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.