At year's end

It's time for resolutions, and I'm a... well... fickle person. I have a hard time committing to something and staying committed especially when I'm faced with giving something up, like chocolate, soda or being sarcastic. So I'm working on some resolutions for this year and I will post them so you readers can help keep me honest.

Overall it's been a great year. It's also certainly been a difficult year (any new parents who don't think parenting is also difficult are either lying or insane). For me, parenting was most difficult immediately after the dreaded c-section and it got progressively more exciting and less challenging. Jack is a happy, easy-going boy and I'm super lucky to have him in my life.

Staying at home with him is such a great experience but it's a blessing and a curse. I'm so grateful to be in a position to spend so much time with him, but the days do get tragically repetitive at times. I'm glad that have the other Mommies and friends and my parents to help break things up with fun play-dates, hang-outs and weekends at the beach to keep things interesting!

And finally here is my shout-out to Matt, who is a super husband and a hilarious Dad. I remember when we were pregnant he would worry about whether or not he would be a good parent, which now seems just absurd.

Things I did this year in no particular order:

1. Quit my job.


2. Become a mommy.


3. Renovate the crap our of our house (with major help from my parents).


4. Got back into painting and other crafty past-times.


5. Got back into shape (until Thanksgiving hit, and I have fallen way off the wagon).


6. Started blogging.


7. Borrowed a book from a non-university library and read the book cover to cover (even the books borrowed from a university library were never read cover to cover).


8. Yoga.


9. Tried to go as green as I can without compromising on un-compromisables like the quality of TP.


10. Drank more water.


11. Enjoyed time with family.

Well, that about sums it up.. unless there is anything particularly interesting to report I will see you in the '09!

Christmas III

My parents and my brother (Uncle Tom) came today for Christmas 3 of 3 so Jack, being the lucky boy that he is had more presents to open today!

Mommy got a new winter jacket! (Daddy got new dress slacks for work, not pictured, cause he was operating the camera.)

A gift came in the mail from our special friend (a.k.a. Fake-Aunt Amy I'm stealing your people-titles Emily 1). Jack decided to get down on the lions level in order to make first contact.

Uncle Tom brought a doozie of a gift! This is clearly Jack's 'oh please, can we open it now?' face.

During Jack's nap Grandpa and Uncle Tom put together Jack's new toy...

and he's a big fan. Now all we need is a bike pump to inflate the soccer ball, basket ball and football. Jack also discovered how fantastic the box is - because it's big enough for me to get inside so clearly there will be a lot of fun playroom time in the coming months!

Merry Christmas!

Santa was good to us this year!

Christmas Eve

Today we went to Matt's parents house for Christmas Eve.

Since we are spending Christmas Day just Matt, Jack and I we exchanged presents. Jack was very excited about his wrapping paper

Until....

We discovered his new Plan Toys push-toy. He was completely not interested in anything else...

and then he discovered one small design flaw. Fortunately, he didn't seem to mind.

Since mommy forgot his bib Jack graciously agreed to wear a dish towel. We served him some more of the pasta-pick-ups which I this time added garlic, salt and tomato sauce to- success! He likes it!

He had so much to eat that we had time to sit and chat after making and eating our deli meat sandwiches (try not to be too jealous of me Emily1).

We came home and read T'was the Night Before Christmas.

Ho Ho Ho!

Winter

Photographed by Matt. See cute pics of Jack here.

Cookies and Mortar Boards

This weekend we hosted the "Second Annual Cookie Decorating Party". This idea came to be last year while I was pregnant because I was starting to think about how having kids would change things... remember decorating sugar cookies as a kid with 12 tons of icing and sprinkles and colored sugar? Remember how fun it was? Well... Matt and I decided to jump the gun and start a fun little tradition and here's what happened this year:

Jack ate his first cookie (ever) it was a snowman, with no icing, of course. It was funny to watch him because if you give him a cracker he will devour it in 3 seconds flat and then scream for more. It took him about 10 minutes to eat this cookie... maybe he knew it would be his only one and he was trying to savor every bite?

Susan and Carter came to decorate (and help eat) some cookies too. Also in attendance, but not pictured, were my parents and Matt's parents.

Here were just some of the goods. Matt and I have already put a serious dent in the cookies... clearly we will have to make more! (No problem, because we have about 1 dozen that are still undecorated.)

On Sunday Uncle Tom 'graduated' from the University of Maryland with a Computer Engineering degree. If you know anyone who has need of a CE let us know! This is Jack watching the graduation. If you're wondering why I said 'graduated' it's because some of his final grades haven't posted so though he walked we're actually still waiting to be sure all his grades were what they needed to be. (I'm not that worried.)

Jack wanted to be just like Uncle Tom.

If a tree falls in the forest...

