a new toy...finally

i'm not the infant i was a week ago.
HELLO!!
i was getting pretty sick of losing my toys. i knew they were just sitting next to me somewhere...but i could never see them. i would play with them for a minute, and then they would disappear.
it took a good few weeks for the parental units to catch-on that i needed something more grown-up.
so they took me to a thrift store, traded in some of my old clothes, and got me this.
awesomeness.

mail

i think my parents are jealous.
despite not being able to write, having no real friends, and never sending mail of my own...i get mail.
awesome mail.
this time i got some more stretchy pjs.
grandma knows me well.
and i love monkeys.

i'm taking over

since i am the main subject on this family blog anyhow, i have decided that i will take over the story telling.

hope you enjoy it.

love jack

Moving

Well...Danny went to Atlanta, talked to lots of people, signed a lease, and came back home.

We will be moving the 30th of April. A little sooner than we wanted, but Danny worked some sweet magic on our landlord and we negotiated out of the last three months of rent--IF we moved out by the end of April.
So there you have it. Time to start packing again.

Some reasons I am excited to leave Vero and move to Marietta:
1. Hot showers
2. Laundry in my apartment
3. no more old drivers
4. no busy road by Jack's window
5. new neighbors (we have had a lot of new people move into our nice quiet building. they are less than quiet and are quite inappropriate. I will be glad to say goodbye.)
One of our new neighbors cars:


and of course I couldn't post without new Jack pictures...his new thing is rolling to one side.



Jack loves his mirror friend

Random Updates on Jack

no, for real...this is a very random post.

Probably the silliest face I have captured on camera yet from Jack.


Talking to his bear. He loves his bear. Or rather, he loves eating his bear. But they talk on occasion.


Not quite big enough for it yet. Yes, those are rolled towels to keep him centered.


How many toys can you fit into a swing?


Sad Jack...

...perhaps both fists would help...

...I guess not.


Jack and his ball.
I dont remember who gave us this ball...but I love and hate you. Jack loves this thing, can grab it very well, and can make it to his mouth for proper slobbering. However, he isn't very coordinated yet and usually ends up going in for the kill WAY too fast smacking some part of his face with this hard plastic ball. The ball bites back. Then he lets go and cries--because his face hurts and he cant find his ball.



(smack)



(must. eat. ball.)


Jack also likes the camera.
Hello World.

Parenting Class

Danny and I have been going to a parenting class twice a month. We LOVE it. Last week they spoke about responsibility and work. One idea really stuck with me and I wanted to share it. It is about teaching your kids the lesson (and blessings) of giving and the lesson of grateful receiving.

They have twin daughters. When their girls were 5, they made their little Christmas Lists filled with inexpensive trivial things. Their mom didn't see any reason not to get everything on the list because it wasn't much to begin with. She completed her shopping. Christmas morning the girls were complaining about not getting some of the things on their lists--she had forgotten that she put some of the gifts in her closet! She went and got them and the girls were happy. Afterward she thought about the situation and decided that this is not how she wanted Christmas to feel. It was supposed to be about giving. Gifts were things meant to be chosen and given by the giver, not selected off of a list provided by the receiver.
The next year, Christmas lists were banned (never to be let into the house again). She had all of her kids wrap the gifts they had bought to give in the same wrapping paper (so each child had a pile of gifts with their own colored paper). Then on Christmas morning, everyone collected the gifts they had purchased/made from under the tree and each person had the opportunity to give their gifts--not having them dolled out by papa. In turn, each person was able to really receive the gifts as well--physically--from that person.
I LOVED this idea and we have decided to do this with our kids.

Waking-up

Lets be honest, Jack isn't happy all day. But 99% of the time, he wakes up VERY happy. Which is good. It makes me want to start a new day when I know it will start with lots of smiles for me.
(In order of taking)





So here he is, in all his morning glory.
Just ignore my voice.

Sitting: BUMBO style

No, Jack can't sit yet.

BUT, he can sit in the Bumbo. Only problem is whenever he sits he spits-up.
So we only do it on occasion.


And, NO, we don't let Naughty on the counters. But Jack REALLY likes her. So we decided to let her up for the picture to make him kinda happy.
Cute though, huh?!

Surprise Mail

We received a box in the mail a week or so ago from Vermont that had an "air-hole" for breathing. Hmm...

When we opened it, inside was an incredibly cuddly brown bear.





Jack loved it. He looked at it for a minute, then broke out into a HUGE smile.
Then he ate the bears face off.

This is a video of him continuing to eat the bear the next day.