year-end pediatric update

well, we certainly hope it's the year end pediatric update ...

jack was back to see dr. dana today for a check on his pneumonia.

as a parent, one hears the "p" word (which actually sounds more like an "n" word ... those tricky greeks!) and one tends to freak out a bit. but, pneumonia is sort of a catchall word and in our case, it seems, it was a very mild case.

the good news is that his lungs today sound "crystal clear" according to the good doctor, and jack can stop using the inhaler unless he has a major coughing fit.

he still has a bit of a juicy cough from time to time, but she said that is nothing much to worry about and that may last a while yet. overall she seemed very enthusiastic and pleased with jack's miraculous recovery.

antibiotics and nebulized bronchodilators are apparently magical things. thank goodness for modern medicine!

his ears are clear (save for the firetruck and dump truck she saw in each, much to jack's amusement) ... and overall he's much, much improved.

her prognosis? a merry christmas for us!

god bless us every one!

lady with the baby

after two and-a-half years, we have pretty much settled into a morning routine. but, once in a while, our routine is out the window and our morning is thrown into chaos. this is usually when mommy has to be out the door pre-dawn for work. and such was the case on december 4th ...

at o'dark thirty, mommy headed to the white house to produce an interview with the president. all went well, and it was an interesting and very personal interview (if we do say so ourselves). you can watch it or you can just take our word for it.

as the seated portion of the interview wrapped up in the ground floor map room, we prepared to move on to a walking portion down the cross hall, one floor up, on the state floor.



as we began to assemble ourselves, the president turned to mommy and chuckled, "you're not pregnant, are you?" in response to his quip, mommy replied, "yes sir, just a little bit." he asked about her due date and mommy told him, "in about 7 weeks. the week after the inauguration, we'll inaugurate a new baby," and he seemed very pleased to hear it.

now all combobulated, we began to head up to the state floor. there is a smallish elevator and one very narrow set of stairs. mommy, following protocol, headed for the stairs and the president, first lady, respective press secretaries and the reporter headed into the elevator. suddenly, the president called out, "where's the lady with the baby?"

well, she was halfway up the staircase.

"tell her to get in!"

a lower-level aide relayed the message, to which mommy responded, "oh no, it's okay, i'm fine." the aide dutifully repeated, "oh, she says she's fine," only to be blasted by potus: "that's easy for you to say! have her get in."

well, when the president orders a command performance like that, there's no question -- you get in the elevator!

so mommy threaded her way (and her big belly) back down the narrow staircase, past the technicians behind her, all carrying cameras and equipment, to get into the elevator.

beat red with embarrassment, mommy thanked potus and flotus for the ride and they responded with polite inquires about jack (the prez declaring his name to be a good one) and the gender of the baby on-board (a.k.a. little miss herself).

the rest of the interview went off well, they wished us happy holidays, and we took a photo to commemorate the event.

think this is one for the baby book:

weekend update

just a quick update ... maybe we can get back in the swing of actually doing a weekend update on a monday!

saturday found mommy and daddy with tons of holiday errands and projects left to do and not enough time to do them. so nana came over and took jack to the mall for another round of playtime and breakfast.

the two had a great time at the mall, playing, eating and waving (from afar) at santa. looks like this year there will be no up-close-and-personal with st. nick. but jack does enjoy telling mommy and daddy what he will tell santa he wants, and he does delight in looking for santa's elf each morning.

still catching up from some sleepless nights, jack took an epic (for him) 2+ hour nap, which consumed most of the rest of the day.

on sunday jack and daddy enjoyed some qt while mommy headed off to yoga and yet more christmas errands, before arriving home for lunch.

another nap ensued, but this one was shorter. good thing, because we were invited to a par-tay!

mommy's high school friends try to get together over the holidays when everyone is in town, and this year we reuned at our pal scott's suburban manse, about 30 minutes from our house.

jack enjoyed playing with avery (8), jake (5), kate (3), jonah (2.5) and kay taylor (1) and a good time was had by all. with a brood like this, however, no pictures were taken. it was all we could do to keep everyone (and when we say "everyone," we mostly just mean jack) under control.

when we turned the gathering into a birthday party for jonah's mommy (a.k.a. julie from high school) later in the night, it seemed that the evening was complete.

jack declared, "that party was really fun!" and said his favorite part was the birthday candles on the cake. daddy said his favorite part was that they had the redskins game on. mommy's favorite part was the mini-hotdogs in phyllo. and of course seeing her old pals ... yeah, that too.

jack *did* say it was a "really fun" party, didn't he?

weekend update, sicko edition

as regular readers now know, most of last weekend was spent on the couch, with jack feeling
crummy, on account of the pneumonia and all.

but before he really went down for the count he had one last hurrah with to the mall for saturday morning breakfast with nana.

pediatric update again

it seems like only a week ago, dear reader, that we were reminding you of the archane rules of the blog where pediatric update trumps weekend update. and we told you not to worry ... it doesn't happen often and your weekend update shouldn't be delayed going forward.

we also expressed the hope that it would be a while until jack again saw doctor dana.

unfortunately, here we are, once again preempting our (day-late) weekend update to bring you a pediatric update.

jack has been sick since thursday night of last week. he's had a cough and runny nose, plus a fever. over the weekend, he seemed to get worse and by saturday afternoon was feeling very listless. he didn't want to go outside or run around ... he only wanted to snuggle on the couch and watch tv. very much unlike him.

he simply kept repeating, in a very plaintive voice, "i'm not feelin' well." and when you asked him how he was feeling? "not so well." it was truly pathetic.

we thought it was likely a virus which would run its course, but when he woke up with a fever again this morning, we decided it was time to head to the doctor.

diagnosis?

pneumonia.

she thinks it is likely that jack's illness started with a virus like rsv and developed into a viral pneumonia with wheezing and some labored breathing. he also has some fluid in his ears but so far it has not developed into an ear infection. small graces.

so, jack has been given an antibiotic and a nebulizer with inhaler and will be back to see doctor dana in a week to check his progress. he's also on a probiotic to try to avoid the digestive problems that frequently accompany antibiotics ... 'cause the last thing he needs is a nasty diaper rash on top of the pneumonia.

but, jack is still staying upbeat. he got to pick out a new racer car from doctor dana's "treasure chest" and he also got a sticker with curious george putting a star on a christmas tree (wonder if it made him think of his baby sister). as we waited for our prescriptions to be ready, he also enjoyed "shake" at starbucks.



hopefully he's on the mend and will be back to his old self very soon.

two and a half man

as we approach another weekend, we thought we'd close out the week with more details from last weekend.

sunday morning featured a trip to the mall to have jack's 30 month -- or 2 and a half year -- picture taken.

three weeks out from christmas this might seem like a kamikaze mission, but luckily mommy brought nana along to help manage the chaos.

jack was actually a trooper and did great ... posing as requested and smiling for the camera. unfortunately we're at the age where smiling on command results in a crazy, pained look but despite the "cheesiness" we ended up with several cute photos.

here is himself's official portrait:

we finished up our trip to the mall with the requisite bribes paid to jack ... a visit to starbucks for a vivanno smoothie (aka "shake") and a stop at ll bean to see the catfish pool.

not a half bad sunday morning!

o tannenbaum, part zwei

more christmas fun ... we finally got the tree decorated last night! all of our ornaments are not on, but since we are still a little wary of jack keeping his hands off the tree, we thought this year might be a time to give some of the more precious ornaments a bit of a break.

jack loved decorating the tree and his unbridled enthusiasm really made it fun for us as well.

we also finally broke out our "elf on the shelf" which we received a couple years ago from aunt amy. this is the first time jack has been able to understand the concept and we are working on choosing a name for our elf. so far "brown" and "pink' were some suggestions that jack had. yeah, the elf gets those names and the baby gets "george and the sticker" ... what gives?!?

jack took a few pictures of the tree, which we include here so you can see it from his point of view

"the tree"

"the lights"

and a few from ours:

o tannenbaum

we promised you a weekend update ... and while we don't have it ready in full, we thought we'd tell you about the part of our weekend which featured the annual purchase of our christmas tree.
in years past, we have simply gone to a nearby lot, picked out the nicest looking fraser fir and hurried back home. and usually we're much closer to christmas when we finally get the tree. this year we wanted to be on the early side ... but in these parts you don't want to be too early, lest you run afoul of the christmas tree laws ...

this year, harkening back to both of our childhoods, mommy and daddy packed up jack on saturday morning and headed out to our favorite farm to cut our own scotch pine.

despite the cold weather and the 30 minute drive, we were all in good spirits and enjoyed tromping around the fields to find our ideal tree.

when the perfect specimen (or, in this case, the "good enough" specimen) was located, we cut it down before dragging it back for needle shaking, netting and tying onto our car.

after the tree was secured, we also took some time up near the barns to visit the goats (the chickens, pigs and cow were inside because of the chilly air) and stop in the market for some hot apple cider and a 1/4 peck of the last apples of the season.

yes, it took longer ... took more labor ... and wasn't even much cheaper (especially when figuring in gas/mileage) -- but cutting down our tree this year definitely seemed worth it.

