One Year

One year ago, our baby boy joined the family. We've come a long way, but the journey still lies ahead of us.

As of today, Jack is a fast crawler, stair climber, incessant talker (babbling, of course) and shameless flirt. He pulls himself up to a standing position all the time and walks around things while holding onto them. He's not quite ready to walk without some help, but it won't be long.

We love our little boy. Enjoy this big album of pictures from throughout the month of June, and be sure to click the "Slideshow" button to watch them full-screen.

We have some decent photos from last weekend's Kennedy Street Block Party-- a joint birthday celebration for Jack and our neighbors' daughter, Erica. All the neighbors pitched in to make sure there was plenty of food, drink, music and fun. Tonight, on Jack's actual birthday, Jen bought a box of cupcakes from a local bakery and the neighbor kids helped him get in the celebratory spirit. Happy birthday, son!

June Baby

Mayhem's End

And now, an overdue post for our final visitors in the 3-weekend parade of grandparents in May (a.k.a. "Mayhem.) Grandpa Bill and Alice came to visit us on Kennedy Street and see young Jack.

We covered a lot of ground in a short weekend. On Saturday, Bill and I went out for a round of golf, joined by my friends, Matt and Ben. Because the three of us don't really play golf (I get out about twice a year), we played a best-ball challenge against Bill. We had a great time and even had a few moments of glory to punctuate the slew of mediocre-to-lousy shots. Halfway through the 18th hole, the heavens opened up and we hustled into the clubhouse to seek cover. Bill bought a round of drinks as we waited for the storm to pass.

Back in Alexandria, meanwhile, Jen, Niki, Alice and Jack were walking down the Avenue in Del Ray when I called and notified them of our storm-delayed return. The ladies ended up taking shelter in a shop until, eventually, Jen braved the rain to retrieve a car from home to shuttle everyone back to safety. The summer storms around here have been dramatic this year.

Enjoy some more pics in the album below.

Mayhem Finale

How to beat the heat

We just broke out of an extraordinary heat wave and today's upper-80s seemed downright pleasant. Today, I got home and saw that our neighbors had filled their kiddie pool in the front yard, so I swooped Jack up and got put him in the pool, where he was soon joined by Sonja.

Jack has been really enjoying bath-time lately, but being outside in the pool takes it to a whole new level. It must be the sun and all the neighbor kids running around that get him charged up. In the video below, notice how patient Sonja is with Jack, who can't contain himself.

GOAL!!!!!

This summer, we look forward to watching Jack go from crawling to walking. Anticipating this event, I constructed a pair of goals for street soccer. After all, playing soccer is the next logical thing for Jack to do once he's on his feet.

Jack loves to play around with the kids on Kennedy Street. I made sure the neighbor boys were involved in this project from the start. First, they drew up the design with dimensions, and then helped measure and cut the PVC. The netting came courtesy of my dad who hung onto a full-size net purchased back when I was a youngster. The neighbor kids are having fun playing around with the goals and I take an occasional shot, too. Before we know it, Jack will be putting the ball in the back of the net!

The second wave

The parade continued Memorial Day weekend when Debbie & Steve made the drive out to see us. (As usual, I'm a week behind on posts.) Jack has a strong magnetic pull!

As is always the case whenever any of our handy parents come to town, there was a fairly substantial list of household projects to accomplish. We are always grateful for the big steps our little fixer-upper takes on these occasions, but Debbie & Steve really out-did themselves by giving us our first opportunity for a night away together since Jack came on the scene 11 months ago.

Jen and I went out for a date-night on Sunday in Old Town Alexandria-- just a couple miles down the road from home. Debbie & Steve took on full-fledged babysitting duties starting at 4 o'clock. It's a lot of work-- feeding him dinner, giving him a bath, final bottle of the night and then reading all his favorite books. Fortunately, Jack has been sleeping soundly at night ever since he got with the program after 8 months of regular awakenings. Our good little boy had a wonderful time with his Grandma and Poppy.

Mayhem Continues