First Haircut and First Birthday!!

We decided to take Jack for his first haircut before his birthday party. He was such a good boy. He just sat on that little bench like a big boy. He ate his cereal while she was cutting and would occasionally look back at her like, "what are you doing?". We were so proud. He looks even more like Jonathan now.

Jack had a great first Birthday!! He was so amazed at all the new toys. He couldn't even decide what to play with. He got to take a ride in his new radio flyer wagon and took a ride on his new rocking horse. And he danced and danced to his birthday frog and snowman. And he just laughs while he is pushing his talking lawnmower. And he and Jonathan played his guitar in his tent. He loved his cake. He got a little messy, but not too bad. The only thing is that every since his birthday party he has been bringing us Christmas gifts. He doesn't quite understand that it is not time to open those gifts.

Jack's first day of daycare was quite traumatic. For me that is. Jonathan and I both took him. He cried when I handed him over to the teacher but had stopped crying before we left. I cried the whole way home and for the next three days that I dropped him off. He came running to me when I picked him up that afternoon. Since then, he just seems kind of impartial to daycare. I take him in and put him in his high chair for breakfast and he just watches me leave until he can't see me anymore. I know that it is good for him. They do a lot of teaching and it is a Christian-based school. The other day one of the little boys said, "bye-bye Jack" and it was the cutest thing.

Jack was kind of sick the Monday before he started daycare and by Friday had 103 temp. He was so pitiful. He hasn't been sick since he was born. He just laid around in our lap the whole weekend. Of course that is completely unlike him. He is usually running around like a mad man, which is how he has earned the nicknames, "maniac Jack" and "Jack attack". On Monday, we went to the pediatrician and she said that Jack had terrible ear infections. So he got a shot and a prescription. That was at the beginning of the month. This past Friday we went back to the doctor for follow-up and he still has infection in both ears! Another prescription. I really hope that this one clears it up. At least he feels better. He's back to being maniac Jack.

More Pictures

Turkey Day

We had a great Thanksgiving. Actually two. On Tuesday, we went to Chattanooga to Uncle Mike's and on Thursday we went to Grandma's. We got to see everyone over those few days and ate entirely too much food. Jack of course loved it. We even went out shopping and to dinner on black Friday for Grandma and Grandpa Gruber's Anniversary. He's so busy all the time that it doesn't bother him a bit to bounce around everywhere. And he gets lots of attention. He is more fun every day. Those cute facial expressions and sounds. He's still a monkey. Anything that he can climb on or through, he does. He never goes around anything, always over. He is also starting to hide things. He is like a little ferret these days. Whatever is missing, he probably took and hid. The remote....oli's toy box. Clothes hangers....toilet. Keys....in a box. He also found the stash of wrapped Christmas gifts in the guest room. After taking a few of the ribbons off I decided to close off the door to the guest room. So then he wondered off from our room the other day and I went to look for him, but could not find him. Finally, I decided he had to be in the guest room because that is the only place I hadn't looked. I found him. He had pushed the door open, went in, closed the door behind himself and was sitting in a big box of gifts playing with the ribbons. He is doing well with the tree. He attempts to pull at the ornaments but usually backs away when told no. I didn't trust him with the nativity scene so it is on top of the china cabinet this year. The first thing he wanted to do when I took it out of the box is go for baby Jesus.

Oh, I forgot. Jack went to his first birthday party. His friend, Porter, turned one. All the little babies were soo cute together. Jack was the only one walking, so he was in to everything. He even put on a show dancing for everyone. That is one of his favorite things to do lately.

The time has come for Jack to start daycare, our options are limited so it has to be done. But we did find a good one. It is close to the house and is a Christian-based school. They do a lot of teaching and not all playing. Although I am very sad, I think Jack will love it. He starts tomorrow so I will let you know how that goes.

Monkey Business

October 31, 2007

The more that Jack gets in to, the further I get behind on the blog. Jack's first Halloween was a great success. We decided that it was appropriate for Jack to be a monkey, since that is what he

acts like. He was the perfect little monkey. We had a couple of friends over and our friend Marshall dressed up as a scary old man and Uncle Todd as a hunchback man. Todd would help the kids up to the porch toward the scary music playing where Marshall sat with the talking candy bowl. Just as the children reached down for candy Marshall would scare them. We had some kids throwing bags of candy up in the air, some screaming, some running and some of them would not even approach the house without a lot of help from their parents. Jack loved it. He got scared when Marshall first put on the costume but after that just looked at the other kids like, "why are you screaming? It's just Marshall". Yeah, not scared of the music or the candy bowl which has a hand that comes down to scare you. We didn't really think that he was quite ready for actual trick-or-treating, we were wrong. He just took off down the sidewalk like all the other children. So we took him to some of the neighbors and he would walk right up and get his candy. He got to have his first dum-dum sucker. He had such a good time that he didn't want to go to bed. I finally had to put him down when he got too fussy, monkey suit and all.

Oh my! Pumpkins!

October 13, 2007

Before I tell you all about the pumpkins I just want to tell you that it is official. Jack is walking. Not just taking steps anymore, walking. He is a maniac! On Saturday, the grandparents came over and we took Jack out to the pumpkin patch to pick his first pumpkin. Aunt Angie, Uncle Todd and all of the cousins got to come too. He loved it!! There was all kinds of stuff to do there. He got to swing and ride a tricycle and slide. All that stuff you love when you're little. He got to pet goats and pigs and rabbits. He loved the animals and wasn't scared of them. He was a little confused when Jonathan had to whisk him right up out of the direct line of number 2 coming from a goat!! Pretty funny. Then we took a hay ride out to the middle of the pumpkin patch and picked out his own pumpkin. He rode in a wagon with the pumpkins back to the car. We all went out to eat after that and then watched football. What a day. So much fun.

Jack is so much fun. He's really making some funny faces lately and is quite the chatter-box. He and Jonathan now play a funny version of hide-and-seek. Jonathan hides around a corner and Jack goes to look for him. The funny part is that Jonathan sneaks up behind him and scares him and Jack comes running to me. But he thinks it is hilarious. Besides being a monkey, he also thinks that he is Hercules. He tries to pick up or close all kinds of things. He squats down and grunts and pushes with all his might, no matter what the object is. He just completely flips the Pooh table. He and Oli are becoming big friends. They play tug-of-war pretty often. He's still working on getting the child locks off of the cabinets. I wonder how long I have till he figures that out?

First Kiss

October 5, 2007

On Friday, our friends Steve and Amy came into town for the weekend. They have Preston who is 2 and Ava who is 14 months. Absolutely adorable kids. We cooked out and watched football for the weekend and watched the kids play on their power wheels. I haven't even had a chance to blog to say how much Jack loves his Jeep, which he is entirely too little for. But he can get in and out by himself and holds on to the steering wheel and makes funny car sounds. Then either Jonathan or myself "assist" him with pressing the pedal to make the Jeep go. It's a pretty funny site, let's just say there is a golf club involved.

So anyway, they had a blast playing outside for the whole weekend. Jack became quite smitten with beautiful Ava. He followed her around and played with her hair. Jack even leaned over and got his first kiss. What a little flirt!! Ava didn't mind, she followed his lead. They were all so sweet.

He did it!

September 15, 2007

I had to make it a point to blog today. Jack walked!! Today is Cousin Lindsay's 13th birthday and we went over to Aunt Angie's to cook out and watch football. Angie put Jack out in front of her and he walked right to her. Three steps the first time. I think he may have taken a couple more but he ran out of room and everyone there got so excited that we started to clap and cheer and he got distracted. So then throughout the day he would periodically walk to one of us, up to five steps. So cute!! He was so happy after that and was generous with his kisses. At one point, Pop sat him on the back of the couch and started making this funny sound and Jack must have thought it was the funniest thing ever. He was laughing so hard that he would throw his head back and almost lose his breath. Where is my video camera for those moments??

I Love It!!

September 13, 2007

I can't believe how fast Jack changes. He will be nine months next week. He has 4 teeth and 3 on the way. Which he will definitely use to bite down on a finger should you be too slow putting food in his mouth. He loves food. Pretty much anything. The only thing that I've found that he's not too crazy about is tomatoes. He's getting really good at putting small bites in his mouth by himself and he loves his cereal puffs and creamed potatoes and any kind of fruit.

He makes us laugh so much lately. Last Saturday I awoke to one of the funniest sites. Jonathan was pushing Jack on his Pooh truck around the house and here they come into the bedroom. Jack still had his pajamas on, holding tight to the steering wheel and wearing his "elmer fudd" hat. He had the funniest expression on his face and just started to laugh when I started laughing.

He loves to play in the kitchen. In the dishwasher, in the refrigerator, in the pantry, in the cabinets. If you open something, you can expect him there in about two seconds. He's quick!! The other day 'we' were loading the dishwasher and I went to his room only for a second and came back to find him sitting on the dishwasher door. He thinks he is a monkey. He loves to climb onto or over anything. We also have bells on the door that Oliver rings to go outside to potty. Well Jack really enjoys ringing the bells too. We leave the door open slightly and Oli lets himself back in. Well now we have to be really careful that we are there to close the door as soon as Oli comes in because Jack likes to try to let himself out. He also has become a fan of Science Diet Dog Food. Well, he started to get into trouble for that so he's learning to stay out of it. But, if you're not there to tell him "no", he WILL eat the dog food.

He loves to be outside. He does the funniest thing when he is crawling on a rough surface, like our patio. We call it the 'bear crawl'. Basically, he crawls on all fours to protect his knees. It's hillarious. Jonathan takes him out to swing everyday about sunset. He loves it!! He laughs and laughs. And he really likes to swing high. Grandma and Grandpa even put a swing up at their house this weekend. He was very happy about that.

He's trying to walk. He cruises the furniture very well and he'll let go and stand there for a minute. Until he realizes that he's not holding onto anything. Then he kind of freezes and then squats and sits slowly. He and Oli are pretty funny. They still play tug-of-war with each other's toys. Jack thinks it's pretty funny, Oli doesn't.

He's also pretty smart these days. We put child locks on the cabinet doors, of course. Well, about the first week he just kind of pulled the door open as far as it would go and then closed it back. Now, he pulls it open as far as it will go and then sticks his little hand up to the child latch and pulls on it.

Jonathan and I love being mommy and daddy. I love to see Jack's face light up when Jonathan comes home from work. I love to hear him laugh. I love his smile. I love his mischievous face when he's in trouble and he smiles at me a certain way to try to get out of trouble. I love how he talks to his toys with a very serious tone. I love his kisses (even though they are usually wet and always open mouth). I love it. I love it all.

So, I know this was a lot of information. I could sit here and write pages of funny and sweet things that he has done. But I just wanted to do a post with updates of what he's doing now. I wish I could capture every memory with a camera. I hope that when he is all grown up that I remember half of the funny things that he does.

The Grand

August 2, 2007

Oh my, it's easy to get behind with the blog when you're chasing after a 7 month old. Jack is all over the place!! We went to Point Clear, AL to the beach and stayed at The Grand Hotel. It's a really old hotel with lots of history and is just beautiful. It's on the Bay and you can see the Mobile skyline from the beach. Jack loved the beach. He loved to play in the sand and crawled right into the ocean. The hotel is a resort so there are tons of things to do there. We took Jack fishing from the pier and swam in the pool and Jonathan took him for a bike ride. His favorite part I think was swimming in the pool. He thinks he is a fish. What he didn't like so much was being confined to his car seat for so long. We also played ping-pong and played with some ducks and played in huge oak trees with pretty spanish moss in them. Jack also thought he was on vacation from his crib. He would not sleep in his crib at the hotel. He decided he wanted to sleep right in the middle of Jonathan and me, which he never does at home. We didn't mind, I loved to cuddle with him. Although I did wake up every morning with his toes in my side.

We also got to see our friends Scotty and Rebecca who live in Florida. We went down a day early and stayed the night with them. Becca cooked us a great dinner and we got to catch up while Jack got to play with all of their little boy's, George, toys. It was a really nice start to our vacation to get to see them.

Be sure to check out our photo show site for lots of really cute pictures.

http://photoshow.comcast.net/fegruber