the ladies' man

yes ... it's true ... jack (like his father) is a ladies' man.

one of his favorite girlfriends, lesley, is visiting today:



but old lesley may have some competition ...

on sunday when we were at the pool, a little girl ... maybe about 6 years old ... came up and said, "he's so cute!" she then proceeded to grill me about him: "how old is he?" ... "how many teeth does he have?" ... "are they all in the front?"

she was very interested ... until mommy described jack's 4-by-2 chomper configuration, at which point she wandered away. maybe she's looking for a more toothsome guy ...

weekend update

this edition of the weekend update holds something special -- jack's first haircut. on saturday, after watching a little wimbeldon, we headed out before lunch to "cartoon cuts" to get jack's locks snipped.

mommy was trepidatious ... how would it go? would her little baby be forever gone? so many questions. but ... we all realized the time had come for the wings over jack's ears to fly, fly away.

daddy and jack wait patiently to be called:




after trying to strap jack in to the seat with this lame little seatbelt, it became apparent that the same boy who broke out of leg restraints in the hospital at 4 days old would need more stringent controls. so he sat on daddy's lap and gloria, our stylist, started snipping.




jack wasn't so sure about this, so he looked to daddy for some reassurance.




despite reassurances, jack was decidedly unhappy:




but he hung in there like a trooper ...




... while gloria just took a little more off the back:




in the end, jack emerged looking quite like a big boy with a new coif and just a few tears shed.



for the rest of the weekend, we tried to do things jack would *like* (or at least things that didn't make him cry).

they included:

playing with his sand and water table

going to the playground

walking to the plaza for breakfast with mommy (a true 6 miles, grandpa, now that the stroller pedometer is recalibrated!)

going to the garden center

going to the pool

flotsam and jacksam

the blog was designed to keep foj (friends of jack) up to date on him. but it has the added side benefit of being a great way to capture the ephemeral details of who jack is as he grows and changes.

however ... sometimes in trying to match posts to pictures and tell a real story, these very details get squeezed out. the stuff we call "color" in the biz.

so mommy's decided that once in a while the daily post is gonna be bare bones and probably pictureless. it won't have cute turns of phrase, puns, or even a coherent thread. it will be more of a joycean stream of consciousness (after all, mommy and daddy were married on bloomsday!). so here goes:

jack cracks up when people blow their noses

jack often says "doo-WAY" -- we don't know what it mean, but it's something good

jack is starting to bang the floor in frustration, particulary when he falls down

jack loves to hug the vacuum

jack loves to push his own stroller

jack can crawl up *and* down the stairs

jack closes the baby gate behind him when he goes upstairs

jack can crawl up the stairs, through the tunnel and down the slide at the park

jack says "hi" and "bye" with regularity

jack responds to spanish and english commands

jack only runs, never walks, when pushing his push car through the house

jack often rubs his own head when drinking milk

jack throws everything out of his crib when he wakes up in the morning

jack cracks up when he hears exaggerated gulping/swallowing sounds

jack loves to be an "upside down baby"

jack thinks hiccups are hillarious

jack prefers large pieces of food to small ones -- he's figuring out how to chew

and ... of course ...

jack loves to throw things into the subwoofer

in the majors

recently the blog told you about jack's desire to be a baseball catcher. some of you actually thought it seemed more like a desire to be an apiarist. but that's another post.

well ... in case he gets called up to the majors ... jack is outfitted and ready (at least for the american league).

all together now (in your best maryland accent): go o's!

liberation

on our nation's independence day ... it seems only fitting to tell a tale of freedom.

it begins on tuesday, july 3rd. daddy decides to try to retrieve a toy that he saw jack throw into the subwoofer while he was on the phone with mommy.

jack is very fond of throwing things into the subwoofer at home .

we had no idea just how fond. in addition to the hot pink magnetic gear toy that we originally went in search of, we also found:

a "new yorker" subscription card

a baby hairbrush

a purple piece of plastic

a whistle toy that we'd never seen before

a partially eaten cracker

half a plastic easter egg

by the time the cracker was extracted, mommy and daddy were in hysterics.

who knew we had to babyproof *that* too!

picture this

we had some professional photos taken of jack by my friend and former colleague erin fogarty owen. she left the tv game to begin her own photography biz and so naturally she was the perfect person to do first year portraits of jack.

just one example of her work that I love is this picture of jack crawling up our backyard stairs. just as in tv, things are not always as they appear ... in getting those pictures, jack nearly fell off the stairs several times. daddy was standing off to the side in the dirt to make sure he didn't hurt himself. but hey ... it's worth it for some great shots! like this one:

(copyright fogarty photography)

used by permission/not for reproduction

there are more pictures to see at erin's blog about her photography projects or the full album, hosted at pictage.

weekend update

so, this weekend while mommy was working in kport, jack was a busy guy.

he and daddy went and bought toilet locks and did other assorted errands. they also played at the playground, went on walks and did other "boy things" to which mommy is not privy.

sunday brought two things -- a small break for daddy (which he spent doing yard work, though mommy would have spent it being lazy), and a trip to the zoo with his nana and grandad for jack!

jack liked seeing the animals (and the little girls who were seeing the animals):

and of course he had to get a closer look:




he'd probably have thrown himself into the cage if he were allowed!

mommy comes home late tonight and will be eagerly awaiting a morning reception from jack. but, note to jack: she's not so desperate for jack-time that she can't wait until after 6a!