He's Famous!

Here's the brochure for the YMCA where they used Jack's picture. Didn't it turn out so cute?!

My little talker

Here's a (finally!) updated picture of Jack. This was taken at his Mimi's birthday lunch while he was sitting on the birthday girl's lap. I know you'd probably rather see tons of updated pictures, and I promise I will do that soon (it's been a busy summer...what can I say?!) but I thought I'd catch everybody up on all of Jack's new words. He's been saying "Dada" for many months and "Mama" for a few months, but now he's also saying:
Mimi
Pop (for Poppy)
Nanana (for banana)
Hi (which he screams in his loudest voice every time he says it)
Bye
Mag (for Maggie) or maybe it's more like, "Mah"...can't tell...
There's more but that's all I can think of right now!

He's also clapping, pointing, waving hello & goodbye, and giving high-fives. We laugh at him all the time because any statement that is posed as a question, such as, "Jack, do you want some prunes?" he automatically shakes his head no and sometimes you'll get a slight grunt as well, as if to reaffirm that he really means no. Pretty much no matter what the question is he'll answer with a no. Don't worry: I'm working on the yes-thing! :)

In other big Jack news, he is now a poster-child for our local YMCA. Literally.
I'm there working out just about every weekday, which means he is too, and all of the girls that work in the nursery adore Jack and get so excited to see him every time we walk in the door. The head of the child-care department chased me down the other day to ask my permission to use Jack's picture in their new brochure. She showed me the picture and it is adorable. Jack's sitting on the floor with toys all around him just grinning his biggest grin right into the camera. I'll have to figure out a way to scan it in once I get a copy so you all can see it.

More later (with more pictures!)

Horses

We went out of town a few weeks ago for our first overnight away from Jack. My mom and Benton kept Jack and they all had a great time. (We had so much fun having an entire night that was kid-free!) One thing that they did was put Jack in Maggie's old jumper. (You know, those things you hang from the top of the door and kids can jump up and down in them). Apparently Jack just went wild for it, so we thought we should get one for him to have at our house. Well, we found a cowboy-themed one that stands on its own, so you know we had to have it! It is so funny because as he's jumping in it, it makes sounds like a horse neighing and plays western-themed music complete with horse-hoofs pounding away in the background. Jack loves it and we crack up every time we put him in it.
Here's a picture of Grant, Maggie, and Jack from a month or two ago that I just found. So many people (including Grant) have been discussing how much Maggie & Jack are looking alike these days. Now if only we could get Courtney on board...she thinks we're crazy! :)

New Orleans

We went to New Orleans in May, so I know I'm a little late in posting these! We had such a wonderful trip visiting Lindsay & Jim and watching Lindsay graduate from medical school. The ceremony was a quintessential New Orleans ceremony, complete with brass band playing "When the Saints Go Marching In" and people marching out while pumping their umbrellas up and down. Lindsay and Jim had a party at their house after graduation and we got to meet some of their sweet friends whom I know they miss now that they are living in Miami. We also had some amazing food at the party as Jim's mom, Jane, made her famous jambalaya and crawfish etouffee. It was such a fun weekend and I'm sad we won't be able to visit them in New Orleans any longer, but we are looking forward to visiting them in their new hometown of Miami!


Here's Mom and I wearing our matching shirts...aren't we cute?! :)
Snuggling with Uncle Chris while wearing his Nashville guitar shirt
Reading on the bed with Daddy
With Uncle Chris & Aunt Kajsa
Here's Jack with Uncle Jim. Look at all those gorgeous blue eyes!

With Lindsay the day before she officially became Dr. Lindsay!

The cutest cowboy in the world

I know, I know, I know....I've been awful about posting lately! To make it up to you, here are some pictures from our trip to South Dakota for my brother's wedding two weeks ago. The wedding was on my now sister-in-law's cattle ranch. She had told us before-hand that everyone would be dressed in cowboy gear. So of COURSE we knew that meant we had to get cowboy gear for Jack! Can you believe they even make boots and cowboy hats small enough for babies?

The first picture is Jack in his wedding attire with his Aunt Lindsay. The groomsmen all wore khakis and blue button-down shirts so you can see that Jack matched them pretty well.








































I hate that you can't see Maggie's face in this one of Court and I and the kids. Maybe she was just being shy. We dressed Maggie and Jack in matching outfits for the rehearsal dinner and you can see that they are both proudly wearing their cowboy boots.








And here is a hilarious picture of Courtney and Maggie at a kids area in the Minneapolis airport. Who knew they were such great athletes? :)

The huge tree up above is where the wedding actually took place. It was really beautiful.

This last one is my cute hubby and I at the barn dance which happened after dinner at the reception.

