Jackie Redcheeks

We discovered today that Jack's cheeks turn tomato-red when he's exposed to hot temperatures outside. The picture above was taken after we came home and he had a chance to cool down, so there's much less redness. It's weird because I don't even think he was that hot when we were outside; we were in the shade much of the time, and his skin didn't feel too warm.

Andy and I had taken Jack and Louie to the "Taste of Randolph," a street festival in our neighborhood. It was pretty warm outside (high 80's), but nothing too extreme. We'd only been outside for about 15 minutes when I noticed Jack's cheeks. We stayed at the festival just long enough to grab some food--Jack enjoyed some pizza and chocolate-covered banana.

Louie was also pretty wimpy in the heat. If he would have just drank some water while we were at the festival, I think he would have been fine. But for some reason, our dog who will eat trash and sticks, is extremely picky about the water he drinks. Several of the vendors at the festival had doggie water bowls out, but Lou turned his nose up at all of them. So by the time we headed home, he was a panting mess. We must have been a sight as we walked, what with Jack's flourescent cheeks and Lou lagging behind us with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. Anyone who looked at us must have thought we'd been dragging them around in the heat for hours.

Here's a couple other pictures from this afternoon. Jack likes to climb on Daddy's bosu ball.


He's also a big fan of Lou's dog bed.


And finally, a little plumber's crack to round things out.

Taking steps

Here's a clip of Jack taking a couple steps! We'll have to work on his endurance, but I'm sure before we know it, he'll be running around driving us crazy.

Congratulations to our cousin Michelle and her husband Scott on the birth of their first child Monday night!!! Welcome to Parker Robert Frost. We look forward to introducing Jack to his new cousin soon.

Jack's stay with Grandma and Grandpa

Hey there, this is Jack. These are some pictures from last week when Mom and Dad abandoned me so they could go play in Costa Rica. But even though I missed them, I had a great time with my Grandma and Grandpa Nold. They're a lot of fun and let me do all sorts of exciting things.

Grandma gave me have some shelves in the TV cabinet so I could practice stacking my toys.


I also got some more practice standing, but I kept my promise to Mom and didn't take my first steps while she was gone.


It didn't take me long to figure out how to sucker Grandma into giving me treats.


I love Grandma and Grandpa's refrigerator with all its cool magnets.


I also got to ride on the horse that Grandma keeps at their house for me.


I was a big help to both Grandma and Grandpa too. Here I was giving Grandpa some guidance as he was working. I also suckered him into giving me some of his banana.


I gave Grandma a hand in emptying the dishwasher too.



Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for taking such good care of me and Louie!

This is Erin, and I just wanted to add a note that Wednesday night, Jack took a tentative step by himself for the first time! He surprised me, so I didn't have the camera with me. He's been reluctant to take any more steps since then, but we'll work this weekend to see if we can coax some more out of him--and hopefully record them!

We're back!

Andy and I have such fair skin we had to cover up with mud instead of sunscreen so we didn't get burned.

Just kidding; well, sort of. The equatorial sun was pretty intense. That picture was taken when we went on an excursion that included coating ourselves with volcanic mud and then taking a dip in several hot springs.

Andy and I returned from Costa Rica early Sunday morning. Unfortunately due to a storm in Miami, our connecting flight was delayed for several hours so we didn't get home until 2 am. Ugh. But other than that, we had a great vacation. We stayed in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica, which is on their west coast. Our resort was specifically located in the Gulf of Papagayo, which is fairly far north along the coast, near Nicaragua.

Here's the view from the hotel lobby. Our room was in one of the red-roofed buildings on the far left. You can see the Gulf of Papagayo in the background.


The view north from the hotel lobby.


A beautiful ocean sunset--I took this standing on the terrace of our room.


The same day we took our mud "bath," we took a bus up to the top of a mountain and then zip-lined our way down. I think there were 11 stations that we went through along the way down. The longest stretch of cable between stations was about 400 meters. We had a lot of fun!

Me

Andy


After the zip-lining, we cooled down on a waterslide, and then we went horseback riding. It felt great to get back on a horse. When I was younger, we owned a horse for several years, but before this I hadn't ridden since high school. This is the horse Andy rode--he actually looks like our old horse, Dan.


Here's a couple pictures of one of the local creatures, a coati. Several coatis roamed around the resort regularly, looking for food. They're very similar to racoons. The coati in these pictures was actually on our room's terrace. Andy threw her some grapes so she would stay long enough for us to get some pictures. She actually stayed on our terrace for several minutes after we had finished and shut the door. She sat there expectantaly, waiting for us to bring her more food.



This was a howler monkey we saw while zip-lining. I thought the noise they made sounded more like barking versus howling.


This picture was taken on our next-to-last night in Costa Rica. Andy and I went with some people we'd met from the resort out to Coco, a nearby town, for shopping and dinner. Unfortunately the day before we went, a truck had driven into some power lines and knocked out the town's electricity. When we were in the shops, we got followed around by people holding lamps so we could see. Of course, it was also brutally hot without any air conditioning. It was fun watching the sweat drip off us into our food while we ate dinner. Luckily, while we were still eating, the power came back on.



We had a terrific vacation, but it's good to be back home too. It was very tough being away from Jack for a whole week, so it was wonderful to finally be able to hold him again yesterday. Thanks so much to Grandma and Grandpa Nold for watching Jack and Louie for us while we were gone! Jack coped irritatingly well without us, and he hardly cried at all while we were gone. Grandma and Grandpa helped us with the separation by emailing pictures of Jack occasionally. I'll post some of those on the next blog.

I'd highly recommend Costa Rica to anyone. It was beautiful, the people were so friendly, and there were a lot of fun and unique things to do. Pura vida!

Leaving for vacation!

Jack and Louie got dropped off at Grandma and Grandpa Nold's tonight, as Andy and I will be leaving for Costa Rica tomorrow! We're staying the night at their house too, but we won't see Jack in the morning since we'll be leaving before 5:00 am to go to the airport. Hopefully the week apart from us won't be too rough on Louie or Jack (I'm sure it will probably be harder on Andy and me being away from Jack!)


Grandma got Jack a cool new toy, which he played with a little tonight. It's a lawnmower that makes all kinds of interesting noises. Jack's getting stronger at walking with support, but he wasn't very interested in pushing the mower around tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

I've given Jack very strict instructions not to take his first solo steps while we're gone. We'll see if he listened.


Finally, just a shot of Jack getting treats from someone at the table.

Have a nice weekend, everyone, and I'll be back posting in about a week or so. Hopefully we'll get some great pictures down in Costa Rica!

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.