Jack is on day-two of his nap-strike. (His teeth might be coming.) When Matt got home from work I was excited for a break from my very fussy son. Matt took Jack into the basement to play while I put my feet up and then I heard "Oh, OH! EMILY, COME HERE!!!" Thinking I'm going to see severed limbs strewn about as I run downstairs.

When I get down there, Matt explains that Jack took 2 steps from his activity table to him. So this begs the question, if a baby walks in the basement and his mommy isn't there to see it- did it really happen? I ask this because when we tried to get him to repeat his new 'trick' he would have none of it. I'm left to wonder if it was a real event or Matt's making it up. (It's possible!)

Please comment below and tell me: if a tree falls in a forest... does it make a noise?

Grand Theft Auto

Lindsey and Cady hosted the mommies today for our cookie exchange and some festive fun! Well Jack found one of Cady's toys to be so interesting that he basically stole it and then proceeded to play with it for about a half an hour.

Apparently 'we' (the mommies) were impressed that he could walk so well on the wood because with less friction you have to be steady on your feet otherwise the car will get away from you. Matt and I are both convinced that he could walk (2 or 3 steps at a time) if he tried, but he seems to be the type of child who will wait to take any steps until he can just walk all the time.

Party at Jillian's house

We enjoyed a big group of players (it's a play group, what would you call them?) today at Jillian's house. Jillian, Jack, Cady, Brooks, Amedeo, Christian and Jocelyn were all ready to party.

Christian and Jillian both showed off their walking skills. There were some stolen crackers, some boo-boos and many many laughs. It was great to see such a big turn out. I can't wait to see more play groups with mass-baby-chaos!

It cracks me up to see them interact with their personalities and feelings coming into play, there is a whole new layer to this parenting thing and it's awesome!

If there was ever a question...

Today we had lunch with Matt's parents to re-celebrate his promotion. I could celebrate that all day, every day. After the meal we ran home for a quick afternoon nap and then ran our errands: Trader Joe's, The Perfect Pour and Giant.

When we got home from our errands I let Jack hang out in the kitchen while I put away the groceries. When I saw what he did in order to pass the time I realized- If there was ever a question who Jack's parents are the answer seems pretty clear:

"Are you playing with the booze, Little Man?"

"Yes, Mommy, I am!"

Impromptu Party

Boys will be gamers.

We try to start 'em early.

Matchy Matchy

Since Matt left for work this morning before either of us was awake we were astonished to find that Jack and Daddy had dressed in matching colors today! I, of course, took a picture.

As promised, here is Jack's official Santa picture.

Santa!

We mailed our letter to Santa to the North Pole.

and then we met 'the man' himself!

Jack was curious. He stared at Santa and then looked at me to make sure I wasn't going to leave him. He didn't smile, but he looked at the camera and made a cute face. As soon as Matt scans the official picture I will post it!

Mommy's Elf

Jack was very excited when Mommy's elf arrived today...

Gi-Gi!

Yes, for the next 27 hours I am super-mommy. I will conquer all and I will complete my Christmas crafty tasks and mailings and shopping sprees and decorating! All because I have my Mommy here to help 'share the load'.





Christmas cards... phase one: complete!

Ball pit- Big Hit!

We hosted our friends today and the ball pit was a big hit for all the babies! Here is Jack and Joselyn in 'the pit' with Cady doing some important work on the exersaucer.

We decided to test an hors d'oeuvres recipe seen on Oprah last week and it was a big hit! Gorgonzola cheese, crustini and sliced fig. Emily brought some of her award winning cookies, they were yummy. We're doing a cookie swap for the group 2 weeks... and I'm very excited!

Popeye

the sailor-man says hello!

The real blog author is revealed.

Let it snow!

Jack experienced his first snow today. This is the third 'snow' of the season none have amounted to any real ground-cover but here he is in all his fleecy glory enjoying the weather.

Brrrr....

And here is our Christmas tree. I had taken this picture on Tuesday or Wednesday and finally got around to posting it!

Child Neglect?

Yesterday Jack wore the same diaper from 7:00am when he woke up till 5:30pm when he got in his bath. Child neglect? Nope. Jack used the potty all day yesterday. Today, not so much, but hey - one whole day is pretty darn good for only 10 months old!

Going to the Gym

Going to pump some iron.
Today we went to Gymboree in Columbia. We had a coupon for a free class.

Here is Brooks and Jack in their matching outfits. They're training for Mt. Everest.

Learning about the gym and the membership options.

Happy Birthday!

Jack now enters the double digits: 10 months today!

This 10 month birthday marks the increasing difficulty we're experiencing in taking his birthday photos. This is what we tried first:

Clearly he's happiest to stand, or blog.

That's my boy!