pediatric update

our long-time readers will remember that, according to the byzantine rules of llvj, pediatric updates trump weekend updates.

and because our check-ups almost always happen on mondays -- the day our doctor holds "early" appointments starting at 8:15 -- you may consider this our semi-annual preemption of the weekend update.

now, of course, astute readers may point out that given our recent posting history, delaying the weekend update is slightly more than a "semi-annual" event (it's more in semi-weekly territory at this point). but, in any case ...

today is the pediatric update.

and, as jennifer warnes and joe cocker sang, who knows what tomorrow brings ... perhaps a weekend update (that last part is not an original lyric, fyi). but no promises.

the overall report is a good one. jack is a healthy boy, developing normally. doctor dana was very pleased with him. she also stated, that in her professional medical opinion, jack is extremely cute. in mommy's professional maternal opinion, well duh ... don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows ...

anyway, the first order of business was the stats. height and weight. he "officially" weighs 29.5 pounds, which represents a gain of about 2.5 pounds from last time. this puts him at about 45th percentile for weight at his age.

height is a slightly more tricky ... and apparently more subjective ... measurement. jack's "official" height as of his 30 month appointment is 33 inches. those eagle-eyed readers among you may be thinking, "well, wait a moment ... at the last appointment in may, wasn't he 34.5" tall?" and you'd be thinking correctly and clearly.

mommy wasn't thinking clearly when they gave her this measurement, because otherwise she would have pointed out -- he *shrunk*!!!

after coming to this realization, and upon talking to a nurse later on, we have concluded that probably neither measurement was wholly accurate. 33 inches would put jack at a meager 3rd percentile on the growth chart for his age and simply comparing him to other boys in his class, this just doesn't seem right. plus, given his parentage, we expect him to be at least 7-feet tall by adulthood.

after the "measuring" (and we use this term loosely), the doctor came in to see us. jack was not so interested in her, or in her talking to mommy and daddy, so he headed to the treasure chest. doctor dana told him he could select one toy and he said he wanted to find a truck. sadly, no truck was found, but he did bring in about 9 racer cars, a helicopter, and multiple pairs of sunglasses. so much for choosing one. we did, however, only leave with one.

today, our discussion focused on three d's:

discipline

dentist

diapers

the short-takes (respectively)?

consistent, logical and positive

sometime in the next year

sometime in the next year

we agreed that the next six months may be quite challenging for jack and so we would not push him on potty training. plus, in mommy's opinion, when dealing with a newborn, changing a few jack diapers a day sounds much easier than cleaning up accidents, changing wet clothes and scrubbing out underpants.

mommy's proposed pediatric dentist was met by an enthusiastic recommendation by doctor dana and so we will probably make an appointment with him for next spring.

and, with discipline, she encouraged us to keep up with time-outs and 1-2-3 magic, expanding them as jack grows older and can better understand things like logical consequences. her take was: the good news/bad news is that jack is bright and very verbal. so, his emotions sometimes can't keep up with his brain, causing him a lot of frustration and anger, which we see him express. and, as with most things in child-rearing, this too shall pass ... (in about 18 years!)

to round out her recommendations, she gave us a green light on switching from whole milk to 2% (but no skim for our skinny minnie!), a red light on peanuts and peanut butter (we'll wait until he's 3), and a yellow light on switching from his crib to a "big boy bed." that one she advises doing at your own risk ... and having some way to gate him into his room. we're certainly not above the doorknob locks.

at the very end, jack got a flu shot and was as brave as could be expected. daddy hugged him as mommy dried his tears and the nurse put on a tweety bird bandage. both the injury and insult was soon forgotten.

as much as we love doctor dana, we hope that we won't see her again for a while ... at least when it comes to jack. she is, however, looking forward to meeting her new patient in just over 7 weeks!

name that baby

as the impending birth of our daughter (currently known as "ita") approaches, so do suggestions for names.

names are a tricky business because *everyone* seems to have an opinion.

in fact, just last night we received the following in the llvj emailbox:

Babies Zuma Nesta Rock and Bronx Mowgli, you're in the minority. Most parents abandoned unusual names for their children, opting instead for traditional names, according to a U.S. survey.

The top boy's name for the year remained Aiden, followed by Jayden, Ethan and Jacob with classic names like Matthew, Jack, Michael, Alexander, Daniel and William all featuring in a list of the top 50 most popular names.

The list, compiled from thousands of baby name entries on the specialist baby website Babycenter.com, found that Emma replaced Sophia as the top girl's name followed by Isabella and Olivia with Sarah, Elizabeth and Anna also popular.

With the United States consumed by politics all year, presidential names also made a return, such as Madison, Taylor, Kennedy for girls and Jackson and Tyler for boys.

