Playing around

Not too much is going on around here. Just thought I'd share some pictures I took of Jack earlier this evening. He still loves playing with his blocks; usually the more mess made, the better. But he did something new tonight that Andy and I are excited about--he put some of the blocks back in the box. Jack has never done that before. His mission has always been to take small items out of their containers as fast as possible and throw them around. He never showed any interest before when I tried to get him to put toys in bigger boxes or bowls. Maybe he's finally turning over a new leaf.

Peekaboo!

This is one of Jack's favorite poses, though he'll only hold it for a second or too, so I've had a hard time getting a picture of it. If there's a toy behind his legs, sometimes he'll reach through and try to grab it; almost twisting himself into a pretzel.

Go Dawgs and congrats to Matt Stafford, the number one NFL draft pick! Hopefully "Do you Know Shon" Moreno, as Andy likes to call him, will be picked in the first round as well.

All better

Thanks for all the well wishes! Jack is feeling much better now. He's happy again and back to all his usual tricks, which includes climbing the stairs. We've worked on teaching him to climb down backwards, and he seems to be getting the hang of it:

We're so excited to see the weather getting nice again! The rest of this week, until Sunday, is supposed to be beautiful. It took almost the whole month of April, but maybe spring is finally here!

Sick again

I haven't posted anything this week because we've been dealing with a sick little guy. Jack's been feeling pretty crummy for several days now. We took him to the doctor on Thursday, and he was diagnosed with another throat infection. The doctor showed us the inside of Jack's throat, and it looked absolutely horrible. Of course the infection is viral, so there's not much we can do but just wait it out. At least his fever went away after the first couple days, but he's still very congested and coughing so hard that he vomits. Plus he just doesn't feel good and doesn't want to eat anything. Hopefully he'll get his appetite back before too long, because he's lost some weight.

Occasionally he'll have times where he's a little more active and like his usual self. I took these pictures after we got back from the doctor's office. The doctor gave him a sticker, and Jack had a death grip on it the whole ride home. Once we got home, he still didn't want to let go of it, so he carried it around in his mouth while he was crawling and playing. Eventually he got tired of the sticker and started carrying other things in his mouth.




And finally, some things are still fun no matter how sick you are! Poor Lou.

We're back!

Our nanny took that picture of Jack right before we left for Springfield on Tuesday. We had a great trip, though I unfortunately forgot to charge my camera batteries before we left, so all I have to show for our time in Springfield are a couple pictures of Jack in our hotel room.

I couldn't believe how good Jack was on our trip. He was an absolute angel on the drive to and from SpringfieldHe napped a little in the car each way, but was awake and entertained himself most of the time. His carseat is still rear-facing, so I was shocked he was able to keep himself occupied for so long. He had just a brief 5-minute bout of crying on each of the drives, but that was all.

He behaved wonderfully at the conference as well. He slept reasonably well both nights at the hotel. Several of my coworkers were there, so he had lots of "aunties" doting on him the entire time. He also got showered with attention from people we didn't know; he was constantly getting compliments on how cute and well-behaved he was.

During most of the sessions, I was able to find some space on the floor to spread a blanket and let him crawl around and play with toys. That way he was happy and quiet, and he wasn't disrupting the sessions at all. I just felt a little bad that most of the people around us weren't paying as much attention to the speakers as they should, since they were watching and laughing at Jack.

There were a couple other babies at the conference too (of course Jack was the cutest). In one of our sessions, we happened to sit near a 7-month old girl and her mother. When I put Jack on the floor, he took off and made a beeline for the little girl. He tried a couple times to throw a ball to her. When Jack saw that she was obviously more interested in putting the ball in her mouth than tossing it back, he gave up and inspected all of her cool toys. While they were "playing" together, I think a good quarter of the audience was more occupied with watching the babies than listening to the lecture!

Finally, here are the pictures I took. Jack really liked the big window in our hotel room.

13 Months Old!

Hey there, it's me Jack. It's already been 1 month since I had my first birthday! Mom took a couple pictures of me yesterday with my monkey blanket. I love to snuggle with my monkey when I sleep, and he's also very fun to chew on. Usually my monkey stays in my crib, but sometimes, like yesterday, when I wake up from sleeping I don't want to let him go. It's also fun to crawl around with my monkey hanging out of my mouth. Mom says I look very silly when I do that. She tried to get a picture of me doing it yesterday, but I didn't feel like it.


Let's see, what cool things am I doing now that I wasn't last month? I'm pulling up on everything I can get my hands on, and I'm starting to move my feet and cruise around while holding onto furniture. If Mom or Dad hold my hands, I can also take some steps. Another new thing that I'm not very excited about is getting more teeth. Sure, teeth may make it easier for me to chew things, but they sure do hurt when they come in! I'm still doing pretty good about eating foods, but I'm not feeding myself as much as I used to. I discovered that it's more fun to throw food or give it to Louie than to put it in my mouth.

Mom says we're going on a trip today to Springfield, Illinois. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to sleep and let Mom have a peaceful drive, or if I'm just going to scream the whole time. We'll see. It may be a game time decision. Speaking of games, Mom says to say Go Tarheels. I'm not sure what a Tarheel is, but Mom says they did something exciting last night.

Bathtime

Jack really enjoys his bathtime, especially now that he can pull up and look into the tub while I'm getting everything ready.


It's been an interesting week here. Jack is cutting several teeth at once, including one of his big back teeth. So needless to say, he's not been in the greatest mood. I've also been at home with him since Wednesday. Our nanny had a medical issue and was in the hospital, so I worked from home and took care of Jack at the same time. Fortunately I didn't have any big meetings this week. I just hope she's able to come back Monday so I can go into the office and get some things done before Jack and I leave to go out of town on Tuesday.

Jack is going to another conference with me--this one is a Department of Human Services Nutrition and Breastfeeding conference. At least we only have to go to Springfield, which is about 3 1/2 hours away. We leave Tuesday and will come back Thursday night. With Jack's behavior lately, I'm nervous about how he'll be at the conference. It could be an adventure!


I know in the future he'll hate that I posted this, but I couldn't resist. His chunky little butt and legs are just so cute!