17 month vocab

Jack has become a little chatterbox and all of a sudden his baby babbles have started to make a little sense! We now know when he wants more (whether it's carrots, tickling, or ring-around-the-rosie). He stops what he's doing, and not only makes the sign, he also says "more" but it sounds more like, "mo-wa". It is definitely up there on his cutest things list. He knows the sign for milk, so we always know when to grab the sippy cup. Whenever we walk by or into the bathroom, he gets excited and says, "ba?" which is his word for bath. He also knows and can point to most of the basic body parts. He even points to his freckle on his leg when we ask where his freckle is. Eyes are my favorite...he makes an adorable squinty face. Sort of like this:

He's been saying Da-deeee for awhile and Ma-Ma too. But over the past few days, he's started to say my favorite of all. MOMMY!
It melts my heart every time.

Busy Jack

Jack has had a busy couple of days...

First, Rob gave him a much needed haircut. It was quick work with the clippers but Jack still squirmed and screamed. It was not fun and we didn't manage to get his entire head. Oh well. At least he doesn't have hair in his eyes!

Next, Jack decided that the fewer the clothes he has on, the better. So he took his pants off...

And for some reason, he had dinner without his shirt (good thing he had that hat on, though)...

Here he is, losing his diaper....

Brandon, Bonnie, Alex and Mackenzie came over yesterday and we went down to the park to hit some baseballs.

Then Kenzie and Bonnie took turns walking with him on his marathon around the house. He did about 20 laps on his feet holding on to one finger. There was no stopping him, even when he was out of breath.

So, there you have it. Our busy Jack.

Wet basement

Well, I've had some motivation to get on with my basement clean up. Yup, although it was a perfectly sunny day yesterday, we found our basement walls seeping water that eventually flowed over to the carpeted area. The carpet didn't feel wet, but the squish, squish sound when we walked over it was a dead giveaway. So I called Rob and he came home from work. We managed to empty the room within a matter of minutes and were able to get everything off the floor in the unfinished area (where there are puddles). Rob vacuumed up the water and then ripped out the carpet and padding (which was soaked) from half of the finished area.

This is where the carpet used to be.

The water is still slowly seeping in as I type and it looks like it's going to be an ongoing battle with the wet/dry vac until the ground dries out a little. So let's hope for no more rain! We are really not sure what to do next...I called the insurance company and they said that our policy does not cover this type of water damage (when the water comes in through the foundation). We have to decide whether we want to:

a. replace the carpet and have the wet/dry vac ready when we get a lot of rain

b. get a professional in here to recommend fixes to prevent water from coming in at all

c. do nothing and live with an unfinished basement

Any advice would be most welcome!

A few pics

Just a little more practice...

Would you like a cheerio?

Smile for the camera....

Breaking news...

When Rob came home from work, Jack had a surprise for him!

We knew he could do it! :)

Napping

I don't know about you, but I like to sleep on on my side. Some people might like the back or the stomach....But Jack, well, today he likes to sleep sitting up against the hard crib rails (but next to his music box).

Tiny Jack

I spent a little time today reminiscing about tiny Jack by going through some of the pictures we've taken of him (there are thousands!) It's hard to remember what it was like holding him when he was so tiny and when he had those tiny little chicken legs that I could wrap my index finger and thumb around.

Man, he's cute.

Tinyness in his pack and play - 2 days old, just home from the hospital

4 days old and striped socks!

Jack and Mommy (one of the rare pictures of the two of us) - 1 week old

Sleeping - 12 days old

(Seriously, did we ever put pants on the kid?)

Corned beef and tired Jack

Paul and Kara came down for the weekend and we all headed over to Brandon and Bonnie's for the annual St. Patty's Day party! As usual, we had fun and ate a ton! Rob made corned beef from scratch. It sat brining in our fridge for five days and it boiled up nicely on Saturday along with some potatoes.

Here's an action shot of the boys and Bonnie in the kitchen.

And here is a very tired Jack cuddling with Rob on the couch after dinner.

