Under the weather

Jack experienced his first real illness this week. He's had a cold before, but this time he was diagnosed with a viral throat infection. He had a fever, and though it wasn't extremely high, he was pretty miserable Wednesday and Thursday. He seems to be making a full recovery and for the most part is in good spirits today. He's a little grumpy at times, but I don't think that's due to any illness; rather, he's finally getting his first tooth! I can't see much of the tooth yet, but when I feel his lower gums, there's definitely something hard coming up through there. Maybe a week from today, on Jack's birthday, we'll be able to take a picture that shows some toothage.

These pictures are of Jack and his exersaucer. These days he seems to have more fun playing underneath it rather than in the seat!

Florida, Part III

Finally, here are the last of the Florida pictures! Since Jack wasn't a fan of the beach or pool, we obviously spent a lot of time inside. Jack had a lot of fun crawling around and playing with Grandma and Grandpa. As you can see, he still loves to make this face:


We think Jack is missing football, since he keeps practicing his 3-point stance:



Jack's starting to climb around and pull himself up a lot. Here's a cute picture of him climbing up my leg:


It took a few days, but Jack finally discovered that the mirror in the living room goes all the way down to the floor. Jack was very excited to see his reflection. I'm still not sure if he thought he was seeing another baby, or if he realized it was himself. And as per usual with Jack and shiny surfaces, he kissed the reflection.



Jack playing with Grandpa. You can see here that Grandpa built a nice tower of blocks for Jack to knock over. We probably built a couple hundred towers for Jack during the time we were there.


Grandma reading to Jack--Grandma and Grandpa probably had the books we brought memorized by the time we left!


Jack and Grandma watching his program. Other than an occasional interest in certain commercials, Jack doesn't usually pay that much attention to TV. But for whatever reason, there's one show on PBS that he finds fascinating. It's called "SuperWhy," and that's what Grandma and Jack are watching here. It's kind of a cute show and deals with a lot of reading and spelling.

I feel like all the cartoons these days contain some sort of learning component. What happened to the good old days with the Smurfs and Thundercats where we didn't have to exercise our brains?

Florida, part II

I took this picture right before we went down to the beach with Jack for the first time. Jack was playing it cool and not smiling for the camera. Andy's trying to imitate Jack's "blue steel" pose.

Jack was not a happy guy at the beach. This was pretty much his expression the whole time:


Jack didn't even enjoy getting dressed to go to the beach. After I put his swimsuit on, he just laid there on the floor like this without moving. It's like he was playing dead.


The ocean water was cold, but we wanted to at least get Jack to dip his toes in. But Jack's no dummy--as you can see from this picture, he kept trying to foil my efforts by raising his feet up.


He was not happy when I finally got him in the water!


Here's Jack looking in puzzlement at his legs that are buried in sand:


Andy trying to show Jack some water splashing tricks in the pool:


We went to lunch with Grandma Nold one day, and Jack was fascinated by the ceiling fans:



The place where we ate lunch that day was a restaurant/bar called Cathy O'Clarkes, and it's a favorite place for Andy and me to visit when we're in Marco Island. A couple years ago, we even bought a brick on the walk leading up to the restaurant. This was the first time we'd seen the brick engraved; it's the one right below Jack's feet:


One of the other places we went to was a bar called Stan's. We like to go to "Stan's Idle Hour" on Sundays, where they have live music and an eclectic crowd of people. A lot of bikers go to Stan's, so it makes for interesting people watching, plus you get to see a lot of cool motorcycles. We had Jack wear his skull and crossbones shirt so he would fit in with the crowd, and he was a big hit!



Believe it or not, I still have more pictures to share from our trip! So be on the lookout for Part III coming soon.

Florida trip

We're back! Chicago welcomed us home with 30 degree temperatures and snow that's still falling as I write this. We had a great trip visiting Grandma and Grandpa Nold in Marco Island, Florida! I took so many pictures that it'll probably take me 2-3 more blog posts to show all the good ones.

