Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Jack, 1 year

Well, it happened. We have a ONE YEAR OLD! So unbelievably crazy to me... we only snapped a few pics of Jack by himself on his birthday, because it was a busy busy day getting ready for his party. He was so excited that he couldn't take his afternoon nap.


Jack's stats from his one year check-up:
weight.... 18 lbs 10 oz.... 4th percentile
height.... 31 in .... 75-90th percentile (real shocker there, all things cosidered)
head... 48 cm.... 90th percentile (not a surprise, it's always difficult to put his t-shirts on)

Jacks's doc says he is doing very well for a kid with his diagnosis. We're trying a few of the doctors tricks to see if we can get Jack so gain some more weight. Jack had his last follow up appointment in Indy and things look GREAT. Now we will only have to see the cardiologist in Bloomington every 6 months just so they can take a listen to his ticker.

It seems like every week Jack is becoming more and more of a kid. He does the funniest things. He often makes a face where he puckers out his lips and squints his eyes shut. Some times he does it and says "OooOOoo" or "EWewEW". His facial expressions are becoming funnier and funnier. Sometimes he'll look at me, then shut his eyes really tight for a few seconds, then open them up again... Not really sure what he's trying to communicate with that one, but its cute.

Jack can say "happy", "baby", "boo" and my personal favorite "amen" which sounds something like "amy". He just says it at the end of our prayers. We didn't even teach him how, he just does it on his own. It's probably the cutest thing he's ever done, ever.


Jack likes to blow on his food. This is a trick I'm pretty sure he picked up from his Gramma.

Jack can stand on his own for a few seconds at a time. He's getting more and more confident and slowly building up the time he can stand before he sits down.

Jack claps when he hears people clapping on the tv.

He still isn't walking on his own yet. Although, he has taken one or two steps a few times unassisted, so I think he's getting close. We bought him a push walk toy that he loves and I think that's helping him gain some confidence. He practically runs with that toy he is so fast.

I think that's another reason why he hasn't started walking. He is so dang fast at crawling. A few weeks ago I was changing a poopy in the living room and I got up to throw the diaper away and wash my hands. In less than two minutes Jack managed to crawl from the living room, through our bedroom, open the sliding screen door, crawl all the away across the deck, and I found and caught him just as he was about to fall feet over head down the stairs. The kid gave me a heart attack. So anyway, why learn to walk when you are so fast at crawling, right?

Jack has completely switched over to whole milk (yay for no more stinky formula!).

Jack blows kisses.



Jack is a wiggle worm. Rarely is he ever still. On occasion he snuggles up to me for a few seconds and I just soak it all in. Then, like a flash he's off again... it takes a small miracle for me to change his diaper alone.

Jack has started the strangest habit. He hits himself in the head. He doesn't even do it when he's mad or frustrated... it's almost like he thinks it's silly... Not really sure what that's all about.

Jack loves to turn the lights on and off and to play with the strings on our blinds (with adult supervision of course).

Everything Jack picks up, he pretends its either a phone or a hair brush.

Jack likes to brush his hair and his teeth.

Jack's most recent obsession is kissing babies. It's like he gets a case of the squishies and can't help himself. Any kid that is his size or smaller is a target. He crawls over, grabs their head in both of his hands and plants a big open mouth wet on on the babies forehead. It's really cute, but I have to keep an eye on him at church because he's accidentally knocked a few babies over...

Jack's favorite foods are pickles, ice cream, pizza, chocolate, and mac and cheese.

Jack got two new teeth. So now he has four on the top and two on the bottom. It's so cute to look at him and see a mouth of teeth when he smiles...

This past year with Jack has been amazing, and difficult all at the same time. Gordy and I have done things that I never thought we could do. Jack has over come so much, and grown so much too. I am so happy to have Jack in our family. He is a good example of happiness and strength. I thank Heavenly Father every single day that we have the most amazing little boy.



Gramma and Grandpa Visit


In mid-October my parents came for a visit. Jack was probably as excited to see them as they were to see him. Understandably so... I mean who wouldn't want to wear awesome hats...?


Jack always wants to wear a hat when he's around his grandpa. It's so cute how he wants to be like him.

Gramma and Grandpa take Jack to do fun things, like go to the park...









