Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's

We spent a day and night away from Jack for the first time this weekend. He stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Nold so everyone could get some practice for when he'll be with them all next week. Andy and I leave on Saturday to spend a week in Costa Rica!

Jack was grumpy after I dropped him off Saturday afternoon, but other than that he coped pretty well with the separation. As long as no one said "Mom" or "Dad," he stayed happy! Thanks to Grandpa for taking all these pictures, since I forgot my camera!


Jack's got Grandma wrapped around his finger for getting treats!


Last night, we went to a neighborhood cookout before we left Grandma and Grandpa's to come home. Jack got to spend some time with one of his many girlfriends, Hannah. She's the 7-month old daughter of our friends, Eric and Mary. Jack has recently learned to share, and he was very cute as he tried to share a cracker with Hannah.


He's still working on learning to share toys, though...


The temperature forced us inside after a while. Here's Jack doing some Superman flying with Eric.


Me, Mary, Aunt Lisa, Hannah and Jack

Playing with Louie

Jack loves playing with Louie; or rather, pestering Louie. Fortunately Lou is so well behaved around Jack that he'll let him do whatever he wants. However, sometimes Lou does try to escape to get some private time. He was having a great moment this afternoon, chewing on his ball while he laid in the sun on the stairs. But of course, Jack had to barge in. Now that Jack has pretty well mastered the art of climbing up and backwards down the stairs, he couldn't resist practicing his climbing skills all over Louie. He also likes to jam himself in on the same step as Lou.

You're So Vain

Congratulations to my youngest brother Paul, on his graduation from St. Michael's College! He also just found out that he got accepted to medical school at the University of Vermont. Way to go! We're very proud of him.


We've long suspected that Jack is vain. (Of course, since he's the cutest baby there ever was, it's hard to blame him!) I think this sequence of events proves his vanity beyond a doubt.




The reason we had that picture down off the wall is because we were rearranging things and hanging some new pictures. For Mother's Day, Andy got the 2 collages below custom framed for me. I know you're not supposed to take a picture of a picture, but I think you can see them well enough to appreciate how beautiful they are!

Standing!

Jack's started standing on his own! (That's our nanny's daughter in the picture; she's up from Belize visiting her mom.) So far I think about 5 seconds is the longest he's stood by himself so far, but he's getting stronger by the day. I know walking won't be too far behind now.

Here's a very brief clip of Jack standing that our nanny took. I think he maybe lasted all of 1-2 seconds!

Happy Mothers' Day!

Congratulations to the Words on the birth of their daughter, Leah Maureen!! Best wishes to Dave, Megan, and Aubrey. Jack is even more surrounded by women now...

Jack says Happy Mothers' Day to all the wonderful moms out there! These pictures were from last night, when Grandpa Nold treated us to a Mothers' Day dinner at the country club. Jack behaved beautifully, even though we wound up keeping him out past his usual bedtime.

I like the way it looks when the sun shines on his hair.


We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Nold's house after dinner, and I took these pictures this morning. Jack's getting much better at moving around on his horse, and he's almost able to get on and off by himself. Not very gracefully, but that's okay.


Not sure what he's thinking here as he eyes Aunt Lisa's dog, Coco.


Andy and I were involved in a really cool experience yesterday. We were looking at some houses--just browsing; we're not planning on moving anytime in the near future. We know our real estate agent, Jeff, fairly well, since he lives in our neighborhood and sold our condo last year. While we were looking at a house, Jeff got a phone call. He and his partner have been in the process of trying to adopt a child for 2 1/2 years, and this phone call was THE call--that they had been selected by the birth parents to get the baby! It was obviously a really emotional experience, with hugs all around. Jeff was very happy he had people there to share the news with, rather than if he had gotten the call when he was alone. His life is about to be turned upside down, since the baby is due at the beginning of June!

That made me think of our friends, the Wagners, in North Carolina, who are also in the process of adopting a child right now. We wish them the best, and can't wait for the day when they get that phone call too!

Crackerface

Happy Cinqo de Mayo! I had to laugh at Jack tonight during dinner. He did one of his usual tricks of kissing a flat, shiny surface. But unfortunately for him, the surface was his booster seat tray table, which had a ton of cracker crumbs on it. When he brought his face back up, it was coated with crumbs. Only the big crumbs seem to show up in these pictures; it looked much worse in person.

Last night Andy and I went to a Cubs game. Andy's boss very generously hosted an event on one of the Wrigleyville rooftops for his coworkers and their families. The weather turned out to be pretty chilly, so we actually watched most of the game from the indoor bar part of the rooftop facility. But despite the cold, the Cubs won, and we had a great time! In fact, I had so much fun getting to spend a night among adults that I forgot to take any pictures, other than this one of Wrigley Field. This was before the game started, when the Giants were on the field warming up. You can see they're competing for space in the outfield with a bunch of seagulls.

New tricks

Happy birthday to Grandma Nold! We look forward to seeing more of Grandma and Grandpa Nold soon, since they're coming back to Chicago tomorrow for the summer. Also happy Kentucky Derby Day!

Every day Jack seems to get stronger and develop better balance, so I thought today I'd see if he could walk with some support. We unfolded his little car into the pushcart mode and let him try it out. I was impressed at how well he did! But I think we'll keep the cart-walking on the carpet for now, until he gains a little more control of himself.

Here's another video from today of Jack "cleaning." His Uncle John will be glad to see that Jack appears to throw lefty most of the time.