A Day to Honor Jack's DaDa

Tonight I finally gave Jonathan his belated Father's Day gift. On the blue page below I wanted to include pictures from what we did on Father's Day, so I had to give him the gift a little bit late. I wanted to put something together that will go through the years with us as our family changes. I decided to do a little scrap book where each year one page is devoted to some of the major memories from the year and the other page will have pictures from Father's Day. I never thought I would keep up with a blog, and I have, so I figured I can keep up with this over the next couple decades too :).

We had a nice, relaxing Father's Day at Laguna Beach. We had lunch at home and then walked the beach, after getting Starbucks of course! Just a quiet family day :) Here are some of the pictures of dad and son...

The Sunday before Father's Day (6/12/11), my grandmother came into town to visit my aunt and uncle. My dad's brother lives in Big Bear, CA, but they flew in to the airport near us. My grandmother has been dying to meet Jack, so Jack got to meet one of his great-grandparents. My grandma lives back in Chicago, so we didn't know when she would get to meet him.

She had a great time, and Jack was really good at lunch. We were at the restaurant for about 2 hours, so I'm kind of surprised he didn't start to lose it a little bit. He sat on great-grandma's lap and liked to grab at the flowers on her shirt.

My uncle was our photographer for the day, and I think he took about 78 pictures at lunch for my grandma to be able to choose from later :).

In other big news, Jonathan started a new job yesterday. He started at a new company as an Account Representative. We didn't think that such a major change would happen this quickly, but he came across a really great opportunity and took it. The best part of all of it is that it is a job working Monday through Friday during normal business hours instead of being gone for two weeks at a time. I'm so excited for him, because he really wanted to be able to see Jack every day and not miss out on all the milestones and important moments.

Whoever's a Big Boy, Please Stand Up

Today is Jack's 7 month birthday, and I love this age! I'm sure I'll find new favorite ages for various reasons as we go through the years, but he is such a good buddy to bring places. Don't get me wrong, I miss the cute newbie baby that slept in the car seat while we did everything, but this stage offers so much more interaction and opportunities for laughter. Jack and I went grocery shopping this morning, and he loves being freed from the car seat for the shopping cart. I probably could have gotten him in this thing a little sooner than I did, but he's been spending shopping trips in the cart for about 2 weeks now.
In other super exciting news, Jack has learned how to pull himself up from sitting to a standing position on his own in his crib. For the past few days I have been holding his hands, and he has been pulling up with a little bit of assistance from me. Yesterday we both sat in front of his crib, and I showed him a few times how to pull himself up using the bars. He made a few unenthusiastic attempts and was not successful. However, I put him in the crib today sitting next to the side and patted my hands on the side of the crib. He grabbed onto the bar and TA-DA...he stood up all by himself. He was so excited and proud of himself! This picture is the third time where I had my phone ready to snap a picture quickly.

Then he stood there for a second looking down at Izzy on the floor.

Once I put him back on the floor, he just wanted to attempt this new skill over and over again. He kept grabbing onto my pants when I stood next to him trying to use my pants to pull up. He was able to get up to the balls of his feet in a squat position, but he would lose his balance and fall back down.

I think tonight I'll be raising the crib bar just in case he feels like practicing when he should be sleeping. It's probably unlikely, but better safe than sorry!!

No One Makes Me Smile Like Him

Every day I love Jack more and more. He brings a smile to my face constantly, because he's full of so much personality. We were taking a walk around the neighborhood yesterday, and I wanted to see how he did on the swings at the park. He did really well and was able to hold steady, but he did not seem super interested in what was going on. He was more focused on the kids around him running past.These two have the best time together. I don't know how it happened, but they were making the same face each time I took a picture.

Jack has been joining us at the table, which is so fun. Now when we go to restaurants we get to ask for the high chair instead of the sling for his car seat. Last time we went out to eat Jonathan was saying how strange it is that just 7 months ago I was pregnant and Jack joined us via my stomach, and now he's sitting next to us at the table. It's just strange how quickly things change and he grows!

This picture cracks me up, because he was holding the menu so naturally. It looks like he's saying, "I'll take the beef." haha.

My mom took this photo while she was out visiting, but I forgot to put it on the last blog. One of the outdoor malls that we go to here has a pond in the middle with a bunch of coy fish. It's a definite kid magnet. Jack really liked watching them swim around.

That's it for now, but Jack continues to get up on his hands and knees and sway back and forth. It's only a matter of time before I can say Jack is a crawler.

WANTED: One Weiner Dog

WANTED

Jack has a fascination and love for Izzy, and he wants to love on her with all of his might! However, up to this point he has not had the ability to make his move to get up close and personal with her. Unfortunately for Izzy, things are changing around here. This afternoon I watched Jack make a graceful sequence of rolls and commando crawls across the room to make his way over to Izzy's bed. Izzy was under her blanket unaware of his approach. As he pulled at her blanket, she realized what was happening and jumped out of her bed before he could get his hands on her. I have a feeling Izzy's going to spend a lot more time on higher ground.

Jack is getting very mobile these days, and he is definitely beginning to give us a run for our money. He can't quite get the coordination and sequence of movements necessary to crawl yet, but he's so close. He now just pulls himself forward on the tile with his hands and forearms, and when he's on the carpet he'll give himself the extra push necessary by pushing forward with his feet. He'll try to get up on his knees but usually loses balance. Even though he's not technically crawling, he can work a room. I had to plug up all of the outlets in his bedroom since he zones in on them, and I really need to get on safety planning around cords asap. He tends to look at things with a look like, "Target Acquired," and then begins his mission.

You can see Jack's play area in the background where he commando crawled from to come visit "Other Jack."

Here's the little burrito all rolled up in his blanket. He grabbed one end and just log rolled until he was all wrapped up.

Just a cute picture of him playing with his spoon ;).

When Jack is not on the move at ground level, he demands that he be part of the action in the baby carrier. Jack enjoys being a part of cooking meals and cleaning the kitchen. P.S. We are very careful around the stove in case you are looking at this picture with concern :).

We had the pleasure of my mom coming out to visit from May 28-June 4. Besides the fact that we enjoy her company, she gave us the chance to sleep in each morning by getting Jack up for us...it was amazing! I slept in later than I have since I was about 28 weeks pregnant and things started to get uncomfortable. My mom was better about taking pictures than I sometimes am, so we got this family photo opp in Laguna Beach.

My mom was also able to capture a few of the many faces of Jack...Concerned:

SCARY!

Silly...

She also spoiled him with so many new toys including a xylophone, stacking cups, bath toys, a 6+ month piano, cars, and rings that you stack. Such a lucky little guy.

Jack had his first full pool experience while my mom was here. We tried to get him in a few weeks ago, but the water was still too cold. He freaked out the second his feet hit the water. This time the water was still cool, but he was able to get in. Jonathan braved the chilly waters for a few cute pictures.

Jack has been enjoying regularly scheduled solid food meals now for lunch and dinner. He has quite a varied pallet, and we're getting better acclimated to bringing solid foods with us on outings to keep on his schedule. Here we are at the mall enjoying some oatmeal and apple sauce.

This week I finally broke out the babycook food pureer and mass produced fruit and vegetable purees. I decided the easiest thing to do would be to puree different types of foods and put them into ice cube trays in 1 oz servings. I figure this will probably be the best way to maintain a good variety of foods without having to puree things every day. Here's the babycook in action making mango puree.

I pureed peaches, mangoes, and blueberries. I made another full tray with carrots since Jack likes them quite a bit. Here's one of my trays with pumpkin, peas, and corn.

Now at meal times, all I have to do is pop out a few cubes that I want to mix together or with yogurt or cereal and warm them up before serving. So easy!