weekend update

as promised ... pictures from our mommy group/play group halloween party. it was a diverse party ... with a duck, a bumble bee, a dalmatian puppy, a dragon, a monkey, an astronaut and a redskins cheerleader! how could such an event *not* be fun??

of course, since you've been paying attention, dear reader, you already know which one jack was ...


quack quack!

let me see you shake a tailfeather!

what have they done to me?

the motley crew

after the party ... jack took one of his longest naps ever -- he was all partied out! and while he slept, mommy made a meal to take to our friends dave, diane and lucy who just brought a new baby brother home from the hospital this week. when we arrived, fairy lucy was headed out to "boo at the zoo." so we said a quick hi-bye and then visited with sweet baby james.

on sunday, jack and mommy went to our first session of "zoo class." besides "boo at the zoo," the national zoo also offers classes for kids. for jack's age group, the class is sign language, focused on the animals at the zoo.


we learn the signs in the classroom through songs and watching the teddy bear known as "signing simon" and then we go out into the zoo to see the animals in real life, where we reinforce the signs. we saw (and signed) animals, such as: elephants, zebras, bears, and hippos. we also learned frog, monkey, lion and tiger, but we didn't get to the monkey house or big cat enclosures during class. jack thought signing simon was hungry after our walk around the zoo, so he tried to feed him cheerios.

the cheerios weren't enough to sustain our hungry boy for long, so after zoo class, when mommy and jack headed out on errands, one of our first stops was for lunch. this is another one of our "special lunches" out, and jack was very good at whole foods as he enjoyed his pumpkin ravioli with cranberries (and some of mommy's mushroom and jack cheese quesadilla!).





after fortification with lunch, we decided it was time for our major errand of the day ... jack's second-ever haircut. since mommy was flying solo, she was in charge of holding jack for the trim, not taking his picture. and suffice it to say, we don't want to remember it in pictures for posterity. it was a much more difficult experience than the first cut. jack was crying, squirming, screaming. but eventually the snipping stopped, jack was given a lollipop, and he returned to his normal friendly self. he even said, "bye bye" to the woman he formerly regarded as the barber of seville.

a trip to the next-door starbucks helped mommy and jack calm down. jack showed off his lollipop and new coif before tucking into that miracle elixir known to his cousins as: "coffee milk." yes, rather than let him eat the lollipop (since he preferred the stick end anway), mommy bought him a box of horizon's organic vanilla milk. and he sucked that down in about 2 seconds flat! almost enough time for mommy to finish her latte ...

jack was a real trooper through all of our errands (even an oil change!) and when we finally headed home, we had a sunday family dinner of feijoada together as a family. somewhere during the meal, jack was apparently kidnapped ... and a gnarly pirate called blackbeard took his place. but after tubbytime, blackbeard was sunk, a sleepy jack reemerged and all was right with the world as he trundled off to bed.

wait til you see ...

well mommy is back from a 30-hour odyssey across the country but she's too tired to come up with much today.

but ... we will be attending a halloween party with all the kids from our mommy group, so we should have a terrifyingly good weekend update for you on monday, gentle readers.

and what will jack be dressed up as, inquiring minds want to know?

well, suffice it to say if it walks like a duck ... and talks like a duck ... (and is zipped into a full-body duck costume)...

but you'll have to check in monday to know for sure!

piano man

mommy is off to tour the wildfires in san diego ... for the day ...

which means awake before jack ... out of the house by 4 a.m. and not back until ... well ... technically it will be friday. an exhausting 20 hours. certainly not a career i would recommend to my progeny for its cushiness.

so if jack is not destined to be in television ... what might he do when he grows up?

how about piano mover?

if you can't see the slide(.com) show, check out this link to an online album of all the photos!


judging by this "performance" ... i'm not sure he's ready for handling the steinways ...

relax...

jack has been getting up pretty early these days. although we prefer him not to awaken until the clock reads "number 7" ... jack is more enamored of "number 5."

and, as one might expect, after he's gotten up at that unholy hour, he is tired before breakfast! so he's been taking little rests ...

but ... because jack is jack ... even this respite doesn't last too long before he's up and at 'em again ...

this morning while mommy was making her bed, jack took the pillows, threw them on the floor, laid down on them and declared "night night." today might *actually* be a decent nap day!

we dread "falling back" for daylight saving time ... is "number 4" in our future? we will not survive!

