored.

(Well, except for the extra whiskers on Jeremy's face.)

The 4 week separation between Jeremy and us is now just a memory. A very dismal memory. He came back! And two days early!!! Huzzah! It's so nice seeing his furry little face. We've been having such a good time sitting next to one another and watching Jack walk all over the place, and often times in circles. It's quite nice having my two favorite people close to me again. A week is now the longest Jeremy's ever allowed to leave us again... Jack and I decided. Eat it, Halliburton!

Four and a Half Pounds

When checking my luggage at Bush Intercontinental Airport, the man at the desk informed me that my suitcase was 4 1/2 lbs over the weight limit. The charge for luggage over the weight limit: $50. Call me crazy, but that seems a bit excessive. Fortunately, T-Bird was at the Check-in desk with us, so I opened up my suitcase and started looking for the heaviest items within. And what did I find? The Iliad, a toy xylophone, and a can of formula. I put them on the scale and .... 4 1/2 lbs. Nice. So T-Bird took the Xylophone and the formula, and I found a way to stash the book in Jack's booster chair. Just thought I would share that in case you were wondering what the combined weight of those items was.

Hello Please... keeping you informed about things you didn't know you needed to be informed about... and you're probably right.

"They look the same."

Please join me in marveling in their likeness.

On the ol' space highway

"NEVER leave your baby in an infant carrier while it goes through the X-ray machine."

Good advice. Thank you www.TSA.gov.

Well, you should know this but I'll say it anyway: I'm in Texas. Jack and I are currently drifting among the Tyler/Longview area. One thing I've learned is that being a drifter is much more difficult with a baby. But I'm adjusting and I'm trying not to let that hinder my spontaneity.

I'm having a pretty good time. I gotta mention the main highlight of my trip thus far... being at the hospital when Sara's twins are born! Man, two babies at once? That's just crazy. Picture time!



Michael and Owen... those are their names.. and they're muy cute.

Let's see... do I have anything else to say? I don't think so. I'm gonna finish this so I can hang out with Hannah. Here are a couple of pictures from the first part of our trip.

We shelled peas in Tennessee!


I put this forward as evidence that overalls are ok if you are a jolly old man

"All right, Pop-Pop... let's go!"


He likes holdin' her hand.

"Say, who is this walking man?"

Jack took his first steps today! Oo-da-lolly! And of course I have a video for you to watch.

Coming Soon

Jack started doing that hand thing right before I got the camera out. In case you're wondering, I'm trying to get him to say "eyebrow" because that's the closest he's ever come to saying his first word. "Eyebow". Does it count? I don't know. It was over a week ago, and he hasn't repeated it, so...?

That is all. I'll See most of you in a little over a week! "How exciting!"

"He probably misses his old glasses."

This immediately became one of my favorite pictures.



Man, Jack loves Jeremy's glasses so much.

He got stuck only once, for a moment or two...

Jack has a new trick...



Today he was stacking the rings while I wasn't looking, and since I didn't clap for him, he clapped for himself! He clapped for the very first time!

Most.... appropriate... shirt... ever!

Many thanks to Jenna for my new shirt. I knew I had to blog about it so you could all see. (I asked Jeremy if this shirt hurt his feelings and he said "no".... he knows he's a nerd.)

Please don't take me out to the crowd.

Well, yesterday Jack attended his first baseball game, and more importantly, his first Cardinals game. Jeremy, Jack and I took in a Rockies/Cardinals game at Coors field. It was pretty sweet. Jack didn't do so well at first. He would cry anytime the crowd would applaud, so Jeremy and I would take turns walking him around. I was glad we had his toothbrush, because, for some reason, it always seems to calm him down when he's upset. Later in the game, he slept for a few innings and was in a pretty good mood after that.

Coors field is really nice. We had really good seats. Pujols didn't play, which was sad, but the Cardinals played really well and my favorite pitcher was pitching.

Here are some pictures and videos to further document this momentous occasion.

Brighton's seedy underbelly

Jack has a new obsession: eyebrows. I'm starting to wonder if "eyebrow" will be his first word.



Can anyone tell me why Jeremy has been singing the following jingle the past few days?
"We're having a great day, at Allen Samuels East Texas Dodge!"

This evening, around 7:40, while getting Jack ready for bed, we heard police sirens. We looked out of Jack's window and saw a police car that had apparently been chasing a white car full of people. The cop and the car were coming to a stop at the gas station by our apartment. We went out to our balcony to get a better look. The cop gets out of his car, holding his gun and yelling at the driver "put your hands up in the air!!!" The next thing we know, there are five cop cars, and all of the cops are pointing their guns at the car and yelling. One by one they arrested the people in the car. I went inside at one point to get the camera, and Jeremy said that while I was gone they threw one of the guys against the hood of one of the squad cars. It was pretty intense a couple of times. Here is a picture AND a video. I'm very thorough.





So after watching the bad men get arrested, we went inside and read Goodnight Moon to Jack. Pleasant dreams for everyone.

He left us! He left us!!

