Happy Birthday Jack!

I know it is a little late and I am sure everyone has stopped checking because we stopped posting. But here is Jack's latest in a nutshell.

On February 5th Jack took his first steps and hasn't slowed down since. He is walking everywhere and seems to walk faster when he is going somewhere he shouldn't. Right now he is going through some sort of independent rebellious phase. He has quite the temper when he does not get what he wants, I would love to blame this on Mark but unfortunaley I think he inherits it from me.

Eating is become a challenge for us, Jack wants to feed himself which is great except he wants to feed himself everything including yogurt, applesauce and all things messy. He has also begun to dump what ever food he doesn't want on the floor or in his chair. I think Kate enjoys this more then me.

Jack has had 7 ear infections in the past three months, so Wednesday he will be having ear tubes put in and his adenoids removed. The procedure is minor and he should be up and running Wednesday evening. This should be a huge relief for him, so we are looking forward to it.

Here are some of the latest pictures we had taken for his 1st birthday. Enjoy!

Jack's First Steps

Friday when we picked Jack up from daycare, we were told he had attempted a few short journeys from station to station on foot. The daycare ladies said he had done pretty well, and that they suspected it would be just a short while until he started walking.

Well Friday night when we finally got home, we went over to Jon's house, since he has carpet and our house in entirely wood/tile, and after a few words of encouragement.... Presto!!!! Jack Walked. He willingly went back and forth between the two of us six or seven times. There were a few times that he just took one or two steps and then lunged, but for the most part, he was walking. We practiced a few more times and this morning finally got him to do it on cue. Here is the video of Jack and his new skillz.....

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