on another front (or behind), jack's tummy has been a little rocky for the past week and poor guy has got quite a diaper rash going. the doctor advised us to switch from cow's milk to soy milk for a week and see if that helps clear things up. let's just say that jack is not a fan of that new plan. maybe we can compromise ... we switch to goat's milk ... he sleeps until "number 6."

it just might work ...

tubby time

on sunday, after a long day at the farm, a nice warm bath was in order. when it was time, jack was ready to go:

so he climbed the stairs:

and picked out a towel and washcloth to use

and he got undressed:

rub-a-dub-dub, now jack's in the tub!

and as the water drained from the tub, jack got to "lay back" and put his head down

all clean and ready for a story, a song, and a sleep.

at least until 5:30 a.m. the next day!

weekend update

another chock-a-block weekend for jack and co.

on saturday jack and mommy headed out to the university of maryland to participate in a study in their speech and hearing department. jack was to listen to sound combinations using the letter k -- both those heard commonly in english, such as "kih" (as in kick) or "kee" (as in keep) and combinations known in hebrew or gaelic, but unfamiliar in english. they were testing to see which sounds he attended to longer. and, since both the researcher and mommy had noise-cancelling headphones on (a double-deaf study, i suppose), we don't know how jack did. but we do know that we contributed to the knowledge base for linguistics and speech therapy, so we did our good deed. and we got a free t-shirt!

after the experiment, we were in the ikea neighborhood, so jack and mommy took advantage of the locational efficiency (that's more science talk for ya) and picked up a few things we needed, including some step stools for jack so he can more easily reach the bathroom sinks. and, no visit to ikea is complete without a stop in the swedish marketplace for some ridiculously cheap food. sadly they were out of swedish meatballs, so we had to settle for hotdogs. we just pronounced them "hötdøgs" since we were being scandinavian and all.

if you can't see the slide(.com) show, check out this link to an online album of all the photos!

sunday we headed way out to the creamery that delivers our milk, butter and eggs. they're sort of like the old-fashioned milkman, except you place your order online instead of in the milk box! but we were eager to meet the cows that provide jack with his delicious milk.

we first stopped in one of the main barns where they had a guy playing guitar and singing and all kinds of plastic ride-on toys to use. jack was a little wary at first, and preferred to stick close to the vintage tractor.

after a while, we made our way to a chicken house where some brand new baby chicks had been born overnight. they still had the eggshells from which they'd hatched laying near them. the woman inside asked jack if he wanted to touch the chick, and he shook his head no, repeatedly. but after watching mommy pet the chick, and then hold the chick in her hands, he decided to give it a try with his little index finger. and that's all it took ...

from there on out, he was a little bit like lennie from of mice and men. let's just say we're still learning the concept of "gentle."

after the chicks, jack ran next door into the area where the calves were enclosed. jack looked at them, shouted at them, pointed at them, petted them and even tried to kiss one! he also tried to play in their water and feed buckets, though thankfully daddy was quicker than jack on that one (this time!).

we tried some goat's milk (yummy!) and ate a lunch of pulled pork and pit beef, after which jack played with some trucks and tractors in the gravel next to the picnic tables, contemplated climbing "straw mountain" (which proved to be too everest-like to summit), and did climb up on more tractors.

we skipped the horse-drawn carriage and hay rides, but while mommy went into the shop to buy some ice cream to bring home, jack and daddy went into the milking parlor to watch the big cows get milked. that was quite a sight for jack!

we headed back to the car, with mommy shaking buttermilk into butter on the ride home. and although it was a fun-filled day on the farm for us (almost) city slickers, green acres was not the place to be forever and we were glad to get home and have a nice dinner (including chocolate ice cream!), a warm bath, and a comfy crib.

if you can't see the slide(.com) show, check out this link to an online album of all the photos!

come and get it!

it's breakfast-time ... and when breakfast-time comes, can breakfast be far away?

how much is that jackie in the window?

the one with the frowzly hair ...

how much is that jackie in the window?

sorry ... this jackie's not for sale!

weird science

as may or may not be known ... jack is something of a guinea pig.

no richard gere jokes! and anyway, that was a hamster. totally different animal, so to speak.

anyway, jack is a subject of scientific research. first with umd and now with georgetown university. last weekend, amidst the craziness of the shower-throwing, we had a researcher come over to see jack and take some "baselines" that will help them in their experiment designs.

they were trying to figure out if children 15 and 16 months of age could figure out certain ideas, but not figure them out too easily.