I guess we can call this Story #1

So there I was, getting the mess off of Jack's cloth diaper in the bathroom, when I hear little hands fidgeting with the door knob of his bedroom. I usually just let Jack run (crawl) free in his room when I am doing this oh so fun task which usually only takes a minute or so. Well, today our genius Jack figured out how to lock his door. Yup, he locked Mommy right out. Of course, I completely panicked. I tried the little "key" that we keep above the door jam, but that didn't work. So I ran downstairs to get some tools. I returned with a screwdriver, a pocket knife (?) and my cell phone to take off the doorknob. I got the bolts out and the knob off, but this didn't help me get any closer to unlocking it. Continuing to panic, I started banging on it with the other end of the screwdriver. Jack started to cry. I called 911. A police officer who was close by and heard the call was here in about 3 minutes. He was very nice and and didn't waste any time. We went right up and he managed to get the door open with the cork screw in the pocket knife. Jack was completely fine and I saw that he had kept himself busy emptying the drawers of his dresser. The whole ordeal was probably only 10 minutes long. I didn't even get the officer's name. I am also kicking myself for not getting a picture of Jack with him to post. Oh well. Instead, here is a shot of Jack in his cozy coupe police car taken shortly after he was set free. :)

Scary music

Jack is taking his nap and I am listening via the baby monitor to his music box. It is attached to the crib rails and Jack loves standing up and pressing the buttons to turn it on. Well right now, it sounds like a scary piano from a horror flick. I don't know how he is sleeping so soundly! I'll just have to change the batteries once he wakes up and before he goes to bed tonight because it's just awful to listen to. But Jack doesn't seem to mind. He just likes pushing the buttons and dancing to whatever beat he can find.

This is Jack standing in his crib taken a few days ago. I am sure that he has just turned on his music.

I love nap time

Jack has been a champion sleeper for the past few months. When he was little, I was never one for keeping a schedule for him, he just napped when he was ready for as long as he needed and that worked for us. He didn't have a "bedtime" until he was 5 or 6 months old. Once he turned one, he just fell into his current routine. One day he was taking 3 hour naps in the morning and an afternoon nap was never a sure thing. The next, he wanted nothing to do with sleeping before lunch, so his routine began. I have to admit, the predictability of it is wonderful. We usually have activities planned in the morning come home for lunch and then a story and nap. Sometimes it takes a LONG time for him to fall asleep, but for the most part he plays happily in his crib and at some point, he falls asleep usually until 3ish, leaving me lots of mommy time. Lately I've been glued to the computer catching up on fun blogs that I've found (of course in between laundry and vacuuming!). Today, I finally finished reading all of the posts on Dear Baby. Definitely one of my favorites. Jack usually goes to bed by 7:30ish and sleeps soundly the whole night. :) I know we are lucky and I am very happy about this.

Sunshine and Stuffies

The weather has been teasing us. We are all hoping that spring has sprung, but deep down we know that there is a (good) chance for at least one more blast of winter. But we did take advantage of the weekend sunshine and temps approaching 60! We took a nice walk and Jack tried out his new sunglasses. We couldn't believe that he kept them on for entire walk.

Jack tried out his slide in the back yard for the first time. He was not too sure about it.

He was also not too sure about grass. He wouldn't put his hands down.

Once Jack went down for a nap, we sat in the sunshine on our deck while we enjoyed this:

3 things

Things making me happy today:

And this is not so happy Jack, waking up from his nap.

16 months

Jack is 16 months old today! Wow. Time flies!

I have tried to take pictures of Jack sitting in the same spot on the couch on the 4th of every month, and for the past couple of months it has gotten harder and harder to get a shot of Jack sitting still and looking at the camera. Today I had help from my friend Layna (her son Euan, is 3 weeks younger than Jack.) I took the pictures while she stood over me making silly faces at him and it worked! At least he sat still. :)

More please!

When Jack was about seven or eight months old, Rob and I started signing with him. Just a couple of signs like these:

and

I don't think we were very consistent with it. I would only sign with him occasionally, usually out of frustration if he wasn't eating. And since, for the most part, he's a good eater, this didn't happen at every meal. To be honest, I guess I gave up on it, or maybe I just forgot about the possibility of Jack actually speaking without words.

Well, last night, completely out of the blue, Jack said "more."

Ha! I was shocked and so happy. It is so wonderful to actually get a glimmer of what is going on inside that cute little head.

Sweet music

I was in the kitchen yesterday, unloading the dishwasher, when I heard what sounded like a harmonica coming from the living room. I thought, it couldn't be, but of course, it was. Jack was sitting on the floor, sans one shoe (as usual), playing his toy harmonica, and looking very proud of himself. It was too cute and I am so happy that I got it on video!

Happy March!

The last weekend of February brought Brandon, Bonnie, Alex and Kenzie to our house. Rob made home made pizza!! It was seriously the BEST pizza I've ever had. Everyone said so.

Roasted red peppers, rosemary, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, home made sauce, and perfect crust = happiness.

Isn't it pretty?

And isn't he the cutest?