October

We had a very busy October which started with a visit from Aunt Susie, Bob and Grammy and wrapped up with a visit from Aunt Grace and Uncle peter. In between all of the visitors Jack perfected crawling, began pulling up and cruising around, grew not 1 but 2 teeth, celebrated his 1st Halloween and stayed in Austin with Grandpa Jim and Noni for an entire 5 days. No Mark and I did not do anything fun during those 5 days we worked went to bed at 8:00 and talked about how much we missed our little guy. Here are some pictures my mom took during Jacks stay in Austin, I am not sure how Jack ened up in the dog crate, she claims he crawled in there...

Turtle Mania!!

We finally got Jack in a good enough mood to put his costume on him and have him still want to crawl around. Here is a video of what will be out and about stalking the streets of Houston Halloween night!!! Keep your lettuce and grubs tucked away because Jack and his turtle powers will be on the loose.

In a completely unrelated note, Jack has outgrown his car seat. Not to worry though, Merissa has one in her car, and I only have to drive him home from daycare so I will just take back streets and will drive extra safely.

He is such a big boy now!!!

Haloween Sneak Peek!

I have been concerned about picking out Jack's First Holoween costume, afraid I wouldnt find good one.. Last weekend while out shopping the worrying ceased. I found the perfect costume for him, its a TURTLE! He even moves like one!

check out the tail...

Time to put the coffee table away for a while.

September

We had a fairly uneventful September, lots of cute pictures. Like we said in the last post Jack began ooching, which he has now perfected. We are having to put everything out of his reach. This morning I walked into a room to find him with one end of the computer cord in his mouth and the other in the wall. Oops...

I posted a picture of Jack holding his bottle. Funny story one night we put Jack down for bed, we propped his bottle and layed him down. While Mark and I were getting ready for bed we turned on Jack TV (the security camera in his room which is connected to our TV) . To our surprise jack was laying in bed holding his own bottle, we thought at first it was just luck, then he set the bottle next to his and re positioned it in his mouth! Before then he had never shown any interest in trying to hold his own bottle and even now if we are around he makes us feed him.

Garner State Park

Last weekend we took Jack on his first camping trip. We me Grandpa Jim, Ileana and Gramme at Garner State Park. Mark used to go to this park every year as a kid and hasnt been in 10+ years. It was about a 5.5 hour drive just west of San Antonio. It was so much fun that we are already planning our next trip the second weekend in November. The weather was perfect, cool at night and hot enough during the day that we could take advantage of the Frio River that flowed through the center of the park. We went Hiking, Biking, and swimming. Jack was able to try out his bike trailer and hiking was no problem. The sleeping was kind of tricky, Jack stayed in the RV with Dad and Ileana, mark and I enjoyed the fresh air in our tent. Like I said earlier we cant wait to do it again!

Mom and Jack hiding in the tent from Mosquito's

our first night exploring the park while waiting for Grandpa Jim and The RV...

Jack getting ready for wiffle ball!

After swimming

River rock were tasty

Hiking to crystal cave

The hike was pretty tiring for all of us.

See the hand in the trailer?

He loves to bike

Six Months Already

Last week Jack turned six months old. He is growing up so quickly. As we referenced in the previous post, Jack got his first fever not too long ago. It was so sad. Our feisty little guy was reduced to whimpers. But as all kids do, he recovered. And now he is ready start to crawling.

Last week we ordered some foam flooring for his play room, and it was just in the nick of time. This past weekend he started ooching around. It isn't quite a crawl yet, but he is able to move toward objects that are out of his reach. He can get up onto all fours, but he can't quite figure out in what order to move his arms and legs. It just a matter of time though. Coincidentally if anyone would like to join me for a baby proofing party this weekend, we still have spots available. Food and drink will be provided, and you can RSVP between now, and 24 hours prior to the event. :)

Jack's Grandmother (Noni) came to visit last weekend, and he really seemed to enjoy her company. We see my mother fairly frequently, but Merissa's Mom only gets to see him once or twice a month. She really does a great job of coming down and making visits a priority.

