Gobble, Gobble...Eat Till You Wobble....Literally.

This little fella is O.V.E.R. being held.  He wants down.  He wants to be independent, and, well - he is.  He doesn't want to be bothered when he's in the middle of something (what could he be in the middle of??) He wants to walk everywhere, but he can't walk without holding on to something, which means you're going with him.  He's a bit of a wobbler, but he's in good company. 

Did I mention that he doesn't want to be held?

Did I mention that he has a TURKEY HAT?!

It was a big month though....even without Thanksgiving!  Jack experienced his first Halloween - as a LumberJACK.  Yes, we are those cheeseball parents that have come up with 1000 different ideas that incorporate the name JACK into the costume.  It's going to be a fun few years until Jack figures this out and decides he wants to be a Ninja Turtle or Teletubby or whatever.  Until then, he's what we want him to be for one day a year:

  

He also FINALLY got a few teeth.  I know, it's hard to believe....since I've been complaining about "teething" since he was 6 months old.  LOL!  And, he just now got his first 3 teeth -- and I can actually see them.  Unlike when the doctor - at his 6 month appt - said "oh yeah - there they are...coming right in!" 

Um, doc?  Where??

Anywho, I did A LOT of research - and it turns out that there's never been a case where a child was born sans teeth.  The doctor kept telling me that they were in there, but I didn't believe him.  I mean what does he know?  He's so young he might as well be 12.  So, yes, people - I did the research, because LORD knows that if it CAN happen...it will happen to my child.  

Am I right?

Turns out?  Our lovely, super sweet and smart pediatrician was right.  They ARE there.

In other news, we flew somewhere with Jack.  Surprised?  I think not. 

We visited the Pensacola fam for Claire's wedding and Jaime's baby shower.  Of course, Jack visited with all the Grandparents (Granddaddy B, GGMama and Meme shown here)

 

And Jaime's "baby's" too:

In making our Christmas cards, we found LOVE in Philadelphia:

(did you puke a little?)

In the "not wanting to be held" department, Jack is still in charge.  He crawls and cruises and plunders.  Have we discussed how nosey he is??  He gets it honest from me....and he ALWAYS needs to know what is going on, what everyone is doing, where they are going and what new stuff has arrived in the toy basket.

Who's happier than this guy, playing all by himself with his wooden spoon?

With all that plundering...he did find his head:

...which is good news.  We are working on the tummy, but every question we ask him ends the same way -- with his hands on his head.  Go figure.

Thanksgiving Day was a joy with little Jack.  There's nothing more that we are thankful than this little guy right here....complete with SMILE and BOWTIE, his signature accessories.

You guys know how much Jack likes to eat.  This was his reaction when we told him what Thanksgiving Day entailed:

    

After giving THANKS and feasting on some great food, Jack hung with the family: 

Aunt DJ and the sales papers.

Granddaddy M and Sesame Street

Meme and playtime in the living room

While in Springfield, we hung out with the Lincolns.  Did you know that Abe Lincoln didn't discipline his children and was known for having "wild" boys?  Do you think this is an omen?

Us and The Lincolns.  We go way back.

A little history lesson from Aunt DJ.

Sadly, I can tell you that the word "no" is already being introduced to Jack.  He thinks it's hysterical.  As such, we try to distract....but he's learning.  And his newest face is one of mortification when we say "no" to something.  He has me wrapped around his finger doesn't he?  This is bad.  Very, very bad.

 Next month, we'll cruise through December...and his first birthday party!!  Can you even believe he made it a year with US as parents?  I didn't even smother him today trying to smooch his face off!!

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!

The Baby We Know vs The Baby We Don't Know

When we found out I was pregnant, we were surprised (already!?)....panicked...excited....afraid and full of questions.

How would we ever be capable of taking care of this little being?  

How would we know when to feed "it"?

What if "it" gets hurt?

How would we know why "it" was crying?

How would we know when to feed "it" solid food?

How would we keep "it" clean without drowning "it"?

What if he/she doesn't like us?

What if he/she gets sick?

What if he's not a Yankee fan?

...or, worse...what if he's not a Seminole fan?!

What if Lucky rolls on top of him/her?

What if we forget him at home one day?

What if we aren't good parents?