Linda Murray, editor-in-chief of babycenter.com, said there was a clear trend for people to choose more serious, old fashioned, classic names, reflecting the tougher times.

"Times have changed and people are taking the world more seriously, affected by what is going on the world," said Murray.

"Even before the economic crisis we've had high gas and food prices all year and people have struggled. Our nation is at war. We have conflict in the world. It is a serious time in American life and it is affecting decisions about naming children."

When parents were asked in the online survey what they wanted a name to represent, the most important qualities for boys were strength, kindness and compassion compared to strength and individuality last year.

For girls it was kindness, compassion, intelligence and strength compared to femininity and individuality last year.

so it got us back to thinking about what we should name our little girl. we decided to again ask jack.

so far, in suggesting names, he has repeatedly favored one ...

jack.

but today he had a new idea ...

"george and the sticker"

we think that's all the first name. which would make her full name george and the sticker jennings mershon???

umm ... well ... it's certainly unique.

zuma nesta and bronx mowgli aint got nothing on that.

leaving

much of thanksgiving weekend, when not spent eating "feast" (as jack decided to call our thursday night repast and every leftover meal thereafter), was dedicated to doing a lot of work around the house ... not the least of which was raking up the remaining leaves for our final county leaf collection.

of course our resident "helper" was standing by to help daddy. sadly, his little rake from last season had broken, so he and mommy made an emergency trip to the hardware store for a new one.



and then ... the hijinks (err -- helping) began ...

i guess jack should have mentioned in his list that he was thankful for leaves ... and rakes.

thankfulness

taking a page from our friends at merrilly yours ... mommy decided to make a list of what jack said he was thankful for this year.

he was not prompted for any specific answers, mommy simply asked jack, "anything else?" here's what he said:

• my friends
• mommy
• daddy
• jack
• the baby
• grandad
• nana
• grandma
• grandpa
• megan
• kathy
• trash
• mailbox
• newspaper
• nature walk
• washington, dc
• trash trucks
• zoo

i agree ... i'm thankful for pretty much all of these list items as well.

if it's wrong ...

jack doesn't want to be right!



this post is sort of appropos of nothing, except this is something that happens practically every night ... in fact, happened just last night ... and is one of those things we're going to want to remember about him down the road.



as we've mentioned previously, jack (like his parents) is a tv-lover. he gets screen time in the morning and in the evening. "yi'l bit tv," as jack would say.



in the evenings, jack's show of choice is always "go diego go."



don't know who diego is?



he is a child animal scientist who ziplines around south america rescuing animals in a very non-darwinian way. mommy suspects, but does not have confirmation, that diego is chilean. he is also the cousin of dora the explorer.



don't know who dora is?



well, then may we suggest you come out from the rock under which you have been living ....



anyhoo, we love diego around these parts and have learned quite a bit about tapirs, pygmy marmosets and whale sharks, to name a few.



to reinforce the factoids taught during the story, the end of the show presents questions about the featured animal's capabilities and characteristics.



two possible solutions are given - the right answer and one clearly ridiculous answer, such as: "do tapirs have fur or feathers?"



for a while, jack answered very earnestly and, more often than not, correctly.



but somewhere along the line he realized he got more of a reaction and it was more fun to give the wrong answer.



so now, he will answer the question, with a mischevious and knowing look in his eye, and mommy and daddy, of course, oblige him by laughing and feigning shock at his answers.



jack has clearly decided, when it comes to diego's quizzes, if he is wrong, he doesn't want to be right...

weekend update

we're back on track with our weekend updates ... albeit one day late.

and we hope that this was worth waiting for. but please, manage your expectations, people!

so, this weekend, we here at llvj did our part to spur the american economy. who needs tim geithner when you've got a charge card and an ikea!!

we started saturday by going to the scandinavian superstore for some bookcases. we were shopping for replacements for all the built-ins we left behind in our "dinky" apartment. ever since we started livin' la vida, we have had no place for our books. in fact, they're still in boxes nearly three years later! but, with the growth of our family and the impending foul weather, we've realized that the basement can no longer be a repository of junk. well, our junk anyway. kid junk is what we're clearing the way for, hence the need for ikea's storage solutions.

jack was a bit of a handful while we were there, so we took no photos. it was all we could do to make it through unscathed (and without knocking down displays). despite his mixed behavior, jack did score his first train tracks set and has been in love with it ever since.

after a restorative nap, we headed out for ... more shopping! our plan at present (for those who have been on the edge of their seats wondering) is to move jack into the guest room and move the baby into jack's current room. of course, this requires the purchase of a dresser for jack's "big boy room." so, we loaded into the car for a visit to local baby store great beginnings, where we selected a lovely highboy for our big boy. let's hope that a nice wood case piece eases the transition of being booted from your room.

