"I wish turkey only cost a nickel"

After our last big road trip over Labor Day weekend (when Jack was 2 months old), we were a little nervous about how Jack would hold up for a long Thanksgiving drive to Dayton. 500 miles each way took its toll on all of us, but I'm happy to report that our little family survived the drive! We also got to enjoy a wonderful holiday with my family.

Highlights of the trip included seeing my sister 5 months pregnant, Jack dazzling everyone with his new moves and the young prince meeting two great-grandmothers. Oh, and a lot of food. I'm glad I wore sweatpants for the drive home. Be sure to check out the Thanksgiving photo album.

Thanksgiving

The Office

I downloaded 15 more Halloween pics from the lost-but-now-found camera and added them to the end of the existing Halloween album. Click the link to check them out.

My office invites everyone to bring their kids in to trick-or-treat the Friday before Halloween. Jack's pumpkin outfit was too warm for indoors, so he just met some of my co-workers and had a good time.

Scott, pictured above, started at my company the same day I did, nearly 6 years ago. He and Jess got married a week after me and Jen. They had their first baby, Drew, about five months before Jack was born. Between Scott and another co-worker and father of two, Juan, I get a lot of pointers on what to expect from fatherhood.

Big 10 Champs!

Thanks to a jersey gifted by Cousin Ethan and socks from Aunt Niki, Jack was all geared up for today's big game against Michigan. Jen decorated his diaper before the game.

The game-day party was hosted by Ben and Tara. They put out a great spread of food and drink. Matt & Mae came without Alex, which was almost a jinx since the two youngsters are undefeated this season watching OSU games together. Fortunately, we were bolstered by dyed-in-the-wool Buckeye fans, Paul Wells and, of course, Aunt Niki.

Jack says, "Bring on the Rose Bowl!"

WiFi at 1

We last saw Shannon & Steve's twins over Labor Day weekend. Jack was 2 months old and not really happy in the car yet, but it was fun to see Willem & Fiona a.k.a. WiFi (prounounced Wee-Fee).

On Tuesday, WiFi turned 1 year-old. Shannon keeps us connected with the little ones on their terrific site, from which I lifted the collage pictured above. Watching these two grow up is like a sneak-peak of what's coming down the line with Jack. We also learn neat things to try with our baby someday, like tricking him to eat a lime.

We hope to bring the babies together again during the holidays. Jack isn't mobile yet, but he is becoming much more social. He's also quite a flirt the way he smiles for the ladies. Watch out, Fiona!

Cold-weather gear

Jack joined our family in a warm summer month. Jen and I were laughing at ourselves this morning remembering how for the first two weeks, we didn't dress him in anything but t-shirts because we were nervous about pulling onesies over his head.

We've had a cold snap here lately that forced us to assess Jack's winter gear. Obviously the boy is wearing more clothes (we got over our new-parent nerves), and we even outfitted his stroller with bunting to keep him nice and snug.

Jack has a pretty good-sized noggin. (His parents are sure he is a budding genius, of course.) This has made hats a bit of a challenge. We jumped straight to 1-year old hats to make sure he'll be protected through the winter months. Before long, I'll have him loaded into a jogging stroller and going on runs!

Mr. Clean (a.k.a. Uncle Kevin)

My cousin, Kevin, has been on the road a lot for his work. This weekend, he found himself about an hour-and-a-half away from us and made the trek in to visit the new kid on the block. Technically, Jack and Kevin are cousins, but Kevin has always been a brother to me, so he is Uncle Kevin.

Kevin's work-truck is an F350 Super Duty with a 75-gallon auxiliary diesel tank in the bed. He turned a few heads driving that beast into our fairly urban neck of the woods. Thank goodness we don't live in DC-proper anymore. I'm sure he would have been stopped by somebody.

As you can see in the short video below, Uncle Kevin was a natural with Jack.



We enjoyed a beautiful Sunday afternoon chatting about Kev's new house, the upcoming holidays and, of course, home projects. Kevin has his hands full finishing the inside of his house, while Jen and I are looking at a major backyard project this spring to create a hospitable play environment for Jack. Kevin had some excellent suggestions on design and execution.

We also went on a nice walk through Del Ray, and Uncle Kevin bought a couple of dessert treats for us all at Mancini's. Jen claimed that the cats ate half her chocolate cupcake before dinner, but I'm not buying that story.

First Halloween

Del Ray has a Halloween parade down on the Avenue that is quite a sight. Kids (and their parents) walk the parade route dressed up in their costumes. There's a stroller decoration contest and also a pet costume contest. The weather was fantastic this year.

We decided to get Jack dressed up in his big ol' pumpkin outfit (a "Jack-o-lantern") and watch the parade from the sidelines. Our neighbors, Jeff and Kathleen, came over with their daughter, Ellie, and we all walked down together. With the batteries dead in our camera and Aunt Niki's camera, we were thankful Jeff had his camera and shared the pics with us. The quality is really sharp, which makes me want to buy a new camera. (I also want Jeff's eye for photography.)

First Halloween

Street Soccer

Here's a quick video from this past weekend. After a week of rain everybody was happy to get outside. Sorry the quality is kind of grainy-- I'll have to learn from somebody who knows how to encode these better for uploading to the web.

4 months old today

Jack celebrated his 4-month birthday by staying up past his bedtime. This makes two nights in a row the young prince got a second-wind when he should have been heading to Sleepytown.

Last night, we only had ourselves to blame. We were just having a blast with the boy, dancing around and singing "Twist & Shout." Jack loved all this and then, of course, wasn't in the mood to sleep. Tonight, who can guess his reason. The mischevious smile you see in the picture above is fresh off the camera-- that is one wide-awake 4-month old!

He's down now, but he's got a big weekend ahead with lots of fun in store. A little road trip tomorrow and a Halloween parade in Del Ray on Sunday. Get some rest, young man-- you need it! (And so do your parents!)

As promised, here is an album pictures from October. We'll do a separate one for Halloween.

Mr. October

Best buds

Jack and Alex have hung out the past two weekends in a row. This past weekend, Matt & Mae brought Alexander to Alexandria (sorry, couldn't resist) and we all watched the Buckeyes play Michigan State. During halftime, we strolled the boys down Mount Vernon Avenue to The Dairy Godmother, a great little shop that makes frozen custard and sorbet. Del Ray is very baby-friendly. Our neighbors up the hill wrote a good post about Art on the Avenue, a neighborhood festival in Del Ray that everybody walks through, on their baby blog.

The weekend before last, Jack rode out to Centreville. I mention that drive specifically to discuss Jack's big improvement in handling car rides. Readers of this website no doubt will remember the Labor Day fiasco when Jack, then 2 months old, couldn't be subdued for hours on end in the car. Nowadays, he handles these trips much better.

What changed? Well, Jen found a neat product (cue endorsement): the Tiny Love clip-and-go mobile. It's simple, battery-operated and offers a great distraction when strolling or riding in the car. It's not on all the time, but it's a great thing to be able to turn on when he starts fussing.

In more interesting news, the young prince has become incredibly vocal. I will have to catch his ramblings on film again and share them with you. Sometimes he pumps his fist to emphasize the points he is making like a politician giving a stump spech.

Jack's 4-month birthday is right around the corner, and we have a check-up (and immunizations-- poor guy) scheduled for November 1st. I have a small stash of pictures I'll put up in an album before then, and of course Jack's first halloween is coming right up!