Paint!

Finger (and hands, and feet, and bottom...) painting with Jack.

Doing important paperwork...

Jack LOVES to color with his crayons, but he still prefers it when he gets his hands on one (or two) of mommy's pens! It's cute how serious he gets about what he clearly thinks is very important work. He will sit at his little desk and draw for up to an hour, working on each piece of artwork until he gets it just right.

Droopy Drawers

No matter how many times we pulled them back up, Jack kept hitching his pants down to show off his little booty this evening. Why? Who knows, but it was 'cracking' us up...ha ha ha...

Jack's 1st Blanket Fort

Family Time

We had a wonderful visit this weekend in Anacortes with Andrew, Gretchen & North as well as Uncle Ben, GG, Nana, and Zadie. North has been busy growing, and Jack finally acknowledged him this time. It was actually very sweet - whenever North would start to fuss, Jack would try to fix it by giving him his pacifier. Smart boy. The last to photos are of Jack making off with his hand-me-down clothes that were being passed on to his cousin...apparently he wasn't quite ready to part with them.

It was great to see the family - thanks (again) for coming up to visit - honestly we're going to make it down to Portland to see you guys in Ocotober - really this time! Warren made his world-famous (okay, at least Anacortes-famous) pizza, which is always a treat. Jack enjoyed making tea for GG & Nana with his new set of dishes. Uncle Ben passed down one of his prized childhood toys to Jack - a model firetruck with a real working extension ladder. It's very cool, and I'm sure Jack will love it (in a couple of years when he can actually play with it without risk of stepping on it by accident and squishing it). All in all a very successful visit with (mostly) happy babies - hooray!

Berry Picking

These photos are from back in July...but I thought they were worth posting even a couple of months late. Emily, Jack and I spent the afternoon picking oodles and oodles of strawberries & raspberries. I turned Jack loose on the berries, and he thought he had died and gone to heaven. He ate so many he wasn't even hungry for dinner afterward (and for Jack, that's really saying something). After a bit of practice he even got pretty good at choosing only the ripe berries, and picking off the little stem at the top. We've since made several more trips back to the u-pick farm, and we now have a well-stocked freezer to see us through the winter. Just last week we made one last trip for (Jack's favorite) blueberries since our supplies were dwindling more quickly than anticipated - and we picked another 20 lbs! What can I say? The kid loves berries.

Resting

See, he slows down (a little) sometimes (and no, we didn't drug him for the photo).

Party Baby

Hug Me - Or Else!

Jack's hugs are well-intentioned but a bit too enthusiastic. We're working on being gentle, and he really is getting better...slowly.

Jack Entertains the Ladies

I haven't posted in a while because not a single interesting thing has happened...nada...zip...zilch. Jack has been napping, and I have been sitting on the couch eating bonbons.

Tonight, however, was very exciting, so I thought I should probably blog about it. We had a full house for dinner - Chris, Mandy, & Gwen and Beth & Cassidy. It was lots of fun (if a bit chaotic...but what's life without a little chaos?) and Jack had a ball entertaining his girls.

Night Night...

We've recently transitioned Jack from two naps to one, and while overall the switch has gone smoothly, sometimes he gets a little sleepy around when his morning nap would have been. So, last week I put him in his bouncy horse (which he hadn't been in for months) and he was having a jolly old time, so I left him there for a couple of minutes. I got a little nervous when I didn't hear any bouncing, and when I peeked in I found him sound asleep. Needless to say, I had to wake him up, which he wasn't very pleased about. He got his second wind though, and made it through lunch before laying down for a nice long nap (in his bed this time)...

Big Day

I know it's been ages since I made a post, but yesterday was definitely a blog-worthy day! Jack said his first word - or rather words...he pointed to JoJo and very clearly said, "hi kitty." I was so surprised to hear real words come out of his cute little mouth, and he seemed equally surprised that he had spoken. It was a very exciting mommy moment. His second word came in the evening, when he said "Gramma" to my mom on the phone.

Talk schmock says Jack. The best part of the day was the sprinkler park!!! After storytime at the library and a lovely picnic with Mandy & Gwen, Jack discovered what may be his absolute favorite place on earth. He elbowed his way in amongst all of the bigger kids, and even went back for more after wiping out face first on the pavement. I'll let the photos (courtesy of Mandy) speak for themselves, but I feel sure that we'll be making lots of trips back to the sprinkler park this Summer!