In the Early Days...

In the early days, Jack fell asleep anywhere, anytime. In fact, until he was about a month old, we thought we had one of those laid back, easy babies.

However, Jack proved to quickly be the spirited child that we thought him to be when we used to feel his crazy moves while I was pregnant with him. And the times like those pictured above....are but a vague vague memory.

Thankfully, its now bedtime in our house. The madman is no longer roaming the living room like a crazy person. There's quiet throughout the house. And there's a little boy peacefully sleeping in his bed. Ahhhh, bliss! (Although, I kind of miss him....its the happiest and the saddest time of day!)

Today, I'm sad.
Today, I'm amazed.
Today, I'm honored.
Today, I'm humbled.
Today, I'm heartbroken.
Today, I'm grateful.
Today, I don't understand WHY.
But, today, I came home and hugged my baby extra tight.

iphone--Fun for All Ages

I adore my iphone. A lot. It is an amazing little invention. And someone, in their brilliance, has made lots of games that cater to children of all ages. For a whopping $0.99 (most of the time), you can find something to entertain your screaming toddler, your bored child, and even yourself. This summer, our niece Ava took quite an interest in my phone...and we found 2 games perfectly suitable for a princess such as herself (MyNails and MyMakeup). And they literally kept her entertained for hours. She was quite careful and gentle and VERY quickly learned how to navigate the pages. I have a sneaky suspicion that the next time I see her...the first words out of her mouth might be, "Can I play with your phone?".

Gun Etiquette 101

This summer, at Sue and Ed's, some of the guys spent some time shooting clay pigeons.

Everyone who was there remembers what happened here.....lol.

(Side note: All the children and babies were safely tucked far away while the guns were out.)

Dancing....

Jack loves to dance. He's been bouncing to the beat of music since he figured out how. Dancing used to mean bobbing his head and upper body around. He's switched up his routine lately. Now, dancing essentially means running in place. And he breaks out his moves anytime there's music to be heard. And its hilarious and adorable.

In this 'music video', Jack is dancing to a song from the movie 'Babe' (you know, the one with the talking pig who has that tuft of hair on his head who saves himself from being eaten by learning to herd sheep, or, if you're lucky, maybe you DON'T know).

This video will be a little difficult to watch unless you have a laptop (that you can turn sideways) because, not thinking, I filmed it with the camera turned sideways. If you don't have a laptop...its still worth watching; you'll just, uh, have to strain your neck a little.

T-t-t-t-turtle

Since Jack is only at daycare a few days a week, we just send a bag with him on the days he goes with all his 'supplies' (diapers, wipes, spare clothes, etc). I recently down-graded to this little turtle backpack that I bought long before he was born (I thought it was cute). Lately, Jack has been wanting to carry it around when we're at home. Its so fun to watch him want to do new things--he is starting to act like such a big boy!

Granny & Grampa's Deck

Just still catching up on pictures from this past July....here are some of my favorites of us hanging out on the beautiful deck that Grampa(Ed) built.

I'll try to get back on track with the updates now that everything is settling down. I still have several pictures to share from Jen and Chris's visit to Illinois and Indiana. Keep on the watch for 'The many faces of Ava', 'The Tractor Show', 'Gun Safety 101', and quite a few more.

A Lot

So...last month...well, it sucked. A LOT of stuff happened. And it was all bad. Thank goodness for our health. And thank heavens for State Farm--without them, we'd be, well, even further up sh*t creek without a paddle than we are now. A huge thanks to the car dealership that didn't ask us if we wanted GAP insurance when we got our loan--but gave it to us anyway. And a big, big, big thanks to my parents for helping us out in a big way...AGAIN.

But, its now September. So we're moving on. And hoping for the best. After all we DO have new carpet (albeit at the hands of a mini-flood). I do have new (working) brakes on my car. And although we are down a car (with no hope in sight to replace it--it was, unfortunately, totaled), I did get a new fully-covered-by-insurance carseat to replace the one that we didn't like that much anyway (major kudos to it for doing its job right when we needed it); and I love getting new carseats.

Also, there are positive things in our future. Our 3rd anniversary. Jack, who isn't even 17 months yet (lol), will soon be 18 months...and that seems like a big deal. Jack is also on the precipice of being really verbal (I'll get back to that in a minute). Its almost fall (sadly, after fall, comes winter, but...)--and I LOVE fall. A lot. The trees. The smell in the air. The Covered Bridge Festival. Love it. A new season also means a new wardrobe for Jack--which is a wonderful, legitimate reason to buy him new clothes.

So I'm aiming for the positive; the hope of things to come...and trying to de-focus on what is and has been a seemingly difficult situation.

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Back to being verbal....our little Jackeroo is seriously kicking up the word skills a notch or two. New words are coming in on nearly a daily basis. And its incredibly fun to watch. The speed with which his brain is learning completely blows me away. A sponge, that's for certain. Here are a few of the words he knows well...and others that he'll repeat if you say it:

• Shoes
• Chair
• Tree
• Dog
• Duck
• What's that?
• That
• Here
• Book
• Please
• Thank You
• Done
• Down
• Sit
• Mama
• Dad
• Ball
• Poppi
• Car
• Truck
• Cow
• Here
• Okay
• Hello
• Hi
• Bye

He also has entire (pretend) phone conversations...which we have yet to understand anything other than hi and bye. But watching him learn, play, and come to understand things is by far one of the most incredible joys of raising a child. They are quite amazing at this age (and quite a handful, but, you know, we're focusing on the positives today). I am very excited to see how he progresses over the next couple months!!