Thanksgiving at Grandma & Grandpa's: Part 2

All dressed up for Thanksgiving.



Playing in the leaves with his cousin, Wyatt.


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Thanksgiving with Grandma & Grandpa

With Jack's enormous hands, I see piano playing in his future. We figured he might as well get started with a few lessons from Dad.


Here's Jack and his cousins, Walker (seated next to him) and Wyatt. We had a hard time getting everyone to smile at the same time.


Jack's first Thanksgiving Day meal. He loved the candied yams, mashed potatoes and the turkey. Mom even let him have some pumpkin pie. It was an instant favorite!


Following the Thanksgiving feast, it is always tradition in my family to decorate the house for Christmas. Jack participated by getting the kinks out of this beaded garland.

 

Thanksgiving Feast

Our little artist


One of Jack's teachers, Ms. Tracy, feeding him some applesauce


Jack just playing at school.


Today Jack's school had a Thanksgiving Feast for all the kids and their families at lunch time. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go but I think Jack had a good time regardless. When it comes to an event where eating is involved, it is rare that Jack doesn't have a good time.

One More Month to Go...

I can't believe Jack is already 11 months. The time is going way too quickly. He has really found his voice this month. He talks and talks and talks. He loves to give kisses...and they are pretty passionate and very open-mouthed. He also loves to empty his play buckets and stuff them full of anything he can find. He helps mom unload the dishwasher and clean out her cabinets daily. He also really enjoys sitting out on the patio and watching the cars go by...and eating dead insects and the dried up birdpoop that he finds there (I really do try to stop him before it makes it into his mouth...but he's so quick). One of Mommy's favorite new things Jack is doing is the "lounging". He loves to sit on the couch or grownup chairs and just lay back. He'll sit there forever if you let him. He thinks he's SO big.

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Look What I Learned Yesterday...

So, Jack learned how to empty the cabinets yesterday. I haven't decided yet whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. It does keep him occupied while I'm cooking...

 

Halloween was Finger Lickin' Good

Jack celebrated his "first" Halloween this evening. I think he had a great time. We made a few trick-or-treat stops since bedtime was quickly approaching. He loved all the attention and the treats (although his Mommy wouldn't let him eat any of the candy...maybe next year). He was a pretty adorable little chicken. I've decided that in the days to come if he starts to frustrate me, I'll just stick him in some random costume. I can't be mad at him if he's dressed as a monkey or chicken or pirate. Right?

Also kudos to his father who was such a good sport and participated in our fun by dressing as Colonel Sanders. These pictures prove how much he loves his wife. I mistakingly made the comment, though, that he could decide the theme next year and I would dress up. I think I'm going to regret those words...

Sunny Days

It was a beautiful day here in Texas...low 80s with a nice breeze...so we headed to the park. Mommy needed out of the apartment for a little bit. Jack did okay in the big swing and he liked the teeter totter. He also enjoyed watching a family playing baseball on the field behind us.

By the way, the family is gearing up for Halloween on Tuesday. We have all the elements to complete our costumes. We'll be posting pictures soon...

 

Fascinated with the Camera

Jack has a new fascination with the digital camera. He loves to see the pictures on the little screen after you take them. After taking this picture yesterday morning, he looked at it and just smiled so big. I couldn't resist posting it since it seemed to have his stamp of approval.

 

A Rough Week

As you can see, Jack has been a little grumpy this week. The fussiness is a result of his ear infection never going away and his 3 new teeth (that brings the count to 8 total). Hopefully when he's up to smiling again I can post pictures of his pearly whites. He has a mouthful now!

 

Cooler Weather

I know ya'll are probably thinking we never take our child outside since there aren't many pictures posted of him outdoors. You're partially right. With about 6 months of above 100 degree temps here in Texas we didn't take him outside much because he HATES being hot (must take after his Uncle Mike)...but we finally have cooler weather. It's been so nice lately, that I've been able to open the patio door and just let Jack venture outside and back in. He loves being outside and watching the cars drive past. We also have some wanna be Junior High thugs who try to do skateboarding ramp tricks on the speedbumps in our parking lot. They are in no way good at x-treme skateboarding but they do entertain this little 10 month old...so I guess you could say they have a fan club (although it is literally quite small).