Mother's Day

This was my first official mother's day (well, ok, I did celebrate last year because I was pregnant, but it wasn't exactly the same thing) and it was wonderful! Jim made it a mother's weekend instead of just one day and he was so sweet and made me feel really special all weekend long. I got a massage on Saturday and my back finally does not feel like it's on the verge of snapping in two (it's hard carrying a 22 lb baby on your hip all day long!) and then on Sunday we got to do whatever I wanted to do which included walking down to the Hill Center, doing some shopping, and eating lunch. Then that night, we had my mom & Benton and Court and her family over for cupcakes to celebrate with them. (By the way, I did steal this picture from Courtney's blog because I can't seem to find any of the pictures we took on our camera from mother's day!) But anyway, it was a great weekend and I was so sad for it to end. I really love being a mom so much and it was so fun to get to celebrate that with my family. We're off to New Orleans this afternoon for the weekend because Lindsay is graduating from medical school! Hooray for Lindsay!!!! I'll post pictures of our trip when we return...

Play Gym

Courtney watched Jack for me the other day so I could go get my hair cut and I got home just in time to see Jack and Maggie both on his play gym. Maggie was being really funny and making Jack laugh so hard. It's really fun to see them together because they love each other so much. Here's a sweet story of how they love each other:
The other day Court and I had both of the kids in the back seat of my car because we were on our way to my mom's house. She and I had been talking up front and we heard them get really quiet in the back, so of course we listened more closely to hear what was going on. Maggie was leaning towards Jack and he was gazing adoringly at her (as he always does!) and she whispered, "Jack, thank you for being my cousin. I love you so much. I love that you're my cousin." Isn't that ADORABLE? Of course it brought tears to my eyes (and Courtney's, too) because since we were little girls, both of my sisters and I have always talked about how much we hope our kids are all close and enjoy spending time together. It looks like our wish is already coming true!

Yummy...

Jack's been eating solid food very well for awhile now. I've been making all of his baby food and some of it's fun to make (pears, sweet potatoes) and some of it is not so fun to make (prunes, green peas). The only reason the prunes and peas are not so fun to make is because those particular foods have to be strained after you've steamed/baked them because the skins are lumpy and can be hard to digest for a baby of Jack's age. Overall, though, I'm really enjoying it and I love that Jack will grow up liking food that tastes like the actual fruits and vegetables that he's supposed to be eating. I think the night of these pictures Jack was eating peas, sweet potatoes, and cereal. That's just what the evidence is telling me. :)

By the way, sorry I haven't been posting much lately, but I think I've made up for it because I've posted a ton today! (Jack took a great nap so I had some time to update the blog).
I'll try to be better!

Funniest. Picture. Ever.

Here's Jack "drumming" with Uncle Grant at Whole Foods the other day. If you saw Grant do this with Maggie when she was younger then you know what we're talking about. If not, let me explain it to you: basically, Grant moves Jack's arms like he's drumming and makes the appropriate drum noises along with the arm movements. If you're lucky, every once in awhile you'll get a drum-stick twirl. Jack's not really crazy about those twirls, but he does love the actual drumming part. You can tell he's Jim's son! The second picture shows Jack enjoying the drumming, but the first one was so hilarious that I had to post it!

Reading makes you smart!

...Or so I've heard! Jim took this picture because he wanted to document me reading to Jack. I guess he thought Jack wouldn't believe us if we tell him when he's older, so we needed hard proof to back up our story! :)

He really does love it when we read to him, though. I bet we read about 15-20 books a day and I love that he loves it so much. I've always loved reading so I hope somehow that gets passed on to Jack.

I don't think I've discussed Jack's sleeping habits lately, so let me update you: nighttime is WONDERFUL! Up until the past few weeks, he was still waking up for that early morning (4 or 5am) feeding and then he'd fall back asleep until about 7am. Well, I'm happy to report that he's finally dropped that feeding and is now sleeping continuously from 7:30pm to 7-7:30am. Aah.... Now if only I could sleep continuously throughout the night! For some reason I am waking up at least once, sometimes twice, for no reason at all. I think I've trained myself to not sleep through the night! Yikes! Did any of you other moms go through this? How do I make it stop? It's so frustrating that my kid can sleep through the night but I can't!

Granddaddy & Jack

Two of my favorite men...

The wonderful week with Lindsay...

We flew Lindsay up here for her Graduation present from Tulane Medical School and I can't say her present wasn't somewhat selfishly motivated! We LOVED having her up here for a week and spent almost every moment together having fun and talking, talking, talking. Jack adores his aunt and she has this wonderful ability to make him laugh so hard and for so long...it's so cute!

She and her husband, Jim, (who couldn't come because he was studying for his boards...we missed him!) are moving to Miami next month for Lindsay to begin her residency program at the University of Miami. Jim will be transferring to their med school, as well. We are so excited for them because they will both be a part of really amazing programs, but we are simultaneously bummed that they will be so far away. At least we will have a fun place to visit them and we plan on visiting a lot! We are going down to New Orleans for Lindsay's graduation in a few weeks, so check back to see pictures of our visit later!

