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!