Riding in style

Jack absolutely loves playing in the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe that his friend Alyssa has....... so I bought one for him today. I assembled it all by myself too! Jack helped a bunch, grabbing the pieces and running off. I eventually had to put him in his highchair to keep him out of my way. He was not pleased. But I made up for it by letting him play outside when it was all put together. He got a little hot so I had to strip him down :)

Boy power

My friend Courtney and her husband Tadd stopped by yesterday with their twin sons Cody and Blake. The boys had a blast together, playing trains and "mowing" the lawn. Getting 3 boys under 3 to pose for pictures is impossible so most of these shots are candid. Well, all of them actually.

On a side note, this morning we took Jack for a super-long bike ride on the St. Tammany trace (a 15 mile bike trail that leads from Mandeville to Slidell). It was wonderful! Shaded and paved the whole way. Jack even fell asleep in his bike seat. He's never done that!

Busted!

Dave and I were relaxing after sodding the backyard and in walks Jack with fistfulls of toilet paper........ from the half bath (he figured out how to open the sliding door). Needless to say, he was caught red handed. And we'll be placing the TP up high from now on.

Spicing things up

When we were at French Quarter Festival last month there was an artist that had the cutest Little People art (think Fisher Price). We just fell in love with his stuff and had him paint a few things for Jack. We hung the boy and girl art in the playroom and the cowboy piece in Jack's room (of course!). Aren't they precious?? The pictures just don't do them justice!

4th haircut

I took Jack to get his haircut this morning, for the 4th time in his life (at 14 months). Guess he got his daddy's head of hair after all. He did really well! He sat in a firetruck while Miss Cheryl cut his hair. Sorry Bitsy, but I had her cut it short. His hair is on super-accelerated growth speed so I wanted it out of his eyes! Doesn't he look like a boy now more than ever?

Day with Daddy

Jack had the best day with his daddy! It started off when he rode on daddy's lap while he mowed the yard. Then we met up with some friends at the local waterspouts (a really cool area for kids to play in water that shoots up from the ground randomly). The little girl in the hat is Jack's good friend Alyssa. Dave got all up in the mix with Jack and got drenched in the process. I stayed back and took pictures ;) The rest of the day was spent moving furinture out of our master bedroom in anticipation of our new bedroom suite that's being delivered tomorrow. Pictures will soon follow!

PS- We took the babygates down today as Jack is a stair climbing/decending pro!

Mastering the stairs

Jack mastered climbing up the stairs several months ago...... long before we even had a two-story house. Going down the stairs was an entirely different story though! Lately he's been really consistent with going down on his belly and so far (knock on wood) has been safe doing it. Tomorrow I'll have more pictures to update..... but for now all you get are stair pictures ;)

The gutter

Here are some additional pics from being outside yesterday. You'll notice the gutter space I referred to previously. We had to bribe Jack to play with Mama by having her sit in the wagon. He wasn't giving her any good sugar yesterday even though she drove all the way from College Station to see him.

Outdoor adventures

Jack is what we term as an "outdoor" type. He absolutely adores going outside and getting dirty! Here he is playing with Popa and his wagon. His favorite spot was crawling underneath some plant to the gutter drain on the side of the house. Nice and messy!!! So, Mimi had to get our boy all clean again. The good news is that Jack slept very well that night.

Houston trip

Jack and I travel so much! We turned right back around from the beach and headed to Houston for a quick visit. Here he is playing with Mimi and trying to leap out of "aunt" Katie's arms! We had met for dinner and he was ready to bolt. He loves to ride Mimi's tractor backwards around the house. Never a dull moment with Jack :)
PS- Jack's shirt reads "Warning: I'm not in my happy place"......... ha ha ha.

pics cont.

One more thing...... Jack has a definite love for milkshakes these days. He's cutting his upper and lower molars right now and just not eating very much at times. But a milkshake is always a sure thing!! He wowed us by gulping down an entire milkshake Sunday. Where does it all fit?

Back from the beach- warning, long entry!!

We spent a week in Orange Beach, AL relaxing at the beach. We discovered that the "relaxing" part is somewhat different with child in tow! Apparently Jack didn't get the memo about sleeping in late.

We stayed at a wonderful condo that was right on the gulf. The water was still a little chilly being only the first weekend in May so Jack was a little skeptical of the water (both pool and gulf). We did take him to play in the sand one morning and he really enjoyed that. Slept for hours after that too! I had come all prepared with a special tent that blocks UV rays and a kiddie pool for Jack to play in and he refused to be near either of them. He did warm up to the kiddie pool when we left it in the living room of the condo for the week. So much for best laid plans huh! We ended up buying a swimsuit that has floaties inside of it for use in the kiddie pool at the condo (as Jack has an affinity for going head first into the water to swim).

Jack's favorite water adventure was not the pool but the showers to clean off the sand before entering the pool area. Oh what good times he had there! He wowed us with some new tricks this week. 1) waving hi and bye-bye on command, 2) blowing kisses (to cute little girls that he saw out and about), 3) gesturing "up" with both arms. He's understanding soooooo much these days. I'd ask him to find something/one in the room, like ball, cup, daddy/grand-daddy, etc, and he would hunt around until he found the person/object! Such a smart baby boy!

The other pictures show Jack throwing his back out tantruming (really fun stuff) and being restrained for diaper changes. The phrase "it takes a village" comes to mind for diapering and bath time these days............