happy birthday, daddy

daddy ... you do so much for me. you are the best friend a guy could have.

i love it when you come in to my room in the morning and pick me up out of my crib.

i love it when you tickle me until i laugh even when you've stopped

i love watching golf and baseball with you and i can't wait until i'm big enough for you to teach me how to play.

and i know you'll teach me how to play because that's the kind of dad you are.

happy birthday, daddy. i love you.

the weekend update

this weekend update is so chock-a-block, it requires not one but *two* slideshows to share everything we did!

after an early saturday morning walk on the trail with friends sneetch and jellybean, jack and mommy headed home and received a phone call from grandad and nana inviting us to farm days. so after lunch, we headed out ... green acres we are there!

jack *luurrvved* the watermelon he ate and was obsessed with the 1968 john deere tractor. the turkey was a little scary at first when he gobbled, but after that it just cracked jack up. grandad bought jack a bag of dried corn to feed the goats, and jack watched intently as mommy demonstrated how it was done. he then took a handful of corn from the baggie and prompty shoved it in his own mouth. take that you greedy goats!

that alone would make for a full and fun weekend. but around our parts, the fun never stops ... so sunday it was time for lucy's gymanstics birthday party!

wow. who knew gymnastics could be that fun (for kids *and* adults) and who knew pizza could be that yummy (ditto).

and who knew a weekend could be that much fun!

flotsam

just the quickest, flottiest bit of flotsam & jacksam today ...

with the nicer weather of summer, we often leave our front door open and just have the glass front storm door closed.

and jack always wants to go outside. even when the storm door is closed and locked.

jack understands the rule that if he wants to go down a step he needs to go down backwards, on his belly, feet first. so in trying to break free and get out-of-doors, he dutifully turns around and pushes his feet against the locked door.

poor git (potter-speak) -- he hasn't figured out that's not all it takes. undoubtedly he'll soon be shouting "no" at the door. something to look forward to.

potter-mania

everyone around our house is pretty tired these days.

jack is not napping, ergo he is tired

but why would mommy and daddy be tired? (more tired than usual, that is)

one word.

potter-mania!

maybe that's two words. whatever. i'm too tired to parse it.

anyway, daddy has been tearing his way through the new harry potter book, which arrived on saturday afternoon. and mommy, having to wait until daddy is through with his early birthday present, is re-reading the last harry potter book so she can remember what happened (what with having her memory erased by pregnancy and birth) and then begin reading the new volume. this has meant many late nights for mommy and daddy. and, as regular readers know, the days with jack always start early. ergo, we are tired.

but ... daddy is finished. mommy is finished and now starting.

and jack?

well, today he was flipping the newly minted printed pages in which that famous young wizard resides (albeit upside down). too bad mommy was too slow with the camera -- it was cute (in mommy's objective opinion).

fine ... jack can flip, but mommy called next dibs! is jack too young to read it to him at bedtime?

the "n" word

jack has become quite a little character. lately, one of his favorite words seems to be "no."

in fact, roxana reports that tuesday passed without a nap. not a single, solitary moment of shut eye.

when jack was put in his crib, he threw his lovey and other little animals out, grabbed the bars and shook them with all his might, yelling, "no! no! no! no!"

mommy had heard of "the terrible twos" but "the terrible ones"?

who knew?

like a hole in the head

we need this to happen like we need a hole in the head!

(see next post)

tardy weekend update

our weekend update was delayed ... but here's a quick summary of how we passed our "time off":

jack and mommy met with our playgroup at friend tyler's house. tyler and his parents were featured recently in a piece on nbc news about how products from china are found all over people's homes -- from clothes to toys to food. jack enjoyed consuming and playing with many of these fine sino products ...

saturday also brought the aforementioned swan dive into the mulch and the scratched up face. if it's not one thing, it's another. invest now in johnson & johnson stock because their band-aid sales are guaranteed to be high for the next 10 years of jack's life, at least.

saturday also brought a fun trip to the park with daddy.

on sunday, mommy and jack embarked on a long walk to visit and bring breakfast to our friends, sneetch and jellybean. it was 4 miles each way -- probably just the thing to work off the ham, egg and cheese croissant we consumed at the midway point!

and later in the day, we had play time with nana, who came to visit and celebrate her birthday. (happy birthday, nana!) nana loves to take pictures of jack, and jack loves to strike a pose, so it's a very symbiotic relationship.

here jack demonstrates his zoolander "blue steel" pose for nana:



the sand and water table is always a favorite:



jack's hammier than the morning croissant:

tormenting the cat never gets old (speaking only for jack, not floyd):



and we're still working on sitting on the trike, but we've perfected ringing the bell:



after a good (and implausibly large) meal of hamburgers, cheese, peas, peaches and caprese salad (including fresh basil, yum!), jack finds a bedtime book is always a good way to relax from a full day:

is it friday again yet?

