These cupcakes have eyes.

Mom, my food is looking at me...


Today was the Mom's Group Halloween Party. In attendance we had:

James Dean.

A Baylor Bear.

A Sheriff.

A Turtle.

A Tiger.

Eyore.

and Sally Ride.

Just for a quick review, this was last year. Jocelyn, Jillian, Cady, Leora, Amedeo and Jack.

And this is this year. Amedeo, Brooks, Cady, Colin, Jack, Jillian and Jocelyn.

As the party started to wind down things got a little, um, silly.

Nope, this wasn't staged. They just did this. Over and over and over again. They didn't even seem bothered by the adults hooting and laughing in the background.

Ridin' along in my

Automobile.

Formerly Known as Tuesday

Today will now be known as "Handsome toddler charms free stuff day."

We went to Lowes for some wire and the man in the electrical department was so smitten by Jack that he threw in 2 extra feet of wire. Jack just smiled and acted friendly and this poor man was putty in his hands. "Oh look at how handsome he is! What a great smile!"

Later we went to Giant and the ladies behind the counter at the deli were just beside themselves. "Oh, look at his blonde hair." "And the curls." "Oh, Did you see that? He's making eyes at me!" "Does he want some cheese?" "How about a sample of chicken salad?"
1. The cheese just kept coming.
2. The 'sample' of chicken salad was 1/4 of a pound. And Jack is clearly still a vegetarian because he refused the chicken, so I ate it! But when he didn't want the chicken the ladies behind the counter found some other types of cheese to give to him instead.

I should have gone to a store I like to see if he could get me a free purse or something!

Jack's Favorite Museum

Clearly he fits into the family, because Mommy and Daddy went to the Air and Space Museum on our first date!


That face he made, we saw that face quite often today. Hilarious!

Daddy had skills

We try not to talk about it too much because we risk Daddy getting over confident, but he's quite skilled with a camera. These are called: Punkin.

Harvest Goodness.

Grab a bite.

Sassy.

I've seen that last face a lot lately. I'm starting to grow increasingly concerned....

400 posts.

Apparently I have hit the 400 post mile stone.
I have been posting for the last 620 days.
I post every .64 days. That's 4.5 posts a week.

I remember the 100th post, but how did 200 and 300 come and go without me noticing? Odd.

Sweet!

This week (according to babycenter.com) your baby is the size of an avocado. Um, this might be weird, but YUM!


Jack has adjusted to his big boy bed brilliantly (say that 3 times fast). He started sleeping in it last Thursday and he's now napping 50, maybe 60% of the time. He has slept alone every night. Two nights ago he only needed parental intervention one time. Last night he slept strait through the night all by himself! Since he's been sick since about Friday I'm really pleased at how smooth the transition is going. Not that I'm jinxing myself right now or anything...

The Day's Activities

We enjoyed playdoh this morning. After a quick lesson that this is not food we were good to go!

We cuddled on the couch. This was a Jack-guided activity. Apparently it was cold in the house!

We watched the kitty eat a snack. (Needing a reminder or two that this is not to be shared.)

It seemed like a good idea at the time

PaPa and GiGi were here doing there laundry... funny little role reversal!
Jack was happy to help PaPa roll the suitcase to the door.

But then when he realized they were leaving... he was less-than-happy.

So far, mostly good

He used to sleep in beds all the time. Ok, not all the time.

Last night was largely a success. We had to go in about 4 times total during the night. It reminds me of the 'just-learned-how-to-pull-up-to-standing-but-can't-lay-back-down-by my-self phase'. When we, mostly Matt, had to go in it was quick, and thankfully there were no major freak-outs. He slept from 7-7 with his wake-ups only taking away maybe 30 min from his total sleep time.

Today's nap he took an hour and a half to fall asleep and when he did I went to peak (to make sure he hadn't somehow knocked himself out instead) I found him laying at the door, blocking me from opening it. Luckily I peaked under the door to see if he was there before just swinging it wide open. Despite the less-than-ideal nap location he did sleep for 2 hours. Score!

Frankly. I wasn't expecting him to nap at all.

Another Escape

After the failed attempt at transitioning this past weekend we put Jack back in his crib and lowered the crib rail so that if he did attempt to escape he wouldn't be falling from 4 1/2 feet in the air, just 3 1/2. Today was the first day that he figured out how to escape with the new configuration so instead of waiting to transition till this weekend we're going to have to do it starting tonight. (I like to capitalize on the nap-free days because it leaves the kiddo extra tired and more compliant. Mwah ha ha.)

Here's what we're doing:
-Since the crib is staying in the nursery for #2 Jack is moving to his new big boy room.
-He's been exploring the room and bed all week.
-The room will have no toys or books, just his normal bed/naptime accouterments.
-The bed rail came this week so that will be set up.
-The monitor and the white noise machine will be set on a high bookshelf out of reach.
-If we hear him get out of bed/ get upset we will go in and return him to his bed and rub his back for a few minutes and then promptly leave. (Though it's much easier to plan this than it is to execute when you're exhausted and it's 4am.)

