Jack's Birthday Party

Today we had Jack's first birthday party and it was a great time! Jack had lots of fun with the cake and also enjoyed all of his presents and his friends that were at the party. Thanks for everyone who came and Jack loves you all!

Jack walking

I finally got a video of Jack walking- he is very slow and deliberate but he can go really far now without falling- probably up to twenty steps. He can also turn which is a big improvement. This has been a hard week for us as Jack has a viral infection in his mouth which causes blisters and it hurts and makes it hard for him to eat. We did not get very much sleep the first nights with this but hopefully he is feeling better. You can see some of the "old" Jack shine through even though he still has his sick time too. Hopefully he will be all recovered for his birthday party on Saturday!

Snow Day

Jack loves to look out the window at the snow. We recently had our first real snow day where there was enough to stick and it looked pretty! Jack kept checking it out from his window. Here are a couple of pictures. Jack is also doing some sign language- mostly just the sign for milk but he uses it for drink also. He also had his first lollipop yesterday and made quite a mess. It was cute though and he really liked it and made some appreciative sounds while eating it!

So long Thanksgiving...hello Jack's 1st birthday

Sorry for the delay on updates! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving...Jack's Gran and Pa and Big Gran and Big Pa had a wonderful time with us over the holiday and we were so happy to have them here. Now that Thanksgiving is over, the focus is on Jack's first birthday which is quickly approaching. Let's see....new going ons with Jack include- more walking (between items like the couch and table), trying to talk- Jack has said Da-da a couple of times but that's about it, being very expressive, lifting large objects (picture those log lifter competitions) and his first model shoot! Yesterday, Jack was selected along with three other babies for a State Farm ad- he is finally earning his keep! It was fun but we won't find out if he was the big winner for a little bit...we'll keep you posted. Here is a video of Jack "dancing". He does this whenever he hears music- it is too cute...enjoy.

Updates...

So, lots has happened in the last week...Jack took his first step, two actually! He has been working really hard on it for awhile now so it was pretty exciting. We also took a trip back to Ohio for Jack's Godmother's 30th birthday party which was fun and got to see our family. Jack had a good time with his cousins and Gran and Pa! We also stopped by and saw Big Gran and Big Pa on our way home. Today we went to get Christmas pictures taken which was fun- it took a lot longer than expected but the pictures are so cute (see above). We are really excited to stay home for Thanksgiving, this is a rare event for any holiday so we are so happy to host Gran and Pa and Big Gran and Pa here for the holiday.

Gran and Pa came to see me...

and celebrate their anniversary! While they were here over the weekend, we had lots of fun. We went out to dinner and we had a great time at the Shedd Aquarium. Then we went shopping and got some really cute Christmas outfits for Jack which you will see soon...

We went to the Nature Center near our house and since the weather was so nice, we had a picnic outside. Jack enjoyed himself a lot in the toddler room, where they had a stage for puppet shows. Jack put on a show himself (sans puppets) and had a great time. We also got to see the bees being fed their sugar water. Apparently there is a huge deer population here but we didn't walk the trails enough to see anything- hopefully next time!