WHEE! Jack loves the red push car...

After 10 days of near-sloth at the lake we have returned home and thrown ourselves into -- what else-- a kitchen renovation. Wouldn't want to be idle for too long during summer vacation, no, no. It's been a busy five days of all house, all the time, but the place is finally back to looking better, and we've made definite progress in the kitchen. Would've made a great deal more, is IKEA had not given us a length of the wrong countertop... but that's a story for a different blog...). It's been an interesting challenge, trying to do renovations with a 10 month old living in the house. I hadn't realized how often we just plunk Jack down in the kitchen with us while we putter about, til we couldn't let him crawl in the room (what with the sharp implements everywhere). Our work was also segmented neatly into 1-2 hour blocks, around nap times..

Little man has been a very good little baby recently, all things considered. We took him in to the doctor last week because he'd been pulling on his ears, and we worried, with all the lake water, that it might be an ear infection. Turns out his ears are fine but he is working on his 12 month molars. Poor baby has bruised gums! :( And, understandably, he's been uncomfortable and a bit mercurial because of it.

He is becoming delightfully interactive these days. He chases me down and pulls up to his knees holding on to my legs, burrowing his head into my shins, when he wants to be held. He is starting to share food with us and gets a huge kick out of feeding us. He is becoming quite good at rolling a ball to us and loves balls of all types. He is waving at people more consistently when we ask him, these days. And he is imitating more of our faces and sounds...

Recent events:
Saturday Jack did his first volunteer work. The Parent Center was having a liquidation sale and needed set-up help so we headed out at 7:30 am and toted a lot of stuff up from a basement and helped arrange it. Jack was an excellent helper in that he sat patiently in his stroller while we dashed around. We saw Molly and Cameron, who we first met when Jack was 3 days old at breastfeeding group! Before we left to get the boy home for his nap, we spent $25 on the stuff we'd been finding and setting aside for ourselves... we got Jack a red push car like the one he loved at Farley's :), as well as a Leapfrog learning table that I'm saving for his birthday present, a TON of Duplo legos, a couple of small toys, some board books, a push-duck and a wonderful Rifton wooden scooter. We headed home and spent the rest of the day immersed in the process of restructuring the sink cabinet to fit the new sink in... then went back o the sale at 4:00 to help take down tables-- and Ellen told us to help ourselves to anything that we wanted that was left! We essentially doubled our haul for free! We got a little table and 2 chairs, a couple of activity boards, some XL diaper covers, a breast pump for Laura... It was a satisfying day of work and a great day for new stuff! :) Our living room was complete Jack-land after we brought everything in and cleaned it up... and his play room is VERY well stocked now.

Today we went to the Shaker Library play room and met friends Jamie and Vera, and Haley and Grayson, played for a bit, then went out to lunch. Jack has found himself a little girlfriend-- he and Vera were very interested in one another and at one point Vera crawled over, planted a kiss on Jack's face, and he burrowed his head into her in return with a big grin on his face. It was the sweetest thing ever. They also clapped back and forth at each other and shared toys. It is so fun to see him responding to other babies now. He is such a little flirt!

Oh, and he has been invited to his first birthday party! Friends Marie and Don from Lamaze have invited us to Devan's 1st birthday. We're excited to go!

Thoughts from the yellow cottage...

As I looked down at the collection of little water shoes gathered in the bathroom here at the yellow cottage, leftovers from all the little feet that have been growing up here over the last 3 years, I was struck by how fleeting this summer is, more than many others to come. Because this summer is the only one when Jack won't be wearing water shoes, the only one when he's not walking. And, for a brief moment, I stepped far outside my usual worry over his developmental milestones, and reveled in the fact that he's not walking yet. This time is so short. He has the rest of his life to walk, to need one size after another of water shoes. But this summer is the only one for him get scratches and slivers on the tops of his feet, not the bottoms, as his little bum sashays along. His crawling, pudgy baby self, so curious and thoughtful and silly, burying his face in the covers, holding his yellow plastic bit in his teeth, going after the stones in the driveway with such gusto, snuggling on our shoulders.... An emerging little person, but not a walker yet. Still a baby, for at least a little while longer.

Greetings from the lake!

Jack, apparently, is pretty comfortable in the water. Must be the Morehouse blood...

Never too young to get boat driving lessons...

Festivities at the point...

We are having a simply lovely time at the lake and I am thrilled to think that we have really just begun our stay. ( I am used to having to pack up and leave at right about the time I start to relax, during most of our visits...)

