Merry PunkMas

19 months

jack has a great personality. he likes to be silly and gives lots of hugs. we wrestle and tumble and when he does get hurt, he likes scold the floor for hurting him. it is just the cutest thing ever and helps relieve his cries.

favorite foods are milk, broccoli, butter and salt.

xmas 08

i thought jack was feeling better this morning, but this picture would say otherwise. gracie did a great job, while jack just wanted me to hold him tight. sorry sunshine!

High-larious

G-Mom's birthday was funny.

museum

halloween 08

jack loves all the scary decorations. he enjoyed putting candy in kids bags. lat night the grandparent ratio was 4:1. jack excels in this kind of enviroment.

little helper

i can't believe it. jack's been throwing his diapers in the trash for a few weeks now. but tonight he went to his diaper bag and brought me the pad and wipes. he laid that down and went back to the bag. in his hand was a diaper! when i asked him to lay down, he did! his diaper was actually wet. my little boy is so smart. he amazes me everyday.

more fall fun

jack went for a hike today at the arboretum in ann arbor. it was a lot of fun with cousin gracie, auntie and patrick and i. jack really liked the leaves, dirt and water. gracie and jack played with the milk weed!

Jack Steamboat

Jack's getting ready for Halloween. HE BETTER. Halloween is essentially a high holy holiday around our house, replete with all sorts of ephemera that speaks to the darkness inside the mind. Jack has taken a quick shining to our Jack-o-lanterns, macabre busts with glowing eyes and our moaning mummy. Too bad he seems to hate his costume, I have a feeling he'll have it on for all of 19 seconds.

I'd say he found the perfect pumpkin, but that would suggest we only get one...



Pigs is fun.



So are snapping turtles.



Almost ready for Halloween.



Contemplation with Mom.

officially walking

jack's attitude changed this weekend. he now has the confidence to walk on his own and run. he likes to hide around the corner and laugh when i find him. he is the best!!

cider mill in the summer

we managed to get a visit in to the plymouth orchards before fall officially began. this leaves ample time to visit often during the coming months. the weather was great and gracie and jack enjoyed the wagon ride, sans hay! jack enjoyed the cinnamon donut very much too.

greenfield village

yesterday on a really hot labor day, we took jack for his first visit to greenfield village. we has a great time learning and relearning. we rode the steam engine train, watched many model t cars drive around and enjoyed a little lemonade. jack even slept (and snored) an hour in the backpack. patrick says he's going to hate this picture as a child.

day at the pool

jack loves the water and the camera!

hugs

tonight jack stood up on his own and walked toward me and gave me the sweetest little hug. it was a nice way to end the day. after i laid him in the crib, he waved to patrick and i.

jack took his first steps 2 weeks ago. now he is up to about 8 steps. he prefers me to hold his hand and run from place to place.

jack went to the doctor today. he is pretty much perfect! he is 20 pounds 15 ounces and 31" tall. he is long and lean! this visit was the worst for shots. he got just 2 ( there was a month that he got 4) but he was very aware of what was happening this time. the recovery time was short. he accepted some graham crackers from me to help forget what happened.

ear of corn

jack eats a lot of what we eat now, along with baby food. he loves butter and eating the whole cob! he is working on his 5th tooth and is such a great son. we do many laps around the house each evening while he holds my hands and literally runs. jack has a lot of confidence and takes giant steps up the stairs or giant leaps off the beds.

On the 4th we descended into Hell Toledo to enjoy the relaxed yet always enriched Toledo Zoo with Jack and his cousin.

Jack's favorite activity is to be lead around in brachiating style. This week he's attempted a couple one-handed variations. I think we're gonna have a walker on our hands in the next few weeks.

Animals caught feeding:

Pacific Octopus
Sloth Bear
African Elephant



I think we'll be lucky if I get another summer of carrying him backpack-wise, which is a lot of fun. On the downside, he's quickly becoming heavier than just about anything I'd put on my back, including my backcountry pack, and a six hour day of hustling him around really works the upper back. On the upside, it's a lot of fun, he has a place to sleep and I satiate a deep tribal psychological need that I'm battle ready.

Animals caught doing it:

Seahorses
Giraffes (the guy really gave it the college try)



We really strive to give our (only) niece this kind of experience. She's just getting to the point at 3 where she can at least take some direction, and I've already excited her about dinosaurs and robots, so there's plenty of tinder there for us to light a spark in the arts and sciences when she matriculates to 4 and up. I'm not sure she'll remember me explaining to her how bromeliads are great epiphytes, but I've learned in my short year of parenting that persistence is a virtue.

Best in show:

Japanese Giant Salamander (For being a bigass amphibian)
Orangutan (Disturbing show of strength in the pullup competition)
Cheetah (for showing predator instinct towards dangling toddler)
Giraffes (hats off and pants off)

he's walking_almost

jack is keeping us busy. i am glad we've been jogging, cause jack is moving quicker and quicker!

baby jack 1 year

what can i say, he's a natural!

Apparently, my work is done.

Take a gander here at this review of some recently published research on parenting. The short shrift is basically that moms can sorta nudge kids to become upstanding citizens, but generally only with their daughters, while dads can pretty much put it on autopilot, they ain't doing nothing.

