Lazy weekend at the lake

We took the boat out for one last time yesterday. Jack "helped" Andy fish, though all he managed to catch was water. Today the boat and our dock will be taken out and stored until the spring. After we leave the lake house today, I'll be dropping Jack off at Grandma and Grandpa Nold's house so they can watch him while I have to travel for work to Springfield, Illoinois (very exciting place) for 3 days.

Jack still isn't talking, but he has started to make some more interesting babbling sounds lately. I managed to catch a few seconds of him doing it this morning:


While we were eating dinner on the porch last night, a local aviator was having fun practicing his water take-offs and landings with his float plane (I think that's what they're called?). He probably took off and landed 15-20 times while we were out there. Jack loved it! Here's a recording of one of the take-offs:

Crazy baby

Here's a couple short videos from tonight when Jack was getting ready for bed, after his bath. He had his first day of "school" today--the tots class at the local park district. It's the same class he attended last year, but they don't operate in the summer, so this is the first time he's been in several months. Our nanny said he did well at first, but had a little meltdown mid-way through the class. I guess the first day of school can be scary, even for a toddler! The class is 3 days a week; hopefully he'll do better tomorrow.

All banged up

As usual, the flash washes Jack out so much you can't see the marks on his skin very well, but trust me he's looking a little rough today. He took a spill earlier while he was holding a toy, and his right cheek wound up landing on the toy, leaving a nice scrape. He also has a bruise on his top right forehead from slipping in the tub Tuesday night. Looking good kid!


Jack's been getting practice feeding himself lately. He still hasn't mastered the art of scooping food onto the spoon or fork, but he's getting better at putting the food in his mouth. Mmmm, spaghetti!

A boy and his dog

I know, it's yet another post of Jack and Lou. I can't help it--they just make such cute photo subjects. Here's a couple shots of Jack petting and hugging Lou. If Lou is sitting, Jack can actually wrap his arms around Lou for a real hug, but Lou was not cooperating when I took this video.


Thanks for all the well wishes for Jack when he was sick last week. Monday wound up being pretty rough, but after that he starting feeling much better.

In other important news, the date for "Operation Ball Retrieval" has been set. We've suspected for a couple months, but I hadn't wanted to post anything about it until after we had seen the specialist and knew for sure. Yesterday Jack went to the pediatric urologist, and he confirmed that Jack will have to have surgery to repair a hernia that has caused one of his testicles to ascend. The big day is October 15. The procedure will be outpatient and only take an hour, but having to watch our baby be put under anesthesia will still not be fun!

One crazy weekend

Happy birthday yesterday to Uncle Stephen, and happy birthday on Wednesday to Grandma Fields! I can't believe it was already a year ago that Jack and I came down to Georgia to surprise Grandma for her birthday.


Our vacation wrapped up with a wild weekend, ranging from fun visits with friends, to watching football, to Jack's first trip to the ER. Fun things first--we were joined at the lake house by friends Don and Emma (who flew out from Colorado), Megan and her daughter Lea, Dan and Sarah with their daughter Lilly, and our friend Matt. These cute pictures are of me with Lea, who's about 4 months old. Jack became very curious when I was holding her and had to come check things out. First he just kind of stared, then he ventured to touch her, and finally he gave us a hug.



These are the only pictures I was able to take of Jack and Lilly, since Jack was sick most of the time she was there. When Jack first sat down with Lilly, I thought he was going to help her play with his toy, but he just kept taking it from her! I don't think he was too happy about sharing his toy; we should probably work on that...



Jack began to get sick on Friday. At first I didn't think too much of it, since I had been feeling crummy with a cold/sinus thing; I figured he just had some version of my illness. He was a little grumpy and wouldn't drink much, but after a monster nap that afternoon he seemed better. When we put him down to bed that night, we were a little alarmed that his temperature went up to 102, but after some Motrin it went down. Saturday started off well--Andy and I were happy to be reunited with our friends Kirk, Lee, and Chris as we kicked off the college football season. Jack seemed to be feeling better, though he still was refusing to drink fluids. However in the evening, after he had barely had any wet diapers all day, and was shivering with chills as his temperature rose, we decided to be safe and take him to the hospital.

By the time we got to the hospital (only a 15 minutes drive), his temperature had risen to 103. We got very lucky and only had a couple patients ahead of us at the ER, so we were seen fairly quickly (though I think cute baby + whimpering and crocodile tears probably also had a lot to do with it. I'd highly recommend taking one with you the next time you're at the ER). We were very surprised to find out that the problem was with Jack's lungs--he was in the early stages of bronchitis. He was started on antibiotics, and still hasn't coughed once, since we caught it so early.

We still had a scare Saturday night after the hospital visit--Jack woke up screaming and was scalding hot to the touch, with a 104 temperature. Fortunately, although he scared the living daylights out of us, with some Motrin and a cool compress his temperature quickly went down. It was still a long, restless night for him after that, but he seemed a little better in the morning and even ate some breakfast. However, starting around 11 am and continuing for the ENTIRE afternoon (except when he napped), Jack screamed and cried. We eventually decided to leave the lake house and come home a day earlier than planned so we could be close to a Chicago hospital if another trip to the ER was necessary.

And wouldn't you know it, after we and all our guests had run around getting things packed up and cleaned, the little bugger started acting normal again. About 10 minutes before we got in the car, he stopped crying, and started eating and playing. He was even in a good mood the whole drive back. He slept soundly last night, and 12 hours later is still asleep.

Oh well. It's all worth it to see him better and happy again. Plus, the weather isn't looking good, so I don't know if we would have been able to go out on the lake anyway. Now we have a whole day to spend at home getting our act together before going back to work tomorrow. Yea!

Having fun on vacation

We're having a great time at the lake, just relaxing and enjoying some quality family time. I took the picture above the other morning, when we had some fog over the lake. It was still chilly that day, but the temperatures have gradually been improving. We went out on the boat for a little while yesterday, and Jack was a big help with driving.




Jack on his "Lou-couch," this morning, watching his favorite cartoon.


Today we went into town and checked out the petting zoo. There weren't a ton of animals there, but for a free zoo, it wasn't bad. Jack most enjoyed the ducks and geese, but unfortunately the camera batteries died before I could get pictures of that. At least I got a few of him with an emu, tortoise, pony, and donkey.