weekend update

it was another busy weekend at llvj. saturday started with a pancake breakfast at our friends' house. they had hosted our other beach-going friends' kids for a sleepover. jack was not invited because he was deemed too little. wise call. as it turned out, miss phia -- jack's elder by a year -- had to be picked up by her parents at 11 p.m.

but all were in good spirits when we arrived just after 9 and were welcomed with chocolate chip pancakes. jack was quite pleased. no photos of this event were taken, as mostly we were concerned with corralling 5 children who had just eaten chocolate chip pancakes and were on a sugar rush ... but trust us when we say it was a lot of fun.

after lunch and a nap, jack and mommy headed to a big adventure -- the big top! that's right, we went to the circus!



but look closely ... that grey-haired man in the picture is not daddy ...

in fact, it's the father of one of jack's good buddies/girlfriends:

her mommy hooked us up with tickets to a corporate suite. sadly, daddy had to stay home -- stupid ethics restrictions! but, for my money (which in this case was no money), it's the only way to manage the circus with a 1.75 year old who won't stay in his seat for long and who is slightly wary of all the noise and flashing lights and spectacle.

and even with our luxury digs, jack wanted to leave the box and just run around a bit ... which we did at intermission ...

but all in all, he did really well and enjoyed it much more and for much longer than daddy and i thought he would. he particularly seemed to like the tigers, the horses, the dogs, and the acrobats. and he liked clapping. and he really liked the birthday party full of 5 year old girls in the next box ... but that's a different post ...

and that leads us to sunday. jack got dressed, looked in the mirror to see how cute he was (at mommy's urging) and promptly kissed himself and said, "love you" to his reflection. then, he pointed to the camera on the fireplace mantle and said, "cheese, mommy." so he asked that this picture be taken. and he even sat down to pose for it. he also requested to wear this hat. he certainly knows his mind.



after a morning at the park, we had a restful nap and then did some cleaning. this was a huge hit with jack. we took the handle off the big swiffer and he pushed it around the floor (even under the couch), he used the duster, and he even "swept" the rug with the carpet broom. he was a cleaning machine (and incidentally he's available for your spring cleaning needs at very reasonable rates)!

jack even took this picture of daddy cleaning (all by himself!):

all this tidying was in anticipation of a visit by jack's girlfriend and likely future wife kay taylor. she and jack hung out at our house and the playground while their respective daddies went to opening day at the new nats stadium.

the visit was a big success, but keeping a toddler from inadvertently mauling an infant with an over-exuberance of love requires two hands ... so no photos were taken at this event either.

it was a jack-tastic weekend! but really ... aren't they all?

the irony and the ecstasy

the ecstasy: jack slept until 7:30 this morning. that's right, the sun was up well before he!

the irony? well, it ended up making us all late this morning. and of course there's no way he'll actually do this on a weekend day. to further the irony, no doubt he'll be up at number 5 again tomorrow.

and the agony? well, the agony belongs to roxana. jack did not take a nap wednesday or thursday. hmm...maybe that's why he slept in!

who moved my cheese?

it's not the greatest photo ... but jack asked for it to be taken. i guess he wanted you all to see how big he's getting. he was pointing at the camera on the mantle, saying, "cheese!" and would not relent until i got out the blackberry and snapped one of him.

gee ... wish he knew what he wanted ...

throwing heat

we've written previously about jack's pitching abilities ...

but with the nats opening day just 4 days away, we've upped his training regimen, lidocaine and b-12 shots ... check it out:

easter weekend update

although we did not dye any eggs this year, we celebrated easter in many other ways this year. first up was a neighborhood egg hunt on saturday:

after scoring a dozen plastic eggs and eating several dozen jellybeans, we headed off (well-sugared) to playgroup. jack was in a bit of a mood the whole weekend, and when we got there he was a little reticent to join in the fun, but after a while he warmed up. he really enjoyed their train table:

and liked getting bounced on the ball with bea by her daddy

after lunch and nap, jack examined the mail that had come for him. several easter cards and presents for him -- lucky boy!

