Jack: 12 months

Hey Girl, I just turned 1.

Oh my dear sweet little Jack-a-Bub...all grown up.  I don't even know what to say or what to write about that captures the amount of love I have for this little man and how much of a proud mamma I am.  As we transition out of baby-hood and in to toddler-hood, I find myself a little sad.  It sounds so dramatic, but it's like Im mourning the loss of my little baby, whose about to grow up.  There are little traits of Jack's personality that have me realize he is growing out of being a baby, but then there are those moments when he tucks both of his arms under his belly and nestles in to your shoulder when we cuddle that totally have me thinking (and wishing) he'll be a baby forever.  It's no surprise I that I have always loved the newborn and baby-hood stages; however, I am hoping that for my own sanity, that I also love the new stages of Jack that are just around the corner.

Here are some random silly pics of Jack lately....he's such a character!

Jack's favorite yoga pose

One of his favorite faces to make when trying to get us to laugh

LOVES showing off how big he is

Jack has taken a liking to the princess towel after bath time...who can blame him, he looks adorbs in it!

Yup...Jack in the Box never gets old

Jack is super in to books these days...at least that is what I tell myself

So here are Jack's stats at one year old.  Head=18.25in, weight=24 lb 6oz, height= 2ft 6in.  Big boy! Developments in the past month have included a dramatically more speedy crawl, curiosity and climbing of the stairs (watch out!), more verbal babble, waving hello and goodbye, increased preference to snuggle (LOVE it!), increase ability to hold attention/focus and engage in independent play, evidence of words in the horizon (hi, da-deeee, mamamama, etc) and hard work and efforts in standing and cruising around furniture or other obstacles.  Things that remained consistent include his charming personality, his "cool" and calm nature, his ability to sleep wonderfully, his desire to eat ALL.THE.TIME, his willingness to eat anything we offer, his curiosity and desire to be around his sister and others, and his flexibility or ability to adapt.  Obviously, another thing that has remained the same has been our extreme love and adoration of Jack.  He is so charming, sweet, relaxed, cautious, cuddly, curious and simply such a joy to be around.  I hate to jinx it now (since we all know how Mia started it and how she is "these days")....but Jack has seriously been such a easy baby and we have VERY few moments, days or memories that really have us thinking otherwise.   Thank.You.Jack!

In his 12th month....

Juuuuust getting used to standing up and figuring out how to "get down"

Thankfully, this skill has improved a lot over the past month :)

His favorite "wooden hot dog toy" from the Melissa and Doug collection :)

Mia helping out during bath time...we call this the "flower shower"

Nate on the left, Jack on the right.  The similarities are there for sure; however, I think we could get a WAY better side by side pretty soon....we'll just use this one for now :)

This is the "First Year" video of Jack....well done, Nate.  Enjoy.

Here are some pics form his birthday at day care as well as our place:

Each kid, every year, gets their own birthday crown.  Mia "helped" Jack makes his this year.

His victory celebration after having chocolate frosting angle food cake.

Sporting his camo vest on his pimped out ATV compliments of auntie Maddy and uncle Erik...

he LOVES this thing!

Bwwwaaaahahahahaha!  Turning 1 is apparently very hilarious to Jack :)



To be honest, this past month (and more) have been blurry, busy and "not normal" in terms of our typical routine. As such, this 1 year blog post is clearly overdue and void of a lot of conrete information.   At the end of the day, I am simply not a blogger.  I want to rid myself of the feeling like I "have to" write about trips, food, my kids, etc and just simply do it when it feels right.  I love looking back and using this space for documentation purposes but I certainly don't anticipate me "blogging" very much from here on out.  Ta-ta for now.

Jack: 11 Months

(Sorry this is late but I just got back form a weekend away in Vegas and have not had energy to do much in terms of finding wonderfully edited pictures...so here's whatcha get)

Happy New Year everyone!  These past couple of weeks have been bonkers and I am only now beginning to feel somewhat rested and "back to normal"...just in time for a super short work week followed by a weekend away from kids and responsibility in VEGAS!  I figured I needed to get a move on with Jack's 11 month post before it got "too late".

These two are from Jack's first "real" major snowfall...he was very excited about it when inside and in the comfort of our big cozy bed...not so much when he was bundled up and outside in the cold :)

Top and bottom pics from a pizza/party night with friends...Jack absolutely LOVES music and is already a major groupie...his pure joy is contagious

Jack's first day of school.  Not really...but I imagine he'll wear something similar in a few years and it makes me so proud and excited

The past month of Jack's life can be summed up with three major "firsts": crawling, Christmas and the "pull to a stand" move. (He also got another tooth (total=6) and saw his first "real"major snowfall....but those weren't THAT big of a deal I guess.) Jack had been trying out the old inchworm and army crawl moves for a few days and was getting frustrated by his lack of progress in spite of his effort. Before I could really notice, he put his body in to first gear and transitioned pretty quickly in to full on crawling (on both hands and knees without dragging his belly or another funky variations). Then, before I got to catch my breath or do back flips to celebrate his long awaited milestone of crawling...he moved right in to playing more on his knees, pulling up on things and working to stand up on his own. Our dear sweet little Jack who was so content just sitting, laying and rolling is now showing off his curious side. It's funny because it's like out of no where he KNOWS what he should and should not get in to...always now going toward chords, iphones (and the like), the stairs and Mia's paints unless we put them on her table. His most favorite of places is UNDER anything...table, chairs, xmas trees, coffee tables, etc. He LOVES to crawl under our dining room table and weave in and out and around the many chairs surrounding it...it is so funny to watch and see him think he's hiding or getting away with something...um dude...we see you.



"Some" evidence that he is crawling...haven't taken the time to catch in on video just yet but trust me...it's happening and happening fast

a bit of more evidence

 exhibit C: standing on legs (pic courtesy of Mia)

Jack and Mia continue to be two peas in a pod.  Jack is absolutely in love with her and is always wanting to do what she's doing, be where's she is and just watches her with fascination.  Without fail, she can make him smile and laugh.  In general, she tolerates him and seems to enjoy his company with the only exception being when he goes after the iPad and tries to press buttons or touch it causing her beloved Dora episodes to pause.  

Mia is a huge helper at dinner for Jack...it's nice that he allows people to feed him even though he's "so over it by now"

Lovin the ability to give 2-for-1 baths, they love it too!

We also now try to shorten the "bedtime routine" by combining some book and story time for the kids...

Mia seems to like this more than Jack :)

Yup, I think we have a lot of these pics of Mia's choke-hold on Jack...she means well :)

Jack has been very expressive this month and is really continuing to develop some skills of communication...verbal and non-verbal.  He is SUPER in to clapping and doing the whole "Soooooo big" thing, which cracks me up!  I seriously could sit here all day and ask him to clap and as him how big he is and I would be entertained for hours :)  He also is now waving hello and goodbye and trying hard to mimic sounds we make...it's like he just turned in to a little person all of a sudden.  It's also funny to see him start to understand the word No...he doesn't like that word.  Jack has been SUCH a chill baby that whenever he cries or whines...it's like "what on earth is wrong with him?!"....but now it's usually because we have told him No....with regard to where he goes, what he puts in his mouth, what he touches, etc.  

NYE night at a friend's house

It might not look like it, but Jack in the bucket was NOT meant to be a method of restricting his roaming...I think the kids were playing hide and seek or something :)

Then of course we had to see how many kids could fit in the bucket.

I die every time I look at Jack's expression..."Jigga what?  I KNOW you didn't just take that toy blow dryer from my sista!"

I'm sure I will have more pics from Xmas and the holidays when we (Nate) puts together a video or slide show for Jack's first year...but for now, we'll call it a day.  This month was great, fast and somewhat blurry.  But no matter what, I continue to fall in love with Jack and am so smitten.

Oh Jack.  

He often looses his neck in many pictures...partly because of his poses and funny expressions ...but mostly because of his triple chin fat rolls :)