17 month!

Jack will be 17 months old tomorrow. 

• He is a really good eater and pretty much eats the same meals that we eat.  Andy has been making him smoothies each morning and he really LOVES those.  Lucky boy!
• He loves using a cup and can pick it up, drink, set it down, repeat over and over without spilling.  So far at least!
• He is learning to do summer saults and if I ask him to do one he'll squat down, put his hands on the floor, put his head down, and then either waits for me to help him over or rolls to the side to do it by himself.
• He also recently learned to walk backwards and he thinks it's so funny and laughs out loud each time he does it. 
• He's really great with his fine motor skills.  For the last month he's really been into stacking things.  With small 1" blocks, he can stack them seven cubes high.  And then yesterday I had him eating grapes at the kitchen table and he started poking them with a wooden kabob stick and had the whole stick full of grapes!
• He is starting to talk more and more.  He's also starting to sign two words together, his favorite being 'more please'.  It's too cute and I can't help but say okay each time.  At times he'll randomly say two words together like, Grandma Frieda or red fox, but that's not very consistent yet. 
• He LOVES his gummy vitamins and will change from being whiney and crabby to a sweet smiling little  boy saying "pease" if we ask him if he wants one.  I guess it's our best bribe trick so far.
• Jack loves being outside, walking, strolling, going down the slide head first, collecting rocks to go in his bucket, etc.  It will be a fun summer!
• Jack has his four top teeth, four bottom teeth, and three molars.  I told Andy that I think these teething stages have been the hardest part of parenting so far.  Good thing Jack enjoys a dose of tylenol now and then!
• He is wearing mostly 18 month clothes, although some of his 12 month stuff still fits.  He's kind of a peanut.
• He understand simple directions like "go put your jammies in the hamper" and "please throw that in the garbage".  Unfortunately he likes to throw lots of things in the garbage.  We have to watch that boy! 

 

 

He likes hugs and snuggling, and leans his forehead in if you ask for a kiss.  I always try to get him to give me a smooch on the lips, but it doesn't happen very often.  When he does want a kiss he'll pucker up and go "mmmmmmmmm".  Of course we then attack him with kisses.  He is too sweet!

 

 

Catch up!

Yes, I'm the worst blogger.  Here's a quick little picture catch up.

Jack around 15 months old.

Here we are in Chicago with Desiree, Lou, and Nico for an afternoon of baby shops and dinner.  

 Here's Jack right at 16 months old helping with the grilling. 

 Grandma with her boys at Lincoln Park Zoo last month.  I think this picture perfectly captures their wild boy personalities!  I always call it baby wrangling instead of babysitting!

 Jack and his cute little dimples.

 And here is Jack at his first Easter Egg Hunt.  He was a little slow to catch on, but as soon as he realized there was candy inside of the eggs, he was obsessed!  The boy has a sweet tooth!

 Grandma and Jack Jack on Easter Sunday at church.  He wore white linen shorts, a white dress shirt, and a seersucker blazer.  Oh my, the cuteness!

 With Daddy after church.

 And my main excuse for not updating this blog more often...we finally wrapped things up with the remodel and moved in!  Thanks to our family for coming into town, packing up our entire house, moving everything, unpacking, and even decorating!  It was a 'working' Easter weekend for sure!  I was glad we were able to still go to the Easter egg hunt, and celebrate Easter with church and a nice dinner.  I still can't believe how much we got done that weekend and we are SO thankful for family:)

Here's Jack and Nico enjoying his new bedroom.  He has a nice big room with four windows so the first order of business was to get some window treatments to ensure 5:30am wakeups didn't last long!

 And here's the family room from the weekend we moved in...

We just love it!  All of the hard work over the winter was worth it.  It feels good to spread out a bit, to have a beautiful, wooded back yard, to have a lower level family room for all the toys, to have two guest bedrooms for when we have visitors.  We still have a handful of little projects to finish up, but we're definitely feeling settled.  I'm ready for a fun summer full of swimming and play dates with Jack!