Of course, that's probably brushing it a bit too broadly, my parenting styles are probably more closely shaped to this style. That is to say, I only have two goals for Jack: To become a successful adult in our society, and I hope we all have a lot of fun getting there. I tend to feel I got each of those ideas from one parent. I'll let you guess which.

I figure Nicole and I already did the heavy lifting to much of Jack's success through our shared values, and our pooled wealth and education ought to chip in to that happiness quotient quite nicely. After that, it's really not up to us, which is fine by me.

jack's cake

many months went into dreaming about the perfect cake for my little boy. 3 days to make the cake and 3 pounds of butter, many cups of cocoa and a giant bowl to mix the batter. i surprised myself, how close to my sketch it turned out to be.

one year later

a baby's first birthday is a great celebration for everyone. i take pride in that patrick and i haven't screwed up too much this past year. jack is a thriving, happy little boy with lots of curiosity and creativity. for his first birthday, we celebrated with his first cupcake. it was very cute to see jack at daycare around all his friends (who like to give lots of kisses). he certainly has made a little world for himself there. i am so proud. at first jack just looked at the cupcake. second, a finger slightly touched the frosting. soon, his whole hand grabbed it and ate it. he ate quicker than some of the others. we then went to dinner and jack ate some guacamole.

as i think about the last year, it's all so fantastic. being jack's mom is the best thing. yeah, i've learned a lot about babies, but i've also learned a lot about myself and life itself.

jack has this way about him that just makes me melt. he is a gentle boy who is happy and eager to learn and love. thank you, jack, for the best year of my life.

first hair cut

jack did amazingly well! and so did mom:)

on the move

jack is crawling all over the house. it amazes me that when he finds things on the floor like dog hair, he likes to hand it to me. last night, jack was able to pull himself up to the end table. i am so proud of him. he also recently began to play independently. he has a series of little cars that he moves around the ground and makes car noises that patrick taught him.

jack loves his jog stroller. i haven't yet jogged with it, but it is a nice stroller for walking too, this weekend i am going to try to jog a mile with him.

JackPack in Grand Rapids

We took a vacation day to head out to Grand Rapids for some exotic food, local famous architecture and thousands of BUTTERFLIES.

We had lunch at the San Chez Bistro, a tapas restaurant with a ridiculously exotic menu. I haven't seen baby garlic squid for sale since a rather unpleasant experience at a local Chinese place. Jack got his first taste of plantains, maduros, minty cucumber and corn salsa.

Next we ventured into one of Grand Rapids' more venerable neighborhoods to see the local Frank Lloyd Wright creation, the Meyer May House. Unfortunately, they only offer tours three days a week, so it was a short trip, and not worth extracting Jack from the car to stand on the sidewalk. It's on our list for a return trip.

Finally, we spent a wonderful time at the Meijer Sculpture Gardens, who are currently boasting the world's largest traveling butterfly collection in their big atrium. There were thousands of insects in what made for a pretty amazing experience. Meijer Gardens is a stark contrast to your local branch, this place was full of people working, nay, volunteering, that seemed happy to be there! We also got to enjoy their esoteric Carnivorous Plant Room, their cacti collection and a nice collection of modern African tribal art. We ventured out into the giant sculpture park a bit, but there was plenty left to warrant a second visit.





Jack had a really great day. Visit Nicole's Flickr for more images!

10 months

i guess you can say we've been pretty busy. my last post was in february! jack had his first ear infection at the same time he was cutting his second tooth. these days, we are keeping a close eye on our little guy. he can make his way across the room just by doing the "worm"–rosey doesn't seem too worried. (so far, jack has been very gentle.)

jack has been enjoying a variety of foods. some of his favorites are sliced mango, hummus & baby veggie pasta. he is really starting to show his independence with eating. last weekend we went out to breakfast with grammy and pa and jack enjoyed his first pancake. his coordination is amazing. this age is very fun. seeing jack experience new things is a blast. jack is about 19 pounds now and almost 29".

jack has the most infectious laugh. that sound is the most magical sound. the only thing that makes it better is when gracie laughs with jack!

best buddies

Primordial Education

Jack had his first visit to U-M's Exhibit Museum of Natural History, the first of many, many, many visits as I expose him to the great fossils of ancient megafauna, the rich diversity of Michigan wildlife, the dynamic histories of the many peoples who have lived in our state and of course, the origins of life and evolution.

The museum has always had an excellent collection of display cabinets and uses as many actual fossils as possible. Additionally, this museum has opted not to cut down on the informational content in their displays as many museums have done in recent years to streamline displays and theoretically boost attendance, that is, to make a musuem less museum and more amusement park, but I digress.




I fully envision Jack's 5th birthday celebration to be in this institution, complete with an excursion into the research lab. Everyone remember to bring their lab coats.


We have a little brain to shape, afterall.

Wednesday nights are Dance Party

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new year

this year began a little rough. jack had his first meeting with the stomach flu. we all lost about a week of time. on top of all the great things that go along with the flu, jack also got his first tooth. now that the tooth has broken through, he is much happier and back to his smiley self. jack is able to go from a sitting position to flopping down on his stomach. i think he will be crawling in the next few weeks.

rosey and jack have been playing a bit of tug-o-war with various dog toys. sometimes they swap toys while i am not looking.

jack is amazing. i love when he squints his eyes when he smiles at me. i just can't help but laugh!