The Dude

Our little guy is quickly becoming just that -- a total guy. As you can see from the attached picture, he is getting himself into more and more 'scrapes.' And bruises. And cuts. The scratches currently on his face are from a swan dive off of the sidewalk into the mulch. They replace the bruise from his header into the driveway. During Jack's 1-year appointment, Dr. Kornfeld told us that our primary contribution to his development over the next 12 months will be to "keep him from killing himself."

Easier said ...

jack's big adventure

boy ... we're just chock full of "firsts" in our neck of the woods.

today was jack's first day at daycare.

yes, gentle reader, you got that right ... day care.

roxana called today sounding like death warmed over and so mommy and daddy had to either miss work or scramble. we chose to scramble.

mommy's oh-so-benevolent employer provides access to back-up child care for a nominal fee. mommy had not yet pre-registered for this benefit, so a good deal of the morning was spent getting the proper forms with all the t's dotted and i's crossed.

after a trip to the doctor's office for the requisite paperwork and fighting our way downtown in traffic, jack and i arrived at the bright, cheery day care center. one of us was fed up with traffic. one of us was asleep. here's a hint on who's who:




the facility is only for back-up care, so it's not like jack was the total outsider. he was, however, the youngest kid in the "toddlers" class. mommy was nervous, but jack took to it like a fish to water.

he didn't even pay attention when mommy was waving "bye!" he was too busy climbing on the inside stairs/slide toy.

we're hoping the whole day passes well, until daddy is able to fetch him this evening. but either way, jack will have braved day care. and day care will have braved jack.

when there's a will ...

somehow, mommy and daddy find themselves with a willful child.

now, of course, all children are willful at times. but it seems that with every passing day jack grows more and more independent ... and with that independence comes an intransigence when what he *should* be doing does not coincide with what he *wants* to be doing.

where oh where in the genetic lottery could this have come from? no one is really sure. well ... some have theories, but that's not really relevant here, is it?

no matter ... the point is, one is reminded it is present when jack repeatedly throws things through the baby gate and down the stairs ... when jack repeatedly takes trash out of the trash can despite firm scoldings ... and, when jack tries to bite (usually) mommy when she picks him up or moves him. in fact, this morning he nearly hannibal lectered mommy when she lifted him up to go change his dirty diaper.

and when he was promptly put down and scolded, he wailed and banged on the floor. he doesn't like to be scolded. but as daddy wryly observed, "with the kind of kid we have ... he better get used to it."

true dat. double true.

float like a butterfly ...

sting like a bee!

sadly, another first for jack yesterday ... his first bee sting.

"where?" concerned readers across america are asking.

a.) his hand.
b.) the park.

both are correct answers, alex trebek.

when roxana called mommy with the news, (and after mommy figured out what the heck "picada de abeja" was -- not something in her working vocabulary) jack was still howling in the background. poor guy. bee stings hurt! but after a while, and after some ice, a baking soda paste and a little nap, he was back to his normal self.

and this morning, you could hardly see a thing (and given the quality of this photo, you couldn't see it even if you could ...)



and you'd never have known anything traumatic had happened:




in fact, jack slept in -- until 7:15!! so he was in a good mood ... as were mommy and daddy. note -- there's still coffee in the pot behind jack, so we weren't as desperate for caffeinated sustenance as we normally are ...

the sleep-in did result in a bit of an overtaxing of the overnight diaper. so, instead of the pj's he went to bed in, jack was wearing his design museum t-shirt.



and playing with that old design fave ... the slinky ...

this is jack's impersonation of a brooklyn baby -- all ironic t-shirts and hipster sensibility. but ... he's a suburban kid, so it will be back to the preppy polo gear by the time he gets dressed for real for the day!

and, there *is* a nagging sense that even though this was the first bee sting, it won't be the last. perhaps jack *should* rethink that career as an apiarist ...

brusha brusha brusha

no ... not ipana ... earth's best!

jack loves this toothpaste and loves brushing his teeth.

mommy tries to brush teeth with jack when either she or daddy is also brushing teeth. the idea being, that he will associate this as something everyone does, every day. plus, he thinks it's hillarious to watch someone brush his/her teeth and loves having his own teeth brush.

daddy calls jack the anti-baby. he loves to eat, he loves having his teeth brushed, he never wants to sleep ... not like most babies we know.

today as daddy was polishing his own pearly whites, jack climbed right up onto the (locked) toilet seat, awaiting his turn to brush (or be brushed). of course mommy obliged. jack then proceeds to suck on the brush, bite on it (note to self: get a non-finger brush or a silver thimble to go under it!), and bare his teeth to let them be scrubbed. it was very funny. next time we'll try to snap a photo.

because the family that brushes together ... well, ask bucky beaver if you don't know the rest.

