Happy Father's Day!

Since we were traveling home from Mexico on Father's Day, we decided to really celebrate it the next Sunday.  We had a nice, relaxing day and then headed out to the Amana's for dinner. 

 Andy has lots of childhood memories coming to the Amana's and really enjoys sharing them with Jack.

 The two of them usually get a little wrestling in each day.  Jack just can't get enough of it!

Andy, you are the very best Daddy!  Jack is a lucky guy to have you as his father and to get to spend so much time with you.  And you really should write a book with all your parenting techniques!  You're good!

Cancun!

We spent the second week of June in Cancun, Mexico for Tyler and Dana's wedding.  Despite two cases of pink eye and horrible colds, we had a great time!

 Jack put my sunglasses in his shirt, just like Daddy!

 Jack just loves being on vacation!

 Family picture right before the wedding ceremony.

 Sisters and cousins!

 We had a beautiful reception right at sunset on the beach.  Picture perfect!

 My little cutie in the sand.

 And my Nico bear.  He's the sweetest!

 Congratulations Mr & Mrs Scheppmann!

Hello summer!

Our new patio!  We are really enjoying having this done.  After a long winter of working on the house, it sure feels good to sit out her and relax!

The obligatory messy spaghetti face picture.

 Checking out our garage sale finds! 

Highlights include RL seersucker pants and brand new Sperry top-siders.  Very fun!

 

Jack is taking antibiotics right now and the doctor and pharmacist both warned us that it tastes horrible.  Well Jack just sucks it down like a champ, although he prefers to do it himself.  Good boy.

 Jack and Andy have lots of little thinks they do and this one is called "touching the ceiling".  Jack thinks it's really funny!  (Nico, Jack wore his Italia soccer tee just for you!)

 And sometimes when my sweet boy isn't laughing, he pulls out this face.  Usually when he's tired and had enough.  I still think he's cute, though:)

I also have to note that Jack will just sit in his booster at the table while we go through a list of things that he might want...Toast?   Nooo.  Cereal?  Nooo.  Pancakes?  Nooo.  Smoothie?   Nooo.  He's very patient and just shakes his head no after whatever we say as though he knows it's going to be a long process.  Usually he'll eat whatever we give him, but being on this medicine is making him loose his appetite a bit.

 Tonight we went to the Brown Street Block Party which is a little neighborhood picnic.  Jack found this little girl Eva and I think he has a crush.  They were playing bags and I asked Jack if he wanted his picture taken with Eva and he said "yeah" and charged on over to her and gave her the cutest smile.   

And then I said do you want to give her a hug?  And he said "Yeah!" and just scooped her up and hugged her for about 20 seconds (that's a really long hug for him!).  I sure think Jack has good taste.  She is sure a cute, sweet girl.  Hopefully she's okay with shorter guys.

 He came home sticky from watermelon juice and had dried mud on his legs. 

I love my little summer boy!

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!

 

Park Rd. house update

I had intentions of posting more regular updates, but didn't quite get it done.  That's what happens when you take on a major house renovation with a 15 month old!  Here is the original post if you need a refresher of what we were working with.

Here is the kitchen from the dining room.  We installed all of the cabinets and crown molding and then the granite was installed last week.  The kitchen was kind of my baby and I'm loving how it turned out. 

I'm totally in love with the squared sink and faucet.

Another angle from the dining room lookin out into the family room.

And from the family room looking towards the kitchen and dining room.

Family room with new gas fireplace insert.  This also doubles as miter saw central!

Our flooring up close.  We have this installed throughout the entire upstairs.  I still haven't seen exactly how it's going to look as it's mostly covered with cardboard to keep it protected.

Upper bathroom tile and floating vanity (it's hard to tell in this picture, but it's about 8" off the ground.  There will be two sinks and a granite countertop added.  (pardon the dust)

There will be a framed out large sliding medicine cabinet above.

Lower level bath (with a nice view of the woods behind the house- just today we saw deer, a red fox with babies, and a badger)

And here is the white subway tile that my mom and I installed this past weekend.  We installed it all of the way up to the ceiling.  We're very happy with how it turned out!  Andy will install a glass door on it this week.  (and white cabinet doors go on the built-ins) 

Lower level tile.

Lower level family room aka sweat shop!  My mom happens to be the best painter ever so inbetween loving on Jack, she offered up lots and lots of hours of priming and painting.  Andy and I are pretty burnt out on painting so we were so appreciative to have her help.  Aren't these doors cool?  They were the original doors.  They weigh about 150 lbs each and have this cool squared off molding.  I can't wait to put them back up!

We still have a nice little list of projects that need to be completed (including a stair and deck railing!), but we're feeling re energized after such a productive weekend (and a little bit sore).