Bath, Blankie and ATV Love

Yeah! Bath time! Jack's new fascination is with how water comes out of faucets. Whether it's in the sink or the tub... he's drawn to it like a magnet. Nice buddha belly...

If you put a blanket down on the floor, no matter if it's Jack's hee hee or the dog's towel, he will invariably lay down on it and look really cute. Tonight I finally captured it with the camera:

Jack is also improving in the ATV area. He can now swing his leg over and get on the machine himself. Also note Baby Man's cute outfit. I got it yesterday when I was at Reebok (they're a client).

Unfortunately the little man is constipated again! He's on a steady diet of prunes and prune juice. Let's hope this clears up quickly.

Before and After: Our Bathroom on NECN

http://www.necn.com/New-England-Dream-House/Before-and-After-Budget-Bathroom/1209249140.html

"Push the button"

For weeks we've been assisting Jack in riding his new ATV. Today we turned a corner: Baby Man can now push the red button himself! He still seems a little perplexed by the whole cause and effect of the button pushing, but it does help our back pain! Now if he could just learn to steer we'd be golden...

Festival!

Today I literally dragged Stephen and Jack to a sheepshearing festival in Waltham (Gore Place). We got there around noon time and the place was already packed (you should have seen the line for the sausage!). So we tooled around with Jack in the stroller.
First we visited some cows...
Please note the kid chilling with the big cow in the back of the photo...
Jack wasn't all that impressed with the cows, so we moved on to the sheepies... who didn't look so pleased with the whole idea of getting their haircuts in public... or at all.

One guy was doing it with electric shears... the other by hand. Those must be some sharp blades!
From the sheep we moved on to chickens... (why did we pay $20 to go here, we could just go to Grandma Sheep's!)
They were little chickens, very cute. Not much to watch though so we only chilled with the chickens for a moment. And then look what was right behind us: "The Book Nook." Not sure what it is, or what it has to do with books, but I thought Grammy might find it interesting...
Then we got to the alpacas... the civil war solider-fellas... and then the dancing!


Jack walked right up to the bluegrass band and stood there enjoying the music! Then he literally walked up to every kid in the crowd and stared at them. Jack was moving and groovin' to the music... he really enjoys a good tune! Then he tried Stephen's apple crisp, my fried dough and then shared our soft-serve twist. All in all it was a grand afternoon.
Below is Jack... after he got "stuck" in one position, in front of the crowd, for a bit... he tends to do that a lot when he's wearing his cool new size 4 extra wide sneakers.

Penguin News of the Day

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/living/chi-penguin-wetsuit,1,6047133.story

Mr. Nosey

Here's Jack being the busy-body of the neighborhood. He likes to peer between the blinds to see what Caitlin and Lauren are doing next door.

In the interest of TMI, I'll tell you what happened to Jack today at school. To start, he hasn't gone #2 in the last few days. Well today was the day for it to try and come out. This morning Jack was quite grouchy and inconsolable. For a while he stood over in the corner and grunted a bit. I checked his diaper, but there was nothing there. When we brought him to school I warned them that he was not feeling so hot (other than the hacking cough). About two hours after we dropped him off, it was time for the movement to begin. He apparently went over to one of the teachers and was tugging on their leg and grabbing his po-po with his other hand. He was apparently able to get a large portion of it out... but it couldn't go all the way because it ran out of room (downfalls of a diaper). So Linda had to help him get it out... but not before putting on a glove! Then he took another hard poop around 5, so hopefully it's all out of his system now. He certainly isn't in as rotten of a mood. I guess I'd be cranky too, can't blame the little guy!

Jack, as you may already know, is a very inquisitive young man. If he is strapped into his car seat, he will crane his neck to look around at trees, people and especially large pieces of machinery (like the bulldozers at the Y). This morning, his ball rolled under his play pen and he tried desperately to reach it. First he peered underneath, then he tried to actually move the play pen. He then looked under again and tried to reach it. Eventually I helped him out...

Is there any nutritional benefit to orange soda?
Just kidding. He didn't drink the soda - his father did - Jack just played with the bottle.

And this is a picture of Jack this morning as we were getting ready to head to school and work. We always work in some time to play with his favorite ride-on dump truck. Notice that his hair is sticking up despite my best attempts at taming that wild and crazy mane.

Stuck!

Chillin' in the crib... he obviously doesn't mind that his leg is wedged in between the rails. Jack was an extremely good napper today. He must be growing again, great... that means I'm going to have to buy even more new clothes.
We took Baby Man out to dinner tonight. He was really well behaved except the screeching at odd points during the evening. I swear he's trying to impersonate a baby raptor... and he's doing a very good job.
His walking has progressed even more (as it should). I betcha he'll be running through the house with the next two weeks. His balance has improved dramatically. He can stop and turn... almost fall over... and then steady himself again.
Today Stephen ripped out the guest bathroom (also known as Jack's bathroom). Since we're not replacing the tile in the shower, we're hoping this is a job that can be done in a few days. We already bought the floor tile, paint and other accessories. Now I have to go online and buy the toilet, vanity and counter top.
I actually have to go into the office in Boston tomorrow. Not a big deal except it's Marathon Monday and my office is about 100 yards from the Finish Line. I can only imagine how packed the train is going to be. Ugh. I wouldn't normally go in, but we have some clients from Reebok coming in to watch the marathon, so I have to make an appearance. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm National!