Dan & Amy's short but sweet visit

The Landers came up for a quick 24-hour visit on Saturday-Sunday and we definitely made the most of our short time together. It was so beautiful here that we spent a lot of time outside: walking to Radnor and walking to Whole Foods. We got a new camera (yay!) but I don't know how to download pictures from it yet and that's where all the outdoor pictures are, but in the meantime, check out these cute pictures of Jack snuggling with his Aunt Amy and Grandpa, and one of him checking Grandpa out. He hasn't quite figured out what he thinks about that hat! :)

Did you hear that?

Cousins

Can you feel the love? ...and the hug?!

Thirty, Flirty & Fun

Ok, I know that was terribly cheesy, but I do love that Jennifer Garner movie "13 Going on 30." Saturday was my 30th birthday and we had SUCH a fun weekend. Our friends, Amy & JD, came into town and brought their sweet new baby, Charlie, for us to ooh & aah over. Kelly & Josh had a big cookout at their house Friday night and then we all went out for a birthday dinner on Saturday night to Radius 10, one of my favorite restaurants in Nashville.
My cake was the best cake ever except that by the time we got a picture taken the sparklers had burned out.
Have you noticed how in big groups, even though we're not in high school anymore) all the girls always end up at one end of the table and all the guys end up at another end? See, we really are all 13 at heart! :)
And finally, here's a picture of my and my sweet hubby, who is also a fantastic party planner.

Jack & His GrandNonna

LaDonna came into town today on her way to East Tennessee and we had such a wonderful visit (albeit too short) with her. There is no doubt that Jack adores his GrandNonna. The entire time she was here he couldn't keep his eyes off of her (making nursing him slightly difficult at one point!) and she could just make him laugh and laugh. It was really cute to watch and fun for all of us to get to spend some time with her today. Here are some cute pictures from her visit.

I Heart Spring

As long as we've been married, Jim and I have always taken walks around our neighborhood (when it's warm enough) when he gets home from work in the afternoons. The weather has been so nice here lately and we've really enjoyed being able to resume our afternoon walks. It's been especially nice to take them with Jack because he loves riding in his stroller and seeing all the birds, dogs, and creeks that we pass and he'll just chatter along to himself the whole way while Jim and I get some quality "grown-up" time. Here's a cute picture from right before our walk the other day.

Jack's First Easter

We had such a fun Easter with Jack except for two things: it was FREEZING cold and Lindsay and Jim couldn't come home and be with us. (Made doubly bad because Easter fell on Lindsay's birthday this year). My mom hand-stitched the embroidery on Jack and Maggie's outfits and they turned out so cute! We had an Easter egg hunt outside but it was so cold so we had to put a hat on Jack to keep him warm. Mimi ordered Jack and Maggie Easter baskets embroidered with their names on them. Maggie's was a bunny and Jack's was a yellow duck. They looked adorable carrying them around. Maggie's was full of eggs and Jack's was obviously empty, but we can't wait for him to join in the hunt next year!

St. Thomas trip

Sorry it's taken me so long to get these pictures posted of our trip to St. Thomas! I know there's a ton of pictures, but I actually had a bunch of other cute ones I wanted to post, so believe it or not, these are just a few of them. We went with my Mom & Benton and Chris & Kajsa. We had so much fun on our trip and Jack was such a great little traveler. He slept for almost the entire flight of each leg between Nashville, Miami, and St. Thomas. We got him in the pool for his first time and he loved it! Well, the very first time he didn't love it too much, but after that it was great. Apparently you're not supposed to put sunscreen on babies under 6 months, and since he was 5 months old on the trip, we decided to purchase him a SPF swimsuit and hat. Poor thing, he looked like he was wearing a wet suit in the pool! But it was actually really cute...

The other pictures are of Jack snuggling with his Mimi (one of his favorite pass-times!), him cracking up as we are about to go down to the beach, and a beautiful rainbow we woke up to one morning that was stretched out over Charlotte Amalie and the ocean in front of our balcony.








You can also see a picture of some of the local inhabitants on St. Thomas. These iguanas were everywhere! Anytime I would get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I would have to turn a small light on because I was afraid that one would somehow get into our room and be sitting there waiting for me to trip over it in the dark. I know...I am delusional!
There's a picture of all of us from our last night on the island at a great restaurant called Oceana. Obviously Jack was ready for bed and not enjoying having his picture taken!


We took the ferry over to St. John one day and everybody but Jack and I went snorkeling while we were at Trunk Bay. The picture of Trunk Bay is the one where you can see people swimming in the water. (I still haven't figured out how to put comments next to the appropriate pictures!) The beach was really beautiful so he and I sat in the shade under a palm tree and he took a nap. The picture of the beach with the small pier jutting out into the ocean was the view we saw every day from our balcony.

We are finally beginning to adjust to life back in the real world. It snowed here this weekend while Jim's sister was here, but unfortunately we forgot to take any pictures so you'll have to just enjoy these sunny beach photos for the time being.