Check out that Bruise!

Like all toddlers, Jack gets lots of bruises. Usually, it takes them a couple of days to get dark. On occasion he will have a fall that bruises immediately. This is one of those. The other one was when he fell on the air conditioning grate and received two bruises.

Also, I decided to trim his bangs out of his eyes before heading to the hot beach.







We are off to the the beach tomorrow morning. We'll be gone through next weekend, so I'll be taking a blogging break. But, there will be lots of beach pictures, when we return.

Happy Fourth of July! Pray for our troops!

Fun on the Farm

If you noticed, this morning I posted about removing wallpaper. This afternoon, Jack and I went to visit my friend Holly. I don't think she would consider her home a farm, but that's what comes to my mind because she has horses, donkeys, and a pig.

We had a fun visit. She currently has 5 kittens and Jack loved playing with them. Kittens are a lot more trusting than cats. Jack was terrified of the pig. It was kind of pitiful. He was also scared of the horses and donkeys. While we were there, we picked squash, okra, peas, peppers, and green tomatoes.

Speaking of those kittens: If anyone is looking to adopt, her kittens are adorable. She has 3 orange tabby's, a grey tabby, and a calico. They are sweet.

Hunting his prey

Milo (the mommy)

I didn't blame Jack for being scared. This pig is a little creepy. (sorry Holly)

The kitten loves playing in the camo net

the garden

This scene ended with Jack picking the kitten up by his front leg

Can you find the kitten in this picture?

A Big (little) Helper

Well, I decided to make remodeling the hallway bathroom as a project to be completed before returning to work. Step 1 is removing the wallpaper. I have never tackled a wallpaper removal that didn't turn out to be more than expected. Not surprisingly, there are 2 layers of wallpaper covering a layer of paint and possibly another layer of wallpaper. Fortunately, I have not encountered too big of a problem.

At first, Jack just sat in the bathroom and played with the cabinets. Then, he decided to climb in and out of the bathtub. Well, that caused problems for me because he would put one leg over the tub and I would have to help him the rest of the way or else he would fall. This went nonstop for about 10 minutes and we decided to take a break. Later, we started to work again and he took the scraper from me. Much to my amazement, he immediately started trying to scrape. I love it when he repeats an act that he saw me perform.

What Housing Crisis?

Gran and Richard (my grandparents) accepted an offer on their house, today!! This came 2 weeks after they listed with an agent. We accepted an offer on our condo, last Fall, 2 months after we listed. Finally, James and Jen accepted an offer on their house 1 day after they listed! Whoever said we were in a housing crisis? Probably the house across the street that has been on the market for at least 6 months. And probably my husband that works in the mortgage business. =)

On another note, "Auntie" Fionnuala noticed tooth #2 poking through Jack's gums, today.

He has moves like his father.

Librarian at a Technology Conference (I'm a nerd)

The last couple of days have been a "teaser" for me going back to work. I attended the Alabama Educational Technology Conference. One of the sessions I attended was "using blogs as a way to communicate with teachers, students, and parents". I was very interested in going to that session, since I now consider myself a blogger.

It was quite easy leaving Jack with grandparents. Daycare is going to be a lot different. He has five weeks left, at home. Those weeks include trips to Huntsville, Florida (the beach!), Georgia, and Andalusia. One of my favorite parts about being off work is the freedom to travel.

Here are some pics from this afternoon.

Birthday Weekend

Jack's birthday weekend was everything that I expected it would be. On Friday, Jason came home from work early, so that we could have a few hours to celebrate with Jack before all the family came in to town. We had birthday cake and then ran around town. It was a fun day.

That evening, all of the grandparents and Aunt Jennifer, came to our house. We had a lot of family and a few close friends come over for a barbecue on Saturday. I thought it was going to rain all day, but the sun came out right before the party started. I was happy that so many family made the trek to Bham for Jack's first birthday party. He received lots of cool toys and a lot of clothes.

happy father's day

I have lot's of "birthday weekend" pics to post, but first I thought I'd post some Father's Day pics. Happy Father's Day, Jason, Grandad and Big J.


Here is father and son on Father's Day...

Happy Birthday, Jack!

I have found that bloggers tend to you use a lot of lists. So, now that Jack is 12 months old I'm going to give you 12 facts about him...

1. He completely gave up the bottle at 11 months old.
2. He only has 1 tooth.
3. When random people talk to him, he looks at them like they are absolutely crazy for about 10 seconds and then breaks in to a grin. They love it.
4. He will be a cousin this Fall.
5. For the most part, he is already off formula.
6. He hates fruit, likes vegetables, and loves waffles.
7. He's a little bit skinny and a little bit tall.
8.He's been to the beach 3 times.
9. He's been to Huntsville at least once a month, since he was 2 months old.
10. He's a miniature version of his daddy. Really, everyone raves about how much he looks like Jason. I think the hair has a lot to do with it.
11. He loves animals! He is obsessed with our cats, Sam and Dugan. They haven't gotten any peace since Jack became mobile.
12. He has 4 great-grandparents.

Goin' Down South

And they are off...

Picture this: Uncle James and their 2 dogs in the front seat of an extra large UHAUL truck towing the Explorer. While, a pregnant Aunt Jen with her mother and their 4 cats follow in the Camry.

Good luck on your long journey and welcome to the South, Jen. I wonder... will you find our summers more miserable than the Michigan/Wisconsin winters?

Our Beautiful Baby

I wanted to have Jack's picture taken for his 1 year birthday. I found a girl through my friend Heather's blog. They went to highschool together and she now lives in Huntsville. So, we made our appointment and traveled to HSV, last weekend, for the session. She puts "sneak peeks" of her sessions on her photography blog. Jason and I have been looking all day and finally are rewarded with the beautiful pictures of our little baby.

Please check them out by clicking here... Photography By Erin

I can't help but continue to remember what I was doing this time, last year...

It was summer break, so I wasn't working. I would get up with Jason around 7am, cook breakfast, take a shower, study for an hour and then go back to sleep for a couple of hours. It was a fabulous 2 weeks. I talked to my mom, at least, 3 times a day... She joked that, while I was pregnant, every time she talked to me I was either in the car or in bed(that's because I drive 40 minutes to work). I had to take the Praxis to finish my Library Media certification and I decided it would be easier to take it before the baby came. So, at 37.5 weeks pregnant (3 days before my water broke) I took a 2 hour standardized test at UAB. It took place at the same time as as many other tests. I felt very strange being there because I was so pregnant.

I didn't realize until after I loaded this picture that it is a good shot of Jack's tooth. Yep, he still has one tooth! Will he turn 1 with a single tooth or will another pop through? I sure hope one will pop through because that would explain his current mood swings.

This picture describes the mood that he usually has.

His is very good at getting into a standing position. Then, he'll take 2 or 3 steps. He's been known to take 6 or 7 steps, but that is when he is walking towards someone and the last few steps are more like falling into your arms. It is so cute.

Attempting to Walk

Before I had Jack, I imagined writing in his baby book the exact date that he reached all of his milestones. Not one of them has been so "cut and dry". For example, I could not tell you the day he started crawling because he inched, then army crawled, the next thing I knew he was completely crawling. Well, I really thought his first steps would be monumental. We have some friends and I can remember when their youngest would stand in the middle of the room and they would hold treats in front of her to get her to take a step. Well, as you can see in the following video from last evening, walking will be a blurred line like everything else.