Jack's First Birthday - Party #1

This is called Party #1, because there were officially three days of celebration over the event of Jack's first birthday. The partying began on Thursday, February 25, a day before his actual birthday, and ended on Saturday when Aunt Sarah, Uncle Nathan, Cousin Lauren, and Cousin Benjamin could come to our house for a celebration.

Party #1 was in Jack's class at daycare. He was rather grumpy that day, unfortunately, and kept crawling away from me when I would approach him with a birthday hat. (Maybe he feels like with his helmet, that's the most hats he can wear at one time!)

We took pictures with his little classmates - Christina, Lauren, and Dane - then ate some lunch, but then the REAL partying began when we brought out the cupcakes. They were the tiny cupcakes that it takes an adult two bites to finish...or they can take Jack just one handful! He had the entire cupcake in his mouth before we'd even finished singing Happy Birthday!

The most memorable event was when the boy in the highchair next to him, Dane, was holding a cupcake in his hand, not quite sure what to do with it. Quick as a wink, Jack grabbed Dane's cupcake and put that one in his mouth, too! The moms all got a kick out of that one.

That's our Jack - the boy sure does like to eat.

Too Many Excuses...

...But most of them are really worth going into as far as why I have not published a recent blog.

Maybe I should try a "New Year's Resolution" to blog more, although with the current pace we've been keeping, I honestly don't think it will help!

Part of the reason why we've had our hands full recently, as you'll see in this video, is that Jack has suddenly gone from being our baby (who we could sit in the middle of the floor and he would play contentedly), to "Now I'm a pre-toddler, and I'm into everything!"

This new phase of crawling, pulling up, pulling things over, climbing up stairs, and just generally wreaking havoc around the house (he broke a lamp today, for example) certainly has its challenges. But it also has its joys. Jack is such a happy little boy. He loves to laugh, and we love to laugh with him. He's obsessed with Roscoe and thinks that the doggie is so funny! To give you an idea how much he likes Roscoe, the three words he can definitely say now are Dada, Mama, and Doga.

Here are Jack and Roscoe in action. Be sure to turn up the volume so you can hear the cute "baby laugh." I'll try and post more soon - this is just to get me back in the habit, so to speak.

Proud Moments Prayerfully to Come

When I was pregnant and the tears came easily, I blamed it on the crazy hormones. After I had Jack and the tears still kept coming easily, I said it was post-partum. And by and large, it was. However, these days, there are just some surprising moments every now and then where I find myself with tears in my eyes, and I just didn't see it coming.

Can't blame it on the pregnancy, the hormones, or the post-partum. Guess it's just part of being a mom.

I had one of these moments yesterday morning in church. At the end of the service, the pastor said they were going to have one baptism that day. It was an 8-year-old boy with blonde hair named Christian. After he and one of the other pastors waded down into the baptismal, the pastor placed his hand on Christian's shoulder and asked him, "Christian, have you accepted Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior?"

Unconcerned of the hundreds of people that were watching him at just that moment, Christian looked up at the pastor and answered quite solemnly, "Yes, sir. I have."

And then I found myself with tears in my eyes as I watched him go under the water and come back up. All I could think about was how I cannot wait for the day that will hopefully and prayerfully come when I see someone ask my own little boy that question, and Jack will respond in the affirmative just as Christian did. I thought that that must be just about one of the proudest moments in life that a parent can have. I cannot imagine anything that would make me happier.

Even though Jack is just an infant now, moments like this are good reminders for me because they inspire me to want to show Jack Christ's love right now, not tomorrow, not the next day, but now. It's so easy for me to get wrapped up in the daily grind of diapers, baby food, trips to the grocery store, and then other days where I get to wear my Business Analyst hat for most of the day. It's like watching it rain and only focusing on the raindrops as they fall, forgetting that they pool together on the ground in a big puddle. Our days as we go through them seem so individual, but really they run together and create patterns and habits for living that pool together to make up our entire lives.

I want to give this idea some more thought about raindrops and puddles...which will probably be easy to do as they are calling for five inches of rain tomorrow thanks to Hurricane Ida. I think when it comes to changing my focus from the temporal to the timeless, I need all the help I can get!

October in a Nutshell

I cannot believe I have gone a whole month without a blog post. Bad, bad Mommy!

The month of October has been full of challenges but also excitement. As far as the challenges, Jack has been sick for much of the month which has not been fun. He had a couple of painful, fussy days of teething towards the beginning of the month, then he had an ear infection, then rounded out the past few weeks by getting a cold. He had to get a second round of antibiotics from the ear infection--I sure hope we're past all that now. He seems to be doing well lately, though, which has been so nice. It was tough around here for a couple of weeks. My heart goes out to those of you that have or have had children who get sick easily and often!

The flipside with his illnesses this past month is that he has grown in leaps and bounds with some new motor skills and developments. He now is a pro at clapping his hands, rolling over, pushing way up on his tummy, and even scooting backwards. I must admit, it is a strange feeling to walk away from him and then come back and find him in a different spot and/or position on the floor! I'm not used to that yet (but I better get there fast, huh?)

