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...