After Jack arrived, it took us only a few days to figure out that we had help.  We have parents, friends and siblings who have children.  We have a host of doctors and nurses that helped us.  And?  We have The Google.  There is NOTHING that you can not google and find information about.

But this post isn't about the google...it's about the progression of "comfort" -- and knowing that no matter what happens with this child, we will figure it out and he will thrive.  No matter what.

See?  

Not only have we NOT killed him....he smiles constantly.  Usually, I'm suspect of people that smile this much, but he's too damn cute to think anything other than he's just the happiest baby on the block!

When he's not smiling - he's giggling:

On "figuring it out" -- We've learned that we can formulate our own opinions about things like "acceptable care" and what is ok for us and what is NOT ok for us.  After he continued to be bitten at daycare, we let them know that there would be changes made or we would take Jack elsewhere.  There are too many options in childcare to continue to let this type of thing happen to your child.

And to be clear - if/when Jack starts to bite other children, we will work with his daycare and pediatrician to figure out why and address that.  There's no sense in simply NOT addressing it - which was the case for this particular family at daycare.

We've also figured out that he's going to fall down.  He's going to bump his head.  He's going to get stepped on by Lucky.  He's going to get tackled by his buddy, Liam.  As it turns out, he's also going to live.

How funny are these two?!

Luckily, Jack got to hang with Liam a few different times this month.  They hung out together at the aquarium:

Jack and Liam admiring the snake!

Jack is smiling at Liam standing next to him.  He thinks Liam is one cool  little dude!

They spent the afternoon together playing....and working on a lifelong friendship:

Best Friends!

Liam is using the "stare down" method on Jack while Jack's going with nothing but brute force.

They had dinner together and compared notes on their favorite foods and episodes of Sesame Street.

Just two men out having some dinner with family and friends.

There's comfort in knowing that he will be able to make friends.

There's comfort in knowing that he will walk someday soon, since I've assumed that I would carry him around for his entire life.  I had previously decided that I was ok with that.  Would it be weird to carry him to his college classes?  I plan to embarrass him WAY more than that....so, we'll see how it goes.

He's definitely mobile these days....he's recently turned into the best army crawler around.  It's just another thing we worried about unnecessarily - "what if he doesn't crawl" - Well, first off:  Who cares.  Not all babies crawl.  And, he's not great at it yet, but he moves to get what he wants....and he does it with his belly dragging.  

There's comfort in knowing that he will have a job one day. He's destined to be a politician or a salesman. With that smile, optimism and overall demeanor - how could he be anything else?

  

He also may be a chef with his immense love of food. He'll even eat it while sitting on the kitchen floor with his "drum set" (aka, the pan and the wooden spoon)

Although, if he's going to be a chef, he'll need some teeth to taste that food -- still no teeth yet for this fella, but damn - he sure does "teethe" a lot!!

He's told he likes FSU, but honestly?  How can you deny that he LOVES those Noles after pics like these??  He went to his first FSU game and loved it....all the way until the 4th quarter at 11:30 pm.

There's comfort in knowing that a) he's a Seminole and b) he will be juuuuuuust fine in college.

Party Animal.

Pre-Game with Meme!

My favorite person in my favorite place.

Partying all the way until the 4th - and then some!

We've even figured out that sand won't kill him....

Jack's Aunt Teen showed him how to enjoy the Jersey Shore

We've also figured out how to keep a hat on him....without pissing him off.

Crazy Hat Day at Daycare!

In fact, that's what I mean.  We know this baby...and there was A LOT of doubt (on our parts - and maybe yours) that we'd figure it out.  Don't get me wrong - there is MUCH to learn and experience, but I know now - We've got this.

We know how to calm him down.  We know how to get him to go to sleep.  We know which cry is "there's a doody in my pants" vs the grunt, grunt, grunt telling us "I'm hungry."  We know that he's going to get hurt - and hurt other children.  We know that if he wants water out of your water bottle or cup - he will take it.  We know that he lay in his crib and "play" until we come and get him in the morning.

Luckily, he knows us too.  He's figured out that he's #1, that he's in charge...and his every happiness is our priority.

This is good news/bad news.

He has no idea how I used to feel about being in control.  He has no idea that I'd like to run his life, schedule, needs, etc with a spreadsheet....like I did his diaper and nursing needs.  

There are no more spreadsheets, just two parents who are comfortable in their own shoes.

 Until next month,

Keep Calm and Smile On.