He had such a good time with my parents. Gordy and I really enjoyed their visit too. They babysat for us while Gordy and I went to a movie. It had been almost exactly a year since I had been to a movie theater. Crazy, no? Man, oh man do we love having visitors!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Jack's Big Bonk

We've been so lucky to have a really long fall this year. Fall is definitely my favorite time of the year. This fall, we've usually met up with our friends at Olcott Park on Sunday afternoons to enjoy the beautiful weather. In fact, I would look forward to Sundays all week because I knew I could lounge around with my boys outside and just relax. No worries about school, or job hunting, or anything else allowed. Just beautiful weather.

Two weeks ago was our last Sunday park outing because the weather is starting to get colder. We were the first of our friends to arrive and we were having such a nice time together...



Jack was even practicing standing. He was standing on his own for about 30 seconds when we took this picture. Pretty huge step for our little guy...


... and here he is feeling pretty gangsta because he was doing such an awesome job.


Then we took a little stroll with our friends, and then the bonk happened. Jack accidentally got hit in the head with a frisbee by another little guy. It was a pretty bad bump. Within seconds the bump stuck out a half an inch from his head and was an inch and a half long. It just kept getting bigger and bigger... We thought for sure that it was going to split open and that we would have to take Jack to the emergency room for stitches. Instead we rushed him right home. I held him in my lap with a towel ready just in case the bump split open and gushed blood. Jack was so excited that he didn't have to ride in his car seat that he completely stopped crying and tried to play with all of the things he ordinarily can't reach when he is buckled in. Luckily, as soon as we got home and put ice on it the swelling went down immediately. This pic was after about 10 minutes of ice and the bump was dramatically smaller. Our little guy even smiled for the camera when Gordy snapped the pic. Such a sweetheart.


We are so glad that the bump never split open... We were also fairly certain that he would have a black eye, but he surprised us again. He just had a scab and a wicked yellowish green bruise for a few days. He's such a tough guy.

Jill and Cole Visit

How lucky is it that my best friend's husband has a hobby that occasionally takes them to Indiana? Super lucky.Jeremy stayed with us for two days, but Jill and Cole hung out with us all week. We didn't do anything outlandishly fun while they were here. Jill and Cole just joined in on our normal routine, parks, naps, cardiologist appointments, and some good food. There visit was so much fun for me.

Cole is such a doll. He's so incredibly mellow and even his mad noises are so cute and little. In short, I love him. Jack did too. He spent the entire visit trying to crawl on top of Cole in his bouncer so he could plant a bit wet one on Cole's face.




Once again, I need to better about snapping pictures. It was so neat to have my best friend visit and for our little boys to play together (sort of). It was a lovely visit.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Halloween


For Halloween Jack was a heart surgeon. We thought it would be pretty fitting (thanks to cousin Rikki for the adorable scrubs). I made him a surgical cap, a scalpel, and a broken heart to round it all out. He was a hit in his costume.

He actually won the costume contest for his age group at the Law School Halloween costume parade. I mean, who could resist a tiny surgeon who is just learning how to walk?

Jack got the hang of reaching into the candy bowls and picking a piece of candy by himself... Much to our disappointment he picked whoppers every. single. time. It's a mystery why he kept picking the whoppers.... it's not like they are in a brightly colored package...? Oh well, I guess he'll eventually learn that whoppers are lame-o.

Jill and Cole were staying with us while Jeremy went on a hunt. It was so fun that we got to spend Halloween together. Cole was so cute in his monkey costume. I was so sad that we didn't get more pictures of them together, especially because we couldn't seem to take a picture where Jack wasn't shoving pizza into pie hole. I guess that's how it goes with kiddos...


Jack had a fun time at the ward Trunk or Treat party. He even learned how to raid unguarded candy bowls.




Jack with his bud, Ethan.






Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch

A few weeks before Halloween, we went with some friends to a pumpkin patch outside of town. The drive was so beautiful and the farm was perfection.

Sun's in my eyes pic. Totally classic.


Taking a stroll with Dad...


Jack was pretty fresh with the animals at the petting zoo. He didn't mind letting the animals lick him...

... until his entire arm ended up inside a goats mouth. Then he didn't like the animals so much.


We went on a lovely hayride around the farm.



They even took us through the creek. Which was really exciting for the kids.


We found the perfect pumpkin.


And we had the perfect family fall outing.



Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Jack, 11 Months


Holy Guacamole people. It's almost like someone said "SHAZAM" and Jack was 11 months old. I mean, seriously... how have we had him for almost a year already? I get hives when I start to think about how fast time is moving now. I get on this train of thought that goes a little something like this "wow. Jack is 11 months old. Holy cow, that's crazy... Next month, he'll be ONE. That's even more crazy.... Sheesh, this year went by really fast. I can't believe I get only four more of those fast years before he's in kindergarten.... so sad. Before I know it he'll be getting baptized, then going to scouts and getting the priesthood, high school, dances, seminary, driver's license....". Before I know it, in my head Jack, has already moved out and is on his own. At this point I have to take deep breaths, IN and OUT, IN and OUT just to calm myself down a little bit. It's all going by way too fast...

Here's what Jack has been up to this month:

Sometimes I sing that song " Na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na. Hey, hey, hey. Goodbye..." to Jack. You know the one I mean right? Sometimes I switch out the"Na" and "Da" and Jack sings along. He says the right syllable when I switch them too. Of course it's not in time, but he thinks he's singing too and its soo darling.


Jack dances by bouncing up and down when he hears music.


Jack, never to be left out of a joke, has decided that if anyone chuckles, laughs, of giggles in his presence, that he too will laugh... but only with the most adorable nose scrunching, big open mouth laugh he can muster. If anyone wants to feel like their jokes are REALLY funny I suggest you hang around Jack for a while. He'll make you feel really good about your jokes, and yourself.


Speaking of confidence booster, he LOVES to web cam with all of his grandparents so much that he claps when he sees their faces.


Jack is a chatter box these days. He babbles while he is playing with his toys, while he is going to sleep and waking up, and he'll even hold a conversation with you. Ask him a question and he'll babble of an answer and wait for a reply before babbling off again. It's uber cute. He's trying harder and harder to actually imitate real words. For example, his buddy Ethan is really good about saying "Help, please" when he needs assistance. A few weeks ago I was putting Jack down at night and he was having none of it. Between cries he was yelling something that sounded like "HELP MEEEEEE". So sad, but funny how he picks things up like that. Needless to say, that he did not have to go to sleep after he kept saying that. It was too heartbreaking to leave him in his crib yelling for help...


He loves the song Bingo because of the clapping hands part when you spell the dogs name. He claps along with us when we sing it, and lately I've even heard him trying to make a noise that sounds like Bingo.


Jack is pretty much over his stranger danger phase, but he's still pretty attached to me in new situations.

Jack refuses to eat dinner unless we are all sitting down at the table together.


He became really interested in learning how to use a spoon this month, so we we're working on that... which means lots of messes under his highchair.

Jack loves to click his tongue. He does it when he hears any clicking noise, including the blinker in our car.



Jack is mastering the pincer grasp and loves to pick up little pieces of food and feed himself.
Jack can throw a ball (sort of). I'm pretty sure he learned how from watching his buddies Ethan and Daniel.


Jack got TWO new teeth this month. The first of these new teeth was the top left incisor. For the first little while I thought it was his canine because I didn't have any reference point. MAN OH MAN! That little tooth threw us off for a week! Jack was so fussy and screechy and would wake up like four times a night. Now he's back to his old self again. His top middle tooth on the left side also came through this month too. He didn't make a big deal at all about that one for some reason. Now it looks like his top right incisor will be coming in any day. He kind of looks like he got punched in a bar fight because he looks like he is missing some teeth. He's our little snaggle tooth. Look closely and you can see them...


Speaking of teeth... he GRINDS his teeth. It is SO loud that I can hear it and it makes my blood curdle. If anyone has suggestions on what I can do to stop it PUH-LEASE let me know.

Jack loves to give high fives, swing at the park, bury his face in my hair (and put it in his mouth), to hold the broom, find little bottles or pens to hold onto, and dogs.


When Jack sees something across the room that he is excited about he breathes really loudly and quickly. It's like he's experiencing pure joy that can't be contained.

The other day, I made butter from scratch and showed Jack how to take his finger stick it in the cream and lick it. Now all he wants to do is scoop up food with his pointer finger and feed me or Gordy. Jack is a really good share-er.


Just in the past few days Jack has been standing on his own for a few seconds at a time. This is HUGE for us because usually he always squats down as soon as we let go of him. I wonder if he'll be walking by his first birthday...?


This month was not the easiest photo shoot we've had. The older Jack gets, the more interested he is in moving around and exploring, and I foolishly tried to take the pictures without the help of Gordy. You'll also notice lots of pictures of him sticking his tongue out... he's teething so I didn't get his normal smiley self... oh well, such is life.