the dawning of easter day brought with it an easter basket left by the easter bunny ... filled with plastic gardening tool toys and bunny bubble stuff. but we put it aside to head off to church, in our sunday easter finest:

we were still wearing our cute outfit after church for lots of hijinks and monkeyshines:

bubble stuff from the easter basket -- required a physicist to figure out how to use it

nana and granddad came over to have easter dinner with mommy, daddy, and mommy's friend jamie. jack went to bed before the ham and scalloped potatoes were ready, but he did get to taste the filling for mommy's lemon layer cake -- and it passed the official jack taste-test!

good night, sweet boy. happy easter!

easter boy!

no time for a true "weekend update" today, but a cute picture of our own little bunny boy on easter morn:

looks like the finest baby in the easter parade to me! full update in the next post ...

playing for the weekend

everybody's working for the weekend ... and since jack's "work" is play ...

our weekend will include an easter egg hunt, playgroup, a birthday party, a visit from the easter bunny (thank you easter bunny! bawk bawk!) and a big easter dinner.

it may also very well include something that looks like this:



full update on monday ... so check back!

it's all relative

jack has recently been demonstrating a grasp of relational concepts.

no, not relativity ... i mean, he did count the other day and all, but he's no baby einstein. get a grip, people!

concepts that are relative ... like big/small ... near/far ...

in ...

and out ...

this morning he was doing a calisthenic demonstration of up/down ... crouching low and then springing up, hands in the air like he just didn't care.

and a new favorite ... forward/backward. mommy calls, "backward!" and he chugs along in reverse. "stop! forward!" and he takes off ahead again.

not einstein ... but methinks this kid's no potted plant.

daycare update

despite some initial hesitation, jack had a good day at "school" the other day.

in honor of st. patrick's day, they made some green gloop for the kids to play with and jack colored with orange and green crayons.

jack played a lot, ate a lot and slept a lot. typical day care day!

(remember you can single click on the image to enlarge it)

(remember you can single click on the image to enlarge it)

(remember you can single click on the image to enlarge it)

weekend update for real

as promised yesterday, here's the full rundown on the weekend that was:

saturday was a beautiful day, so jack spent most of his day "side"

both at the park ...

and in the backyard (a.k.a. panda jungle):

jack urged daddy to help him look for his ball

see daddy, i'm in the rough, just like you usually are ...

we rounded out the nice day with a trip to the grocery store where jack drove the "firetruck" below the shopping cart, mommy ran into all the cardboard displays mid-aisle because she was pushing a firetruck shopping cart with terrible steering, and jack charmed all the checkers ... making eyes at the ladies and giving high-fives to the guys.

sunday was rainy, so we spent more of our time indoors and nana and grandad came over for a st. patrick's day dinner -- a day early.

jack had a good time playing trucks with grandad:

wearin' the green!

and he ran in and out of the kitchen, "helping" mommy get dinner ready

finally it was time to get ready to eat!


our menu was dublin pork spareribs, champ, "irish flag" veggies (carrots and parsnips with parsley), soda bread with raisins, and patrick pie -- a childhood invention of mommy's with pistachio pudding in graham cracker crust, topped with cool-whip. yummmm ...

jack ate a ton, and then it was tubby time ... for which he picked out his bat towel -- more halloween than st. pat's but it was his choice ...

nighty night, jack

it was a good weekend. and we're looking forward to easter ... is it the weekend again yet?

updates galore (sorta) ...

normally you'd expect to see a weekend update in this space.

but today we went to the doctor. so of course, pediatric update usually trumps weekend update.

and, incidentally, we took him to daycare following, so "school update" will be on the docket tomorrow.

but, the pediatric update does not have much to update you on. the big update is that jack has become scared of the doctor's office.

he was okay going in to the reception area, but once we went to the examining room, the wheels came off the proverbial wagon. maybe it was the receptionist in shamrock deely boppers that set the tone. like a scary clown -- supposedly festive, but actually terrifying.

before i had even tried to undress him, jack was hysterical and screaming. mommy persisted, and got him stripped down, but he still sits on the infant scale to be weighed. have you ever tried to make a freaked out, naked 21 month old sit on one of those and stay put so you aren't touching him? well, you should because it's *really* enjoyable.

finally, we decided that we would try later to get his height and weight. later ... like next visit!

and when doctor dana came in, he was scared of her but warmed up after she gave him some plastic bed pans and wooden tongue depressors (both clean) to play with.

