The Reader

We've mentioned in the past that Jack is a big fan of his books. In his 2+ years, he's had a steady diet of books read to him. From the beginning, he's been studious when reading. Turns out he was busy memorizing entire pages, which he recites back to us in his toddler way (meaning, only his parents have a clue what he's saying and everybody else thinks he is babbling.)

Jack also loves the anticipation of knowing what is coming on the next page. If he ever jumps ahead or back in a book, it is inevitably to the page just before the one he really wants to see and hear.

We only have a couple of pop-up/reveal books in the current repertoire. When Jack was really little, he pretty much tore these kinds of books apart. The reading of "Grandpa and Me" below is a fun little highlight reel of what it's like to read to our precocious boy.

Halloween Parade

This weekend was the 13th Annual Del Ray Halloween Parade. It was Jack's third. His first year, he was a Jack-o-lantern (pun intended).

From First Halloween

The second year he went as Curious George - still one of his favorite book characters - and Michael went as (or should I say went along with being) the Man with the Yellow Hat.

From Halloween and Election 08

This year, I wanted Jack to be Max from Where the Wild Things Are. But, he is against wearing footed pajamas and hats or hoods of any kind, so that was definitely out.

Instead, he was a UPS driver! As you all know, Jack is a big fan of the "Lou Pee Ess truck" as he would say and owns three mini-UPS trucks. (Short story: he had one, lost it, asked for it for weeks, we bought two replacements, and the original one showed up the next day!). We bought a costume online, but decided to make a homemade UPS truck for the Halloween parade.

Each year, there is a stroller decorating competition as part of the Halloween parade as well as a costume competition - people and pets. We've never entered the competition before, but we were motivated by Jack's truck love. We recently bought him a train table, so we had a giant cardboard box. And, we used his big plastic red pushcar for the base. We constructed the truck during nap time on Saturday, painted it brown Saturday night, and painted the logos and other details on Sunday morning.

From Fall Fun

We were feeling good about our odds in the competition walking down to the parade where early parade goers staking out their spots were cheering us on as we made our way to the starting line. Once there, we soon remembered that some families go all out for the stroller competition, and took our place in the middle of the pack so to speak. There were some great entries, including a multi-wagon and stroller Hogwarts Express! We didn't win, but we were definitely a crowd favorite. All along the parade route we heard "Hey UPS man!" and "What can Brown do for you?" and more than a few people came up to take pictures.

From Fall Fun

A great time was had by all!

Fall Fun

Summer's End

It's been awhile since our last post! Fall is officially here now, but we're still thinking of summer. We had a great time running around with Jack this summer - and so did our family members who came to visit. Nonni and Grandpa came out a few times. As always, they had a project or two to do while they were here. They'll be back in a few weeks, just in time for the Halloween parade.

From End of Summer Fun

Grandma and Poppy came out too. Grandma pitched in for three days when the babysitter was on vacation. She and Jack had great fun together, although the visit ended with a summer cold. Poppy drove in for the weekend, and we checked out the Air and Space museum before they headed home.

Aunt Pam made a quick visit to see Aunt Lynne over Labor Day weekend and Jack dropped by to say hello. We didn't take nearly enough pictures when folks were in town, but we've got a few to share:

End of Summer Fun