Jack has started his separation anxiety phase. He'll wake up a several times at night crying. It's really quite sad. Since we don't really know anyone here in Brighton that we can leave Jack with (except for the church nursery), I'm getting concerned that he will get much too attached and will not want to be left alone with anyone else. I have been around him constantly lately, except for the couple of times I have gotten groceries while Jeremy stayed with him. When I am away from him, I feel very weird, like I should be taking care of him, but he's not there for me to take care of. For instance, when we're in the the car, I frequently check the backseat mirror to see if he's ok. The two times I've been in the car without him since we've been here, I kept checking that mirror, and it felt very wrong that he was not in his seat. It's like walking around without my arm, or something. I may not be feeling separation anxiety, but I am definitely feeling separation confusion. Anyhow, it's kind of frustrating that he keeps waking up through the night crying, but on the other hand, it makes me feel like the most important person in the world.

Jack's new hair-d'oh!

I can't believe today was the first time I utilized the gas station located right next to our apartment complex. I was in the middle of cooking and I realized that I didn't have any milk. Well, I had already realized I was out of milk, but I suddenly realized that I needed milk for the meal I was preparing. So, I grabbed Jack and walked over to the gas station. I made it there and back in about five minutes. Pretty sweet. One thing this experience has taught me is that it's quite a feat to carry Jack in one arm and a gallon of milk in the other, whilst walking up two flights of stairs. Quite a work out for my arms. Anyhow, the point of this paragraph was to let you know this: there is a gas station close to our apartment. What's that? I'm boring you? Well you're boring me!

(I meant to post this before that last video)
Jeremy and I decided it was about time for Jack to get a haircut. But how do you cut the hair of a 9 month old baby? Answer: I don't know. We figured scissors were out of the question, since that boy jerks his head around like a little bird. So we thought we'd try using the clippers. We decided to use the second shortest guard, because it seemed appropriate for a baby-sized head. We should have known this was wrong though, because even though Jack is a baby, his head is certainly not baby-sized. To make a long unfortunate story short, we didn't realize this mistake in time, and now Jack's hair is much shorter than we wanted it to be. I almost cried. We have video of this taking place, but it's much too traumatic for me to post. Maybe someday... but I doubt it.

Before this happened, Jeremy said that with Jack's hair combed he looked like Calvin (of 'And Hobbes' fame). Mainly, the difference between the unkempt and combed looks. But Jack's butchered hair look reminded him even more of butchered hair Calvin. See?





In other news, yesterday marked Jack's first trip into a swimming pool. He didn't like it at first until he realized it was splashable.





I have one more picture to post. It's one of my new favorites.

Door goes open, door goes shut.

Presenting Jack's new obsession with doors:

Jack on the box.

Just so you all don't think I'm really slow at unpacking, I'd like to clarify that this video is from the day the movers came. I'm just slow at YouTubing.

It's weird because it seems like Jack has already grown a lot since this video. He's definitely gotten a lot better at moving around and standing against things, like the couch. He often times will hold on with one hand, which leads me to believe that steps are not too far away. I actually let go of him today to see if he could balance freestanding and he did for several seconds. He seemed pretty pleased with himself. But I don't have a video of that, ok? I just have this video. Be happy with what you got.

Please don't kill me, freaky Jason.

Drew posted this picture a long time ago, I think, but I wanted to remind everyone just how scary Jeremy can't be. Can. I meant can.

Put a wet rag on that kid's head.

I was just uploading some pictures to put on Flickr, and I wanted to blog a few of them.

Here are some pictures of Jack after a rare 2 hour nap. He's got some seriously kickin' sleep hair.




And here's a pretty sweet picture of Jeremy playing with Jack on his lunch break. (Jeremy's not Jack's.)



Also, here is a picture of the sunset that was taken from our balcony.

You're not the peanut you once were.

A couple of comparisons for you.









Slow down, why don't ya.

My dignity, sir.

This has definitely been one of Henri's most humiliating moments. Apparently the movers see him as nothing more than a piece of furniture or a box. As if holding people's keys and wallets isn't degrading enough, the movers have to go ahead and put one of these stickers on his head. It's preposterous! He's not even holding his tray, for crying out loud. I haven't yet found it amidst the sea of boxes. But when I do, you better believe I'll return Henri to his full glory.

Well, 1 down, 6 to go.

Have you ever wondered where birds' ears are located?

Here's your answer.

...I find a little fella who's cute and yella and chubby...

Dude, Jack's new rubber ducky is sweet! (That's one of the reasons I had a baby is so that I can buy cute ducks like this and pretend they are for my son.)

Whatever, he's awesome and that's all you need to know.

(Jack's awesome too.)
(Duh.)

Just close your sleepy little eyeballs.

Here are some pictures of Jeremy, Jenna and Jack napping in our blank apartment. The movers should be here Monday so we'll be able to make the apartment not-so-blank. You'll see that we had to use Jeremy's Cardinals shirt as a make-shift blanket for Jack because his blankets were at the hotel.

Notice how small Jack's room is (the room in which Jeremy is laying.)

Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy.

This is Jack's first encounter with a balloon*.

Can anyone help me? What song is playing in the background of this video? I think I know, but Jeremy disagrees with me.




*Balloons are not toys.