things to do with jack

jack's daddy is a patient man. it's this patience that allows him to smile graciously when jack's mommy announces she needs to head to "vacationland" to work and daddy's in charge of jack for the weekend. it's not that spending time with jack is not enjoyable. it is. it's also *exhausting* -- especially when you're solo, playing a man-on-baby defense.

one key of spending a day alone with jack is activity. he's is happiest when he's busy. aren't we all? one good way to keep busy is the playground. there are lots of things to do there, as jack showed his aunt megan as she took these pictures:

you can survey the landscape:





you can play hide and seek:



and you can slide ...

... slide

... slide!

good night, daddy, and good luck.

leavin' on a jet plane

mommy was out the door by 5 am today and didn't get to see jack before she left. she wanted to peak at him, but daddy said, "don't you dare!" and considering he's got jack by himself for the next 5 days (with a little help from roxana on the weekdays), how could mommy not do as he asked.

but at least jack's new picture hangs from my neck, along with a secret service badge, and i can look at that any time i want (which is pretty much all the time) ...

lock up your daughters

cause jack's a cutie.

here he is being a snuggle bug with his aunt megan after his birthday party

but more importantly, lock up your toilets -- because jack has started playing in them.

it was cute and all when he was flushing the toilet. but he's now apparently smart enough/strong enough to lift the lid and stick his hands in. or stick mommy's bracelet in, as happened this morning when mommy was only half awake, still getting her coffee.

mommy leaves on a trip tomorrow, but looks like jack and daddy have a trip to the baby store for toilet locks in their futures!

jack's found his avocation ...

a little fun in the kitchen this morning ...

and jack's found his calling ...

catcher for the washington nationals!

the weekend update

since jack's mommy has sort of given up on blogging on the weekends, monday posts will henceforth be the weekend update. a weekly feature ... but hopefully slightly more manageable in the end than "hot pursuit." :-)

the theme of jack's weekend was water.

saturday morning he had his buddies over to play with his sand and water table:



and after a nap and a costume change, he was back at it -- chasing the water from the hose in the front yard as daddy tried to give the impatiens, trod on by four sets of one-year-old feet, some tlc.

sunday was a trip to the pool for some swimming and splashing in the water -- only to return home and get a message from "uncle gary" that our planned get together that afternoon would feature a kiddie pool and a slip-n-slide that shoots water.



so ... jack's drying out and de-pruning today. the only water today will likely be his bath.

and ... rumours that jack would be getting a hair cut were just that ... rumours. as evidenced above, his untamed locks are still flapping in the breeze and swirling in all that water.

t.g.i.f.

that must have been what jack was thinking. why else would he get up at 5:15 am if not to enjoy a full friday. i think this is going to feel like the longest day of the year -- and not just because of the solstice!

since we were up *so* early, we had a very full morning. jack got up, got dressed, had a bottle (a mix of milk and formula, which he is coming around to), played some, had some cheerios, pushed his car around, played his drums, read a book .... and it was only 7:30!

so we loaded up and went on a long walk on mommy's favorite trail. we walked for over an hour. mommy's stroller pedometer said that we went 7.5 miles, but we're beginning to suspect that the original wheel radius entered was faulty -- so it's probably more like 4 miles.

on our walk we saw bikers, birds, squirrels, dogs, ducks and lots of buses and trucks. jack, of course, pointed at all of these and squealed at many of them. most exciting of all was the yellow school bus.

we arrived home to more excitement -- roxana and her girls were over today. so jack ate his third breakfast (two whole pancakes!) surrounded by three adoring females. ¡oyé papi!

at this writing, jack has been sleeping for over an hour -- that's quite a lot for our non-napping boy. guess he's trying to fuel up for a full day of carousel-riding and pool-going with his amigitas.

and even though he doesn't want friday to end ... something tells me he'll be asleep before we get home ...

¡vámonos!

as regular jack-watchers know, he is *always* on the move these days. he will hardly ever sit still -- pretty much only to eat ... and sometimes he does that on the move as well.





so it only makes sense that when his nanny roxana says "¡vamos!" jack is ready to go. today they were headed out to ride the carousel at glen echo park before it got too hot.

well, she said "¡vámonos!" ("let's go" for all you non-dora/diego watchers) and darned if jack didn't immediately stop what he was doing (trying to pull out mommy's hairdryer while simultaneously pulling things out of the bathroom wastebasket) and walk to the top of the stairs, waiting to be picked up and carried down.

she tells me that other times when she has said "vamos," jack has gone to stand by the door and wait for her.

mommy and daddy are going to have to try this -- ¡en español, claro!

million dollar baby

and his million dollar smile ... well, maybe only half a mil' 'til he gets some more toothies!





not much to report today ... and busy day at work for mommy ...

but jack continues to work on his walking and has become very proficient at standing himself up in the middle of a room without holding on to anything. this feat first started around the time this picture was taken (his bday party weekend when his grands were visiting), but by now he's pretty much solidified it.

the cable guys

just before leaving for the weekend, mommy and daddy's tv suddenly turned black and white. roxana said jack was pushing a lot of buttons and she thought he may have done something. when all the settings were checked, the picture was still not in technicolor. daddy was salivating at the thought of a new tv. mommy thought it might be a faulty input on the tv that could be repaired. either way, we figured we'd deal with it when we came back.

but ... jack's grandad is a videophile and could not let it go unfixed. he diagnosed the problem as being with the dvr box from the cable company ... so grandad and jack called comcast:


"hello ... we need a new box ... with extra remotes, please!"

from there, they headed out to the comcast regional office where grandad got a new box whilst nana and jack sat in the lobby, greeting the patrons. most folks are probably fairly disgruntled when walking into comcast. they're not exactly tops at customer service, after all. but i bet after meeting jack very few continued to feel disgruntled. they ought to pay him.

so, new box in hand ... our trio went back home to install the new box.