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0421/p13s02-wmgn.html

There's not a lot of quotes from me... but my picture is in the paper! And notice the little man in the photo in the background...
(And I already wrote to the reporter to change the way the spell my company's name - it's Selvage not Salvage)

Easy Rider

Now that it's nice out, we've taken the ATV out of the house! After work, Stephen took Jack for a couple of spins around the driveway and up and down the street. Baby Man is starting to get the hang of pushing the little red button to keep it going on his own (therefore saving our backs).

Today after I got home from work, Jack and I took a walk with Sarah and Ryan from next door. Hopefully we'll be able to do this more often as the Spring progresses. When Jack gets home from daycare he is positively exhausted. It must be hard playing with your friends all day! When he was younger, he used to fall asleep on the ride home a lot, but now that he's so mature he usually makes it home still awake. Yesterday was the exception... he fell asleep on the way home and didn't wake up even when I took him out of the car seat and walked in the house. Here is what I had to do:
I had to put him on the floor of the family room while I let the dog out and fed him dinner. Jack didn't seem to mind, he was out for the count!

Finally, the cake video...

So as you know from earlier posts, Jack fell asleep at his birthday party right after we sang Happy Birthday. So on Sunday night I gave Baby Man his birthday cake (with the evil frosting) and he really seemed to enjoy it. At one point he offered up his cake to me... he's very generous!



Oh, and the new car seat arrived tonight! We have it in the house right now, we're checking it for ants :)

Do all babies walk like this?

Why does Jack walk with his arms up in the air? balance? airing out his arm pits? reverting back to his ape-like ancestors? Baby Man is now able to stand, turn and regain his balance. Today at school they said he didn't crawl at all... he's all walking all the time now. That didn't take very long.

Jack Man Walking!

Jack is a crazy walking man! Tonight he walked the length of the kitchen, rounded the hall corner and to the front door. At some points he leans really far to one side and looks like he's going to lose it, but he quickly regains control and motors on. It's a hard thing to catch on camera... but I tried my best:

It's payback time.

For years and years, Stephen and I would give big gifts to our nieces and nephews. And by big I don't mean expensive (well sometimes they were) I mean we would give gifts that we knew the parents had no place to store. Well now it's payback time. Check out this gift from Uncle Bobby and Aunt Hillary:

Big Birthday Bash! (oh, and Jack walked)

What a day... actually what a weekend! More than 40 people showed up Saturday to help wish Jack a very happy 1st birthday. The food was good (and plentiful), the conversation was lively and the guest of honor was his regular well-behaved self. Oh yeah, and he walked! I mean Jack really walked. He let go of furniture and took more than ten steps unassisted and ungoaded (is that a word?). Now he's a walking fool. Anyway, more about the walking later... let's get to the party pictures...
The bubble machine was a big hit... Piper (a little girl from across the street in the jumper and striped shirt) loved it more than anyone. At one point she just stood in front of it and had the bubbles smash in her face. The little guy in the photo is Ryan, our next door neighbors - he is 9 months old... Jack on the floor smashing bubbles and then there's Harper near his sister Piper.

These are the face painters who entertained the masses for more than an hour. Some even washed their face and had them do it all again...Jack just opted for a simple "1" on his cheek.



Here are Owen and Jack giving each other the High Five. And the headless woman with the green shirt is Maria... she is having #2 in July!

A little conversation between in laws and father and son...

Playing this much really works up a man-sized thirst!

Right after the cake... Jack pretty much passed out for more than an hour! He didn't even eat any because he was so tired... but he did tonight (but that's for tomorrow's post!).


All the cousins... (Jack looks pleased!)... from left to right we have Andrew, Ava, Allie, Olivia, Jack, Hunter, Lucie and Elizabeth.
I'd like to thank everyone for coming to share our special day! We really appreciate it and hope everyone had a good time. Tomorrow I will blog about the cake eating and the gifts... with video!

Party Preps

Party preps are in full swing... which is a good thing since it's in just four days. I can't believe Jack is going to be one year old! Seems like just yesterday when Stephen and I were feeding him just one ounce of breastmilk (or whatever I could muster) at a time. Now he's chugging on his bottle and sucking down 8 to 10 ounces at a pop. Before he was just this little munchkin that couldn't hold up his own head, now he can climb a full set of stairs (with me close behind). He's such a little man and I truly think I love him more each day... and I'm not sure how that can be possible!

You asked for 'em, you got 'em...

You people are a bunch of sickos. You want to see the ant photos... so here you go:





This isn't a fair representation. This is AFTER Stephen used the vacuum for at least 20 minutes!

