Weekend in Redmond

Jack and I traveled across the beautiful mountain pass to go visit our great friends Ali and Brady for the weekend. Tyee was golfing in Bandon with his brother and Andy (Ali's husband) was visiting a friend so we decided to spend the weekend together with our boys!! And then two more great friends, Amy and Shelly from Seattle decided to fly down. It was a great time...lots of work, but the girls helped a ton. They are the best aunties! Unfortunately, Jack has entered a phase I will be so glad to forget...hit and pinch and slap any other child in his sight. Yep, for no reason really........he terrorized Brady until Brady finallly took him down with a bit of a football tackle...Jack didn't even cry, was just a little surprised. We were all hysterical! I did manage to capture some great moments in the beautiful central Oregon sun where the boys weren't fighting, so here they are.
Thanks again so much to Ali for being a phenomenal host with great food and a great house..all at 8 mos preggo!!! And there was another preggo there too.....Shell!! We are so happy for Shellly and Jeff.

HI Meg and Chelsea!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes...of course...the PUMPKIN PATCH!!!!!

It seems like the thing to do if you have kids...and we are a little late considering Halloween is this Friday! I love the patch, so Tyee and I decided that after we picked up his brother Jed from the airport we were going to head out to Sauvie's Island on a gorgeous Thursday afternoon for pumpkins, hay rides, carmel apples (for me..not Jack :>) and looking at animals. I think Jack had a ball....we sure did.

Goodbye Moo!

We are so sad....our favorite aunite moo left yesterday for her adventures in New Zeland, Australia, and Fiji. We won't see her for six months. Our aunt Marnie, who is THE most amazing auntie in the world to me, made Meg a goodbye breakfast and invited Jack and I to come along. Jack had a blast at her house with tunnels, the parachute, and a teeter totter! Our cousin Maggie was there too and she is so great with Jack. We just couldn't quite part with Meg that day so we met her for dinner with our mom too.

Green Pepper and Marker Boy

Kind of a random mix of objects, but thats life with a toddler! Jack picked some of the last remaining "live" veggies left in the garden and tried to eat the green pepper like it was an apple. Pretty hilarious.....he took about 3 bites and spit each one out, but he would not let go of that thing!
Jack has also decided that he would like to try out his art skills, and sure enough after turning my back for less than a minute, he had markered all over his face! We were dying laughing and luckily they were washable markers. The key with all these things is the experience right?? not the mess???

My 16 month old Jack

This might be a boring post, so I am very not offended if any of my loyal readers blow right by this one...it is mostly some thoughts, milestones, current happenings in Jack's development so that people like his zaza Deb, uncle Jeddie, grampa John and claire can catch up

speech

Being a pediatric therapist, I am unfortunately always looking for what could be "wrong" with Jacks development. All of my co-workers assure me I am being silly. I thought I would try and list out some of Jack's words/signs
-he signs "please" all the time, seriously for anything, most of the time when he wants to eat or wants me to pick him up
- he signs "eat", "all done", "more" "help"
- he says, hi, bye, ba for all liquids, ma(gramie), mama, mom, dada, pah(grampie), gog (dog), sss (sophie), go ga (good girl), cank coo (thank you), qua (squirrel), An-nie, Mey (meg), Che sy (chelsie), bir (bird), car, ball, mow (mouse), all the basic animal sounds, uck (truck and duck), uh-oh (all the time!!), chee (cheese), ga (for blankies and binkies), hey, uh uu (love you, maybe??:>), uhh (up), ah don (all done), ee (for baby Ethan), snay (snake), he (help).....i know I forgot some

motor

Jack loves to walk everywhere and is picking up his speed a bit....he can go up stairs very well and has now learned to come down stairs all by himself by either scooting on his bottom or turning around and sliding down on his stomach. He loves to stomp in the leaves, march, turn in circles to dance, stand on one foot while holding onto something, throw balls, shoot baskets, color, stack blocks, occasionally use a fork and spoon, brush his teeth, take his socks off, push around a rake

relationships

Jack is very loving with his mom and dad, aunites, and grandparents. He definitely has stranger anxiety, but smiles and is friendly to every stranger we encounter. He gives lots of loves and hugs, and occasionally pinches me very hard in the face but then touches gently when I ask. He unfortunately is becoming very possessive of toys and has been known to push other kids out of the way (no matter how big they are) and steal toys from whomever! The concept of sharing is going to be a LONG and hard lesson I think :> Jack has such an intensity about him...very serious when he is playing at the Children's Museum, very loving with his dog, so sweet with his baby cousin. He loves to give kisses. And don't get me wrong the kid can be quite a pill too....fits, his first official tantrum in public at Ikea last week, and bad nights sleeping sometimes too. All in all though, I think Jack is such a loving and friendly little guy with so much to offer everyone he meets.

Well that's enough blabbing for now....I am just trying to remember to appreciate all the gifts God has given me in our son. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to be his mom and will love him more than anything, forever!!

Grampie the Marathon STUD!!

What a great weekend we had. Mike, Fawn, and Mia drove down from Seattle (although it was a nightmare 8 hr trip due to horrendous traffic!!!) on Friday night to celebrate Fawn's b-day, introduce Mia to Hillsboro, and to watch my dad run his first Portland marathon. We had fun making signs and a t-shirt for Jack to wear that said "My Grampie Rocks". And rocked he did...he finished the marathon and although he had some aches and pains, was in pretty good spirits. Unfortunately, we did not catch any photos of the man because I was busy running the last 8 miles with him and the rest of the fam had to take care of the babes. I stiil managed to snap lots of other photos though!