Teasing Aspen

I caught this video during playtime this morning. Jack picked Aspen's bone up off the floor and brought it over to where Aspen was sleeping on the couch. I was a little apprehensive at first, afraid that Aspen would get possessive over her bone, but she was very patient with him. Jack plays a variation of this game often. He thinks it's funny to shove things into Aspen's face to see if she'll take them from him...a couple nights ago it was one of his socks :). Usually, it's not her own things that she gets teased with, but she took it well. This lasted for probably five minutes or so, but here's just a small bit of it.

Jack's first trip to the zoo

Since I'm on spring break this week, Mike took the day off yesterday and we took Jack to the zoo. He's now a member of the Denver Zoo and very proud of the button they gave him!He didn't really care all that much about the animals yet, but he enjoyed spending the day outdoors, riding around in his stroller and with mom and dad. He liked watching all the kids and other people too. He didn't like his blue hat and spent much of the day trying to get it off!

He did like watching the tiger because it was pacing right in front of the glass.



He liked getting out of his stroller to be with daddy.



We spent a few minutes watching the brown bears, who were being very photogenic. While we were seeing this....

Jack was intent on the fence! He didn't care much about the bears at all, but he was fascinated by the fence and just wanted to touch it.

He had a long day, and by the end of our visit, he was out!

Family Updates

Doesn't he look so big! As Mike reminded me this morning, he's now 4 times the size he was at birth. I can't believe he's almost 11 months old! He's getting really good at pulling up on the furniture to stand too. We've all been sick over here, but hopefully the germs have moved on to some other family and we can all get better. This and keeping up with Jack have really made it hard to keep up with my blogging.
Jack's learning how to feed himself right now, which is a messy endeavor, but notice Aspen's appreciation for this new development. Yummy! When Jack's eating, she's never far away. He's learned to throw things on the floor and she's learned to take advantage of this~I love her licking her chops just as the camera clicked.

A couple weeks ago, I gave Jackson his first haircut. These pictures are deceptively calm...right after Mike put the camera down he started screaming and fighting me in earnest. It took half an hour to cut just a 1/4 inch of hair off his neck and above his ears because I was so afraid of cutting him as he wiggled and screamed!

Other than that, we are all doing well here, but nothing exciting to report. I can't believe it's March already. We need to get started planning my garden and working on some house projects.

Jackson Learns to Crawl

After a month of being on the verge, Jackson has finally learned to crawl! Make sure you watch this cute video to the end for a surprise up-close and personal interview with the star. I'm out of school for a Snow Day here...my best guess is about 5 inches on the ground, but the wind is blowing so bad it's hard to tell. In places the ground has been scoured until practically bare and in other places there are foot tall drifts. We've been staying inside. I've been trying to work but with Jack now very mobile I'm spending more time chasing him that working...

We are going to have to create a new cartoon called "Jackson the Menace" to detail all the trouble he can get into. He loves power cords, stairs, the drawer on the stove, the flap on the DVD player...all the things he shouldn't be into.

Jackson's new skill

Jackson learned a new skill yesterday--pulling himself to a standing position! The first time he did it, he was in his crib, supposedly taking a nap. I come around the corner and peek in, and he's standing up in his crib grinning at me! All weekend, he's been very resistant to taking a nap because he's so pleased with himself. Every time you lay him down in his crib, he immediately pulls himself up. It's made for a challenge in the nap department!

The second time he did it, it was playing with his train and he immediately tumbled over the back of the train, banging his head on the way down. He gave himself a pretty good goose egg on his forehead in the process. And since then, there has been lots of head bumps and crying related to this new skill.

Birthday weekend!

I've had a good birthday. Jack decided to get up at about 4am this morning, but my lovely husband got up with him so that I could stay in bed...what a great birthday present! He and Jack also got me some lovely paintings for the walls in the basement. Plus, yesterday he took Jack with him on errands so that I could have some time to myself. I got cleaned the whole house (it seemed so easy with no baby in tow!) and then spent some time in my new craft room, which I totally love. Here are some pictures:

Of course, I love the rest of the house too. I'd say we are about 90% unpacked. Mike's still working on the office, and we have a few more odds and ends, plus curtains and things like that to take care of. I will post pictures of the other rooms on here tomorrow or the next day.

One funny story from today. On the way home from grocery shopping, I treated myself to an ice cream cone (Oregon Blackberry, yum!). So we get home, and I am trying to bring Jackson and several bags into the house, plus I still have the ice cream cone. I had Jackson on my hip, the cone in one hand, and three or four bags in the other hand, trying to get all these things into the house. I was struggling to get the door open to go in, when I looked up only to realize Jack had discovered and was helping himself to the ice cream cone. He was leaning over in my arms to get at it and had half the cone shoved into his mouth, with ice cream dripping down his face. I hadn't given it to him at all--he go it all by himself! Daddy just stood there and laughed at us! So, Jack got to eat the rest of the ice cream cone. It might be his new favorite food!

Scenes from Christmas