Happy Turkey Day!

Jack just wanted to wish all his blog followers a wonderful Thanksgiving!

So far today, Jack has celebrated by sleeping in til 8 (thank you Jack!), taking a walk in the crispy sunshine to Zagara's (mommy and daddy have made 2 "last minute" runs to the store already today...), watching some of the Macy's Day parade, and taking a lovely nap. Its been a nice day...

We are off to Michigan tomorrow-- look for photos of Jack with family to appear later this weekend...

Today, Jack's mom is thankful for:
Her happy and healthy baby! Jack is really such a good little boy...
Jack's daddy-- the most amazing, supportive, charming and fun husband and father anyone could wish for!
Our spectacular dog, who is curled up with me on the couch right now...
Our family
Our friends
Our home
The sunshine outside today...

Drinking buddies

Here is Jack playing with his friend Kenny at the past few "drinking buddies" meetings-- our name for our Thursday evening working mom breastfeeding group...
This past week the boys figured out how to wrestle...

It's Official!

We have a walker! Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a video of his first steps...well, these particular steps weren't his first, but pretty close!

Steps!!!

Five of them, to be exact. This report came from Nat, who observed the 5 tentative shuffles as Jack moved from his post holding onto the vacuum, to his lego table. No repeat performances for me tonight, though I tried to encourage him at drinking buddies. So-- I don't think walking is going to happen tomorrow-- but we are sighting it on the horizon!

This new development coincides with the realization that the little book I read, Your One Year Old, was completely right. As Jack approaches 15 months, soon to be closer to 18 months than he is to 12 months, he is beginning to take on the fussy, opinionated, independent, silly, testing, loving nature the authors describe... This year will continue to be an adventure-- especially when our fussy, opinionated, independent, silly, testing and loving little man becomes truly mobile! I hope we're ready...

All of a sudden...

Jack is acting like a toddler. Overnight, it seems (or at least in just the past week) he is doing so much more, understanding so much more, saying so much more. He is even making more progress towards the actual toddling part of being a toddler, though we aren't there just yet. But today he did take one step and maybe another half step toward me without holding on to anything!
Here are some other new things he is doing. All of a sudden!
* Imitating everything we say-- Today I heard so many "words" come out of this kid's mouth. I won't add them to his "vocabulary" just yet, as I am pretty sure he was just parroting and wouldn't be able to use any of these on his own, but today he said: cup, quarter, dump, poke, coffee cup (OK, that one really sounded more like ca cuh but in the context!), go, purse, wet...
* As for actual vocabulary, he has added "num num" to ask for some boob. It is amazingly cute, the inflection he uses. Num NUM? with a high pitched question at the end. He is so very purposeful in his communication these days. The request for num num is made, recently, as he looks me in the eye and simultaneously yanks at my shirt. Not one for subtlety, is he?
* He continues to enjoy pretending. Today he pretending to drink from his the empty cup he was placing his quarter in, saying "yum!" after each "drink". He also continues to love coins! He can place a coin in his train piggy bank by himself and loves listening to the song it plays. This has become a before-sleeping tradition in the past week. He reaches out for his train as soon as we get done putting pj's on. When he's had his fill of playing with it, he waves goodnight to it...
*He understands so much. I was talking to him about standing up and he went ahead and stood up... he will hand us certain items that we request (provided he doesn't decide he wants to keep them instead)... He knows to how to check out at the store, and how to help put on his coat before we go out....

It's not all wine and roses with a 14 month old-- as he begins to communicate more, he can also communicate what he doesn't want, with great force and certainty. He is becoming more stubborn and more apt to "test" us by trying to put things in his mouth, trying to touch the stove, even right after we tell him "no." He certainly understands no, but he is heading right towards those "terrific" two's already, with his ability to disregard the word just as often as he listens to it...The amazing thing about him is how fast he can swing from being contrary and fussy and frustrating, to being affectionate and charming, flashing smiles and giving hugs and winning our hearts right back...

Today the 14 month old contrarian has a cold. He is doing fine all things considered, with the exception of sleep. (He's woken 2x already tonight in 2 hours since bed.) His cold and his sleep issues led to us returning early from our trip to Pittsburgh to meet his Babyzone buddies-- we have learned that Jack is not ready to spend the night in hotels, at least when he is also coming down with sniffles. We came home late last night after having him cry for an hour and a half with no sleep in sight, missing our chance to hang out with folks today.. sigh. Sometimes it feels that the more things change the more they stay the same, eh?

Stander mouse!

