Video

I have slacked off a bit on picture taking. I have some on the camera which need to be loaded onto the computer, but finding the time has been the challenge. Instead, here are two videos for your Jack viewing entertainment.

The first one is Jack showing off his eating skills. He continues to get better day after day at eating 'grownup' food. Slowly, we are phasing out the jars of baby food. This is a video Erin recorded of him working on eating a peach. He has learned that instead of gagging and puking all over the place, he can just spit things out. I am pretty happy the puking phase is over.

The second video is a random 3 minute clip of Jack on a general day. He is doing one of his favorite activities, playing with Lola. He loves it when she chases after him. We had just gotten back from a trip to Krogers, hence the balloon attached to him. And, he is still drooling like mad (any day now he will get more teeth...we have been stuck at six for a long time!) so we had taken off his soaking wet shirt to let him air out a bit. So, that explains the half naked, balloon toting, giggling child you will see below.

Pool Party

My cousin Amy and her family invited us to their house for a pool party. My parents, my uncle Joe, Jess and Sam, the Bensman family and Erin, Jack and I all had a wonderful afternoon of swimming, eating, and watching the kids play. Jack had a blast playing with all of their various toys and especially loved their child sized basketball hoop. He and Mia are still a bit hesitant of each other, but I know that in a few years they will be best buds.

Here are some pictures from our afternoon. Thanks again Amy and Brian for having us all over!

From Bensman Party

SLAM DUNK!

From Bensman Party

From Bensman Party

From Bensman Party

Jack and Mia check each other out...

From Bensman Party

Olivia flashes a big smile.

From Bensman Party

Mia gets brave and tries a bite of cupcake.

From Bensman Party

Olivia had a blast squirting us all with her purple squirt gun.

From Bensman Party

After a fun filled day by the pool with his second cousins, Jack passed out on the way home.

From Bensman Party

Curls

Erin beat me to the post. I meant to put these pictures up before Jack had his hair cut. These show off how crazy his hair was getting...hence the cut. He was really growing some wild curls. I was a bit torn about getting his hair cut because the curls were pretty cute, but the bangs in his eyes were getting way too long. So, here are some pictures showing off his wild mane. The last two are just bonus pictures of him walking that I added because I think they are sweet.

From curls

From curls

From curls

From curls

From curls

From curls

From curls

From curls

Haircut Time

Our little man was looking a little wild with his crazy hair sticking out everywhere, so we decided to cut his hair. We took him to Sport Clips, where Daddy gets his haircut, and the girls there took very good care of him. They gave him a sucker, and when he threw it on the ground, they kindly gave him another. Good thing Mommy was there to keep him still. We think he looks great with his freshly shorn locks.

From 1st Haircut

From 1st Haircut

From 1st Haircut

From 1st Haircut

From 1st Haircut

Day at the Park

Erin and I have been having a good time discovering lots of the 'kid entertainment' hidden throughout Cincinnati. Recently, we came across a Cincinnati park called Winton Woods which is packed full of toddler activities. We spent an afternoon there and didn't even get to everything! One section of the park is a 'demonstration farm' where kids can check out farmy type stuff including horses, pigs, goats, growing corn, roaming chickens and gardens. They also have an indoor play area which is mostly geared towards older kids, but had a BALL pit which Jack fell in love with.

The pictures below show him in heaven playing with all of the balls, feeding a goat (he quickly caught on and would pick pieces of grass and clover and let the goat gobble them up...I think his Lola feeding experience was good practice), riding his first John Deere, and checking out some corn stalks.

The second half of the park was a 'wet playground' which was perfect for him. It consisted of water shooting out of all sorts of various places and he had a wonderful time toddling around and splashing in all of the water jets.

The best part about the whole day was that it was all FREE...go Cincinnati...go Parks! We are already looking forward to hitting the next one (according to google there are 128 parks in Cincinnati...we have some work to do!).

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

From winton woods

Mr. Independent

Jack is becoming more and more determined to do things himself. He thinks he is a pro at walking and definitely doesn't want to hold anyone's hand for support. If we are holding him and he is interested in something else he now says 'dow' (as in down) over and over and over again until you indeed let him down. He also says the word 'see' at least 100 times a day as he points to whichever object it is that he wants to get his hands on, and more recently seems to have added the word 'do' as in 'I want to do that myself'. Here are some pictures of a recent feeding where he was determined to feed himself. He grabbed the container of yogurt and did make some good attempts at first of using his spoon to actually eat, but eventually it just turned into yogurt finger paint. He got pretty messy...here are some pictures.

From feed me

From feed me

From feed me

From feed me

From feed me

Final Swimming Lesson

So, today was the big day; Jack's final swimming lesson. On the last day, the kids have to wear regular clothes to the pool. They do this to simulate a 'real world' fall into the water to see how they react, and how far the training has come. Around the 2:20 mark she 'flips' him in backwards from the edge of the pool, and he does great, although he is one angry little boy during the lesson (more than usual today).

There's been some concern that Jack is maybe traumatized by this whole experience. That's just not the case. He's usually in a very good mood right up until we enter the pool area, and the crying stops as soon as the lesson ends. To prove this, we recorded some post-swim footage (begins around the 8:30 mark) to show that he's just fine.

We've also taken him into our pool at home several times, and he loves it. Seems he just doesn't like his teacher very much.

Overalls

I couldn't help snap a bunch of pictures the other day when Jack was wearing these super cute set of overalls he was handed down from his second cousin Liam. He looked pretty darn handsome and was busy playing with a balloon, walking around and talking away. No real story other than that....

From overalls

From overalls

From overalls

From overalls

From overalls

From overalls

From overalls

From overalls

Ear Tubes

So, after a total of five ear infections since the beginning of 2009 we decided it was time for Jack to see an ENT (ear nose and throat doctor). He immediately said, "Yup, he needs tubes." No questions asked. So Jack had his first surgery and got a little tube placed in each eardrum. They are supposed to help the ears drain and prevent recurrent ear infections.

We had to be at the surgery center at 6:30AM and Jack wasn't allowed to eat anything eight hours before the surgery. He surprised us and was really pretty happy in the hour we were there before his surgery began. We played around with blown up medical gloves, surgical tape, and really whatever we could find to entertain him. (including shoulder rides up and down the hall from daddy...as seen below). I got to gown-up and put on the hat and booties to go back into the operating room while Jack was put to sleep. They let me hold him while they gave him the gas mask. It was kind of a weird feeling watching him drift off into a little lifeless body.

The actual procedure only took about 15 minutes and went perfectly. It was the hours after which were hard. He woke up screaming and had a bit of a rough time while the anesthesia wore off. It upset his GI system and he puked and had diarrhea most of the day. 24 hours later though he was back to perfectly normal. We hope that the tubes are effective and we don't have another ear infection for a long time (if EVER!). We all lived through Jack's first surgery. Here are a few pictures pre-op. I wish I had gotten one of him screaming afterwards, but we were too busy giving love...

From tubes

From tubes

From tubes

From tubes