If I'm coherent enough to update tomorrow, I'll let you know how it goes!

Larriland!

In keeping with a tradition we invented last year when we realized Matt has off for Columbus Day we headed out to Larriland Farm for apple and pumpkin picking. This year Jack was quite the helper. He was able to eat with one hand and load the wheelbarrow with the other. He impressively never confused which was his eatin' apple and which one was going in the wheelbarrow.

Last year looked like this....

This year he took up a bit more space. But he still loved to go for a ride "rye".

Jack also liked picking his 'punkin' this year. We have bravely decided to let him carve it. (This will clearly be a task mostly left to Matt.)

Bed Rail - Ordered

Sadly, last night was not a success. From about 11-2:00 Mommy was sleeping in Jack's bed with him and from 2-8:00 Daddy was on-duty. Now, sometimes I complain about my husband but when he pulls the 6-hour marathon middle-of-the-night toddler duty I have nothing but love. This sleeping with a parent habit is more worrisome to me than jumping out of the crib. Since it was only night, it's not a habit yet so we're taking the week off, he's back in his crib and we're awaiting our Amazon delivery (Friday?).

We ordered a bed rail. We both believe that a big part of the problem is he went from sleeping somewhere that felt small and enclosed to sleeping somewhere that feels big and open. We have a few schemes planned like sensory deprivation - no books, no toys in the new room and hanging a curtain on the top rail to make the bed feel enclosed and putting big pillows at the end of the bed to decrease the size of the space. We're hoping that with these plans, plus the bed rail the big-boy bed transition will not end in 3 totally-awake hours and 6 additional parent-needed hours.

He's asleep!

Today's naptime was a total fail. No sleep was had, there was too much to see and play with in Jack's new room. His favorite toy was the baby monitor so our reception was spotty at best. I kept trying to be positive because if he didn't nap today the chances were good that he would be exhausted tonight.

Score! He was pooped! As soon as Matt was done singing the Monkeys song he left the room and closed the door. Silence..... Finally I said, "I hate to jinx it but I haven't heard a peep." We waited 20 minutes before we peeked in. I'm not brave enough to take a picture but here's how we found him... snoring.

Upgrade!

This is Jack's new big-boy bed! Today we'll be trying it out for the first time. Wish us luck.

We've Been Busy

Jack's fan-pull (a space shuttle) came in the mail last week and we, much to his dismay, hung it on the fan so when I found this in the cheap-bins at Michael's I decided to give him a hands-on version!

Jack decided to copy mommy. This takes me back to a picture of me with yogurt on my face (shaving cream) rubbing a banana (razor) on my chin to 'be like daddy".

Charlie turned 1. He ate his whole smash cake. ::sigh:: It warms my heart to know that Jack will be able to bond over his love of food with Charlie for years to come!

We learned that the floating stairs make a great picnic table! He carried the plate over, sat it down himself and then sat on the steps.

It has become apparent that Daddy has clearly been working on the windows for too many weeks now!

And we learned exactly how he's been getting out of the crib.

Houdini

We now have a toddler who can get out of his crib. He decided he didn't want to take a nap so instead ::ka-thunk:: and he tries to open the door to the bedroom.

We'll see how the next few days and nights go but it's looking like we might make the switch to the big boy bed sooner than we thought.

Jack-The-Tool-Man

He loves his tool kit! He took his tools over to the kitchen window and tried to help 'fix' it. ::cough:: ::hint:: ::reinstall the trim:: ::cough:: At least one of the two 'men' in this house is trying to get things done!

I kid- Matt has in fact done a crazy amount of work around here, but the fact remains we do have 2 windows remaining.

I said

I said, "Jack come put on your shoes."

Close enough?

Ye Olde Faire

We made our first of two trips to the Maryland Renaissance Festival this weekend. Seriously, there aren't words for how awesome the Faire is. We started with a Fight Club show, which always includes a beef stew for me YUM!

Jack loved the stew and the show.

Then we went to the Bee Folks and caught a show at the Globe from their second floor window.

We climbed on the pirate ship playground.

We slid on the slide.

We checked out the elephants.

Jack and Matt shared a Scotch egg- it was supposed to be for Matt, but Jack loved it! Matt also had sausage on a stick and I had a chili bread bowl.

We caught the joust and Jack enjoyed a birds eye view.

Since I go for the food I'll tell you what else I had: mint chocolate chip ice cream in a waffle cone, fish and chips and hot cocoa. We also picked up some gourmet honey from the Bee Folks and also nabbed some herbs and teas from the herbalist.

At the end of the day Jack was pooped!