Jack's newest trick is...drumroll....standing up by himself! It was pretty amazing to see him-- one moment he was on his knees, then squatting, then boop! up on his feet, like there was nothing too it. The first time I saw him do this, I got very excited. Nat, on the other hand, said lackadaisically, "Oh yeah, he's been doing that all day. " Well. It was new to me....! :)

Today, apparently, he also stepped one foot forward while he was standing. I haven't seen that yet.. but walking may not be that far away...

This evening Jack and I enjoyed the stunning weather (70 degree sunshine... on November 5th!!) by taking a walk and then raking half of the front lawn. Jack enjoyed alternately climbing in and out of his red car, pushing around the rake, and crawling at lightning speed towards the driveway. That kid and crawling on concrete! One plus about his potential walking-- less wear and tear on the knees of all his pants. But he is the cutest crawler... I am already getting nostalgic about when he is not scuttling along on his hands and knees. My little bug...

Jack says "Wooooo hoo!"

Jack (and his dad) did some last minute canvassing today for Obama. I personally credit tonight's victory to the extreme cuteness of my son. Who wouldn't listen when this kid tells you to vote for someone???

Jack is very excited that a new day of unity and hope is dawning for his country...

Jack says: "Get out and VOTE!)

As I type, Jack is sleeping soundly, worn out from attending his third political rally. Yes, in his 14 months of life, Jack has already managed to be at 3 rallies. He's heard Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama speak. He's learned how to "woot" at appropriate moments in speeches.
I am pretty proud of him, actually.

Today he was quite the little trouper as we headed downtown and then proceeded to wait for around 3 hours in order to hear Bruce Springsteen and Obama.... I am glad we went, but it made for a long day with a kind of bored baby. He loved crawling around on on the sidewalks and enjoyed the o-ba-ma chanting. My favorite moments were seeing Obama's plane land, and the "sing along" that happened when Bruce Springsteen did his rendition of "This land is your land." Looking around at the diverse faces around me, all members of my community, all like-minded, the words of the refrain echoing around me in thousands of voices...It was enough to make one feel very hopeful. Though right now, still 2 days to go til election day, I hardly dare to dream that we really might win this...

In other, more Jack-related news:
Here's how smart this baby is-- today he took the time to explain to me that the radiator in the bathroom is hot-- he reached out and tapped it very fast while saying "hot". He did that a few times, then, he touched the sink, looked at me questioningly, and said "hot" again. We discussed the difference between the sink and the radiator for a bit. He is such a little scientist!
In addition to the word "hot," Jack is also saying mama lot more these days (yay!) and is singing along with a lot of songs. Not that he is on-pitch, or singing actual words-- but still, you can tell the intent is there..

Happy Halloween!

The last week of October went by in a blaze of fall festivity. I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn't actually Jack's first Halloween. It just felt that way, because of how aware he was of every detail this year, how much he really did participate in each event...
We were blessed with perfect weather for Halloween, 65 degrees and sunny. We spent the entire evening outside, carving our remaining pumpkin on the porch, pulling together Jack's "little devil" costume as we went (who knew that red sweatshirt would make the perfect costume!!), passing out candy and hanging out on the porch. Jack was delighted to be allowed free reign on the porch and proceeded to make his pants absolutley filthy, crawling around. He also discovered that it was not only possible but, indeed, a really fun thing to crawl down the stairs, onto the driveway, and all the way to the sidewalk. He repeated that process at least 5 times. It's amazing the child doesn't have 2-inch-thick calluses on his little hands by this time...

The highlight of the evening for Jack and I was definitely our walk down Somerton. We had decided that we weren't going to actually "trick or treat" with Jack this year, as he can't actually walk up to the doors yet, and it would be just too obvious that we were looking for handouts for ourselves. But, about half-way through the official trick or treat hours, Jack's tolerance for sitting peacefully on the porch was at its end, so off we went, Jack the "little devil" driving his red push car, to check out the action. Turning the corner onto Somerton was like entering a Norman Rockwell painting. That is, if Norman Rockwell had painted Halloween. It was exactly what Halloween should be, the sidewalks bustling with families, children lined 5 to 10 deep at doorways, parents waiting and chatting amiably at the curb. Houses glowed with the light of jack-o-lanterns and fire pits. Jack was entranced, and kept busy alternately waving to the children and pointing out all the pumpkins. Everyone was very taken with him. Of course. I am already excited to trick-or-treat "for real" with him next year. Perhaps next year we'll bring our pumpkins and camp out on Somerton, perhaps on the porch of someone who is out of town, so that we can really feel like part of that idyllic neighborhood...

Post-Jack's bedtime, Melinda and Will came over, Phil and Katie joined us, and we ended the evening with a fire and political discourse in the backyard. By discourse, I mean we all sat around and agreed with one another. I do love my like-minded friends.