"grandad ... plug it in there!"


"my work here is done."

lucky us ... we've got our very own cable guys!

jack in the box

you knew it was coming eventually, right? i mean ... jack in the box ... it was so obvious. but this morning he literally was in the box. he climbed right in (well, once he dumped out all his toys)!

and of course he climbed right out too ... no moss grows on this kid.

despite a nice weekend away for a lovely wedding, it was great to be home again with our little jack in the box. in fact, daddy got up with him at o'dark thirty this morning when he woke, but when mommy finally dragged herself downstairs, jack began clapping his hands and ran toward mommy and gave her a huge hug. heck of a welcome home!

stay tuned when next week we'll take him to church, where he'll be jack in the pulpit ...

and more on jack's big adventure with his nana and grandad to come.

first time away

jack's parents are on their first trip away from the crown prince. and while we are very much looking forward to our friend jen's wedding, we will also be missing our little man.

we know he'll be in good hands with his nana and grandad ... and we'll be verifying that with hourly phone calls!

just kidding (sorta) ...

a grand old time

one of the big highlights of the birthday weekend celebration was a visit from jack's "grands" (second only to cupcake eating!).

jack had a great time with grandma -- playing, reading and snuggling:

and hanging out and being silly with grandpa:

it was so great to have all those mershons together! and we'll do it again soon in hot-lanta!

let them eat (cup)cake

a few more snaps of cupcake eating from jack's nana that i couldn't resist. he really liked the cupcakes (especially the scharffen berger chocolate frosting!) ... he's definitely his father's son!

he even sneezes after he eats chocolate just like dear old dad does (and like grandma does, and like grandpa-great used to ...)


YUM!

YUMM!!!!!!

YUMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

first birthday party

whew! that's all we can say about jack's birthday party this weekend. it was a whirlwind of fun, friends, and food! monkeyshines were the order of the day!

check out our slide show:

(be sure to click the sound icon at the bottom left of the player if you want to hear audio)

(be sure to click the sound icon at the bottom left of the player if you want to hear audio)

more pictures to come ... and a special thank you to guest photographers sneetch and jelly bean, without whom, there would be no cake photos!

UPDATE: since i'm having technical difficulties with the slideshow getting cut off on the righthand side, you can see the full thing by clicking this link:

Jack's Birthday Party

party in the park

it's like a non-stop party around our parts. everyone just keeps celebrating jack! yesterday the kids from the playground and their nannies all had a party for jack.

actually, *we* had the party ... but we didn't get to go. as jack's daddy said, "he's having a party and we're not invited to it. he has separate friends!" and it's true. he received several gifts from these kids, and we were left scratching our heads, saying, "who are paige and parker?"

maybe some of the kids in the background here?

and jack liked his taste of cupcake:

mommy expects he'll look like this or worse at his party on saturday:

ah ... life's sweet.

bloody nose birthday portrait

so jack had quite a big day for his birthday. mommy took the day off and we had a nice time together. we went to have pictures taken at the mall, only to find our normal place had closed down!

so, not to be dissuaded ... since we'd already dressed up and (tried) to comb jack's hair ... we headed down the mall to sears portrait studio.

and, although we ended up with a "keeper" ... it was a bit of a tough shoot. jack was scared of the photographer and kept crying, and he did not want to stand still. in fact, while waiting to view our pictures and pick one, jack took a tumble and got a slightly bloody nose ... right there ... in the sears portrait studio. oy. what would roebuck think?

anyway, our little trooper got right back up and didn't let it bother him. in fact, he stayed up extra late to fully celebrate his birthday (8 pm!)!

we've got some other photo plans in the works, so we'll hope those turn out with less trauma than this one!

ONE YEAR POST!

june 5th, 2 pm, eastern daylight time, i can't believe a year's gone by so fast!

(apologies to "rent")

just to put it in some context ... here's jack this morning ...

and here's jack 365 days ago ...

what a wonderful gift this year has been. sure ... trying and difficult at times, but richly rewarding and beyond our wildest expectations always.

happy birthday to our sweet boy. you are so loved by so many.

come let's stroll

this weekend brought the purchase of a "big boy carseat" for jack (yet to be installed) and with that, a new stroller as well.

jack has already taken to it quite nicely. take a look:

if you can't see the video as embedded here, check it out on youtube.

cinderella, cinderella

all i hear is cinderella ...

cinderelly, cinderelly
night and day it's cinderelly
make the fire, fix the breakfast
wash the dishes, do the mopping