if saturday was a day of shopping, sunday was a day of socializing (plus a little shopping). jack and mommy headed out early to the local plaza, leaving daddy to enjoy some peace, whilst we enjoyed some fine french breakfast items.

not to worry ... jack is not missing a tooth, he just has flaky crust on his incisor

(photo credit: jack mershon)

afterward, we embarked on a massive pre-thanksgiving grocery shop, and jack was helpful for about 80% of it. the other 20% ... well ... don't ask.

we arrived back home just in time to ready ourselves for the first birthday party of jack's buddy, kay taylor. although the star of the party was reclusive, jack was all over the place -- enjoying the toys, the exotic cuisine, and (most of all) the cupcakes. before the cupcakes were served, jack repeatedly said, "i want to party!" in his book, i think this means singing and eating cupcakes.

"partying"

"eeww -- that does not taste like cupcake!"

after another restorative (but way too short) nap, we readied ourselves for a happy hour with our beach friends. as per usual no photos were taken because the chaos could not be captured digitally. but grace, garrett, lucy, phia and jack enjoyed playing with toys and making their own marching band (killer recorder/kazoo section) while babies james and phoebe looked on.

we have a big four-day weekend coming up, so our next update should be a cornucopia utopia of jack-tion.

(twenty)nine-and-a-half weeks

this has mainly been jack's blog since its inception almost two years ago, and admittedly the baby we refer to as "ita" does not get much play in its pages. it is called "livin' la vida jack" after all ... duh!

so here's a look at how she's growing (well, more accurately, how she's causing her poor mother to grow ... and grow ... and grow!) at 29.5 weeks.

we took a similar picture at the same point in jack's gestation, which we will dig out for comparison's sake. the doctor's office claims that mommy weighs less this time, but she sure doesn't feel any more svelte!

only 10 weeks to go ... we're all looking forward to her arrival!

oh my achin' back

in general, jack's a pretty sympathetic fellow.

he worries about kids who cry on the playground or at school and tries to console them.

if he hears mommy or daddy say, "ouch!" he is quick to give kisses and pats to soothe the boo-boo.

and lately, after hearing mommy's complaints, he has been regularly inquiring as to the state of mommy's aching back.

before yoga: "mama, you going to make your back feel better?
after yoga: "mama, your back feel better now?"
upon waking: "mama, how your back feelin'?"

yesterday morning his sympathy turned to empathy. as soon as daddy retrieved him from his crib (after his clock had turned green), jack announced, "daddy, my back hurts." he then repeated, "my back hurts ... i need to go to the doctor."

daddy asked some questions ... "where on your back does it hurt? did you fall on your back?" soon it was revealed that his back was okay and he mostly just wanted a lollipop from the doctor. when reminded that his doctor does not give lollipops, but instead gives stickers, jack announced he actually needed a trip to the barbershop (where they do give lollipops).

empathus interruptus ... caused by dum-dums.

but mr. empathy was back at it this morning, telling mommy his back hurt after watching mommy try to stretch her heavily burdened lower spine.

it's all very sweet. but let's just say we don't even want to imagine what complaints jack might be parrotting when mommy starts nursing the new baby!!

monkey business

scene from the breakfast table this morning:

jack: mommy, i see a monkey outside!

mommy: you do? what's the monkey
doing?

jack: he's cleaning our house.

mommy: really?

jack: yeah. with a vacuum cleaner.

mommy: oh, so a monkey is going to clean the outside of
our house with a vacuum cleaner? well, i guess it's dirty.

jack: yeah. it's really dirty.

mommy: well, we'll have to pay him with bananas.
but we're out of bananas. maybe you can give him a hug to pay him.

jack: yeah. a hug. and i'll give him my
ball.

mommy: great idea!

so ... note to all readers ... special limited-time offer ... if you want a ball and a jack hug, dress in a monkey suit and come vacuum the outside of our house. and byob -- 'cause yes, we have no bananas.

jumping the shark

so we've jumped the shark on politeness.

last night, as we sat down to a spaghetti dinner courtesy of daddy, jack gave his normal, effusive, "thank you so much daddy."

daddy replied, "sure, buddy."

jack's rejoinder? "no, daddy. it's *your* pleasure!"

after which we, of course, cracked up laughing.

incidentally, it's been a busy couple of weeks for us, but we'll try to get llvj back on track and hopefully will have some new posts, new pix and maybe even a weekend update (if you're lucky!). thanks for bearing with us.

