First Overnight Trip!

Jack had a wonderful time on his first overnight trip! He did great in the car too! He was just absolutely fascinated by Grandpa and kept bringing him his toys and pulling up on his chair - he didn't seem to mind at all that we weren't at his house! He got to play with his "cousin" Zachary - they read several books together and played with the linking chains! He had a great time watching Grandma in the kitchen and discovered the cups are as much fun on other people's kitchen floors as they are on ours so it was a learning experience for him too! Great Aunt Anne came over on Friday morning and Jack showed her all his latest talents, he was quite the performer! It was a great trip I'm so glad we got to go up for a visit! On the way home we stopped at the Florence Mall to get the wiggles out and Jack got to ride a carousel for the first time - he LOVED it!!!
Jack has made several new developments over the last week. He has figured out how to clap - it's SO cute!! He waves - a little bit. It's kind of like he's waving to himself and then he gets distracted by it and starts "waving" with his fingers on his lips... it's pretty funny! The biggest thing though is he is walking behind anything... we've got two push toys and he has discovered that he can go all over the house with them - he's fast too! I suppose we don't have long until he's walking on his own - his balance is getting so good that when he's standing near something he often lets go for several seconds and doesn't fall until he realizes he's not holding onto anything! He is also figuring out how to get down from the standing position without just plopping down - that will be a very valuable skill once mastered!
Check out the photosite for some updated pictures!

Petting Zoo

Jack had a great weekend! Sat. he got to spend the evening with Grandma while John and I went out on a fantastic date and on Sunday we met Nan and Poppy down at the Singletary Center for a petting zoo and art exhibit! Jack had such fun looking at all the animals! The picture to the left is of a goat that didn't mind at all when Jack reached out with both hands and grabbed two handfuls of hair! He also got to see and pet a sheep and a cow. We saw a donkey, a horse, and a llama, but we didn't pet them. I think Jack thought I was a little crazy making all the animal sounds in front of these big creatures - I'm sure in his mind a cow is a two dimensional two inch picture in his books, how could it possibly be the same giant that was in front of him! Anyway, the petting zoo was a lot of fun!
Let's see... other big developments from the week. Oh, Jack has mastered going up the stairs! It's a great way to tucker him out before nap or bedtime, just let him climb Mt. Boyd a few times and he's ready to sleep! He's working on both top teeth and we're hoping they come through soon - these seem to be much harder on him than the bottom two, but we've heard that can be the case. Swimming lessons were better on Wed. - the other teacher is SO much better!
Jack is preparing for his first overnight trip! On Thursday we're going up to see his great-grandparents (unfortunately John has a business trip and won't be able to make it). It should be interesting to see how he does not only on the 3+ hour car ride, but sleeping in someone else's house... Check back next week to see how it went!
There are a few updated pictures on the photosite too - sorry, we didn't take many pictures over the last week!

ART!

Things have been rather busy lately... with Jack being into everything and napping less I find there are fewer hours in the day to get things done! Sorry for the missed post last week. To quickly recap, we had a great Labor Day and a fabulous three day weekend at home! Nothing too exciting - lots of grilling out and lots of relaxing around the house!
Last week storytime started back up, which was fantastic! AND Jack started swimming lessons... we're a little unsure about the swimming lessons as the last two have been instructed by a poor guy who admittedly has no idea what to do with the "little guys" so we pretty much just do our own thing... We were told today that the normal instructor will be there on Wed. so we should have a more "structured" class. Jack has still had a blast in the water and thinks it's just so wonderful to be in the giant tub with Mommy so we're definitely not complaining! It's just a little different then we expected and had heard, but then again I suppose we don't really know what it will be like until the regular instructor is back - check back next week for more details, in the meantime know that Jack is having fun with it no matter who is teaching so it's all good!
We made a trip up to the Cincinnati Art Museum over the weekend. It was a great trip! We had lunch at the museum cafe, which was in this beautiful courtyard with a really cool fountain... Jack had a blast playing in the water (with his hands only) and feeling the grass. It occurred to us while there that was probably the first time he had really been IN the grass which we thought was a little odd, but apparently true. On our self-guided museum tour we saw all sorts of wonderful painting and sculptures. The favorite, of course, being the VanGogh landscape - which was the reason for our trip. It was amazing seeing it in person... prints really do not do the actual picture justice. Being able to see the actual brush strokes and how thick the paint is along with seeing how well kept these hundred year old paintings are... it was quite the afternoon!
That about did it for our weekend - we stuck close to home the rest of the time. As I said Jack is into everything and keeping us on our toes...OH! I almost forgot to mention that at storytime last week he discovered he can climb stairs (he hasn't figured out he can do it at home thank goodness). I can't get the picture function to work this afternoon and since I didn't post any pictures last week there are a ton of new pictures on the photosite - check it out!