the first task was to look at customized "toy" with a button on the front which, when pushed, makes a sound. it's for an experiment to determine if young children can extrapolate demonstrations they see in 2d ... i.e., television ... to 3d ... i.e., real life. but, before they can do the experiment, they had to make sure that 3d-t0-3d extrapolation was possible by kids jack's age (the aforementioned "baseline"). jack proved that, yes, it is possible. and, apparently, it's also possible for kids his age to destroy the customized toy in mere seconds. or maybe he's just advanced in his destructive skill set.

the next task was to look at a hand puppet wearing a mitten. the trick here was to make sure that once shown it was removable, a child could figure out how to take the mitten off ... but that it wasn't *so* easy that every single child was able to take it off before even seeing the demonstration. here too, jack excelled at removing the mitten once he saw the tester do it.

we're going to be switching to participation in studies for the early learning project instead of continuing with maryland because they have weekend appointments and they come to you (rather than driving to college park). but we have one more study in the language department at maryland that we've committed to this weekend. they were willing to do this one on a saturday and mommy likes that they're close to ikea! plus they give you a small toy for participating ...

ah, the things we do for science!

jack's future wife

she's still in utero, but that hasn't stopped mommy from trying to make him a match, find him a find, catch him a catch ...

here's a sneak peak:



she's looking quite bonnie already. we eagerly await her arrival.

and jack doesn't even know that his future betrothed exists. but he will ... oh, he will ...

weekend update

what a weekend we had chez jack! mommy hosted a baby shower for friends dudley and jen (better known as diddykins, sneetch and the bean) and it was a family affair. jack helped substantially...

the end result:

here is what it took to get to the end result:

climbing a step stool with a pumpkin on your head

using measuring spoons

playing outside while mommy bakes in the kitchen

phew ... all that work can make a guy hungry ...

since there were no finger sandwiches, scones or madeleines left for jack, he stuck with good old spaghetti ... yummy!

ch-ch-ch-changes

the times may be a-changin', but so is jack.

he seems different lately. he's now 16 months old ... an age that is right on the front side of a crest of "disequilibrium," according to "your one-year-old: fun-loving and fussy" -- a child psychology book mommy's been reading.

the author of this book argues that there are periods of equilibrium -- usually around the birthday -- and disequilibrium -- usually around the half birthday -- all throughout childhood.

well ... i think we might be there. jack is needier these days. impatient. stubborn. demanding. tempermental. tyrannical even. he wants what he wants immediately and the word "no" is often his favorite.

but, as daddy points out, he's also funnier, smarter, quicker, more talkative ...

all good things ... but this may be a long 6 months.

my hat, it has four corners

this is a family blog, so we're only borrowing from snl slightly when we say:

step 1 - put a box on your head ...



all his toys, and he likes the shoe box. figures.

weekend update

as our dear readers know by now, we made a weekend sojourn in ohio for aunt dee's birthday party. we also got to see grandma-great, who had not seen jack since he was three months old. he's changed a bit.

we arrived saturday afternoon to grandma's apartment. he enjoyed playing hide and go seek in her curtains, and was very pleased to run around outside her porch with a watering can.

and he wanted to make sure grandma-great was comfortable ... that her heating pad controls were set just so ... that her water was within reach ...

and although we've taken other trips, this was jack's very first stay in a hotel.

he actually looked dreadfully frightened when we first entered our suite, and when daddy went back to the car to get our bags, he broke out in panicked crying.



but his trepidation soon passed, and by the next morning he was running around like he owned the joint!

tooth pain continued to plague jack over the weekend, but saturday night was a huge improvement over friday and so too sunday day over saturday day. what a difference a day (and a good night's sleep) makes.

so, he was in fine spirits when it was time for aunt dee's party on saturday afternoon. jack enjoyed seeing his almost one year old cousin robyn and he also enjoyed some nachos and the general party ambiance.

we got back on the road and headed home sunday, but our adventure was not over. because following slightly behind were "two grands in a van" -- grandma and grandpa came with an old family furniture piece and staying sunday and monday nights.

since monday was columbus day ... daddy, grandma and grandpa were all around to play with jack all day. they had a great time.

and jack was sorry to see them pull out shortly after breakfast and head back to florida this morning ...

but he did make sure they had their directions.

after they left, he asked for "more" ... more grandma and grandpa!

you'll have to wait until christmastime, little jack.