la politesse

politeness is a universal concept. the french call it "la politesse" and, as they do with so many things (such as snobbery and stinky cheese), really elevate it to a whole new echelon.

when mommy studied in france, a whole unit was dedicated to "la politesse." the french take this kind of thing very seriously (as they do snobbery and stinky cheese).

we were drilled in the specifics of who should be introduced to whom and in what order, based on social rank, age and how well you know the two parties.

we were quizzed on the many ways to couch everything you might ever want to say in the floweriest of language.

we were even instructed on the proper way to use a spoon to eat soup -- fyi, spoon the soup away from you and eat from the tip of the spoon, *not* the side of the spoon like the english do (
vulgarians!).

so, it is only fitting that with a genetic line so "bien éduquée" jack would turn out to be a polite little guy.

now, of course, there are limits to the politeness a 2 year-old can muster. but jack often gets notices from friends and strangers alike for his well-mannered ways.

before leaving the table, jack will almost always say, "excuse me please." okay, granted, sometimes he says that from the moment the meal is set before him and in a quite strident tone, but he does say it. he is also strapped into his booster and needs help getting released, so that's an incentive ...

he is usually very grateful for the meals prepared for him and will say, "thank you soooo much!" when presented with a repast. granted, he also chides anyone eating with him, "say thank you!!" but at least he's grateful ...

but the absolute kicker happened this past weekend. daddy told jack, "thank you for helping me rake leaves, buddy." to which jack responded, for the first time and completely unprompted, "my pleasure!"

ah, la politesse. like musique to our ears.

hickory dickory dock

jack got a new clock!

6:48

that's what the aforementioned new clock read this morning when jack first called for mommy to come get him from his crib.

now, lest you think this is a complaint, let us reassure you gentle reader that this was received as a godsend.

first of all, mommy was up a wee bit late last night what with the historic election of america's first black president and all ... so she needed the extra beauty sleep.

second, jack had been on a bit of an early rising streak, with waking times that began with the numeral "5" or, even (in the bleakest of times) "4."

so ... after trying various explanations of what position the sun should hold in the sky before he awakened for the day, we finally settled on getting jack a clock.

it was recommended by another parent and it has been working quite well so far.

since its implementation (done just in time for the "fall back" at the end of daylight saving time) jack has only once awakened earlier than mandated ... and that only by a few minutes.

the clock turns green at a predetermined time (in our case 6 a.m.) and jack very proudly tells us in the morning, "i wait until my clock turn green. i'm not waking up until my clock turns green."

blessedly this was true today ... and in fact was true even 48 minutes after the fact.

so it seems that now is the time to push the green light until 6:15. the way mommy figures, soon enough we'll be sleeping in until 10am!

well ... maybe not. but at least it's not 5.

every cowboy

needs a cowgirl ...

howdy ma'am!

weekend update

lots on the agenda this weekend ...

we started with a saturday morning halloween party. jack's made-by-mom costume was not quite ready ... but mommy realized that she might not be able to pull off the homemade costume thing and had bought a back up slightly used "woody from toy story" cowboy costume off another mom for $5. combined with some of jack's own pieces, he made for one cute cowpoke!



and it was fun to see the other kids from the playground for our third annual halloween party (more on this later in the week).

even daddy had fun at the party ... when he wasn't busy robbing trains ...

but saturday turned out to be a rainy day, so we spent the afternoon cooped up inside, much to jack's dismay.

sunday dawned brighter, both in weather and mood ... but it also dawned early. so mommy and jack, hoping to give daddy a little more sleep, headed out for breakfast ... at ....

hot donalds!

or, as it's known to most of america besides jack, mcdonald's!

jack enjoyed sharing a deluxe breakfast with mommy. and really enjoyed dipping his syrup-drizzled pancakes in ketchup. who knew?

after some park time with daddy and a long nap, we headed out in the late afternoon to get some pumpkins from a local farm.

jack declared his "favorite" a lopsided, bumpy, gnarly pumpkin. sort of the charlie brown christmas tree of pumpkins. how could we refuse him?

jack hated to leave, but at least he went in style ...

and that, dear readers, is how we rolled this weekend ...

tgif

ah, friday. the day we've been waiting all week for. especially this week.

we asked jack today if he knew what today was.