Midnight Man

Lately Jack has been waking up crying around midnight. Not sure why, maybe he's trying to push out a few teeth before his big birthday. Regardless, I've been too tired to rock him back to sleep so I've been a bad mom... I've taken him into our bed! Last night when I brought him in (around 2 or so) he was so happy to be there. I mean he was just looking from side to side and grinning from ear to ear. Didn't matter to him that it was the middle of the night, he was just happy to be close to us (actually he wanted to be next to Stephen, he has a thing for him lately).
After 45 minutes of enduring Jack's pure joy it was time to bid him adieu. He just wasn't going to be able to settle himself down so I drew the short straw and brought him back to his crib. I figured at this age he won't remember that I'm the mean one who brought him back! I was sure he was going to scream and cry, but again Baby Man proves me wrong. He whimpered for about 1 minute and then snuggled up to his penguin and bunny and fell asleep 'til 7!
When he woke up he joined us again in bed and this time took ownership of the remote control... hence the photo below:

Final Bathroom Pictures

Well, the master bathroom is finally done! We can stop sharing with Baby Man and move all of our stuff into our newly remodeled bathroom.
Here is what you see when you walk through the door. The Silestone counter top was just installed on Friday morning. The towels I just picked up the other day from Restoration Hardware. And Stephen installed the faucets this afternoon. No leaks! The TV crew comes on Friday for a final shoot and then I think it will air on April 23rd. The good thing about NECN is that they post all their shows on the internet, so I'll post a link to it on the blog.

This is the shelf that Stephen built... he did a very nice job. He also hung the bamboo shade today.

This is the only way I could shoot the tub area and show part of the shower curtain. We also got rid of the old school disco lights around the mirror. Instead of putting up a new mirror, we just framed around the old one.
Nice tile work...And this is the magic toilet. I think I've blogged enough about this in the past :)

I'm Back!

It was a sad couple of days. My power supply to my laptop died! Stephen ordered me a new one, but it took a couple of days to arrive... but never fear... I'm back in business. And boy do I have a story to tell you... I will preface that it is one of the most horrifying stories you may ever hear... here we go.

So a week ago or so we started noticing black carpenter ants in the car. At first it was just a couple, but then one day I must have killed like 30 or so. It was tres disgusting. So I took the car to the car wash and vacuumed the inside hoping I was killing them all.
For a bit it seemed like I was on top of the problem, but along came a somewhat warm day here in New England, and the ants were just everywhere. Then we noticed where they were coming from: the car seat! Now let me remind you, these are carpenter ants - the kind that feed on wood and such - not food ants. So when we got home from work and daycare Stephen took the car seat out of the car, took off the cover and found maybe two dozen ants. I was pretty grossed out but Stephen sucked them all up with the shop vac and we thought that was it. Au contraire mon frere.
He then looked into the base of the car seat and saw THOUSANDS of ants - a true infestation! So he rapidly began sucking them out with the vacuum thinking we were getting ahead of the game. Wrong again. He then banged the seat on the ground and they were seriously coming out of the entire seat. Jack had been sitting on a nest of carpenter ants! Makes me itchy thinking about it again. The ants were in the base, in the nooks, in the crannies, in the styrofoam safety inserts... just everywhere. There was no way we'd ever be able to use this $300 car seat again.
So Stephen put Baby Man to bed and I boogied on down to Target to get a replacement seat asap. In the meantime, Stephen sprayed the seat with ant spray and killed them all. There was ant doody everywhere. It was so disgusting!
The interesting thing is that when we first installed the seat in the car we noticed a dead ant in the box, but we thought nothing of it. 'Til now!
So the next day I get on the phone with the folks at Britax, tell them the whole sordid story and all they cared about was the lot number and the serial number. They were not that interested in finding out if the ant issue began in their factory or warehouse. So then I called Toys R Us. They were much more accommodating. After telling my whole story several times to different people, they agreed to replace the seat for free.
So now we've shipped back the old seat, we're using the interim seat (which I will then be able to return to Target) and just wait for the replacement seat to come.
Isn't that the nastiest story? I have pictures, but I'm not sure you really want to see them. If you're anywhere close to mealtime, the answer is definitely no. In fact, you're going to have to vote to let me know if you want to see the photos. Vote early and vote often! (in the sidebar to the left)

Happy Jack

This video is what you get when you go into Jack's room after he wakes up in the morning. Generally he gets up a bit earlier than most would like (around 5:30). But the good thing is that he will just sit there and play with his toys... like his keys, penguin, bunny and monkey... for a while, up to 20 minutes or so. The best thing about being the one to get him out of the crib - he thinks you're his hero and he's what I call "Happy Jack."



And besides being darn cute... he's generous. Wasn't that nice of him to offer up his penguin? Did you notice he was playing with his bunny's tail when I snuck up on him? He loves to play with it and suck on it... the tail is a bit hard from all the saliva.
Tonight Jack has homemade pizza for dinner and he chowed! That was really good since he hasn't been eating all that well again because he's sprouting more teeth. Hopefully this process will be done before his big birthday bash.