and she was "pleased as punch" (her quote!) about jack's progress. she said that even without the weight, she can see from his healthy-looking little body that he's doing great. (Ed. note: I'm guessing he's around 27.5 pounds ... and close to 34")

mommy reported the development of the day, which came as we scurried to get out of the house for our 8:15 appointment. jack heard some counting on tv "1-2-3" and he responded "fowr, five, sis!"

wow.

we had heard him "counting" along with us as we enumerated the stairs up and down, but this was the first time he had done it by himself, as an extension of hearing something else. he still has no concept of counting, per se, but he does have the memory of the sequence of words, which is still pretty cool.

after much lauding and complimenting on the ped's part, it looked like she and he reached a détente ... until it was time to listen with the stethoscope and look with the otoscope. then, it was back to screaming like amy winehouse going back to rehab.

we decided, based on his fear of the doctor and his impending trip to daycare, that we would forgo his hep-a vaccine this appointment and do it at a later time. good call, dr. dana!

we then hauled across town to daycare, whereupon being told that we had arrived at "school," jack broke down into a quivering mass of tears and trembling lip again. mommy gamely got him out of the car, headed into the center and dropped him off. even a proffered snack of veggie booty and dried apricots (two faves) did not stop the weeping.

it was a hard morning for old jack. and for old mommy and daddy too.

but we're a-wearing the green ... erin go bragh! and we're hopeful our little leprechaun has cheered up and his irish eyes are smilin'. if not, he'll be screaming like a banshee ... and that's irish too!

but actually that's irish in the overrun-with-snakes-and-potato-famine sense of irish ... so, yeah, let's hope he's more of the rainbow-and-pot-o'-gold type by this evening.

and, by the by, we had a lovely weekend, that included an early st. pat's celebration, which we'll update you on very soon.

friday friends

spring break has begun, and so roxana's girls leslie (a.k.a. "sesi") and diana have finally come to hang out with jack today. jack has been asking for sesi nearly every day this week! so he was pretty excited when the girls walked through the door this morning.

mommy asked if she could take their picture. jack said, "yes!"



and then he said "more?" so mommy obliged and took more pictures ...

he even said, "cheese!" before the pictures. roxana said, "did you teach him that? because i didn't." and i said, "no, wasn't me either." must be something he picked up on the playground. better "cheese" than some of the other stuff he could learn there ...

once jack (and sesi) changed out of pj's, they caught a few minutes of "elmo's world" before heading to the library and the park.

roxana asked if jack could have pizza for lunch, so something tells me he has a restaurant outing to look forward to as well ...

and moreover, nana is coming over tonight while mommy and daddy go out to a fancy fundraising gala. when jack heard this he said, "nana. box." he is eager to show her how he learned to open the 101 dalmatians mini-lunchbox she brought him.

what a great way to end the week.

not that it will rival a friday full of friends, but guess we better plan something for the weekend ...

The Final Frontier

Readers will note that among the words listed in the previous post are "sun," "moon" and "stars." I'd like to believe that his interest in astronomy stems from my own year-long "Intro to Astrophysics" (aka "Space Rocks for Jocks") class at Chicago. But maybe he, like humans throughout history, just likes to look up at the sky and think about what's "out there." Last night was a particularly special treat for our young Carl Sagan (AB, SB, MA and PhD from U of C). He was very eager to look at the moon, which we couldn't see very well from inside the house. So even though he was already in his pajamas, I took him outside so he could get a good view. He was very pleased.

I just hope that, in the words of the immortal poet Casey Kasem, he keeps his feet on the ground, but keeps reaching for the stars. Tonight I'll try to teach him "parsec."

two words

yes ... seems strange to be so excited by it ... but jack is now saying two words.

together.

at the same time.

doesn't seem that great, you think? well ... we're his parents so we're easily excited by this sort of thing.

admittedly he still doesn't have a bona fide sentence under his belt, but some of these turns of phrase have been quite interesting.

just as with learning to use one word at a time ... we started with "hi" and "bye."

"hi, mommy."
"bye bye, daddy."
"hifloydbyebyefloyd."

that last one is usually said with the same speed as that black furry thing streaking from behind the couch to the relative safety of the basement.

but since then we've moved on to some interesting ... and some less predictable word strings.