"tuesday: school!" was his first guess.

jack doesn't know the days of the week yet, and he has no concept of time. so actuallly it was a slightly unfair question. we might just as well asked him: what's the abbreviation for lead on the periodic table?

when we told him it was actually friday, he quickly replied:

"'xana's birthday!"

since the beginning of the week, jack has been reminding us that today is his nanny roxana's birthday. this year, unlike last, jack is really aware of her birthday and has been looking forward to it.

so, this morning, jack was eager to help mommy wrap 'xana's present and write her card. he helped make blueberry muffins, "and i tasted some!" he proudly declared to daddy.

and when his "mamaxana" arrived, he gave her a welcome to beat the band. he sang, he danced, he excitedly grabbed her hand and jumped up and down before leading her to her birthday card ("i colored on it!) and her present, which he then unwrapped for her.

we enjoyed blueberry muffins and juice together, with jack repeatedly chiding mommy for not having candles for roxana to blow out and roxana pretending to blow out imaginary candles to placate jack.

after breakfast jack dragged around a little cart and said he was going to the store to buy some candles before he and roxana headed out for real to a playdate and then a special lunch at the nearby chinese restaurant.

let's just hope they have candles at china pavilion. if not, they don't know what they're in for!

turn around bright eyes

jack's new vantage point from his forward-facing seat gives him the opportunity to see even more things as we pass by and he shares his excitement in this fact by providing a running commentary as we go.

on friday we headed into the big city to daycare for the day, and jack delighted in pointing out every truck, bus, taxi and flag that we passed. just in case you were wondering, when you head down embassy row into downtown dc, you see quite a few of each of these things.

a peaceful ride it was not.

but a fun ride for jack.

as promised, here is a picture (albeit a crummy cameraphone one) of jack in his new seat configuration, versus his previously backward (and yet enlightened) existence:



forward is fun!

backward is boring!

apple jack

at nursery school yesterday they focused on apples ... singing a song about them and coloring an apple. we thought we'd share the apple produced by the apple of our eye:

jack is really enjoying school. while a few other kids are still crying going into the classroom, jack arrives full of enthusiasm, with a million things he wants to tell his teacher ("i'm gonna tell mrs. guterl i saw a trash truck!") and a million things he wants to play with during the day (vacuum, shopping cart, playdough, painting, sand table, cars & bikes, etc.). as he hopped out of the car on tuesday, with one of the coöping mothers escorting him to class, he called out, "mama, i'm gonna have a good day at schoooolll!!"

guess he was right.

weekend update

another weekend past ... and an eventful one.


with mommy at a funeral on saturday, jack and daddy had some quality park time (qpt). the guys hung out, played on the equipment, kicked the ball, and raked some leaves. ya know ... guy stuff.

mommy, nana and grandad arrived just before dinnertime, and we all enjoyed hamburgers by daddy and scintillating conversation by jack.

the big event of our weekend came sunday when jack, mommy and nana walked to "make strides against breast cancer."


our day started off with breakfast at one of the team leaders' apartments. jack was pleased that the breakfast featured donut holes:





we then made our way to the race by way of metrobus. it was jack's first ever bus ride. he was a little trepidatious, but he soon settled in and enjoyed riding up high and seeing all the sights:

but the big highlight was our walk -- 5k for the short route and 5 miles for the long. we made it through the short route and proceeded on to the long route, but got distracted by ducks in the reflecting pool and other interesting items, and ended up catching a cab back (jack's first taxi ride) before finishing the loop.

jack walked nearly all of the 5k route, save for a little snack break where he agreed to be wheeled, and for some of the walk even pushed his own stroller -- usually into the backs of people's legs.

it was a great day and a great cause and made for another great weekend.

turn turn turn

to everything (turn, turn, turn)
there is a season (turn, turn, turn)

yes ... those were the lyrics running through our heads as we set off for appointments this morning to turn jack's car seat to the forward-facing position.

jack has been extended rear-facing, or erf, in the parlance. many kids are turned around at age 1 and 20 pounds. jack is more than 2-1/4 and over 30 pounds. he has been fine backward, but he is approaching the upper rear-facing limit for one of his seats and we decided the time had come to turn him around in the other two as well -- one in mommy's car, one in daddy's car and one in roxana's car.

the very nice lady at the police department scheduled us all today and got us all installed snug and tight. she totally pimped jack's ride. and she left room behind the passenger seat for the baby's carseat to be installed in a few months.

as jack and mommy drove to school this morning, mommy asked him how he liked riding in his new "big boy" seat.

