Jack is one TODAY!

Jack's First Birthday..Party

We have a lot going on these days, including celebrating Jack's first birthday! Since we'll be in Atlanta for Dutch and Sarah's wedding (hooray!) on the actual day, we had a small, impromptu birthday party for Jack a couple of weeks ago. Jack's Auntie Christine and Uncle J spent the day with us, and we played, sang happy birthday, and enjoyed Jack's first birthday cake.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I'll still post a birthday letter for Jack B'hat, and there are sure to be more birthday festivities in Atlanta!

As Promised:

11 Months

Dear Jack B'Hat,

You are 11 months old today! Unfortunately your going to get a shorter letter today because Momma's under the weather and is crazy tired. I'll keep it brief. Here's the stuff that happened this month:

1. You are almost walking completely by yourself. When you feel especially daring, you walk across the living room from the footstool to the couch! Several times you fall over and bonk which makes you stick out your bottom lip so far that I think "No wonder you tripped! With a lip stickin' out that far,who wouldn't?" You do not find this quip amusing in any way, form, or fashion and you proceed to wail uncontrollably until you are distracted by something shiny or a piece of cheese.

2. You no longer want your baby oatmeal. You're a toddler now, and toddlers don't eat food with the word 'baby' in front of it. You spat at the spoon if oatmeal is on it, and only want finger foods and sometimes squash. You used to eat everything, and now you only want Cheerios, veggie sticks, and berry melts. Daddy keeps telling me not to worry, that you're getting your nutrients through the formula, but telling me not to worry is like telling a flower not to wilt. It just happens.

3. All of your teeth are surfacing at once. At least it feels that way. You are getting four more right this very second. That might also be why you are picky about what you eat.

4. You've learned how to open cabinets. We installed safety locks on the doors that shut out the poisons, but the Christmas dishes are still fair game to you. There is a lot of us running to you when we hear a door open, and you crying because you're not allowed to open the door and you think we are the meanest, suckiest parents ever.

5. You ate cat food yesterday.. on Mother's Day. What a wonderful mother I am to allow you to wander off unchaperoned. When I noticed it was way too quiet, I found you shoving cat food pellets into your mouth. I dug them out and carried you to Daddy. I figured it wasn't my finest mothering moment and so it was his turn. I was glad I had a cold so that I couldn't smell the cat food on you. Casey is very tolerant.

That's about all I'm good for, today, Jack. You are growing SO fast!! You are the light of my life and I love you so much it aches! Happy 11th month, baby boy!

Love,

Momma

In case you've been wondering what we're up to..

We've been playing ball. We've been watching Little Bill.

We've been reading books.
We've been playing with Casey.

We've been taking baths in the big bathtub.

We've been hanging out with Auntie Christine.

And we've been happy, happy, happy!

(more pictures on the Flickr badge)

Good News

Jack took his first steps today. Here we go..

10 Months

Dear Jack B'Hat,

You are 10 months old today!! Double Digits! Hooray! As PawPaw says, you are hardly even a baby anymore. For some reason, nostalgia makes me believe that I miss you as a snugly sweet infant, but if I remember hard enough, I recall how hard all of that was. I think you are so much fun right now! Even though you are into EVERYTHING and I can't keep you out of ANYTHING, it is so cool to see you play and explore and learn!

Here are some things about you this month:

1. You are about to walk, and if someone said, "You can't play with your toys unless you walk across the living room," I think you could do it. For now, because your Momma and Dada still cater to your every need, you'd rather be carried. I can't blame you. I think we all spend the rest of our lives hoping to be carried again. You cruise around the living room and sometimes forget that you even need to hang on to something. After you realize you've let go of the furniture you're using to stand, you cautiously turn around and lower yourself to the floor. "Whew," I imagine you're thinking, "they almost saw me walk."

2. You aren't particularly interested in TV (despite my pleading), but when Little Bill comes on, you perk up and crawl as fast as you can to the TV and stand up and pat at the image of Bill Cosby as he hands his hat to Little Bill. You love that jazzy intro (which makes your Momma proud) and it keeps you occupied for a minute or two. I like Little Bill more than you do, but I'm hoping you'll grow into the show soon.

3. You are very interested in unpacking. It doesn't matter what it is: diapers out of the box, toys out of your toy basket, clean, freshly folded laundry that you'd like to throw across the room, everything stacked neatly on your Dada's nightstand that you would rather see in a disheveled circle around you, etc. I wish you liked to put things away just as much, but I'm pretty sure that it takes some OCD to be the person who is excited about putting things back in place. It turns out Moms across the country have been fighting this battle for centuries and you are exceedingly normal in this respect.

4. You got a new car seat. You did not like it at first. Now I do not. It turns out that to put you in I basically have to maneuver through what seems like a maze of lasers without tripping an alarm (like Katherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment, only no cat suit and significantly smaller boobs). It's hard to get you in. But you like it once you are strapped down.

5. You want to eat what we're eating, and I'm becoming a little bit more brave about letting you try things. I have to admit that I take a little bit of joy from watching your face as you put things in your mouth for the first time - it's usually a confused, "What the hell is this" expression followed by a sound you make, like you're sucking air through a straw. It's the equivalent of saying, "I don't know about this.." BUT you've only spit out two things, both of which I did not give to you - a lemon (that you confiscated off of the counter when I was drying you off after a bath) and some bark from the firewood.

6. You like to "fix" things. By fix, I mean you take two objects and tap them together, like you are tinkering with a project in the garage. It's all very serious as seen in your expression. No one should laugh or make light of it, I found out.

7. As far as your health is concerned, you've done OK this month overall, but you have a never ending cold! I suppose this is normal for little ones, especially teethers, but there is a lot of wiping and sniffing and smearing of snot. Ick.

As always, I am so, so glad to be your Momma. Everyone says what a happy, good baby you are. Soon they will have to say that you are a happy, good boy! I love you, Hut da Dut!!

Momma