weekend update

a friend at work asked mommy how her weekend was. "busy, but i didn't get anything done," was mommy's oxymoronic reply. "ah," she said, "those are the best kind." and she's right ... it was a good weekend, indeed.

saturday found mommy and jack on a 5+ mile walk ... stopping midway at a never-before-visited playground to eat a snack (grapes and banana) and play on the swingsets. daddy, meanwhile, was toiling in the backyard, fighting an unwinnable war against the neighbor's bamboo (note to self: get panda!).

at the playground, jack tried to pick up some chicks, natch. the first girl who caught his eye was just a young "kitten" ... 14 months old ... and toddling around in shoes that made a squeaky sound with every step (no *that's* not annoying!). but later, the preschool-aged "cougar" swooped in. jack was blocking her way on the tunnel slide. "it's okay," declared the older woman, "he's cute!" typical jack ... always the ladies' man.

later on, jack's nana arrived to let mommy and daddy go out to dinner ... and she and jack had a grand old time eating a messy repast of peas, pasta with tomato sauce, and avocado. yum! jack is getting more and more insistent on feeding himself. and while he's getting better, he's still fairly sloppy ... exhibit a:

soon it was time for bed and bottle and jack was a happy camper. he's down to only one bottle a day, before bed. the rest of the time it's a sippy cup for our big boy! nana commented that jack seemed to be much older than the last time she saw him ... just two weekends ago for a trip to the zoo. we are chalking it up to much steadier walking and his new haircut.



sunday was daddy's morning to get up early with jack while mommy slept in a bit, so ... no idea about what happened in the morning. but the afternoon brought us to a birthday party for jack's friends, grace and garrett, the twins.

although clearly the smallest kid amid all the rising first-graders, jack held his own and ran around their backyard having a great time. and running was something of a feat ... jack was wearing new shoes with a firm sole -- big boy shoes would only be appropriate with his big boy haircut and bottle habits, after all. and although he had some trouble with them at first, he soon became accustomed to them and was racing around like always.

in fact, he was still racing when we got home. that might have had something to do with the birthday cake he ate ... but soon enough jack ate dinner, bathed, drank his milk (from his cup!), read some stories with mommy, and laid down in his crib. the weekend over.

busy ... and "nothing" done.

flotsam & jacksam

some more random things about jack, at 13 months ...

• jack is easily frustrated by things and shows his frustration by throwing himself onto whatever surface is nearby (sofa, floor, etc.) and dramatically banging his hands on the ground
  
• jack is frustrated by things that include falling down when he's trying to run/walk, being told "no" and being made to step away from the kitchen trash can
  
• jack tries repeatedly to throw things into the kitchen trash can or his diaper pail -- last trash day daddy found a sippy cup full of water and the remote control for the stereo receiver in the garbage he was setting out!
  
• jack has discovered "rules lawyering" and when told not to touch the trash can lid will instead just touch the trash bag peeking out from under the lid; reminiscent of "the great bell stand-off" if you ask mommy...
  
• jack is pointing and saying "ma!" at almost everything he sets his eyes on
  
• jack still loves to see the cats and knows how to look in all of their favorite hiding places for them, including under the bed -- he gets on his belly and peers under ... adorable!
  
• jack has a taste for salvadoran food -- his recent menu selections have included tortillas, tamales and pupusas ... yummm ...
  

swing batter-batter-batter sswwiinngg!

we seem to have a baseball theme going with jack ...

lightning crashes ...

right into jack's house!

roxana called yesterday to say that lightning had hit the patio. it was hard to believe and mommy thought maybe she had misunderstood the spanish. but there was no mistaking it when daddy got home to inspect:

poor jack had been in the bath at the time (yikes!) and was so scared he started crying. roxana scooped him up out of the water and they cowered for a while, trying to calm jack down. she said the whole house shook!

a neighbor to the back called and it turns out one of our trees was struck, leaving what she called "fairly dramatic spears" all over her yard and the street in front of her.

daddy thinks that the actual strike may have been on the tree and then the electricity traveled along the ground, exiting on the patio ... and in the process, exploding some of the bricks.

in the end, everyone's okay, and that's what's most important. and we can only hope that lightning doesn't strike twice!

the ladies' man

yes ... it's true ... jack (like his father) is a ladies' man.

one of his favorite girlfriends, lesley, is visiting today:



but old lesley may have some competition ...

on sunday when we were at the pool, a little girl ... maybe about 6 years old ... came up and said, "he's so cute!" she then proceeded to grill me about him: "how old is he?" ... "how many teeth does he have?" ... "are they all in the front?"

she was very interested ... until mommy described jack's 4-by-2 chomper configuration, at which point she wandered away. maybe she's looking for a more toothsome guy ...

weekend update

this edition of the weekend update holds something special -- jack's first haircut. on saturday, after watching a little wimbeldon, we headed out before lunch to "cartoon cuts" to get jack's locks snipped.

mommy was trepidatious ... how would it go? would her little baby be forever gone? so many questions. but ... we all realized the time had come for the wings over jack's ears to fly, fly away.

daddy and jack wait patiently to be called:




after trying to strap jack in to the seat with this lame little seatbelt, it became apparent that the same boy who broke out of leg restraints in the hospital at 4 days old would need more stringent controls. so he sat on daddy's lap and gloria, our stylist, started snipping.




jack wasn't so sure about this, so he looked to daddy for some reassurance.




despite reassurances, jack was decidedly unhappy:




but he hung in there like a trooper ...