"mama, i *like* my seatbelt!" he replied.

of course mama was so taken with this development, she forget to snap a pic of jack in his new rolling throne. we promise we'll get to that before the dents come out of the upholstery where the seat used to be ...

turn, turn, turn.

the art of preschool

jack is becoming quite the prolific artist in preschool. here is one that we call, inexplicably, "hands."



mommy picked up this latest masterpiece this morning while dropping jack off. although we usually just slow down the car and push him out, today mommy walked him into school so we could deliver the playdough that we were charged with making this month. jack was very excited to have it in his bookbag and proudly presented the canister to his teacher when we arrived.


she told me that all the teachers love jack and get a kick out of him for his ebullience and enthusiasm at even the most mundane things.


don't we all?

weekend update

in an effort, apparently, to pack in a full weekend, jack decided to start said weekend at 5 o'clock in the ante of meridian. painful.


after approximately one hour, seven minutes and 34 seconds of being told (repeatedly), "it's still night-night time; it's still dark outside, lay your heady down and go back to sleep," it was finally light enough to justify getting jack out of his crib and starting the day.


and while our saturday often teetered on the brink because of overtiredness, at least it was the brink of fun and good humor some of the time. we enjoyed a pancake breakfast, courtesy of mommy, that was deemed almost as good as curious george's pancakes, then we proceeded to some outside play at the park with jack's new "soccer ball." by naptime jack was more than ready to get some sleep and he awakened to receive a visit from nana.


we decided to head off to the great indoors to search for new faucets for a nused pedestal sink (new-used) to be installed this week and jack enjoyed checking out the big screen tvs, vacuum cleaners and water features with nana while mommy shopped. he even earned a special coffee milk at the end for good behavior. it's so convenient how starbucks just happens to be right at the exit of big stores like that!


on sunday, after a tasty breakfast of "daddy eggies," jack and daddy headed back to the park for more soccer time and mommy headed off to prenatal yoga to try to ease the pain in her back. it worked, however there is now, thanks to a million downward-facing dogs, a big pain in mommy's arms -- sore muscles not accustomed to supporting mommy's (increasing) bodyweight. oy!


but the big fun of the weekend was still to come ... after lunch we headed out to nana and grandad's house and to their local fire station, which was having an open house ...


we arrived just in time to see the rescue chopper land:

and we saw a ladder too tall even for jack to climb:

although he was interested in the fire trucks, he was a little wary of going in any of the trucks, and instead was interested in checking out the station's halloween decor ...

fire trucks = scary. holding hands with ghosts = fun. just so ya know.

jack did participate in some fire-related activities ... he was especially skilled when called to put out the "fire" ...

fireman jack to the rescue!

fire's out! jack's work is done ...




we even met "sparky" the fire dog, who gave us his paw print autograph.

fireman jack ... that has a nice ring to it.

we played more at nana and grandad's and then returned home to a delicious pot roast and gravy with carrots, celery, parsnips and potatoes that daddy prepared.


after that full weekend, jack slept until his normal time on monday ... and so did we ...

one-boy reveille

we told you the other day that jack likes to come bounding in to wake mommy up, like a one-boy reveille, while daddy follows behind with a cup of coffee (god bless daddy!).

well, as of today, jack's taken it to a new level.

our little horatio hornblower came in this morning playing a fanfare to beat the band ...

and, boy, it sure woke mommy up ...

awake and wondering who gave him that horn and how revenge will be exacted ...

unplanned field trip

mommy was unexpectedly at home with jack yesterday (as roxana was unexpectedly sick), so we made an impromptu, ad hoc and otherwise unplanned visit to the zoo yesteerday.

first stop, as always, was with the giant pandas ...

jack pretended to eat bamboo ...

and cuddled with the panda statue.

we saw mei xiang sleeping in a cave, and the "baby" -- who is now three years-old (and jack would hardly consider that a baby) -- tai shan, sleeping right next to the glass. sadly mommy was too busy fulfilling the plaintive request, "pick up meeee!!" to take photos. but it was a lot of fun to see them. however, soon enough, jack declared, "let's keep going," and we were off ...

... to the

construction???

yes. they are building a new elephant yard, and this might have been jack's favorite part of the visit. he did not want to stop watching all the trucks and machines at work.



eventually he was persuaded to go visit the current elephant house (background, left in the above picture) and when we arrived he declared, "it's stinky p.u. in here!" but, he decided we could stick around a while when he saw that the elephant was getting a bath.

we also witnessed a pachydermal pedicure ...

but soon it was, "let's keep going, mama" again and we went to find some monkeys. we didn't see too many gibbons or siamangs, but we did find a mirror in which to take our own picture ...

the orangu tans, however, were out on the "o-line," climbing freely above us, and jack reached up to try to grab them ...

"almost!"

if we couldn't catch the orangs, at least we could chase the armadillos. jack squealed with delighted as he and this armadillo ran back and forth, chasing one another through the glass.

and he enjoyed some hide-and-seek of his own with mommy as we headed to grab some lunch.

sometimes the best times are spontaneous and unplanned.

and that is the first and probably last time anyone will ever witness mommy utter those words.