• floyd food
• doggie ball
• sun down
• night night sun
• moon stars
• love you
• mommy juice/daddy juice

and a particularly funny game he likes to play that we've dubbed "you-me"

he says "you!" and you respond "me?" to which he responds "me?" and you respond "you!"

did you follow that? if not, we've tried to capture some video of this and will share it soon. it is pretty funny, actually ...

but the laugh of the day today came from a single word.

jack left mommy and daddy in their room this morning, walked into the hallway, and closed the door. then he knocked on the door. "who is it?" mommy inquired. "me!" came the earnest reply from the hall.

this kid cracks us up.

we direct your attention ...

to the column on the left.

yes ... over there ...
<<<-----------------------

since the inception of the blog, we've had a number of wonderful pictures highlighting "the object of our blogfection" in his various phases of development up to this point.

each time they're updated, mommy feels a simultaneous surge of exhilaration and twinge of nostalgia. a new, more grown-up picture is exciting, but there's always a pang of regret at having to take down the old-yet-adorable one to go along with it.

well, no more, dear readers. we've decided to place a gallery of these many iterations of our blogsperation below the links to our friends' and favorite blogs. i think they're all there, but my momnesia may be kicking in ... so if there's one you remember that's missing, please let us know!

otherwise, enjoy the retrospective. remember, old pictures don't die, or even fade away ... they simply move down the template.

weekend update

as saturday began, so did the rain. and it rained. and rained. and rained some more.

so finally, around 10 a.m., mommy decided that jack had to get out of the house, but with weather not even fit for ducks, we headed off for the local library. and for a time we looked at books, played with some of their toys (puzzles and activity cubes) and enjoyed ourselves.

but soon enough, someone was running through the aisles, hooting and pulling all the materials off the shelf. i know you probably think it was mommy doing all of this, but actually it was jack.

so we beat it.

and walked down the sidewalk to a rummage sale held by a local catholic church and school. we checked out the wares for sale and the ever-amiable jack said "hi" and "bye" to everyone we encountered. one man, dressed all in black, said, "what a nice boy you have." mommy beamed with pride. "thank you!" "may i ask if you've considered yet what you're doing about school for him?"

oh. so that's his angle.

"yes, we're very interested in our local public elementary school."

oh yeah. that's mommy's angle.

we left a disappointed priest behind and headed home for lunch. he'll have to find nice boys for his school elsewhere.

after a refreshing nap, jack and mommy headed up to play "golf" at the playground. jack received a golf set for christmas and loves to hit the balls. he or mommy will hit the ball as far as possible and then we chase it wherever it goes -- straight ahead or off into the woods -- and hit it again.

this is actually very similar to how daddy plays golf. hmm. a chip-shot off the old block.

and somehow the ball ended up in mud puddles over and over again, and accordingly, so did jack.

so a very dirty little boy arrived home for a bath ... and then emerged squeaky clean and ready for dinner when nana arrived. she was there to babysit while mommy and daddy enjoyed a dinner out, thanks to aunt amy and uncle bill.

we had a lovely evening, really yummy food and wine, and jack and nana had a ball together. win-win-win. the only thing that would make it better would be to sleep in on sunday. and with the "spring forward" into daylight saving time, surely jack would sleep until close to 8 a.m.

um, yeah ... no.

he was up just before 7 a.m. but, the good news here is that before daylight saving, it would have been 5-something. so, at least psychologically, it was nearly acceptable.

and it gave us plenty of time to get ready and head to church for the 11 a.m. service. mommy and daddy dropped jack off at the church nursery -- a playroom where cousin brady has vowed to which he will never return, but which jack doesn't seem to mind. in fact one of the babysitters was even named roxana! and when they asked if jack "se habla español," jack answered, "¡si!" oh yes, he was right at home (en casa?). he did cry when we walked out the door and left him, but he ended up catching a few zzzzs and was his usual chipper self when we returned.

sunday afternoon found us headed to auntie jen and sophia's house for a happy hour with our beach friends. we try to get together biweekly, but because of upcoming conflicts, it turned out this week was prime time for a repeat of last week. and with all the kids there, it was a chaotic good time!

phew! thank goodness it's monday again so we can catch our breath!