We also saw Myla, Colin, and Melissa this weekend. They were in from New Orleans for the weekend, and stopped by for a bit Saturday night. Myla (17 months) has really grown up a ton. She knows how to say dog, and make animal sounds. She was also quick to warm up to Pele, our great dane. We love seeing them, and can't wait to make our next trip to NO.

Also on Saturday, our CD containing the latest pictures from Jack's photo shoot with Johanna came in. She is SOOOO freaking talented it isn't even funny. She obviously did a great job with him. We consider ourselves so lucky to know her and would reccomend her to anyone who wanted Family, Baby/Children, or Maternity pictures. Just let Merissa or me know and we will be glad to help you get in touch with her. Her website is www.johannamcshan.com and once again we can't say enough about her and how great she is.

Here are some pictures Johanna took. We hope all is well for everyone, see you soon.

J,M&M

P.S. Jack's latest Stats from his Six month well check:

Weight 17lb. 11oz. 50th Percentile

Head Cir. 17in. 25th Percentile

Height 27 3/4in. 90th Percentile Yes!!!!!

He is still tall?!? Not sure where he gets that but I will take it! :)

Sitting, School, and Sick!

Big dog, little baby...

Bath picture never get old.

Jack and Blake on the boat.

Poor sick guy!

We can sit! For pretty long periods now... If he tries to reach for something or moves to quickly he topples over, but is getting more stable everyday. He loves to sit up in the tub and play with his bath toy, he tries to catch them so he can eat them. These days everything goes in his mouth, including people. He tries to grab our faces and pull the towards his open mouth.

Jack's been going to daycare for two weeks now. Mark and I are really happy with the place we ended up putting him in. It is only a 2 miles from my office so I can sneak over there and visit him during lunch. The teachers are awesome, every time we go to visit or pick him up they are playing with him or holding him. Everything seems to be perfect except for the 2 twenty minute naps he takes, they are working on getting him to sleep longer. I guess he doesn't want to miss out on the fun.

School leads into the sick part of the title. Today I got back from a two day trip to New Orleans to find a sick baby. He has a slight fever and is super cuddly. Poor little guy couldn't even cry he just whimpers. We were 4 days from making it to 6 months with no infections...

So Jack gets to stay home tomorrow and Mark and I are going to fight over who gets to stay home with him...

Austin...

Jack and I took a trip to Austin this past weekend while Mark stayed home to work. I have afew kind of long but pretty cute stories about my dad...

So, I am constantly trying to figure out ways to make it easier to pack for austin (If you havent heard babies come with lots of stuff!). We left a portable crib and extra tub along with some burp cloths and bibs, a few less things to worry about. This time I decide to have my mom and dad pick up some baby food for Jack so I wouldnt have to worry about that either. I e-mailed them Jacks requests organic oatmeal with DHA, 1st organic fruits and veggie, make sure you get bananas. Friday afternoon I got a call from my dad, he had already been to 2 grocery stores looking for organic oatmeal. There was not any organic oatmeal let alone oatmeal with DHA. He thought I was playing a cruel trick on him. He had found organic bananas and would pick up some veggies at the next grocery store what ever looked fresh. It suddenly occurred to me that my father was talking about big people food and had not ventured into the baby food isle. He was able to get everyhting requested at the next store once he went to the right place.

Friday we stayed with my dad he had some alone time with Jack while my mom and I had a girls night. Saturday after Jack and I went to take pictures (they are going to be awesome!) we hung out at my dads and met my mom for dinner. Before we went to dinner I had my dad give Jack a bath while I got ready. I went in to check on them about 15 minutes into the bath. I found dad on the floor next to the tub with Jack sitting in the baby tub filled as full as it can go splashing away. Dad didnt understand why we would put him in a puddle to bathe...

Saturday we slept at my moms house, we went swimming on sunday and drove home.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend!