It's official.

Well, it is official. Jack is no longer my little baby. He's my little boy, my little man. He climbed out of his crib this past weekend. We converted his crib to a toddler bed. Well, Jonathan did. Friday morning the babysitter said to me, "hey Felicia, can Jack climb out of his crib? I woke up and he was standing right in front of me with his face in mine". And so it begins. Nap time and bedtime are a bit of a challenge since then. We usually lay Jack down awake for naps and bed. Friday I went to lay him down for a nap and he gave me a very mischievous grin. About 45 seconds later he was standing at my feet in the kitchen, laughing. He is taking full advantage of his new found freedom. He has been finding his way to our bed at night even though he has never slept with us before.

We also finally put a child lock on the refrigerator. I wasn't sure I could bear one more broken egg, spilled salsa or spilled sweet tea. The full pitcher of sweet tea was probably the final straw on that. He's so much fun and into everything. He's doing a lot of talking. Talking you can understand that is. One of his favorite phrases is, "It's stuck!". For example, the refrigerator, "it's stuck".

We've been really busy since I last blogged (of course). Jonathan and I went to Las Vegas for friends' wedding. Jack stayed a few days with Nana and Pop and a few days with Grandma and Grandpa. He loved it of course and got spoiled the whole time. Jonathan and I on the other hand, not so much. We missed him. Jack also got to go to the fair with Grandma and Grandpa. He rode all of the rides possible and loved them. Especially the carousel of course. Jonathan I took Jack to the Birmingham Zoo. He liked the animals but was more interested in the carousel, the park and the water area. Jonathan took Jack to his first high school football game. They had fun.

Just a quick note in reference to the Cardinals jersey because you guys know that we are Cubs fans. Our good friends Marc and Tricia live in St Louis and are Cardinals fans and sent the jersey to Jack. It is so cute on him, so we have to support the Cardinals after the Cubs.

Will blog more soon. We of course have Halloween coming up soon. Still trying to decide what Jack will be. And you guys know that Jack will always be "my baby", whether he is climbing out of his crib or graduating from college.

Golf Balls!??

Ok, so this is funny. As most of you know, Jonathan and Jack are by themselves on the nights that I work. And pretty funny stuff happens, bad habits are formed and they have "parties" in his room leaving behind lots of toys and stuff. I'm sure I don't even hear about half of the stuff that goes on while I'm away.

So, last night I went to work as usual. At some point, Jack approaches Jonathan with what appears to be a golf ball in his hand. (we randomly have those around since Jonathan works at the golf course and Jack and Oliver play with them). Jonathan doesn't think anything is unusual about it and says, "throw it Jack". So what does Jack do? He throws it. Much to Jonathan's surprise....it was an egg. Ha Ha! Jonathan found three broken eggs in the floor on the way back to the refrigerator. Of course Jonathan was just laughing about it. But the whole time he was trying to clean up the mess Jack was jabbering like he was telling Jonathan all about it and like it was Jonathan's fault. He told him to throw it!! Jonathan sent me a picture and message while I was at work and it just made my night.

Reunion Pics

Reunion Pics

Reunion Pics

Gruber Family Reunion

Well, I'm behind as usual. But, about 2 weeks ago we went to our Gruber Family Reunion in Chicago. We had a wonderful time. There are seven great-grandchildren, 3 sets of twins and Jack. It was so entertaining and fun to watch them play together. We arrived on Thursday and met Aunt Jane and the Grandparents for dinner.

On Friday we did some shopping at the mall and then headed over to Aunt Jackie's and Uncle Rod's. We played basketball and bean-bag toss and had a great dinner. It was so fun to watch all of the kids interact. They are all at such fun ages. They played T-ball and Lego's. David even made us a train with all of the chairs and we all went for a ride. Gabriel and Jack were mostly interested in playing with either the dog, hiking through the "woods" or playing in the ice chest.
Jack was so tired that he was asleep before we even left and slept the entire night.

Saturday morning we got up early and went to a children's amusement park called 'Pirate's Cove'. The kids loved it!! Jonathan says that he can remember going there when he visited Chicago as a child. First stop was the carousel. We all know how much Jack loves the carousel. This was a smaller one than he is used to, but went really fast. Problem number one....parents couldn't ride. Problem number two.....Jack wasn't taking no for an answer and wasn't riding in the little seat. So, horse it was. I was a nervous wreck. But, worries for no reason. He just sat atop that horse and held on tight. Every time he passed I was saying, "hold on tight Jack". And he was. I could see that his little fingertips were white because he was holding on so tight. He rode the carousel about 6-7 times and cried every time that he had to get off. He also did other rides that I really wasn't so sure about. He rode a big slide, a train, paddle boats and more. He loved every minute of it and then took a really long nap. After nap-time we headed over to Aunt Kathy's and Uncle Richard's and had dinner and played on all of the huge playground equipment that is practically in her backyard. The kids also played in the sandbox and rolled down the hill. They all love the miniature picnic table. Again, Jack slept like a rock that night too.

Sunday some of us headed downtown to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game. It's always fun to go to a game and we had a great time even though they lost. : ( Meanwhile, all the Grandmothers and the Aunts and a few cousins were having fun at Aunt Kathy's where they played on the slip-n-slide, went "fishing", dressed up in Uncle Joey's fireman stuff and had lots of yummy treats. I heard that even Aunt Jane took her turn with the slip-n-slide. Uncle Richard and Uncle Rod were there for moral support.

Monday, we had to make our long way back to Alabama after breakfast at Panera Bread. Jack did really good in the car considering it is an eleven-hour trip. However, I think that all of us know every word to 'Shrek' and that we saw all of his other videos at least once. I wish that we got to see everyone more often. I know that all of the children will change so much before we see them again. Cousin Christian made everyone a DVD with pictures and videos which we received yesterday and it was awesome. It will be so nice to show that to Jack in the future. Can't wait til the next reunion!!

To The Moon

So I have felt compelled to share a story. Simply because it was one of the cutest things ever and I will probably be unable to do the story justice in writing. The other day Jack was playing on the patio, as he often does, and it was right at sunset. So then he began to point way up over the house and just ramble in his own crazy language. I think he managed a "what's that?". So of course, we look up and he is pointing right at a big, huge beautiful full moon. He was in total amazement over his discovery. He was so excited about it. So of course we began to tell him that it was "the moon". He is so smart, that during all of this he even called it a "kirkle" (which of course is suppose to be 'circle"). Every since then, he looks for the moon every evening while we are out playing and sometimes during the day when it is kind of hard to explain to a one year old that we can only see it at night. It kinda of comes out as "da boooon" when he says it. The whole episode seems kind of trivial but made me realize that I think sometimes we take for granted some of beautiful things in the world because to us they have 'always' been there. But to a toddler like Jack....it was like it had just been placed there, just for him.

We had a great Father's Day. We got to spend sometime with both Pop and Grandpa. I feel so lucky that Jack has such a great Dad!! I love to watch him and Jonathan play. Jonathan does great with him and Jack loves him. It's pretty funny that if Jack and I are playing outside and Jonathan is not out there, he will go running through the house yelling, "Da-Da?". He continues to do this until Jonathan consents to coming outside. It doesn't take long for Jonathan to consent to most anything Jack wants within reason anyway. It's cute!!