Photo Face

I finally captured video of Jack doing his photo face! This is what I see every time the camera comes out these days:

our apartment (pics!)

I've been getting some heckling about posting pictures of where we live. Okay, okay, here it is!

The view from the living room:

Our little dining space:

The dining room from the kitchen (I love this kind of half-wall in kitchen spaces!):

The kitchen from the dining area:

Washer and dryer. YES!!!!

Our bathroom, which is actually like eight miles deep. There are two more cabinet doors hidden behind the door frame!

Our entry, with the washer and dryer on the right:

And last but not least, the living room! This is definitely the reason I've taken so long to put these pictures up -- I kept trying to take a CLEAN picture but Jack wasn't interested in my plans. :)

more birthday: the tricycle!

Checking it out:Loving his first ride!

Steering all by himself!

Showing Daddy how he can get on and off all by himself (which he figured out on his own!).

Hey, this key makes a noise!

Holy crap, the seat opens? Is it even legal to own something this awesome??

Look at this little daredevil. :)

He likes this way the best!

peanut butter and jelly

Jack just ate his first PB&J sandwich. He LOVED it! He had to run over and get a bite, and then scamper in a big circle laughing and chewing, and then return for another bite.... it took us about fifteen minutes just because it was so fun! :)

(And of course, it was on freshly homemade wheat bread that was deliciously nutty, so that just made it even better!)

Jack's Birthday!!

In the interest of documenting the all-important first birthday for our absent family members, we took about a million photos and I've been trying to get them edited and posted ever since. Time for a new strategy! I will post batches, and thus actually get some pictures out to be viewed. :)

The morning view:

We do have video of him coming out and seeing the presents, but I think the file is too big. I'll have to wait for Alex to do tech support on that one!

Of course, the balloon was the best present of all!

Throwing the balloon and watching it float away:

And then bringing it back!

And then carrying it over to Meaghan (our friend who stayed over to help me do all the party stuff) for her to admire!

Making sure the balloon was still over there.

Hey, a tricycle! OOH, curly ribbons!!

Trying to drag it around.

...and that concludes part 1 of who-knows-how-many! It's so much easier to face uploading the photos in little chunks.

Jack's Birthday!!

Apparently we took a million and a half photos, along with a few videos, in the attempt to document everything for our absent family members. Rather than try to upload everything at once (which is proving to be very daunting) I will post a little at a time. Here goes!

morning adventure

We went out for our normal morning walk today, expecting to pop over to the nature preserve and pick some berries for tomorrow's Iron Chef night. The first surprise was how cold it was! Jack doesn't have any hoodies here right now (they're being shipped over from New England right now) so I bundled him up in his Nonny Blanket and off we went!

Happy to be setting out:
That sun is too bright!

He starts out with the blanket at his legs but loves to pull it up around his face and really snuggle it!

At the nature preserve, we found this really pretty spider web! It was completely soaked in dew.

Okay, so we got our berries and saw our spider webs, and were happily making our way home when --LOOK! A cement mixer! And sidewalk-making construction men!!

Jack was instantly fascinated!

"Mom, this is really as close as I'm allowed to get?" (This was all the way across the street. Clearly not close enough!)

He was taking careful notes on how to spread cement!

We were there for over half an hour and the man on the left (wearing sunglasses) never did a darn thing but watch the other guys. Scratch that -- he eventually walked over to a work truck to take off his jacket, and strolled back. Because, you know, he worked up such a sweat! I'm told he's the "Safety Patrol" or something like that.

Not even teething pain could distract him from watching!

When they finished the first corner, they moved to the next (they were doing the four corners of an intersection) and we got to watch the truck go backward and forward, beeping and rattling the whole way. Very exciting!

Here it is dumping more cement.

He's trying to disguise a yawn here, so I won't cart him off to nap time. Doesn't it look like he's just saying "wow"? :)

Gnawing on his hand again.... He's cutting two teeth. One FINALLY came through his gums yesterday and the other one is hot on its heels!

Apparently it takes two men to smooth out the cement when you're done. Notice the Safety Patrol man being oh-so-helpful. ;)

These are the faces I got when I proposed going home -- as though I had told a funny but off-color joke!

Ultimately we cut a deal that he would peacefully go home IF I would drag the stroller backward so he could keep watching as long as possible. This was our "bye bye!" view: