New Tricks of the Trade

10 Months and MOVING.

Now that Jack is standing, he tends to want to attack the chalkboard or erase the chalkboard or kiss the chalkboard - more than he wants to hang out next to the chalkboard for a picture.  

Luckily, we have a new method of tracking that kid...a custom creation by Matt - (yes, he MADE it) our new gigantic ruler!  

On this eve (of sorts) to Jack's first Halloween, I must report out on the tricks of this past month....before we get to the treats of his first Halloween.

I know you all have kids* **

(*well, not ALL of you)

(**kids can mean dogs, too)

...but do you guys realize how fast they change, grow, move -- all right before your eyes!  I used to loathe would people would tell me to "enjoy it - it flies by" -- as if I needed to do something differently to ensure that I was soaking it all up.  But, you know what?  Those people are RIGHT.  I want it all to slow down...and I want JACK to slow down.

I want him to want to snuggle with me.  I secretly let him fall asleep in my arms sometimes just because I know he will....and he'll snuggle into me like he really likes me.  Yeah, I know you experts out there are shaking your head at me, but he's mine.  And, he sleeps through the night just fine...and if I want him to sleep in my arms for 10 minutes before he goes in his crib, then he will.

So, there.

However,

I don't remember approving him to be so independent!

I don't remember saying that it's ok for him to leap fearlessly of the edge of everything.
I don't remember agreeing to him pushing me away as he pulls up on anything and everything....and sometimes pulling things on top of himself!
I don't remember approving him being able to steal food off of my plate.  (but are we surprised really?)

I don't remember being ok that he could take off his clothes and toss them out of the crib.

Are you kidding me?!

He throws everything from food to his pacifiers to his socks.  His room is like a war zone in the mornings...riddled with baby paraphernalia scattered about.

It wasn't 2 months ago, I confessed that Jack was being carried around too much ...and that he may never learn to sit up, crawl, feed himself or be any sort of independent.

To say he proved me wrong is an understatement.

He crawls on all fours like a "normal" baby.  He army crawls like he's back in 'nam.

He even ropes me into pushing him on his BMW:

He cruises between the toys:

And, because of all of these new tricks...he feels like he needs to practice in the middle of the night!  With all that moving - you'd think he'd be tired!  Nope.  He needs to practice sitting up...and crawling from end of the crib to the next....and then pulling up on the side of the crib...  I mean, look how proud he is!

Hanging out in his crib at 2 am...pondering life.

And, when he's not motoring around, he's "playing ball":

We did manage to sneak in a whole bunch of fall fun with the fam:

  

Brunching

Hanging out on the front porch

Fall Festival Fun and supporting his favorite baseball team:

 

Playing with all of his toys:

Jack eyeballing Lucky's toy.

Jack DID finally find someone that he didn't care for though....the eye doctor.  That damn blocked tear duct...

Even with all of this moving around and new trickery....we did have some illnesses.  Matt got the flu, Jack had a fever -- and I'm pretty sure Lucky even participated by puking in the front room a few times.  You can imagine that this required me to stay home from work to take care of my menfolk.  Actually, it all happened at the most inconvenient time with work, which is about par for the course.  Jack decided that he'd only sleep if I held him and walked in a circle.  I couldn't even sit down in the rocking chair and you can FORGET about putting him in that crib when he doesn't feel good.  When I tell you that I walked in a circle holding him so that he'd sleep - I mean that I did this ALL NIGHT.

Even with all of that walking, Jack still ended up being the easiest patient.  I'm sure that comes as a big surprise.

It's been one helluva month, let's just get some sleep people.

Till next time....we'll be traveling to Pensacola for family/friend fun time, hunkering down for Hurricane Sandy, Halloweening (Jack is going to be a LumberJack!) and hopping on another plane to Springfield for Jack's first Turkey!