Jack got to see his Great Uncle Andy and Aunt Bonnie for the first time; here's a couple pictures of Jack with them. Jack had a fun time meeting and entertaining Uncle Andy and Aunt Bonnie while we ate dinner. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures until Jack was ready to go to bed, so he's not the happiest camper in these photos.



A family photo at the pool


Jack in his swim diaper


Jack, Grandpa, and Andy at the beach


I'll write more details in future posts. Right now I need to finish unpacking so I can be ready for work tomorrow. Ugh!

And the answer to the question everyone's been wondering about.....No! There was no plane dumping on either flight this time. Maybe Jack has passed through his plane pooping phase.

Tough guy

I scanned this picture that we got for Valentine's Day from Jack's tots class. Our nanny Melly said she did her best to get Jack to look at her and smile, but he wouldn't budge from this position.

We're taking our little tough guy to Florida tomorrow to visit Grandma and Grandpa Nold. He'll also get to see his Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Andy for the first time. We'll take lots of pictures!

11 Months Old!

Hey there, it's me Jack, and I turned 11 months old yesterday. As you can see in the picture above, I'm still the "toothless wonder." Personally I think teeth are overrated. My gums are so strong I can chew pretty much anything.

I decided to start crawling a few weeks ago. At first I was a little nervous about going very far, but now I crawl all over the place. I really like to explore and play with all the cool things around the house. Some of my favorite things to play with are Louie's food and toys, the closet doors, and the shiny equipment on the TV shelves. For some reason, Mom and Dad are starting to make this "No" sound a lot lately.


That's a picture of me relaxing in the morning while I hold my own bottle. I've got to build up my arm muscles so I can impress the babes down in Florida when we go on our trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa Nold in a few days. I think they'll find my buff bod and blinding white skin pretty appealing.


Mom took that picture of me the other night when we were eating dinner. Sometimes I don't eat a whole lot, but I'm gradually getting more excited about eating regular foods. Bananas and Cheerios are still my favorites, but right now I'm also a pretty big fan of blueberries, strawberries, and pasta.

The weather here has been crazy. Last week it was really cold, but out of the blue, yesterday it was almost 60 degrees. Mom, Dad, Louie, and I went for a long walk outside. It's been cold for so long I can't even remember the last time we all did that. I had a great time, and I was laughing and singing the whole time we were on our walk.


This is Erin, and I just wanted rant a little about some new "decorations" that have popped up in the neighborhood over the past couple days. Most of the snow has melted, and all over the grass and some of the sidewalks is dog poop. Apparently some people think that when their dogs poop in the snow, it will magically disappear so they don't need to clean the poop up. Yesterday when we went on our walk, we had a great time, but I was constantly on alert as we tried to navigate through the minefield of freshly thawed dog turds. Come on, dog owners of Chicago! Don't be lazy when it's cold and snowy outside. Take 10 seconds to pick up the poop.

Funny face

I've been trying to record Jack doing this for the longest time, and last night I was finally successful. For whatever reason, playing with Andy's empty juice container inspired Jack to start making his funny face. I don't know why he does it, but sometimes he just kind of clenches his whole body and grunts. His face makes the funniest grimace. Unfortunately he had a light shining in his face when I took this clip, so you can't see his facial expression as clearly as it normally would look.



We're calling Jack "Rudolph" right now. He did a face plant into the carpet the other day when he was trying to stand up. Fortunately with the cushioned landing he didn't hurt his head. But the downside of carpet is that when he slid a little as he fell, he wound up with a nice case of carpet burn. He has a pink splotch on his forehead, and his nice is a nice rosy red.

Dog food

Jack has always found Lou to be very entertaining, but now that Jack is mobile, he's discovering even more fun things about Lou. He's always trying to play with Lou's toys, and recently we've had a hard time keeping him away from the dog food.



Poor Lou; he can't even catch a break when he's trying to eat.

Though maybe this pet food fascination is an inherited trait....
(that's me)