Steps

For a while now, Jack has been cruising around holding onto to adult hands, chairs, walls and, of course, his little walking lion. He's been reluctant to strike out on his own, though, which in some ways has been a blessing. Sure, he's a quick crawler, but we know that walking turns into running and then we'll really be chasing him around.

This weekend, Jack seemed more interested in striking out on his own and, with Aunt Niki's assistance, we captured a very special moment.



We continue to snap pictures and promise to post more soon.

Back in Dayton, Ohio

We need to catch up on posts, especially with news on how Jack is developing. Jen is keeping a mental list of the "words" that Jack is babbling, so we'll get into that soon. He's also cruising around while holding onto things, although he's not quite ready to walk on his own.

After our vacation at the beginning of July, the rest of the month got pretty wild. Jen traveled to the west coast for a conference-- 4 nights! It was her longest trip away from Jack. So father-and-son decided to snap up an e-fare to Ohio and spend a few days with Nonnie and Grandpa.

We arrived on Saturday and were joined by Karin, Dave, Ethan and Michael. Young Michael is getting so big! And Ethan is a model big-brother. He was terrific playing with Jack, and I know he's going to do enjoy when Michael gets mobile.

Jen being away for four nights was tough, but it helped being with family. Jack enjoyed all the attention and Grandpa even bought the walking lion he has at home. Jack did more laps around that house than we could count, and he was so proud of his new skill.

After three nights in Dayton, we headed back home. It was Tuesday, and Jen wasn't returning until Wednesday evening. We walked into the house, and Jack's head spun around on a swivel. Now back on his home turf, I could tell he expected to see mommy. So sad! He survived another night with just-dad. On Wednesday, Jen's return from the west coast was nearly washed out by thunderstorms. After 16 hours of travel and delays, she made it back, but Jack was already asleep. He woke up Thursday morning and firmly latched onto his mother for the rest of the day.

We'll put more pictures up from the rest of July in the next post. In the meantime, enjoy these shots from Dayton.

July Retreat to Dayton

The Family Vacation

Jen's mom, Debbie, and husband, Steve, celebrated their 10-year anniversary on the 4th of July. The kids and grandkids gathered in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for an old-time family vacation.

Lincoln and the surrounding mountains offered a lot of great distractions. Our first venture into the wilds was a walk through Franconia Notch State Park. We had a long hike up to see the flume gorge and Jack was on Cloud Nine for the whole walk. Be sure to check out the album for a slideshow of some great photos and check out the short videos below from the park. Unfortunately, the camera battery died toward the end of the week, so I missed a couple of really fun photo opportunities.

The real adventure for us wasn't the flight to Boston or drive to Lincoln-- it was sleeping in the same room with Jack for a week. He's been a reliable sleeper in his room for a while, and we were pretty nervous about having him in a pack-n-play crib, possibly awakening when we came to bed at night. Turns out, the boy is very adaptable (although he was an early riser-- a problem that we probably contributed to when he heard us stirring in the morning.) All in all, great job by young Jack!

We had a few misadventures (including some nasty insect bites), but Jack loved the constant activity and wasn't hurting for attention from his doting grandmother.  He got in his first full-size swimming pool and splashed around with the big kids, he rode two trains and even got on a boat to tour beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee. 

Like all vacations, this one came to an end and we all returned home with a lot of fun memories. Someday, we'll remind Jack about the bears he met in the mountains of New Hampshire!

July Vacation in NH

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

I love a parade

Last weekend, we kicked off a string of visitors coming to town to see the young whipper-snapper. First up, Nonnie & Grandpa.

The festivities started with Friday's convocation ceremony at George Mason University. I wrapped up the MBA program and was glad to have family there to commemorate the event. The final two semesters were taxing, especially when Jack wasn't sleeping through the night. Jen bore the brunt of my absence-- basically being a single-mom for two nights a week-- and I am very grateful to her for the effort. It's great to have school completely knocked out before Jack really became aware of my absence. Although on a few occassions, when I fetched him from his crib in the morning, he would give a "Who the heck are you? I want mommy!" type of cry, which is probably par for the course, but still was tough on dad.

Jack is at a magical age where he is curious about everything and everyone and now has the locomotion to check things out. His crawling has sped up dramatically and he pulls himself up well to a proud standing position. Naturally, he is a babbling brook, practicing all kinds of sounds. We're especially impressed at how well he rolls his R's and think we should get him started on Spanish before he loses that skill.

My parents worked double-time while they were here because we hosted a graduation party in the newly renovated backyard. Dad was stuck on the grill for what seemed like all of Saturday afternoon while Mom, Jen and Aunt Niki were up in the kitchen keeping everything moving. Neighbors, friends and fellow graduates turned out and the weather cooperated nicely. I wish we had more pictures from the party (and the weekend, in general,) but everybody was so busy that the camera didn't get pulled out enough.

Mayhem Begins

On Monday morning, Nonnie & Grandpa enjoyed a few quiet moments with their grandson before the taxi arrived to spirit them away.



This video is fun for a lot of reasons. First, my mom wasn't wearing her reading glasses, so you can hear some surprise in her voice as she works her way through Dr. Seuss. Second, my dad picked up on the "new fish" line--Jen and I always read that line to Jack and told him he was a "new fish." Finally, how fun is it that my mom admonished my dad not to the turn the page because Jack will do the page-turning, thank you very much!

Attitude

A little over a week ago, we saw Matt, Mae and Alex. Jack and Alex are a hoot together. Alex is three months younger than Jack, so he's not motoring around yet. Meanwhile, Jack is grappling with everyone he encounters and apparently picking up on some questionable hand gestures.