The weather, with the exception of a quick storm last night, has been ideal. Yesterday I was able to take a solo kayak and swim while the Jackster napped and it felt pretty darn good to be out on my own, enjoying the water. Jack has been enjoying the water too, and has been just about the cutest baby in the universe for the whole trip. Luckily, he's been sleeping fine, getting up around 6:30, which isn't too bad. Being well rested allows all of us to enjoy each other, and our surroundings, so much more..

As far as activities, not much to report. It's been a mix of siting around socializing with relatives and Farley's friends, swimming, boating, and eating, then sitting around and socializing some more.

Here's a quick list of "cute things Jack is doing", for those of you who like to follow these things:
* Jack's able to be a "free range baby" in the little cottage and likes to crawl back and forth over the threshold between the cottage and the porch. Not much is getting in his way these days. He has now crawled over my legs and over the dog.
* He has realized that we think it's cue when he holds an object in his teeth, and will pick up small towys (one of his wooden beads, the yellow thing that holds his mallet to his drum, etc), place it in his mouth, drop his hands, and look up at us with pride, anticipating the laughter and clapping.
* Yesterday he ate more in one day than he's eaten in some weeks. Crazy baby had a whole container of pears and pineapple in one sitting. This is unheard of.
*Jack's favorite toys in the cottage are the dog food bowl and the old metal crimping iron used as a doorstop.

Happy 4th! A big day today...

Jack and mommy at the Chagrin Valley Athletic club-- playdate with mommy's teacher friends

About to watch the 4th of July parade at the Somerton block party

Just after figuring out how to stand up using the stairs-- and moments before learning how to climb those stairs...

So, not only was today Jack's first fourth of July, he also mastered not one but 2 new skills. This morning he figured out (with the help of the case of "variety pack" soda ) how to pull up to stand. It was a very exciting moment-- he seemed quite proud, then flopped back onto his bottom a few seconds later and that was that. Then, this afternoon, he generalized that skill to the steps, as we played in the stair hall. And then, as if he'd been doing it his whole life, he swung one knee and then next up onto the bottom stair and voila-- our not-so-mobile baby was climbing stairs. I like to think he was inspired by his friend Gregory, who we spent time with at breastfeeding group last night, and who has been climbing stairs for a month now. Perhaps they shared notes. What is really amazing to me in this process of emerging mobility is how sudden each accomplishment is, how there's hardly any lead-up, or "practice time" involved. I think Jack just thinks it through, perhaps does some visualization exercises, before he attempts each new feat... at any rate, I am very proud, thrilled and excited to see this learning going on-- and terrified. We had better get on the ball with baby gates around here.

Can you believe...

"I LOVE going to the museums!"

Jack met a horse for the first time at Wade Oval Wednesday.

With daddy and good friend Keith at the Botanical gardens.

Can you believe....
That it's July already?
That Nat and I just celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary?
That our first jaunt to New York has come and gone already?
That Jack is 10 months old?

Time is flying! Tomorrow is my last day of teaching summer reading. I am under the (no doubt naively optimistic) impression that, once Friday rolls around and with it the start of my "real" vacation, I will have oodles of time. Time to keep up on the blog. Time to make Jack's "first year" scrapbook and edit the videos of him. Time to finish the kitchen update and maybe even work in the yard a bit. In the meantime, though, we have gotten this mobile and interactive little man who is taking more and more energy to keep up with.... time, I am afraid, may mostly go to him!

The upside of course is that while he takes more energy these days, he also gives so much more back. Take hugs, for instance. He now knows how to really hug now. Today when he got up from is nap and saw that I had returned from work, he reached out to me from his daddy's arms, huge smile on his face, and practically leapt onto my shoulder, wrapping his arms around my arm and pressing his face into my chest. The kid is scoring major points these days. Another cute trick related to hugging: When he is nursing, a favorite game is to pause in his eating and press the side of his face into the boob, which I am to understand is his request for a hug. When I give him a sqeeze and say "huuuug the baby!" he giggles. Gotta love him.

Come to think of it, the kid is really full of cute mannerisms these days. Here are a few more examples:
* His "rock on" gesture, shown in a picture above-- when excited, he will put his head on his shoulder and his arm straight out in front. Real quick, with a smile.
* When he likes a toy or other random object we give him to play with, he holds in in both hands on the top of his head.
* He knows that hats go on his head, too, and will immediately place his hat up there when we give it to him-- usually upside down! He also loves it when we put our "too big" hats on his head.
* He knows how to turn on the afterburners when he is crawling... he sees something he wants and bam! he takes off, little hands slapping the floor with great speed and gusto.
* He discovered the drums today in the living room and was so proud of the noise that he could make!
* He continues to be obsessed with the fridge, and doors of any sort.
* We have installed the first of our cabinet latches...