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!