Mystery solved?

More indoor play

These are some pictures from when our nanny took Jack to Day Frog's, an indoor play-place. It's pricey, so this was a special treat, but it was a really great place for Jack to go since it's tailored for toddlers and little kids. She said he especially loved all the cars and trains.



Jack and his friend Sydney



Jack doing something weird with his mouth

Videos from Jungle Joes

We've been laying low the past several days. Jack caught a nasty cold when we were in Michigan, and he was nice enough to pass it on to both Andy and me. The good news is that after a rough weekend, we seem to be on the mend (knock on wood).

Anyway, since I haven't taken any pictures recently, I thought I'd post a couple videos that we took at Jungle Joe's. I had tried to put them on the last post, but something wasn't working with the website at that time, so here they are. The first one is of Jack jamming to some tunes, and the other one is Jack and Andy playing on one of the toys.

Jungle Joe's

When we were in Michigan for the holiday weekend, we took Jack to Jungle Joes, which is one of those indoor playgrounds with all the big inflatable jumpy-gym things. Jack thought Jungle Joes was really cool. Here he is looking around in awe when we first got there.


They had a little kids section too, since most of the inflatable things are really for older kids who can climb all over them. Jack had fun in the little kids' area playing with some blocks.


Daddy helping Jack shoot some hoops.


Feeling some big shark teeth.


Pouncing on a stuffed hippo.

Finally finished

After two weeks, I've finally reached the last of the Christmas pictures. We're at the lake house right now for the holiday weekend, so I thought I'd take advantage of some free time and post the remaining random pictures and videos.

Here are a couple good pictures of Jack, Granddaddy, and Grandma. (Note remote for remote-controlled fan is in his hand)



Aunt Anna, Uncle Stephen, and Stephen's girlfriend Katie.


In addition to his beloved fan (remote in hand), Jack also spent some quality time with this night light that changed colors.


Jack found a sheet of stickers and proceeded to decorate his pants. This actually turned out to be a useful activity at the time, since we were Skyping with Grammy and Grampy Jarvis, and Uncle Paul, and the stickers kept him entertained enough to stay in my lap for the whole phone call.


Jack thought Grandma's John Deere lawn mower was pretty cool. He'd better watch out--one of these days she might put him to work with it.

(no sound)


This was the night of the Dawgs' bowl game, and Grandma was showing Jack how she can bark. If you listen closely, you can hear Jack do a couple of little "woofs." (again, note remote in hand)


Finally, Jack helping me close our suitcase when we were packing to leave (did he EVER put down that remote???).


We had such a wonderful long trip to Georgia visiting family and friends, in case you couldn't tell!

The architect

Happy Birthday to Granddaddy Fields! We miss you! Hard to believe little more than a week ago we were still in Georgia.

Jack played a little with Legos before Christmas, but he really got into it when we were in Georgia. Here's a masterpiece he created--his version of the Sears Tower, perhaps?


Note the intense concentration



An adorable video of him building (there's no sound). Aren't his little claps of self-encouragement and pride just the most precious thing you've ever seen?

Baths and bellies

Jack showing where his belly is

When we were in Georgia, Jack really enjoyed his baths. Here are some cute pictures of him in the tub with crazy bath hair. (The thing he's holding is a crayon for writing on bathtubs; the yellow scrawling in the background is his handiwork.)






He favorite part of bathtime was playing with the water coming out of the faucet. The rest of us got a kick out of it as well--Jack had an audience every night for his bath!

Holiday visits

I still have about 10,000 pictures to post from our holiday, but as usual upon returning to work from a long vacation, things are hectic. I at least have a couple spare minutes today to post some pictures from visits with extended friends and family.

I was so excited to get a chance to see my friend Susan and her children. The last couple times we went to Georgia, Susan and I weren't able to work out a visit, so even though her son Jacob and Jake are almost exactly the same age (3 weeks apart), they had never met! In addition to meeting Jake, we also got to see baby Nicholas, who was born at the beginning of December.

Unfortunately Jake fell asleep on our way to lunch, so he, Nick, and dad Scott went home while Susan, Jack, and I had lunch. As a result, the only pictures I have from our visit are the 2 here where you can't even see their faces! Oh well, they're still very cute. Jake and Jack became instant friends--Jake took Jack's hand and showed him all the cool stuff at his house.

Jake is the spitting image of his mother--absolutely adorable. Congratulations Susan and Scott on your beautiful family!


Jack and I also got to visit our Aunt Deane and Uncle Lynn. We met up for lunch one day, and it was great to see them. Lynn had never met Jack, and Deane hadn't seen him in over a year. We had a yummy lunch and a fun visit, though I wish Jack had been in a better mood while we were there. He was tired and teething--never a good combination. At least he let us get a couple quick photos before we left the restaurant. We loved seeing you, Aunt Deane and Uncle Lynn!

I like waffles!

Jack has recently started this bizarre behavior when eating foods he really likes. He squeezes his eyes shut and pops his mouth open like a carp. It's like his "baby bird" impression he used to do when he was a baby, but on steroids. It's absolutely hysterical.



Sometimes he also does this weird thing with his eyes where he'll look up and turn his head away, but keep his eyes looking forward. (This has nothing to do with the food, though. We just happened to catch him doing it on camera while we were eating breakfast.)



A couple cute pictures of him in the sun room, with a nice case of bedhead.



Jack and I reading some books together.


(We're counting the cookies on the page)


Uncle John trying to teach Max some water skills. John was finally able to coax him into getting wet!



The day after Christmas, Andy and I left Jack at Grandma and Granddaddy's while we went downtown with Tyler and Devon. John and Anna helped babysit Jack; here are some pictures that were taken during their time together.






One of Grandma's presents was a wheeled cart to use for yardwork. Uncle John assembled it for her, and Jack apparently became fascinated by the wheels. Grandma also got a cute video of Jack "helping" John put the cart together (there's no sound to the video).



Finally, I won't disclose any details from the wild and crazy night we had in Atlanta, but here are a couple pictures that show a good time was had by all.