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.