... while gloria just took a little more off the back:




in the end, jack emerged looking quite like a big boy with a new coif and just a few tears shed.



for the rest of the weekend, we tried to do things jack would *like* (or at least things that didn't make him cry).

they included:

playing with his sand and water table

going to the playground

walking to the plaza for breakfast with mommy (a true 6 miles, grandpa, now that the stroller pedometer is recalibrated!)

going to the garden center

going to the pool

flotsam and jacksam

the blog was designed to keep foj (friends of jack) up to date on him. but it has the added side benefit of being a great way to capture the ephemeral details of who jack is as he grows and changes.

however ... sometimes in trying to match posts to pictures and tell a real story, these very details get squeezed out. the stuff we call "color" in the biz.

so mommy's decided that once in a while the daily post is gonna be bare bones and probably pictureless. it won't have cute turns of phrase, puns, or even a coherent thread. it will be more of a joycean stream of consciousness (after all, mommy and daddy were married on bloomsday!). so here goes:

jack cracks up when people blow their noses

jack often says "doo-WAY" -- we don't know what it mean, but it's something good

jack is starting to bang the floor in frustration, particulary when he falls down

jack loves to hug the vacuum

jack loves to push his own stroller

jack can crawl up *and* down the stairs

jack closes the baby gate behind him when he goes upstairs

jack can crawl up the stairs, through the tunnel and down the slide at the park

jack says "hi" and "bye" with regularity

jack responds to spanish and english commands

jack only runs, never walks, when pushing his push car through the house

jack often rubs his own head when drinking milk

jack throws everything out of his crib when he wakes up in the morning

jack cracks up when he hears exaggerated gulping/swallowing sounds

jack loves to be an "upside down baby"

jack thinks hiccups are hillarious

jack prefers large pieces of food to small ones -- he's figuring out how to chew

and ... of course ...

jack loves to throw things into the subwoofer

in the majors

recently the blog told you about jack's desire to be a baseball catcher. some of you actually thought it seemed more like a desire to be an apiarist. but that's another post.

well ... in case he gets called up to the majors ... jack is outfitted and ready (at least for the american league).

all together now (in your best maryland accent): go o's!

liberation

on our nation's independence day ... it seems only fitting to tell a tale of freedom.

it begins on tuesday, july 3rd. daddy decides to try to retrieve a toy that he saw jack throw into the subwoofer while he was on the phone with mommy.

jack is very fond of throwing things into the subwoofer at home .

we had no idea just how fond. in addition to the hot pink magnetic gear toy that we originally went in search of, we also found:

a "new yorker" subscription card

a baby hairbrush

a purple piece of plastic

a whistle toy that we'd never seen before

a partially eaten cracker

half a plastic easter egg

by the time the cracker was extracted, mommy and daddy were in hysterics.

who knew we had to babyproof *that* too!

picture this

we had some professional photos taken of jack by my friend and former colleague erin fogarty owen. she left the tv game to begin her own photography biz and so naturally she was the perfect person to do first year portraits of jack.

just one example of her work that I love is this picture of jack crawling up our backyard stairs. just as in tv, things are not always as they appear ... in getting those pictures, jack nearly fell off the stairs several times. daddy was standing off to the side in the dirt to make sure he didn't hurt himself. but hey ... it's worth it for some great shots! like this one:

(copyright fogarty photography)

used by permission/not for reproduction

there are more pictures to see at erin's blog about her photography projects or the full album, hosted at pictage.

weekend update

so, this weekend while mommy was working in kport, jack was a busy guy.

he and daddy went and bought toilet locks and did other assorted errands. they also played at the playground, went on walks and did other "boy things" to which mommy is not privy.

sunday brought two things -- a small break for daddy (which he spent doing yard work, though mommy would have spent it being lazy), and a trip to the zoo with his nana and grandad for jack!

jack liked seeing the animals (and the little girls who were seeing the animals):

and of course he had to get a closer look:




he'd probably have thrown himself into the cage if he were allowed!

mommy comes home late tonight and will be eagerly awaiting a morning reception from jack. but, note to jack: she's not so desperate for jack-time that she can't wait until after 6a!