We also have continued to have the visits to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta about his head shape. At the end of September he was showing two months worth of improvement, but at the end of October his skull had not grown enough for them to tell anything conclusively. The doctor said it made sense because he had been sick so much, so his body had not really had a chance to grow because it was too busy fighting off illness. So...we have to go back there in yet another month for a re-evaluation.

Another interesting part of last month is that Lyle and I decided that we want to try and move to Peachtree City. There are a number of reasons why we'd like to move, and with the current housing market, provided we can sell our house here, we're hoping to get a good deal on our next place. We spent a couple different weekends in October visiting and driving around in Peachtree City.

So these are exciting times...life is definitely fun these days with our little pumpkin!

Fun with Rody

Meet Rody. He is an inflatable toy that was a garage sale find on our recent trip to Arkansas. We're not quite sure if he's supposed to be a donkey or a chubby horse, although a donkey sure is a strange toy for a kid. Anyway, apparently they are big in Europe, which is not terribly surprising. Doesn't he look like something you would find at IKEA?

Jack is not quite big enough to ride Rody by himself, of course, but he's already excited about the prospect as he continues to grow and get better balance. Jack loves to bounce so much. Sometimes I think he is two parts Sewall and one part Tigger!

Here's a minute of Jack and me having fun with Rody last week.

Little Rock Trip - Jim's Wedding

I'm a week late posting this, but the weekend was a pretty big deal, so it at least deserves a blog post, I reckon. (The above pic is blurry, but you get the idea...it was fun for all of us to dress up!)

The weekend of September 12, Lyle, Jack, and I drove to Little Rock, AR, for the wedding of Jim Phillips (he was the best man at our wedding). We split up the driving on the way there, and stayed Thursday night in Tupelo, Mississippi. We finished the remainder of the trip on Friday morning, and when we went to the tux place on Friday afternoon in downtown Little Rock we happened to run into the groom himself who was there at the same time! It was a great coincidence and fun to introduce Jack to Mr. Jim.

We then met up with John and Gloria at the home of new friends Robbie & Marie, who graciously let us stay at their house. The rehearsal dinner was Friday night, and it was fun to visit with some of Lyle's old friends, many of whom I had never met before. Jack stayed at Robbie & Marie's with his grandmommy and granddaddy, although I heard later he was not a very happy camper that night before bedtime!

Saturday morning we had a yummy breakfast at Mimi's Cafe. Any idea when we'll get one of those in the South Metro Atlanta area?? They are fabulous. The afternoon drifted away before we knew it, and then it was time for the wedding!

It was a beautiful wedding - lots of fall colors and pretty flowers - and Jack fell asleep through it, so we brought him inside the chapel instead of walking him in his stroller the whole time out in the hallway as we had planned to do. He went to the first part of the reception with us, but he really wasn't all that up for partying, so he went home a little early with John and Gloria. Too bad...I think he would have liked to dance to YMCA if given the chance.

Sunday was a looooonnnnnggggg ride home, but after such a fun weekend it was well worth it. Many thanks to John, Gloria, Robbie, and Marie who helped us out so much!

He's six months old already?!?

Man, time flies when you have a little one. It seems like we were just bringing home our adorable dark-haired "Hungry Jack" home from the hospital, and now he's half a year old already! I feel like I'm going to turn around and the next thing I know we're out picking out colleges. Scary.

Here are the official stats: At six months, Jack weighs 25 lbs, 9 oz, and he measured 29 and 1/2 inches long. So, that means he's almost tripled his birth weight and he's grown a whopping 8 inches in length! The boy is so tall! He's wearing 18 month clothes these days, and many of them I have a hard time snapping underneath his bottom because his torso is so long. He's basically built like a baby linebacker.

As far as what he's doing, he sits up very well by himself these days, loves to play with toys, loves music and listening to me sing, eats very well with a spoon, and is so stinking close to rolling over! He pretty much rolled all the way over a few days ago, and just as Lyle and I were holding our breath to watch him go all the way, he reversed course at the last second and flung back around. So even though he was close, he still has not "officially" rolled over. He loves bouncing in the Exersaucer but even more so in the Johnny Jumper. Lately he has started "crib-spinning" when he gets bored in the nursery, and I don't come in soon enough to get him out of bed. He's quite the pro at turning himself around in strange directions in that crib. Let's see, what else...he makes lots of noises with his mouth (mostly buzzing his lips) but occasionally shrieking or laughing. He loves to stick his tongue out. He seems to prefer vegetables to fruit, which is strange. He likes carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, applesauce, and pears. He does not like bananas or peaches. Who ever heard of a baby who doesn't like bananas? I thought all kids ate bananas!

I mentioned earlier that we had a dark-haired newborn six months ago. These days Jack's hair is a lovely shade of sandy light brown. His hair never did fall out, though, despite the many mothers who assured me it would when he was born with a head full of hair. His eyes are a strange color still somewhere between brown and blue. I think Lyle's and my genes are still at war for Jack's eyes.
As far as disposition, Jack loves to be where the people are! For the most part he is very laid back and "chill." He's very sweet and cuddly still, which I love, and he does this shy smile when he meets strangers that absolutely melts your heart. The owner at his daycare asked me the other day, "So, I just have to ask...is he really this good all the time?" I was only about as proud as a mother can be when I happily told her, "Yes, he really is."