 

Bubbles

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One of Jack's new favorite things is trying to catch bubbles. He is amazed at how they disappear each time his hand gets near them. Anyway, if you listen close enough, you can hear his attempt at saying "bubble". He's such a little imitator!

A Spooktacular Week

Here Jack is posing with the pumpkin he and mommy decorated. I think he is trying to imitate the pumpkin's smile(actually he was probably just telling me something really important when I took the picture...he's talking nonstop these days).

 

Talking it Up

Here Jack is trying to explain to his faithful viewers the importance of world peace and Dada.

Helping with Chores

Even though he's feeling under the weather, Jack has been so helpful lately. He loves to pull out the dishwasher racks for mom so she can put the in all the dirty plates and cups. He also enjoys clearing the table (and by "clearing" I mean placing everything on the floor).

Looking at these pictures you probably wouldn't guess the poor kid was on a tylenol high after having a 102 degree fever that morning. He's been battling his first double ear infection this weekend. Luckily we made it to the weekend clinic just before they closed and now have some killer antibiotics.

 

Making a Mess

So, one of Jack's favorite things to do these days is make a mess. He loves to pull all of the books off his shelf...all of the toilet paper off the roll...or all of his toys out of his toybox. So, mom is learning to love putting all the books back on the shelf...rolling all of the usable toilet paper that he hasn't eaten back on the roll...and throwing all the toys back into the toybox.

This bottom picture here with his books is such an accurate potrayal of where you can find him most days. He LOVES his books. Maybe he gets his love from his Papaw who has boxes and boxes of books in his basement and salivates at the thought of a trip to the bookstore. Or maybe he's just going to be a geek like his mom, who knows.

 

9 Months Old and Feeling Good

It seems like in just the past two weeks we've seen this enormous change in Jack. While he was once a shy, serious fellow, he's now turning into a very animated pretoddler. He laughs and smiles ALL the time these days...mainly at his goofy father. He loves his school and especially enjoys Mondays when he gets to hang out with the Toddler class (he's the only infant that attends on that day). He continues to grow like a weed. At his 9 month checkup last week he was 31 1/2 inches long (off the charts) and 23 lbs 11 oz (90th percentile). Whoa! I'm needing him to learn to walk soon before I have to enlist the help of a physical therapist. We just purchased some fancy new fall clothes in size 2T. He's pulling up and standing all the time now. I'm thinking anyday now the older girls in his class will motivate him to take those first few steps. We'll keep you posted...

 

Our Child Does Smile!

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While Jack likes to keep his silly side hidden from the world, he finally allowed me to capture some footage of his goofiness last night in the car. Everyone is always telling us how serious he is around them but THIS is how he acts with the two of us. If you look closely in some of the pictures you can see his new teeth! He is so proud of them! Tomorrow he will be 9 months old! Where does the time go? 

Two More Teeth!

After weeks of hard work and crazy chewing, Jack is finally the proud owner of two upper central incisors! They are just barely poking through the gums but you can definately feel them if he gets a hold of your finger. So, that brings his tooth count to 4. According to Nathan's baby book, he had 8 teeth by his first birthday so we'll see if Jack can catch him. He's half way there.

Grandpa and Jack

Nice hair. Can you tell he just woke up?


This past week Jack's Grandparents and Aunt Lainee came to stay with us for a few days. It was during that time I realized that I had NO pictures with Jack and Grandpa...so I attempted to snap a few. We couldn't quite seem to get Jack to smile and look at the camera at the same time. He's too preoccupied these days with his new ability to clap his hands together.

We did have a great weekend with my folks, though. Jack handled the intrusion far better than his previous experience with Nathan's family. I think preschool is helping with the "stranger anxiety" phase he's been experiencing these past few months. Jack came away from the weekend with a new swing on our porch (Thanks, Grandpa, for all your hard work!), a fancy halloween costume (Thanks, Grandma, I'm going to be so cute!), and a new appreciation for women who look like mommy (Aunt Lainee, I'm so glad you were a familiar face!).