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.

Aug-tober

Andy, Jack, Louie, and I arrived at the lake house yesterday. We're taking next week off work, and the plan was to spend a nice long family vacation enjoying some hot August weather. Mother Nature apparently had other plans, since we almost had a frost last night, and it's only gotten into the 60's today. Oh well.

Jack's still managing to have a good time. I took some pictures of him this morning all bundled up and playing in the living room and out on the porch. He loves to gaze out at the water and bring his toys out onto the porch, even if it's chilly.



"Is she really taking another picture of me?"


Hopefully we'll get lots more good photo ops this week, and especially Labor Day weekend, when several friends are coming to visit.

Happy Birthday Dad!

We celebrated Andy's birthday last night at Grandma and Grandpa Nold's. Thanks to Grandma and Aunt Lisa for making such a yummy dinner! Jack seems to be suffering from either a cold or allergies, so he was not in the mood to smile for the camera. Here's a couple more pictures from last night--the first is Jack, Andy, and Louie making friends with a neighbor's dog, and the second is Jack watching his favorite ceiling fan.



Jack had actually stayed the whole weekend with Grandma and Grandpa while Andy and I went up to the lake house. I hadn't been to the house in a while, so I was happy to see it was still standing after a couple weekends with Andy and his buddies. Unfortunately there was one casualty--Jonathan Livingston here suffered a mysterious wing amputation. Andy pleads ignorance as to how the crime was committed.

As usual, the weather didn't cooperate, but at least we got a lot of work done around the house. Here's a picture of one of our accomplishments--the "gas bong" we created for the boat. It took several trips to auto stores and Home Depot to create, but it proved worth our efforts after a successful gas fill-up yesterday.

Now we're in trouble

I hope at least we still have a while before he figures out how to unlock the doors.

Here are some video clips I took this evening. The first is Jack saying his favorite, and only, word: "bagoom." We still have no idea what it means.

Playing peek-a-boo with the closet door

Jack pestering Lou, as usual

Finally, here's a picture from Sunday when Aunt Lisa stopped by. Jack had a good time playing with his Auntie Lisa.

Fun Saturday

Jack, Louie, and I had a busy Saturday out in the burbs. Grandma Nold took us to a really cool park, which Jack loved. (At home, the playground in the park across the street from us has been shut down for construction, so Jack won't have a playground nearby until October.)

Louie enjoyed himself at the park too, in the shade. Unfortunately Louie also took a liking to the wood chips on the ground, so he had to be moved before he ate too many.


After the park, we went to the pool at the country club. The water in the kiddie pool was just at the right level so Jack could stand up and move around. It took him a little while to get used to walking around; at first he kept leaning forward and didn't realize he could stand upright without support. I took this picture right after the first time he did that and got a face full of water.

Fortunately the tears didn't last long, and Jack had a good time playing with his ball and other water toys.


After the pool and seeing Grandpa Nold at lunch, Jack decided to put on a show for us in the locker room. He was so funny; he kept walking around making these little poses and folding his hands behind his back. I wish I had taken a video instead of pictures, but I got a few decent shots of Jack strutting around and showing off his hot bod:


Killer abs



Last night, we went to visit our friends Sarah, Dan, and their daughter Lilly. Unfortunately Jack was a little grumpy (I know he was tired from a busy day) and acted kind of standoffish from Lilly. He was much more interested in her toys than actually playing with her, though before he noticed the toys he was captivated by the fan:



Sarah with Jack and Lilly. For comparison, see the last picture of Jack, Lilly, Sarah, and me that was taken about a year ago!